Before PlayStation: The toys I grew up with – Part 3

I’m a child of the 80’s. This naturally means I had some of the best toys ever! It was an era when technology was just starting to get into toys and games, but not to the point where everything required batteries or an AC adapter.

We played with a lot of the “classic” toys: Lite Brite, Legos, Slinkies, Play-Dough. My brothers and I built an entire lego empire of knights, castles, pirates, and mansions. I refer to these toys as classics because my son still plays with these today and enjoys them despite a world full of video games, online games, and everything else featuring his favorite licensed tv characters.

The 80’s were when toy fads started. The demand around Christmas was so great, it forced our parents to wait in line at the store on Black Friday for Cabbage Patch Dolls and Pound Puppies. Except back then, you couldn’t buy one and then charge 4 times the price on e-bay the next day.

We played with colorforms, which were vinyl shapes and figures that stuck to laminated cardboard. Paper dolls were another favorite of mine. Barbies, Transformers, Ghostbusters, and Ninja Turtles were also popular toys. We played a lot of card games: Uno, Rummy, Pokeno, Go Fish. Favorite board games included Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Clue, Monopoly, and Mall Madness.

Some of the best times though didn’t include toys at all. Every summer Sunday afternoon was a wiffle ball game with strict rules at my grandmother’s house. With 17 cousins there were always enough players! We enjoyed swinging on our tree swings and building hide-outs in the woods; we also played well known games like hide-n-seek and tag.

It seems toys of the 80’s required more thought and more imagination that toys today. I wouldn’t trade any of the toys or memories I had growing up for a Playstation. Though I will admit, I was pretty excited the first time I played Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo!

bonus poker