Your Top 10 Childhood Toys?

[Hobby Drifter]

I loved toys as a kid and still do now as an adult. It has been “interesting” seeing companies pivot towards selling toys as high end collectibles to older folks with disposable income, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the stuff I had (or wanted) as a kid. Back when toys had to adhere to a certain price point and safety standards of the time.

So, I’m curious. What were your top 10 childhood toys?

[Feyrhausen]

My mom recently gave me a pull behind snoopy dog that she says was my favorite when I started walking.

My favorites were my He-Man stuff. I had all the good ones, Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain, vehicles. I used a blanket that had jungle designs on it as a mat for massive battle scenes.

And of course the NES.

[Deleted]

- My stuffed bear Teds. He was basically my Rupert, but we were just friends lol.

- Skeletor - first non stuffed toy I owned and probably led to my love of skulls and metal and stuff.

- Alley Viper - even though this dude was bright orange, he was somehow the most bad ass style of Cobra soldier.

- The Dreadnok Thunder Machine - it was like a G.I. Joe vehicle and a Mad Max toy at the same time.

- Menasor - The only TF combiner that I had the full set of.

- Galvatron - I had this thing from 1986 until about 2003, and it still worked as long as it had working batyeries.

- NES/SNES/N64 (loved them equally, they just represent whatever age I was at the time)

- Viewmaster - With this thing I saw all kinds of cool shit before I had the internet or even a VCR. The Empire Strikes Back, The Muppets, and even a freaking Kiss concert.

- This generic green monster covered in suction cups. Most fun toy ever for the bathtub.

['Foretold' Joker]

Fun idea for a thread, I'm going to ignore board games & consoles and stick to toys. Heck I could do a purely action figure top ten but I'll try and contain myself.


1. Lifelike Cockroach Toy - My top toy is a seemingly innocuous but very lifelike toy cockroach that probably cost less than £1. But it was so realistic looking, even down to a slight transparency. Leaving it in my mum's handbag when she went out to buy some food from the supermarket, only for her to pull it out with her purse as she was paying is possibly one of the funniest stories from my childhood.

2. Super Naturals - I loved these holographic horror inspired action figures. They were really well built, spooky and just a lot of fun. Also no one else I knew seemed to have them.

3. Coco, promotional Kellogg's coco Pops monkey soft toy - Yep sending off for a cereal packet toy never usually resulted in anything too special. But this was Coco the Monkey and he was huge (well to child me he was) he's actually about 2 foot tall.

4. Monster in My Pocket - Collectable toys, there were many but the Monster in My Pocket franchise hooked me, I had loads of these, still have a few that remain like the Werewolf.

5. Jake 'The Snake' Roberts Hasbro action figure - Jake actually had a punch action unlike some of the line, also my favourite wrestler at the time, had plenty of other hasbro wwf figures.

6. Tomy Monster Machine - It could go anywhere, apart form a sandpit which broke it. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTvsY4sZJqE

7. Helter Skelter Marble Run - Put a bunch of plastic pipes together and watch the marbles roll down to the end.

8. Dragstor and/or Saurod MOTU - HE-man masters of the universe were great toys, these two were my favourite, which is probably why both broke from too much use. Dragstor was just fun setting him flying down a hallway or staircase, Saurod's spark action was just super cool, they need to bring that back.

9. Manta Force: Bog Rocket - Manta Force was one of those toys designed with lots of small parts you would lose. The Bog rocket was a third faction of evil stenchoid aliens who melted down the heroic space faring humans. Included actual melted killed manta force spacemen, I mean seriously look at this?!



10. Lego Islanders - Enchanted Island: A pacific islanders lego set, everyone loves lego, but I actually enjoyed using this set fro warhammer 40k scenery

[H-Virus]

1. A hand-made stuffed rabbit from my Aunt. For the first few years of my life it never left my side, and even after outgrowing it, it still held a prominent spot on top of my dresser.

2. 2X-L. A talking, cassette-powered robot who would ask trivia questions, tell stories and jokes and you would interact with it by pressing buttons when prompted. This was one of the first Christmas presents I can actually remember getting.

3. Wrestling Buddies. My little brother and I would beat the shit out of these things until the stuffing started falling out, then our mom would sew them back up and we’d beat them up some more. We had Ultimate Warrior and Hulk Hogan to start, then a few years later when WCW made their own version we got Sting and DDP. We even made our own championship belts out of cardboard until we were able to buy actual ones.

4. Creepy Crawlers. God, we made so many of these! You had little pewter plates with molds of various insects that you filled with different colored liquids, then baked them in an Easy Bake Oven until they hardened into a plastic-rubbery texture. I can’t even tell you how many of these things accidentally ended up in the vacuum cleaner.

