[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is greatest children's toys. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.]
Although the topic for last week was faddish objects from childhood, the comment thread veered off into a discussion of favorite toys. I thought that would make a worthy topic for this week so I compiled a comprehensive, exhaustive, and indisputable list of the greatest toys from when we were children (provided you were born between 1950-1990).
Here are the top 100 toys:
1. American Girl dolls
2. Army Men
3. Barbie
4. Barney Talking Doll
5. Beanie Babies
6. Betsy Wetsy doll
7. Big Wheel
8. Bubbles and wand
9. Cabbage Patch Kids
10. Care Bears
11. Charlie’s Angels dolls
12. Chatter Telephone
13. Chatty Cathy
14. Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun
15. Disc shooter guns
16. Doll House (various)
17. Easy Bake Oven
18. Erector Set
19. Etch-A-Sketch
20. Fisher-Price Corn Popper
21. Frisbee
22. Furby
23. G.I. Joe
24. Glo-worm
25. Gumby
26. He-Man
27. Heelys
28. Holly Hobbie
29. Hopity Hop
30. Hula Hoop
31. Inchworm
32. Johnny Reb Cannon
33. Jump rope
34. Kewpie dolls
35. Lawn Darts
36. Legos
37. Lincoln Logs
38. Lionel Trains
39. Lite Brite
40. Magic 8 Ball
41. Marvel/DC action figures
42. Matchbox/Hot Wheels
43. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
44. Mr. Potato Head
45. Muppet dolls
46. My Little Pony
47. Nerf Balls
48. Play-Doh
49. Pog
50. Pogo Stick
51. Pokemon
52. Pound Puppies
53. Radio Flyer Wagon
54. Raggedy Ann and Andy Dolls
55. Rainbow Brite
56. Razor Scooter
57. Remote controlled vehicles (various)
58. Rock’em Sock’em Robots
59. Roller skates
60. Rubber Ducky
61. Sesame Street dolls/figures
62. Silly Putty
63. Sit N’ Spin
64. Six Million Dollar Man action figure
65. Skateboards
66. Slime
67. Slinky
68. Slot Car race sets
69. Smurfs
70. Snoopy Sno Cone Machine
71. Spirograph
72. Spongebob Squarepants doll
73. Star Wars action figures
74. Strawberry Shortcake
75. Stretch Armstrong
76. Super Ball
77. Super Soaker
78. Tamagotchi
79. Tea set (various)
80. Teddy bears/stuffed animals (various)
81. Teddy Ruxpin doll
82. Teletubbies
83. The Farmer Says
84. Thomas the Tank Engine
85. Thumbalina
86. Tickle Me Elmo
87. Tinker Toys
88. Tonka Trucks
89. Transformers
90. Troll dolls
91. View Master
92. Walkie Talkies
Rather than provide justifications for why these toys were the best, I’ll leave it to you to sing their praises in the comment section.
(Also, before the complaints start rolling in, I should point out that this list does not include items that fall under crafts (e.g., Crayons) or board games (e.g., Operation, Monopoly) since we’ll discuss those some other day.)
July 9th, 2010 | 1:05 am
American Girl Dolls were absolutely magical when I was 10 years old. I devoured the books and often imagined my life as though I were living during Felicity’s time (Revolutionary War period). The books deal with serious issues in a way that forces girls to think about adult ideas, like slavery during Addy’s era, poverty during Samantha’s time (RIP Samantha). However, the franchise unfortunately seemed to take a money-making focus, overpricing dolls and creating more expensive clothes. My imagination turned into dreams that I would get the birthday outfit for my doll. My friends and I would trade the cards after church, and I finally collected all 300+ or whatever. That said, I still love my Felicity doll and read the books from time to time.
July 9th, 2010 | 1:34 am
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July 9th, 2010 | 2:22 am
Furby?
July 9th, 2010 | 2:24 am
Furby = HATED that thing. One got lost in moving boxes and haunted us for weeks.
