[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is greatest children’s toys. Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.]
Although the topic for last week was faddish objects from childhood , the comment thread veered off into a discussion of favorite toys. I thought that would make a worthy topic for this week so I compiled a comprehensive, exhaustive, and indisputable list of the greatest toys from when we were children (provided you were born between 1950-1990).
Here are the top 100 toys:
1. American Girl dolls
2. Army Men
3. Barbie
4. Barney Talking Doll
5. Beanie Babies
6. Betsy Wetsy doll
7. Big Wheel
8. Bubbles and wand
9. Cabbage Patch Kids
10. Care Bears
11. Charlie’s Angels dolls
12. Chatter Telephone
13. Chatty Cathy
14. Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun
15. Disc shooter guns
16. Doll House (various)
17. Easy Bake Oven
18. Erector Set
19. Etch-A-Sketch
20. Fisher-Price Corn Popper
21. Frisbee
22. Furby
23. G.I. Joe
24. Glo-worm
25. Gumby
26. He-Man
27. Heelys
28. Holly Hobbie
29. Hopity Hop
30. Hula Hoop
31. Inchworm
32. Johnny Reb Cannon
33. Jump rope
34. Kewpie dolls
35. Lawn Darts
36. Legos
37. Lincoln Logs
38. Lionel Trains
39. Lite Brite
40. Magic 8 Ball
41. Marvel/DC action figures
42. Matchbox/Hot Wheels
43. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
44. Mr. Potato Head
45. Muppet dolls
46. My Little Pony
47. Nerf Balls
48. Play-Doh
49. Pog
50. Pogo Stick
51. Pokemon
52. Pound Puppies
53. Radio Flyer Wagon
54. Raggedy Ann and Andy Dolls
55. Rainbow Brite
56. Razor Scooter
57. Remote controlled vehicles (various)
58. Rock’em Sock’em Robots
59. Roller skates
60. Rubber Ducky
61. Sesame Street dolls/figures
62. Silly Putty
63. Sit N’ Spin
64. Six Million Dollar Man action figure
65. Skateboards
66. Slime
67. Slinky
68. Slot Car race sets
69. Smurfs
70. Snoopy Sno Cone Machine
71. Spirograph
72. Spongebob Squarepants doll
73. Star Wars action figures
74. Strawberry Shortcake
75. Stretch Armstrong
76. Super Ball
77. Super Soaker
78. Tamagotchi
79. Tea set (various)
80. Teddy bears/stuffed animals (various)
81. Teddy Ruxpin doll
82. Teletubbies
83. The Farmer Says
84. Thomas the Tank Engine
85. Thumbalina
86. Tickle Me Elmo
87. Tinker Toys
88. Tonka Trucks
89. Transformers
90. Troll dolls
91. View Master
92. Walkie Talkies
Rather than provide justifications for why these toys were the best, I’ll leave it to you to sing their praises in the comment section.
(Also, before the complaints start rolling in, I should point out that this list does not include items that fall under crafts (e.g., Crayons) or board games (e.g., Operation, Monopoly) since we’ll discuss those some other day.)
