As a kid, everyone had their favorite toys: whether it be a doll, a cool tea party set, a teddy bear–you name it, we claimed it, and when we got old enough to act like we didn’t care for toys anymore, we were still sad when mom decided to give our favorite toy to someone who needed it more. Yeah, childhood was great and simple, and our toys made it that much better. After seeing that there is a toy fair going on in NYC currently, it inspired me to create this ode to the dopest toys from our childhood. Time to walk down memory lane ladies!
Source: Ourstory.com
Easy-Bake Oven
Born and bred in the 1960s, the Easy-Bake Oven was most young girls’ first real foray into cooking. While the boxed oven of goodness came with cake mix, if you were like me, once those sweet concoctions ran out, you were working with anything you had in the house. I can’t tell you how many Frosted Flakes and grape jelly cakes I was cooking for folks in my house (they weren’t too excited to eat them though…). Definitely a defining toy in many homes for the little gals and the hungry big brothers.
Source: ioffer.com
A Dope A** Barbie Car
It wasn’t enough to just have a Barbie with a few interchangeable outfits. No, if your Barbie was going to be the ish during play dates, she was going to have be seen with the flyest means of transportation. Barbie can’t foot it in heels forever! Whether it was a Mustang, a Jeep, a Volkswagen Beetle or an old school convertible, the iconic chick with the unrealistic body proportions needed to ride in style–all pink everything. I’m sure if your people had money, you were probably lucky enough to get the “My Size” version…
Source: androidmassacre.com
Speak & Spell
A toy has to be all that when it can be both fun AND educational at the same time. The Speak & Spell toy helped little gals everywhere learn how to spell and how to do basic math. It was one of the earliest handheld devices to have a visual display (aside from your brother’s Game Boy), and cartridges were available and gave you the chance to learn and do all kinds of things. Who else was struggling with those mystery visual memory games?
Source: dolldiaries.com
Tea Party Set
You could definitely use your mother’s good china as a kid, but if you were lucky enough to get a small tea party set, then you know it was everything; perfect for sharing fake cake, fake Earl Grey, and to do so with your fake homies: Sheila and Tommy. I’m sure as you got older, you really started putting liquid in those cups and food on those dishes, but that just took the fun out of it–real stuff isn’t fun!
Source: thetoysstores.com
Fisher Price Recorder
Who else was trying to record their first mixtape with this joint? the Fisher Price Recorder has changed up its look many a time and had various different names, but the point is the same: to sing to your little heart’s content! Or to just record some random jibber jabber just because you can. Jam sessions were never the same after this little colorful creation came on the scene.
Source: dimensionguide.com
Tamagotchi
If a girl ever needed a small reminder as to why being a young mother is a horrible idea, it came in the form of this uber-popular handheld digital pet from the ’90s. Shaped in an egg-like plastic form, it was like getting one of those babies from your high school family and human development class but ten times more intense. You literally had to play with them, feed them, clean up after them, provide them with medicine AND attention! Oh yeah, just like a real child. Despite their difficulty, these little toys blew up and were attached to every chick’s huge keychain in junior high.
Source: izismile.com
Etch-a-Sketch
One of the oldest toys on this list, the Etch-a-Sketch never actually got old, and it was crazy, because who knew you could have so much fun making lineographic images!? And with a small screen and two knobs (and no color), you really don’t have the absolute most to work with to make a Picasso-esque image. However, there is something really dope and poetic about the creations you can make–and how easily those creations can disappear…
Source: intelligence-and-fun.buzzsugar.com
Cabbage Patch Kid
Uh, can you say “greatest doll ever”!? Seriously, these dolls had simple yarn hair (early on), a cloth body, and random names like Otis Lee and Lavendar McDade, but they were still cooler than a block of ice. To be honest with you, these dolls weren’t all that cute either, however, they gave out the nicest hugs (probably because their arms were stretched out wide all the time). Really, who didn’t love these babies?
Source: alibaba.com
Care Bears
More than your average bear (move over Teddy Ruxpin!), the Care Bears were colorful bundles of joy with a lot of character and cool belly tattoos! Birthed from greeting cards, these cuddly things were so beloved that they had to be made into plush form. The plush dolls in an array of shades represented love, friendship, cheerfulness and even grumpiness for some reason…? If you didn’t have one of these way back when, you were probably a square. Kidding!
Source: furnitureminiature.com
A Fly Dollhouse
I don’t care if it was made out of plastic, wood, metal–whatever. A prime staple in a young girl’s childhood has to be a dollhouse. It doesn’t need fancy lights and windows that open and close (that would be nice though!), it just needs enough space to have a tea party between your smallest dolls. And possibly a long enough banister for sliding down Mary Poppin’s style…for the dolls of course.
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