Toys tagged with 80s - 2/8

Dolly Pops

One must crawl before they can walk, walk before they can run - and snap before they can zip. Of course, that last part only makes sense to those who ever fumbled endlessly with their doll clothing before their little hands were quite up to the task of the plethora of buttons, hooks, eyes and zippers necessary for your average costume change. Thankfully, Dolly Pops offered a glimmer of hope to those with underdeveloped dexterity who just wanted to change their dolls dress like everyone else.

Don’t Break The Ice

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At one point during the 1960s, toy companies raised eyebrows with a line of games seemingly designed to bring out the megalomaniac in every child. With Ants in the Pants, kids launched plastic bugs into a pair of trousers. Cootie taught children the value of constructing even more bugs. But of all these games, nothing came close to being as diabolically fun as Milton Bradley’s Don’t Break The Ice.

Easy-Bake Oven

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Moms don’t generally relinquish control of their kitchen appliances to the kiddies, especially the oven, and for good reason – a 450-degree chamber isn’t the best place for kids to stick their hands. And yet, the oven is where all those delicious baked goods come from – moist cupcakes, gooey chocolate chip cookies, basically the finest treats a kitchen can offer. And what about all those future culinary wizards, eager to get a head start in the world of batter and frosting concoctions? Luckily, for the upcoming chefs of the world, and the rest of the kids who simply dreamt of their very own bakery - where they could escape the “don’t touch that” limitations imposed by nervous adults and churn out a never-ending supply of tasty concoctions, there was the iconic Easy-Bake Oven. Let’s take a look back at a toy that offered the sweetest of rewards.

Electric Football

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When it comes to throwing around a virtual pigskin, there are a plethora of electronic options available today that simulate the game of football right down to the minute details. The grunting players look remarkably similar to their real-world counterparts, the stadiums are replicated to the very last detail, and the gameplay options allow the gamer to do virtually anything that can be done in a real game. Prior to these technological advances, however, electronic football games of the past couldn't rely on realism as a selling point, but they made up for it with a healthy dose of sheer fun, and some of these games are still beloved to this day. Let's take a look at the formative years of football games and the quirky gameplay that forever etched them into our collective memory.

Etch-A-Sketch

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Perhaps one of the most popular drawing toys ever conceived, the Etch-A-Sketch has been testing the imagination and dexterity of millions of artists for the past fifty years with its two little white knobs. Master their operation and you can create a masterpiece. Make a little mistake, and you will literally have to shake it off and start over. Let's take a look back at the history of this classic toy.

Fashion Plates

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For all the little girls dreaming of being a dress designer when they grew up, Tomy Toys had just the thing to get those creative ideas flowing. Granted, they weren’t exactly an original concept; fashion plates have existed as far back as the 18th century. But these were specially made so that young hands could experience the exciting world of fashion design without ever leaving the kitchen table. Now, you could be the Christian Dior of your family!

Fisher Price Movie Viewer

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Sure, if you compare it to the technology introduced in recent years, the Fisher Price Movie Viewer looks pretty darn antiquated. But for a youngster growing up in 1973, the idea of being able to play your own movies on a handheld device, wherever and whenever you wanted, was cutting-edge stuff. Let's look back at this well-remembered toy.

Fisher-Price Little People

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For four decades, the little known toy company started by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, and Helen Schelle made whimsical wooden toys in relative obscurity. Shortly after their beginnings in 1930, Fisher-Price (as they called themselves) released the Woodsey Cart, a small animal-drawn wagon with a small wooden driver. The driver had a round head and cylindrical body and was fastened to his seat.

Garbage Pail Kids

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If anyone in this world can appreciate the classless, tasteless, and downright disgusting humor of this world, it’s children. While gas may strain a marriage, it brings mirth to a classroom. While boogers are a taboo subject among adult circles, they can be found under desks and on the back of school bus seats everywhere. If it’s grosser than gross, chances are, kids wanna hear about it.

Give-A-Show Projector

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Grab some popcorn and dim the lights – it’s show time! And best of all, no movie theater required. Thanks to the Kenner Give-A-Show Projector, you could be the envy of your friends and be the proprietor of your very own movie theater. Well, sort of...