Saturday, December 13, 2003
On the 12th day before Christmas...
the nation goes shopping, stocking up on toys
Toys aren't what they used to be. They used to be exciting bits of lovingly-crafted metal and plastic which we opened with eager anticipation on Christmas morning, then played with non-stop until next Christmas. Now they're just overpriced bits of metal and plastic which children play with once on Christmas morning, then hide in the cupboard until Mum chucks them out next Christmas to make room for the next lot. Or maybe they've always been like that. To see how toys have really evolved, here's a (highly-clickable) list of the British Association of Toy Retailers annual Toy of the Year awards. How many of these were you given? (and what the hell were they thinking in 1978?)
Toy of the Year Winners
1965 James Bond Aston Martin
1966 Action Man
1967 Spirograph
1968 Sindy
1969 Hot Wheels cars
1970 Sindy
1971 Katie Kopykat writing doll
1972 Plasticraft modelling kits
1973 Mastermind
1974-75 Lego
1976 Peter Powell stunt kites
1977 Playpeople
1978 (Britains) combine harvester
1979 Legoland
1980-81 Rubik's cube
1982-83 Star Wars toys
1984 Masters of the Universe
1985-86 Transformers
1987-89 Sylvanian families
1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
1991 Game Boy
1992 WWF Wrestlers
1993 Tracey Island
1994 Power Rangers
1995 Pogs
1996 Barbie
1997 Teletubbies
1998 Furbies
1999 Furby Babies
2000 Teksta
2001 Lego Bionicle
2002 Beyblades
2003 ?
Me, I think I had a genitalia-free Action Man, and I definitely still have a Spirograph somewhere. My brother and I smashed up a whole caseful of Hot Wheels cars by running them endlessly down a set of plastic yellow tracks - they'd be worth a fortune by now if we'd left them in their original boxes. We must have had a ton of Lego, and the scary couple on the Mastermind box never used to frighten us off playing. Coming rather more up to date, my nephew overdosed on the Toy of the Year last year, and no doubt he'll still be looking back at his set of overpriced spinning tops with misty-eyed nostalgia in thirty years time. And I wonder which of this year's High Street contenders will be crowned King of the Toybox for 2003?
...or read more in my monthly archives
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