5. SNES/GBA/PS1. Just lumping these all together because I can’t even guess which one took up the majority of my time.

6. Z-bots. Never really a Transformers fan, but for some reason I was crazy for these things for about two years or so.

7. Power Rangers Zords. Again, never a huge Power Rangers fan, but being able to form your own Megazord and Mega Dragonzord was something I couldn’t pass up.

8. Puzzles. I owned a ton of puzzles as a kid, and I’ve only just recently started getting back into them again after several years. I recently finished a 1,000 piece Justice League puzzle that took about two and a half weeks and will be moving onto another one soon.

9. Books. Not a toy, obviously, but I’m going to count it due to the amount of time I spent reading Goosebumps, Animorphs, and Clue.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll round out the tenth spot when I can remember it.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Not counting game consoles:

1) The TMNT Party Wagon.

2) A pair of Buster and Babs Bunny plushes.

3) A Gen 2 Optimus Prime.

4) The TMNT Technodrome set.

5) Some Tonka dump trucks, because we had a large hill in my backyard. I’d stick my plushes inside and race them down and they crashed and wiped out every time.

6) Various Hasbro WWF figures. Bret, Taker, Flair, IRS and Macho were my hardest pushed guys.

7) An Alien Queen figure. She was my promotion’s monster heel. Optimus was the top face.

8) It was some version of a Super Soaker, it saw a lot of play when we’d go to the local pool in the summer.

9) A Marbleworks set.

10) An “Armitron “ toy robot arm.

[Magnus the Magnificent]

LEGO
I had, actually still have, loads of Castle and Space sets.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

I loved the Bionicle toys so much. Played with them way too much.

[Mr PONYMANIA Mr Jenzie]

1980 kenner star wars
lego
ACTION MAAAAAAAAN / six million dollar man
arnold palmer pro shot golf
merlin / grandstand match of the day / galaxy 2000 / pocket pac-man / pocket baseball
sinclair spectrum
bobby charlton soccer tabletop game / test match cricket
viewmaster
matchbox / corgi / dinky / marrionette
scalectrix

little green army men
buckaroo / kerplunk / mouse trap / mastermind
top trumps (still got them somewhere)
peter pan playthings pop o matic pocket games (cricket, football, tennis, darts, motor racing, horse racing)
marbles
sticklebricks
fuzzy felt
fisher price ... the MOTHER******* CHATTER PHONE!!! pull-along snoopy, music box record player
etch-a-sketch
spirograph
WEEBLS
panini sticker albums (football 78 *sad noises* to football 87) / return of the jedi / incredible hulk
the beano / the dandy / whizzer and chips / eagle magazine / look-in / shoot! ...

a simple plastic ball, a stool shaped like a goal, two fingers and a hand ... and the SHOOT! league ladders 1977/78

[King Boo]

In no particular order:

Various '90's board games, like Dream Phone
Skip-It
Books, including read-along books on tape
Barbie dolls
Stuffed animals, esp. Puffalumps 
Oh, Jenny! I had a few items, but my favorite was the RV
Sticker albums
Chinese Jump Rope
Game Boy (Kirby's Dream Land, FTW)
Toy food/houseware stuff to play things like store and house

Bonus mention of my music cassettes. They're not toys, per say, but they got a lot of use and gave me a lot of good memories. Probably also helped solidify my deep love of a lot of different types of music.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

I was a big action figure nut. My favorites as a kid:

- TMNT (I remember one Christmas where I got all four turtles, Splinter, April, Shredder, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady and a few others)

- X-Men (I didn't have too many of the cool characters lol but I had my fair share. My favorite story to do was Wolverine vs. Venom)

- Power Rangers (we all know the story, at the height of the show's popularity in 1993, the toys were impossible to find. When my mom and Nana presented me with 3 inch figures of the Blue Ranger and Finster, it was like Christmas, even though it was spring lol)

- WCW/WWF action figure lines (countless toys over the years lol I had the big hard rubber WCW figures, the WWF bend 'ems, the Jakks Bone Crunching Action figures, the WCW Toy Biz line, the Titan Tron Live figures and eventually, the Ruthless Aggression line. Up until a few years ago, I was still buying Mattel figures, but that stopped after I had some financial issues)

[Limity (BLM)]

Mar 24, 2022 13:22:18 GMT -5 Magnus the Magnificent said:

LEGO
I had, actually still have, loads of Castle and Space sets.

Oh man, I maintain that Legos are the perfect toy for kids.

So besides Legos, I'd say...

Star Trek Micro Machines

Star Wars Micro Machines

Transformers Optimus Prime

Mighty Max Playsets

1989 Batman Movie Figure

Star Trek Playmates Figures

Ghostbusters Figures

Aliens Figures (CPL Hicks!)

...and I'm drawing a blank on finishing the list.

