Throughout the decade of my childhood, I had toys that came and went but many which shaped my youth, whether it was the simple building of LEGO or the activity of making adventures happen with action figures, these were some of the most memorable toys I had during these times.

The Incredible Crash Dummies Car

One of the most fun toys in my earlier days to have, the Crash Dummies car had the neat detail of the car roof looking damaged when making an impact, and one of the dummies on the passenger side flying out. I took it outide too, just to see how far I could get the dummy to fly out.

Inspector Gadget Fumble Gadgets

Speaking of destructible toys, I also had the Inspector Gadget Fumble Gadgets figure, a toy that purposely could have its limbs taken out and put back in, I guess because Gadget has machine parts that are prone to going haywire, it made sense to have a figure where he falls apart.

Trolls

Troll dolls came out well before my time, but came wearing different costumes over time. One highlight troll doll I actually used to have was a caveman dressed troll as seen above, gifted from my grandma. Troll dolls were meant to attract more of the girl crowd, but I liked the particular troll that I got.

Hot Wheels Cars and Play Sets

My older brother and I used to have a tin box full of Hot Wheels cars, and for a short time we even had a few of the play sets, one of them being this big mountain with a road going along it. No matter which play set we dug out, it made for a few good hours to spend an afternoon. The Super Highway in particular had a few unique areas as well as connecting roads.

Magnet Racing Cars

Following to toy cars, my brother and I once got a magnetic car racing set, in which two toy cars follow a magnetic path on a track and carefully making turns without the cars falling off. It certainly kept my attention, but as for my older brother he lost interest after about an hour.

LEGO toys and sets

Growing up and having two full boxes of basic lego pieces and flat terrain pieces, the possibilities were almost unlimited with activity in putting something new together. I could put together a building, a dome, a dock for a boat, LEGO always had so much potential in building something and feeling achieved for doing so. Unfortunately because new sets would be at a steep price (around $50 or more) my parents never bought more for me, so I had to make do with what I had.

Earthworm Jim Figure

In popularity with the video game and TV show that premiered on Kids WB, a handful of Earthworm Jim toys were manufactured by Playmates. This figure of Jim was slightly poseable, giving him his standard blaster, and additional bigger gun, and his green, slimy buddy, Snott, and you could launch Jim's head from his suit by pressing a button on his back. There were actually two different variations of this figure, the guns and Snott either coming in red or green colors, my guess is that since Snott was green, that was why that other variation existed, while I had the red color.

Koosh Ball

Having a few of these in my room as a kid were a bizarre, yet fun novelty to have. I could catch them, use them as decorations, or just show off my collection to them to my friends. Just looking at the picture here you could see how much of a variety of blended colors they came in.

Recording and playing back any sounds or voices from nearby and changing the pitch high and low made for hours of fun with the Talkboy. I used to record my own voice sounding like a talking chipmunk, or a low pitched news anchor making fake news headlines just as some examples, providing many laughs for the family while they had their share of using it as well.

Glow in the Dark Stars

Not quite a toy, but decorating these around the bedroom and having them light up the room with their green glow was a neat way of making my bedroom stand out. Aside from the basic star shapes I also had a set that had moons, planets and spaceships. It seemed that I wasn't the only kid in the neighborhood to have them either!

Tomy Turnin' Turbo Dashboard

Released in the early 80s, this toy also made for a neat novelty in the 1990s, and I loved it. As you moved the steering wheel, the screen on the right was battery operated as you move a car along a looping road path, as lights on the dashboard also turned on. An interesting but fun driving simulator for kids, and always fun to come back to in my childhood.

What toys did you enjoy having growing up? Leave a comment and as always, see you next article!