When you think of toys from the 80s, you don't immediately think of very advanced toys. Yet it was precisely the eighties in which many toys that are still popular today made their advance. Many people have good childhood memories of Barbie, Playmobil and the Viewmaster. Find out which toys from the 80s were even more popular.
If you compare the eighties with the time we live in now, you see a world of difference. Things that were possible in the 80s really wouldn't be acceptable today. Think of things like smoking everywhere, letting children get drinks and sitting without seat belts in the car. Not to mention the items you used in the 1980s that are now completely unknown, especially among the youth. Because who still has a telephone with a dial or a Walkman to listen to cassette tapes?
On the other hand, there was also music that cannot be compared to now. Music that was much more music, had rhythm and not as monotonous as it is today. The music and movies from the eighties were very different. Films and series of course did not have the effects as we see them now. Everything was less realistic, but no less fun to watch.
Not to mention the fashion and hairstyles of the 80s. How about fluorescent colors, leggings, cycling shorts and an exploded haircut? Add to this the tracksuits, leg warmers and mats (neck carpet) and you understand that it was a completely different world.
Everything was different in the eighties and so were the toys. Children did not play behind the scenes, but engaged with real toys, including teenagers. And there was plenty of choice in very nice toys. Maybe not as modern as today, but no less fun for that. By the way, big brands such as Barbie, Lego and Playmobil became very popular in the 1980s. This has ensured that all these brands still exist, although they have been given a modern look. You can see that very well if you look at the toy trends and fads 2022.
Well, what do you do in a time when there were no screens yet? Then you look at the nicest pictures with the View-Master. The View-Master was a device into which you placed a disc. You could then view the pictures. Below in the video you can see what kind of toy this was.
If there's one thing you couldn't miss in the eighties, it was the funny monkeys, also known as Monchichi monkeys. You had these as male and female and many different versions. There are still people who collect these cute monkeys.
Girls especially had these cute dolls. You had to put them under a lamp or in front of the window (sunlight) and then they would charge. That way you had a glowing (luminous) light worm puppet at night.
Another trend that was especially popular among girls:sticker books. These stickers were used for all sorts of things, especially to pimp up boring notebooks and diaries. This trend has lasted for a long time, because sticker books were also extremely popular in the 1990s.
There was no way around it:My little Pony! The cute horses in all kinds of colors were very popular, especially among the girls. The plastic horses had combable manes and tails. The brand still exists and is still loved.
One brand that children really played with was Fisher Price. From the well-known doctor's kits to the various cash registers, every child had something from Fisher Price in their house. Not surprising:they focused on children from birth to about 8 – 10 years of age.
In America, especially G.I. Joe very popular in the eighties, here it was mainly Action Force. The toys were based on the Action Man toy line and were especially popular among boys.
Although Barbie herself came on the market in 1959, the doll experienced a peak in the 80s. The Barbie dolls were incredibly popular among all girls. It was not considered at all that the proportions were completely wrong and that a distorted image was given to girls.
Like Barbie, Lego had been on the market for much longer, but the eighties were also very important for this brand. Lego came on the market with all kinds of fun sets that flew over the counter. Not surprising, in a time when children still had to deal with toys.
What applies to Barbie and Lego, also applies to Playmobil. A very popular toy in the 80s, which, however, did have a price tag. Nowadays Playmobil costs almost nothing, but that was very different in the eighties.
If your parents were a bit up-to-date (read:progressive) and had some money to spare, then you were in luck. Then you might have an Atari game console, on which you can play Pacman and E.T. could play.
The Atari was initially popular in the Netherlands, but that did not last long. A lot went wrong in the company and that was the perfect opportunity for the Japanese company Nintendo to take over the game console market. That's what it did with the NES. It was also very popular among teenagers in the early 1990s.
If you were looking for a simple game console in the 1980s, you quickly came across Game &Watch, also released by Nintendo. This was a unique line consisting of 59 handheld, portable electronic LCD games. You could only play one game on the LCD screen. You could also use it as a clock and alarm clock. Notable games included Donkey Kong, The Legend Of Zelda and Mario Brothers.
Not only was the film popular, the Star Wars toys were also very much in demand. Virtually everything from the film was transformed into toys:from vehicles to characters. And that was a bull's eye, because many children were only too happy to have these toys.
If you were a kid yourself in the 80s, hearing clamp bugs will probably put a big smile on your face. These were squeeze dolls in the most diverse variants. You could then hang it on a rope. That rope hung in your bedroom, preferably stretched from one side to the other. And then it was about having as many clamp bits as possible on it.
Nopper was a very nice toy, with which you could make all kinds of fun constructions, just like with Lego. The colorful blocks (primary colors!) could be clicked together and together through the small spikes on all sides. By the way, as a parent you would rather step on Nopper than on a Lego block 😊
The Care Bares are actually a lot like My Little Pony. The cute bears came in all kinds of soft colors with certain symbols on their bellies. Incidentally, the care bears were not made of plastic, they were just cuddly toys.
If you want to play an instrument these days, you can even do it on your phone. Or you can buy a My Real Jam guitar or drum set for your child. These things didn't exist in the eighties. But you could indulge your musical heart with a mini piano.
I also had a mini piano and this was the reason for my parents that I got a real keyboard and lessons. I really liked playing the mini piano (preferably in the car) and soon played songs by ear.
The rubik's cube was very popular in the eighties. Because who was smart or fast enough to get all the colors together? Well, you have to do something if you are bored at school…
Now slinky or the pedal spring would be seen as a useless toy (a craze like Pop it fidgets for example), but that was very different in those days. The staircase spring was provided with fun and bright colors and it was always funny to see that thing coming down the stairs. You also had to do it right, because otherwise it wouldn't work and then it would skip a flight of stairs and all its magic would be gone. Could you walk back up and start over.
Where children now spend a lot of time behind the screen and (perhaps) read some more, comics were incredibly popular in the 1980s. Think of titles such as:Eppo, Buck Danny, but also the Donald Duck. You bought these strips in the store or you took out a subscription. You could also borrow the comic books in the library or use the reading folder.
Playing was very important in the eighties. There was no such thing as a busy child then. Kids were busy, that's part of it. But what to do if you were bored with your toys? A fun phenomenon that arose in the 1980s was the exchange of toys on the playground or at home when you went to see a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Especially marbles, smurfs and pictures (stickers and sticker books) were exchanged. The marbles all had a different value (depending on how special they were and how big). You could win marbles during a game of marbles in the schoolyard. Did you want a special marble? Then you could try to exchange it with a classmate. A lot was exchanged in that time and even then there were already children who realized that you could make a nice trade out of this…
Unfortunately, swapping also often resulted in crying. Many masters and teachers therefore had to intervene regularly, because Jantje came back crying that Mies had given a marble that was less beautiful than it appeared at first glance.
Which toys from the 80s did you like to play with the most and why?