But to the OP, I love toys as well, and alea6d walk through the toy sections when I go to stores. I love that some are coming back with original packaging, like G1 Transformers or Ghostbusters.

[Starshine]

I don't know if I have a top 10, but the main ones that come to mind are.

Mighty Max's Skull Mountain playset. I still remember the feeling of the excitement knowing I was getting it that Christmas.

Power Rangers Dragonzord. The fact I could bulk up my Megazord was super cool. I'd eventually get Titanus later on, so I had the whole deal.

I had quite a few Transformers and Beast Wars toys. The ones I'm most nostalgic about are G2 coloured Ramjet, who I recently got the modern version of that came out in the last year, or so. G2 cloured Grimlock, G2 coloured Combaticons, Beast Wars Megatron and Transmetal Rampage.

[James Fabiano]

In no particular order....

Masters of the Universe
Transformers
Voltron
Super Powers
LJN Wrestling Superstars
Hasbro WWF
Gobots
Strawberry Shortcake (yes....)
Star Wars
Various gaming consoles

[Limity (BLM)]

Mar 24, 2022 19:13:41 GMT -5 Starshine said:

I don't know if I have a top 10, but the main ones that come to mind are.

Mighty Max's Skull Mountain playset. I still remember the feeling of the excitement knowing I was getting it that Christmas.

Power Rangers Dragonzord. The fact I could bulk up my Megazord was super cool. I'd eventually get Titanus later on, so I had the whole deal.

I had quite a few Transformers and Beast Wars toys. The ones I'm most nostalgic about are G2 coloured Ramjet, who I recently got the modern version of that came out in the last year, or so. G2 cloured Grimlock, G2 coloured Combaticons, Beast Wars Megatron and Transmetal Rampage.

I remember being very into Grimlock's character, to the point I loved his toy almost as much as Prime's.

[ERON]

1. Transformers and Gobots in general. I loved them all, so I can't pick a favorite. I guess if you put a gun to my head, I'd pick the Gobot command center.
2. Hurricane Hordak and Leech, which sadly were the only Masters of the Universe figures I had
3. a GI Joe vehicle that was a futuristic looking truck with a hovercraft that came out of the trailer
4. MUSCLES - both the official ones and some generic ones I got from a vending machine that I found out years later were actually Gundams
5. a battery-operated robot that would roll around on the floor and speak when you pressed a red button on his head
6. a radio-controlled robot scorpion
7. Legos, especially the space ones
8. Hot Wheels
9. Lazer Tag
10. those little LCD handheld video games from Radio Shack

[Heeltown, USA]

1. WWF Figures. Mostly Hasbro but Im just old enough that I had some LJNs. King Kong Bundy was a lethal weapon

2. Nintendo. My parents were very strict on how often and long I could play it. Which made me cherish the time I did get to play when I was little

3. Dino Riders. Man, they were Star Wars meets Dinosaurs. If thats not the most mind blowing combination for a little boy, I don’t know what is. I would lose the armor pieces for the dinos so fast but you still had a dinosaur to play with. It was perfect

4. He-Man. We all loved He-Man

5. Transformers. Again, this was just a staple of any boy’s life in the late 80’s

6. Starting Lineup. The little sports figurines. The best was getting two football lineman and crashing them into eachother. Still love Greg Townsend of the Oakland Raiders and Dexter Manley of the Washington Redskins to this day.

7. Ninja Turtles. Oh man, I know this is another heavy hitter that needs no explanation, but I got to say that I had absolutely 100% of every figure released on an individual card back in the entire line plus probably 75% of the vehicles. I am the youngest male of all my cousins and after all my older cousins aged out of playing with toys, myself and my one female cousin were still 9 and for Christmas and birthdays it was on. Every Aunt, Uncle, and Grandparent would shower us with toys since all the other kids just got cash. I even had the TMNT Huffy 5 speed bike. Good times.

8. The Centurions (?) I never knew jack shit about these as a kid but I had 1, the blue one. He had a cool helmet that made him look like Maverick from Top Gun and he was probably the most poseable figure I had. When I met a kid years later that had the yellow guy it blew my mind there was more than one.

9. GI Joe. I had a ton of em, didn’t we all? But I was never really into GI Joe, if anything I liked them for the points of articulation and would have them wrestle eachother.

10. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Right at the tail end of my toy days this gem of a franchise dropped. I was closing in on a black belt in 93 so I loved the karate element to the show and those original 8” figures!! Where was those points of articulation when we were really young? You could pose them in so many ways! Conversely, the villains were just big hunks of plastic who’s arms moved, it was lame. But the Zords were awesome. What was the tank turtle called? Tor? Whatever it was, when you combined Tiger, Dragon, Mega, and put them in him as Ultra Mega Thunder Zord or whatever it was called, it was dope.

