VH1.com's I Love Toys.

[Brian]

I wonder though if BB guns were left off the final list for politically correct considerations.  Up here you're a bit hard pressed to even find toy guys, they're so politically incorrect these days.  Having grown up with toy guns myself and moved onto pellet guns (screw BBs, pellets have a higher velocity AND you could get darts ) I don't for a second buy into the PC bull**** about it leading to gun use.  Certainly not in a negative sense.  Hell, we used to take our pellet guns and go into a buddy's basement that was unfinished and play the equivalent of paintball with pellet guns.  Oh sure, we wore plastic visors.  Sometimes.

Actually, BB guns were featured on Monday night, in the 100-81 segment.  I don't remember where they ranked specifically, but it was somewhere in that group.  I agree with Brent, I don't think they necessarily lead to gun use later on.  The majority of my friends and I had bb guns, and the majority of us now don't have any gun...hunting or otherwise....in our possession.  They were just for fun, shooting cans, or maybe birds...and not much else.  Granted, I grew up in a farming community, but the majority of boys around there had one growing up.

Nice to read everyone's opinions on things, and to be open minded about this.  I can see why hula hoops, and especially Barbie, would be ranked so highly and I'm glad we're not just all complaining that Star Wars or something else should be higher.  I know when the Mrs. and I were watching it the other night, she asked me where I thought Star Wars would be ranked.  I told her I hoped it would be in the top 10, and I'd be happy with that.  Good points made about GI Joe, which...in one scale or another...has been going strong for a long, long time now.  And, as much as I like the vintage (and modern) Star Wars lines, I can say growing up that more of my friends probably had a large (3 3/4") Gi Joe collection than had Star Wars.  It was evenly spread for the most part.  I think I probably had about the same number of each, as well as having quite a few He-Man figures.  Anyways...good points everyone, its nice to hear different perspectives from everyone, and from different age ranges.  Its definitely been fun to watch this week so far.  We were talking, it kind of makes you long for those simpler days...when simple, cheap toys kept us entertained.  Just last night, they had colorforms on the list...and as silly as those seem now (removable stickers on a cardboard "backdrop"), I had a Spidey/Hulk set when I was a kid that I played with quite a bit.  Funny how things have changed, or at least it seems like it.

[dafoo]

NES is great!  But Sega Genesis, oh I love that system.  Genesis is also super durable, mine still works.  My NES died a decade ago, and I still have it.  I hope for a future where I can play my NES again. 

Morgbug, debt was a lot more serious back 25-30 years ago given the massive interest rates.  I don't believe many people even realize the vast difference from the last 70's to today.  I can't fathom interest rates like that!

Hot Wheels collectors are just as fanatic as Star Wars people.  So many times I've run into old men rummaging in the pegs of hot wheels while I dig among the Star Wars figures.  Or that poor WalMart employee that got sent into the back to find a particular car, with the YELLOW interior, heh.

Really, the 80's rocked for Boys toys.  I can't claim girls toys, as I wasn't one. =p  GI Joe, Star Wars, NES, MOTU, LEGOs, Cartoons, toy guns...it was just great!  Heading off to the toy store was a grand adventure.  You didn't have the silly PC trash trying to de-boy boys or social engineer them with pills and captian planet.  *rolls eyes*

It is sad, that after so long, GI Joe is next to dead.   

[ruiner]

I'm staying away from the all-inclusive list because I'm watching them "live" to see where everything ends up.

Great show for people who are into toys and remember the nostalgia behind all time favorites like the Rubick's cube, Barbie, and GI Joe.

I work in marketing so it's interesting for me to take a trip back in time and try to figure out what the marketers from the good old days were thinking....

Imagine how cool it would've been to be the one behind GI Joe, Lazer Tag, My Little Pony, etc.

 

[Lady Jaye]

Really, the 80's rocked for Boys toys.  I can't claim girls toys, as I wasn't one. =p  GI Joe, Star Wars, NES, MOTU, LEGOs, Cartoons, toy guns...it was just great!  Heading off to the toy store was a grand adventure. 

Yes it was even for a girl, for me it went like this!!

Star Wars, Atari, Masters of the Universe, Atari, odds and end toys then like Go Bots, GPK stickers, MASK, Max Steele, Sectaurs, Centurions, and whatever other line was out in the 80's, finally into Transformers, GI JOE, TMNT!!  What a decade it was!!

[dafoo]

Good GOSH! How could I forget so many lines!?  All so awesome. 

And now we get to today.  I wander the TOY aisles in silent sadness, most toys just stink now.

[Lady Jaye]

Well the problem is what me and Slothus have been discussing, video games!! Those and only those are the reasons why toy lines just aren't as popular anymore!! After the NES came, kids gravitated to it, and any subsequent system!! Toys are only bought by young kids who haven't gotten into video games, and by us "big kids"

[S_A_Longhorn]

While I still played (and still do) with my toys, I asked for the NES for my birthday for only one reason:  to play KUNG FU at home!  Loved that game!