July 9th, 2010 | 2:32 am
What was the game where you put little football players on a metal ‘field’ and plugged it in and they all vibrated and moved around, making a play?
July 9th, 2010 | 5:33 am
I did not see Lionel or American Flyer electric train sets. Every Christmas Season my father would set mine up. I would play for hours all through the holidays. It’s the only toy I didn’t get bored with after 20 minutes.
July 9th, 2010 | 5:39 am
I think Legos are the all time best. They’ve gotten a little too flashy nowadays with the licensed lines (Lego Star Wars, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Harry Potter…), but they’ve still got similar versions of the old lines that kept my brothers and I building for days on end. We started with pirates, then eventually got a few knights, and then some space and submarine sets. Needless to say those pirates and knights ended up with some pretty high-tech gear!
July 9th, 2010 | 5:44 am
Also, a couple years ago, my family did an Operation Christmas Child shoebox for an impoverished third world kid. We thought, why stop at toothpaste and soap? We don’t just want him to be clean, darn it; we want this kid to be *cool*. Into the shoebox went two sets of Legos.
July 9th, 2010 | 5:45 am
Also, why is yo-yo not on the list?
And what am I doing up at 4:45 am posting about toys?
July 9th, 2010 | 7:38 am
I love the new TickleMe Plant Greenhouse. I think it will be more then a fad. Who wouldn’t want to grow a house plant that MOVES when you Tickle It! The TickleMe Plant has fan like leaves that suddenly fold – even the branches droop when you Tickle It. Growing one from seeds and interacting with it, is something my kids will never forget and neither will I. Just search TickleMe Plant to easy grow your own pet like plant indoors.
July 9th, 2010 | 9:03 am
In the late 1960s Mattel sold a toy called the Time Machine. It was a hot plate with a clear plastic dome over the burner element, and a crank-operated die welded to the side of it.
What you did was, you plugged it in, and it got really hot. Then you put in a plastic capsule, made of a mnemonic plastic that reverted to it’s “remembered” shape when exposed to heat. The capsule got soft and unfolded into a dinosaur or whatever. Then you reached in and grabbed it with the provided tongs (which were the first thing you lost, of course) and let it cool off. Then you played with it.
When you were done playing with it, you put it back in the Time Machine, let it get hot and soft again, then stuffed into the die and compressed it back into capsule shape again.
I invite you to consider the sort of world we lived in. A world where a hot plate was sold as a child’s toy. A braver, more rugged world.
July 9th, 2010 | 9:05 am
I understand that the Time Machine was never a fad toy, and thus does not belong on the list.
I agree about Legos. I still play with them at the age of 48.
July 9th, 2010 | 9:22 am
Pogs? Really? Those qualify as “toys”?
July 9th, 2010 | 9:39 am
I would also add:
Chrissy and Velvet – a brunette and blond respectively, these 18″ tall dolls from the early ’70s had hair that you could make shorter by twisting a knob in their back, or make longer by pressing her belly button. Plus they had great wardrobes!
Romper-Stompers! – made popular by the tv show “Romper Room,” every kid had a pair in my neighborhood.
Fisher-Price toys and people – we had the barn (which mooed when you opened the door), the house, the schoolhouse, the schoolbus, the houseboat, the airplane, and the village street. (Hallmark has been reissuing these toys as Christmas tree ornaments – this year you can get the schoolhouse or the plane)
Barbie-head – creepy but popular toy where girls could apply makeup and “do hair” on a head mounted above a tray. (There were variations on this, my younger sister had a “Farrah” head in the mid ’70s.)
July 9th, 2010 | 9:47 am
Missing from the list:
• Plain, ordinary wooden blocks
• Rubber band-powered balsa airplane
• Inexpensive microscope and a bucket of pond scum
July 9th, 2010 | 10:20 am
I would add Color Forms–great for engaging the imagination. And stick horses. Hours of cowboy or cowgirl fun.
