*1 Source: The Evening Chronicle website.
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| Playmobil. Popular in the 1960s and still going strong. |
The 60s
1) Remote control cars
2) Etch-a-sketch
3) PlayMobil
Remote control cars seem pretty unremarkable nowadays, but when they were first released, apparently being able to control a miniaturised car without the need for wires to be attached was regarded as a really impressive achievement.
The popularity of etch-a-sketch must have lasted long after its original release, as I can remember having an etch-a-sketch many years later. At the time it seemed like a really cool toy, but looking back it was an extremely impractical idea - having to draw a blocky picture by turning a couple of knobs - and it looks pretty antiquated nowadays compared to the Playstations and Xboxes of today.
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| "These aren't the toys you're looking for." |
The 70s
1) Rubik's Cube
2) Nerf Ball
3) Star Wars figures
Star Wars figures have surely got to be one of the biggest selling most popular toys of all time. I can still remember how rare the jawa figures were, and in one recent auction a vinyl cape jawa in its original packaging sold for in excess of £18,000! Not a bad profit for a toy which originally cost less than two pounds! If only I'd kept my own jawa figures in their original packaging instead of playing with them!
The brilliant thing about the Rubik's Cube is that it was such a simple idea, but it provided hours of entertainment, and I can still remember the buzz of excitement the first time I ever completed it. I had been trying to solve it for weeks and kept getting closer and closer, but never quite there. Then one day I tried a few moves and rotated the cube around to see if I'd got any closer only to discover that every side was completed! What a buzz!
The 80s
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| An untransformed transformer. |
2) Teenage Mutant
3) My Little Pony
At the time, the word 'ninja' was deemed too controversial for UK kids, so in the UK the turtles were officially known as 'teenage mutant hero turtles' rather than 'ninja turtles'. Of course kids referred to them as ninja turtles anyway, and the whole thing was a bit ridiculous.
Transformers weren't really my thing, as I was getting a bit too old for that sort of thing by the time they became popular, but the concept of robots transforming into other objects is a cool idea, so I can understand why Transformers were such a big success.
Surprisingly enough, My Little Pony wasn't really my thing either!
The 90s
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| "How do you get Pikachu onto a train?" "You poke 'im on." |
2) Super Soakers
3) Pokemon
We're getting beyond my time now, but the popularity of Pokemon has endured beyond the nineties as my nephew still loves them now. He tried to explain the rules of the Pokemon card game to me once and my immediate reaction was that the Pokemon card game inventors were brilliantly devious at sneakily teaching kids maths.
To win a Pokemon card from your opponent, you had to compare the statistics of each card, then perform a complicated mathematical sum to decide who won the battle. My nephew just saw it as a fun card game and he didn't realise he was being sneakily tricked into learning complicated arithmetic!
Hats off to those devious Pokemon inventors!
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| An Xbox controller. Not a toy, apparently. |
The 00s
1) Bratz
2) Nintendo Wii
3) Razor Scooter
The noughties are a reflection of how tastes are seemingly becoming more expensive, with simple toys like Rubik's cubes and etch-a-sketch being replaced by the technologically more advanced Nintendo Wii.
Presumably, Playstations and Xboxes mustn't be classed as 'toys' as I'm sure they sold more units than the Nintendo Wii, but anyway the inclusion of the Ninetendo Wii highlights how 'toys' are becoming more and more advanced as time goes by.
The 10s (so far)
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| Pepper Pig |
1) Moshi Monsters
2) Peppa Pig
3) Ben 10
This is a nostalgic trip down memory lane, and as the 10s is the current decade, that means nostalgia isn't applicable, so in the interests of grammatical correctness*2 I won't be commenting on Moshi Monsters, Peppa Pig or Ben 10.
*2 And also because I'm
To round things off, here are the best selling toys of Christmas 2017*3:
1) Pokemon
2) Nerf
3) Star Wars
4) Barbie
5) Batman
6) Hot Wheels
7) Little Tikes
8) Shopkins
9) Paw Patrol
10) Lego Star Wars
I was quite surprised to discover that I've actually heard of some of these, so it just goes to show that some things never go out of fashion.
*3 According to fool.com.
If you're still feeling nostalgic for toys from decades gone by, then try having a look in your loft. Or alternatively, check out the blog posts below:
Top selling toys from years gone by (part 1)
Top selling toys from years gone by (part 2)
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