[dafoo]

Yeah,  video games are killing normal toys.  All the kids I know are having a loss of imagination too.  They need to get a creative work out!  Even now you can't do everything in a video game that you can 'do' with your toys.  But that's advancing so fast worrisome.

[Lady Jaye]

While I still played (and still do) with my toys, I asked for the NES for my birthday for only one reason:  to play KUNG FU at home!  Loved that game!

Oh hell yeah, it was the most simple of games, but it was so addicting!!

And dafoo, you are so right!! Kids just don't have the imagination, and video games are one reason to blame, another has to be TV, and yet another DVDs!! I mean it's always been there, but now it seems that kids have TV's in their room almost as soon as they're born!! So for those that have em, why bother with toys, you can assault your senses and have everything given to you!! No need to think!! Oh oh, I hear the video gamers, which I am one, coming to pick a fight!!

[dafoo]

Hey, I love video games as much as the next guy.  I'm still saying the dull the development of an imagination.  Lack of imagination will come to haunt you in spades too.  Think whenever you see a movie that you've already read the book of.  Which was better?  The way you imagined it or the way you saw it?

Granted, most films of books change things so this is a weak point, 

[Darth Slothus]

Yeah,  video games are killing normal toys.  All the kids I know are having a loss of imagination too.  They need to get a creative work out!  Even now you can't do everything in a video game that you can 'do' with your toys.  But that's advancing so fast worrisome.

Ha! I've been able to turn back the clock with my kids! They are only allowed to watch discovery channel or animal planet on TV. Sure, they have a PS2 but they really don't play it that much(maybe 1 or 2 times a week). Mostly my son would rather go outside,rally the neighborhood kids, and go in the desert and build a fort or catch lizards/snakes all day. My daughter and son really get along..they're always playing something up. They'll build 'forts' inside the house out of chairs and other furniture and towels and blankets. When they're not building a fort then they play SW for hours(I'm so proud!)! They will also sit down at a table for an hour or two and draw/color. There's no lack of imagination in those 9 and 12 years olds . I'm so glad they get along...my sister and I hated each other growing up-can still remember knocking my sister out cold a couple times when she was being a real bitch to me.....still hate that bitch, too. 

[Lady Jaye]

Damn, cold cocked her, knocked her out??

That's good to hear about your kids Slothus. It's really up to the parents to set limits!! I mean if all you do is sit your kids down in front of the TV to keep then "occupied" like in the Cable Guy, then of course he/she is going to miss out on a lot of things that would stimulate their imgination!! That's great that your kids are out there in the neighborhood being kids, not just sitting pressing buttons on their controller, pressing the remote, and what not!! Good for you!! Those kids of yours should grow up to be very level headed kids with wide variety of interests!! Not just couch potatoes!! Of course, wait till they become teens!!

[Darth Slothus]

Yes, I CAN wait for that but it's right around the corner too(son is 12)

[Brian]

Well, a couple of "big ones" were knocked out on the list last night.  He-Man came in at #53, and Transformers at #41.  I was impressed too, they got through discussing He-Man toys without any "gay" comments as they usually go to in their past shows.  It actually got talked up pretty decent, which was a nice change.  Numbers 40-21 is tonight, then onto the final 20 on Friday.  A nice bonus last night, after the episode they aired "When Star Wars Ruled the World".  Nostalgia all over the place last night .

[Madcow]

You had to be born in the 60's/early 70's to appreciate this list.

I highly disagree with that. I was born in 1978 and I remember most of these toys from my youth. They've been doing alot of 80's toys on the list. If you were born in the late 60's it would've been outta your age range. By that calculation, you'd be playing with Mego Super Heroes and i'm curious if those are even going to be on the list...

How much you know about these toys on the list and how long folks have been playing with them...

yoyo-                 500BC
bike-                   ?
radio flyer         -1917
Lego                 -1934
monopoly         -1935
slinky                -1945
scrabble            -1949
Mr. potato head-1952
wiffle ball & bat -1953
Matchbox cars   -1953
play doh           -1956
hula hoop         -1958
barbie               -1959
etch a sketch    -1960
easy bake oven-1963
Gi Joe                -1964
rock 'em sock... -1967
hot wheels       -1968
Atari                 -1977
Sw toys            -1977-78
Snoopy snow   -1979
cone machine

You remember alot of these toys because they've been in production since before you were born . how many 80's developments are on here? since there IS a lot of 60-70's first production runs on here I can appreciate it-I think it goes to show that the toys that won on this program have withstood the test of time.

I don't even know what a mega-super hero is? In my youth I loved HW's, matchbox, SW,monoploy,lego and my aquaman underoos thank you.
  

I wasn't trying to be insulting or rude. I was just pointing out the fact that you didn't need to be born in the late 60's, early 70's to appreciate these toys as you had stated. I never once said that all of these toys were made in the 80's. I'm not that naive nor stupid. And there ARE toys from the 80's on the list:

- Transformers (i'm talking about the US incarnation)
- He-Man/Masters of the Universe
- Rainbow Brite
- Care Bears