Taking me back when the summers lasted forever (Favourite Childhood Toys)

Member Name: yackers1

Product:	Favourite Childhood Toys
Date:	14/11/08 (108 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innocent fun

Disadvantages: Recent updates of the classic items don't match up

I stumbled across one of these and just had to include my top childhood toys. Due to a change in fashion, growing up and the fact that manufacturers come up with a new concept every 10 minutes, there are loads of "toys of my childhood" and each has its own special place. To list them and go in to detail in each one would take ages and I would not want to bore you all.

But amongst Monopoly, Cluedo, Hungry Hippos, Busy Buzy Bumble Bees, Yo-yos, space hoppers and the like the ones that stand out for me are as follows:

****Action man****

This was the plastic soldier with moveable arms and legs. In addition Action Man had bright blue eyes that moved from side to side using a button located at the back of his head.

I never really had that many accessories for Action Man, only a few different uniforms, a selection of weaponry and the big plastic tank which was the best bit. My parents had a big patio out the front of their house so me and me best friend used to stand at each end, one Action Man in each tank and then run to ward each other with the tanks out in front and create monster crashes which would be worthy to screen on Police Camera Action. It is amazing how sturdy those tanks were.

I understand that there is a new and revamped Action Man with some new baddie as well but he is dressed in some cat-suit. This is ridiculous Action Man is a soldier and how many soldiers do you see dressed up in lycra?

****Transformers****

These are the classic toys of the 80s, which have started to make a come back. In their simplest form transformers are items, such as cars, beetles, lorries and the like which turn in to robots (by pulling bits out, turning bits around) with weapons to battle against other transformers.

There were several transformers available with the best one being the Optimus Prime, a large red lorry that turned in to a huge robot, which I believe is the 'leader'.

The toys of the 80s were made out of metal and were really sturdy which was a good thing given the abuse that most of them got. I believe the modern day version are made of plastic, and in my opinion I don't think that these will last for five minutes no matter how gentle your child is with them.

****Micro Machines****

Micro machines are tiny little cars modelled around specific cars of all genres and decades. With the availability of standard road cars, formula 1 cars, formula Ford cars, rally cars, sports cars, hyper performance cars etc there were thousands available. Name a car and you would be able to get it in micro machine format.

In addition to cars other vehicles were available such as jeeps and four by fours, vans, lorries and quads.

When I collected micro machines the only accessories was carry cases and small tracks, which in all honesty were quite boring. They only thing you could do with them were to have drag races against friends or set up crashes.

****Game Boy****

The original Game Boy was introduced in Europe in 1999 and bundled with the legendary Tetris, at that time it was the toy to have.

The original Game Boy was grey in colour and had a green screen. Whilst it was not the most powerful handheld around (the Atari Lynx was 16 bit and colour), Nintendo's values of fun and playability were the marketing tool to generate sales and these values have not changed - look at the success of the DS and the Wii, both of which are not the most powerful in their class.

Nintendo launched the Game Boy at a price to make it available to all, the Atari Lynx was very exclusive and pricey.

The great range of games available such as Tetris, Mario World 1 (and all the sequels), Metroid II etc and the possibility of linking up 2 Game Boys so you could challenge a friend at tennis, along with the great price made the Game Boy so popular.

****Amiga 500****

When I was growing up the was no such thing as the internet. Music came on cassette tapes and films were available on VHS. Computers were only purchased for playing games since there was little use in getting one for any other eason.

The selection of computers available was limited and included the Commodore 16, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga (the daddy) and the Spectrum.

The Amiga was the one to have since the games were on floppy disc (as opposed to tapes) and took seconds (rather than minutes) to load up. In addition, it was possible to copy games from other people, or buy copy games from other people giving access to a large range of games for very little money.

Games were available from all genres including racing, shooters, fighting, wrestling, puzzle and simulation. Everyone would be able to find a game that they enjoyed playing on the Amiga, and it is this that made it such a popular computer.

I remember spending hours playing Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat against friends. It took us ages to work out the famous signature moves and even longer to work out all the fatality specials (especially since you had such a short time to press the right buttons in the right order to execute them).

A good puzzle game was Dizzy adventure in Treasure Island although I have to admit that the only reason I completed it was because I ended up buying the cheat book for it. I know, it's lame but I got to a part (I can't even remember what it is now) that I just could not get past. Thank god for the cheat books, otherwise, there is no way I would have finished that game.

I enjoyed loads of different games on the Amiga and I can't begin to list them as it would be massive. All I can say is that I spent many hours on that computer honing my gaming skills and killing time with mates and it brings back so many memories.

Summary: 'Boring' by todays standards but cutting edge back then. Oh the memories.