July 9th, 2010 | 10:20 am
Still missing from the list: …a magnet… …a kite…
July 9th, 2010 | 10:30 am
Big cardboard boxes!
July 9th, 2010 | 12:27 pm
Ah, Lawn Darts. Those colorful, cranium piercing aerodynamic marvels! Kinda makes me wonder why the Daisy BB Rifle didn’t make the list.
July 9th, 2010 | 12:33 pm
@mike: that was “Electric Football”. The play value went out of it in about 2 minutes once we discerned that the players with their little cotton football made their “plays” by blundering into each other.
July 9th, 2010 | 3:00 pm
What about cowboy cap guns & holster
July 9th, 2010 | 8:23 pm
The banana seat bike or Schwinn Stingray from the ’60s deserves a place on the list. Every kid had one, often with streamers coming from the handle grip ends. They were much more fun than the typical heavy American bike they replaced. They were great for just messing around the cul-de-sac.
Matchbox and Hot Wheels were fine, but the best die-cast cars in the 1960s were made by Corgi Toys. The most popular was the Aston Martin DB5 (James Bond model). Every kid had that one. (I mean every boy kid, of course. Girls were pretty unreliable.) Matchbox cars cost around fifty cents each, but Corgis were larger and fancier and cost several dollars each, which required help from a doting aunt. I had quite a few until my big brother staged the “world’s greatest highway accident” and set all of our toy cars on fire.
Here are the Corgi Triumph Herald and Corgi Bentley Continental (both of which I had): http://www.vectis.co.uk/AuctionImages/96/4603_l.jpg
July 10th, 2010 | 10:18 pm
I would add that 70′s favorite for boys: crash up derby cars
July 12th, 2010 | 12:06 pm
Heelys now has two new products….
Heelys, Inc. is a company founded on innovation. It designs, markets and distributes its patented action sports-oriented products to the youth market under the Heelys ® brand. The company’s primary product, Heelys wheeled footwear, is a patented dual-purpose skate shoe that incorporates a stealth removable wheel in the heel. Its new product, the Hx2, uses two wheels for better balance and control, making it ideal for younger users. Heelys’ third offering, Nano, ramps up the Heelys experience by giving skaters a board that links into the patented Heelys shoe bracket. This allows them to skate farther, faster and longer than ever before. Instructional videos on how to get started can be found at http://www.heelys.com/.
July 15th, 2010 | 1:29 pm
Silly Putty!
It wasn’t until I took a “Statics & Strength of Materials” class in college that I discovered that Silly Putty would shatter like glass when whacked with a hammer. My roommate got me some and we tried it. Sure enough, it does!
FURBY…
Someone (probably my niece) visited us with one of those things. They claimed it would memorize sounds and word phrases.
Did you ever hear a FURBY burp?
What a hoot!
July 16th, 2010 | 11:48 am
Great list, Joe. I blogged about it over on Vital Signs (http://vitalsignsblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/92-favorite-toys-of-your-childhood.html).
There were several you listed that were treasured at our home (the 5 kids were born from 1946 through 1961) but the ones that didn’t make your list were balls, balloons (to fill with water), bikes, electric football, guns (like Have Gun Will Travel six-shooters), jacks, marbles and models.
But still a terrific list and a great conversation starter for this summer’s family reunions. Thanks a bunch.
July 16th, 2010 | 10:54 pm
I had a 1964 flip-do Midge doll but really wanted my older sister’s bubble hair Barbie and later, her 1967 Monkees talking hand puppet. Playing in cardboard boxes and swimming in a horse tank were also a great diversion with ten kids in the family!
July 19th, 2010 | 9:26 pm
I think one obvious omission are any diecast toy cars(Hot Wheels,Corgi or Matchbox).They are still going strong after all these years.Also, some Mattel favorites like Vertibird and Funlight.Kenners Smash-up Derby and Evel Knievels stunt cycle also deserve mention.
July 19th, 2010 | 9:28 pm
Sorry, missed #42
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