Hard to rank them all, but alot of fond memories writing all this. Thanks OP

[Ultimo Gallos]

Legos-This was long before they had Star Wars or whatever legos.I had piles and piles.

Star Wars figures-These,the originals from Kenner,and MEGOs were my first action figures. Managed to get all but 3 of the Kenner run of SW figures.

Lite Brite-Would spend hours doing designs on my lite brite.

Atari 2600-Got one when I was 5 and it is still my favorite home console. Sure the graphics and sound aren't the best. But the games made up for that with gameplay.

Green plastic Army men-Each year once spring started I would take my buckets full of Army Men and stage huge wars in our back yard. When I got older we made a game with them. You would take a lighter and heat up the figure until it was melting,then sling the melting plastic at each other.....

GI Joe A Real American Hero-ARound the time Kenner's Star Wars line was ending GI Joe got big. Being that hte figures were similar size to SW I started buying them. Too bad when I was in my late teens I used fireworks and blew up most of my Joes.

Board Games-Too many to name. But I have always loved board games. From 2015 until 2020 we had a two times a month board game night. And even had a board game fund. Every month all the people in the group would put 5 or 10 bucks into the fund. Then that was used to get more games.

Viewmaster-No clue if they still make these. As a kid I had one with 3 shoeboxes full of the reels.

Smurfs-I am guessing this is were my love of small PVC figures started.

Six Million Dollar Man figure-When I was about 7 my older cousin gave me his Steve Austin figure along with a pile of outfits. And for the next few years Steve Austin was the big hero when I played with my action figures.

[aka Cthulhu]

Man, thinking about it, I really didn't get a lot of toys as a kid. And I remember one of my cousins had so much they filled a drawer. Had lots of clay, not that I was any good at making stuff, but that's about it. Did get a lot of PS1 games, but not gonna count those as toys.

Like, top of my head, and I doubt I'll fill a top ten list so I'm not even gonna bother ranking it.

Cap guns. The ones that came with little cartridges that make a loud noise and smoke.

A godzilla toy. Looked like the original Godzilla, it had little wheels on the bottom. Covered in clay.

Lots of superballs.

A gundam. Not the ones you assembled.

A monopoly knockoff.

So I said I'm not gonna count game consoles, but I remember being given this handheld(?) console as a hand me down. Bigger than a game boy. Only one game. Some sort of shooter where you're a spaceship fighting alien ships. Needed those big batteries. After trying to figure it out, I think it may have been the Entex Adventure Vision. Sorta. I recall the handheld console I got being the same shape, but the color of the lights and actual game was different. Probably a knockoff.

And that's about it. Got a Tamiya and a Zoids toy later on in my very early teens, but someone else assembled it so it didn't really stick on my mind.

[Hobby Drifter]

10: Robocop (Robocop and the Ultra Police). The cap-firing gimmick was pretty cool for its time, but it was the removable helmet that really made this a cool toy to the six year old Hobby Drifter.

9: Matchbox pull-back Voltron. Smaller than the huge Metal version, but with most of the features still intact. Got this from a late-80s garage sale and loved it for many, many years.

8: Ninja Turtles Raphael. My first and still favorite Ninja Turtle.

7: Venom (with flicking tongue) from Marvel Super Heroes. A very basic version of the character from before the more monstrous aspects became the norm for Venom toys.

6: Proton Pack from Real Ghostbusters. I really think this thing was the trigger for a generation of would-be cosplayers. This was my best Christmas morning ever.

5: Servo/Drago/Zenon from Superhuman Samurai. Kind of cheating with this one, but it’s kind of a package deal, no. Stunningly great toys with play value that still holds up to this day.

4: Real Ghostbusters Ecto-1: This was a rare non-birthday/Christmas toy for me. One of the all-time great vehicle toys.

3: Real Ghostbusters Firehouse: Yeah, my 3rd RGB item on this list. I cannot overstate how cool “a large building” was for a kid who loved action figures was. It was basically a dollhouse for 80s boys and it stood in for an uncountable number of other buildings throughout my childhood.

2: Power Rangers (Dino) Megazord. I wouldn’t get the Dragonzord until I was seventeen and I was in my 20’s before I ever owned a Titanus (and that’s a whole story in and of itself) but the original Megazord was an absolute joy. Though the weirdly modified stickers has kept the MMPR release from aging as well as its Japanese counterpart.

1: Powermaster Optimus Prime. I saved my allowance for a freaking YEAR to buy this. When I found out the Japanese version (Super Ginrai) was even better, I was obsessed with getting one (which was tough in Chicago in the 90s lol). But I did. And I displayed it proudly next to my PMPrime for years. It’s one of VERY few toys I have brought back with me to Japan and it sits on my shelf to this very day.