Some toys never get old, but for every Lego set, Transformer and Barbie doll, there are many others that have faded from our memories. We’ve reached deep into our dusty cupboards and pulled out 50 playthings that filled our early years with joy.
1. 9999 in 1 brick game
Photo: Video screengrab
More like one game with a couple of insignificant variations; probably the worst false advertising we’ve ever had to deal with!
2. Army men
Photo: Planet Retro
Tools for learning the art of war and painful stuff to step on. There were few things more thrilling than throwing the ones with parachutes off a balcony.
3. Balancing eagles
Photo: Ali Express
These birds were so impeccably balanced that we’re certain scientists use them in complex experiments.
4. Bestman balloons
Photo: Party Mama Shop
Ah, who can forget that smell.
5. Bomb bags
Photo: SKP
That feeling of the bag expanding once the bladder within had been ruptured brought out the daredevil in all of us.
6. Bungee balls
Photo: fishpond
How many times could you make it rebound to the ceiling with one throw?
7. Carrom
Photo: Masters Traditional Games
Get the baby powder!
8. Chapteh
Photo: The Straits Times
With all the fancy footwork we gained from chaptehs, it’s a wonder we aren’t better at football.
9. Digimon
Photo: Digimon Wiki
After acquainting ourselves with digital pets, the next logical step was to pit them against each other in a battle to the death. At least we could cheat our way to an instant ‘Teddymon’ by repeatedly jamming a piece of plastic into the battery slot.
10. Fishing game
Photo: Aliexpress
No deep sea fishing trip can ever match up to the accomplishment of clearing the rotating pond of its clockwork fish.
11. Five stones
Photo: Intelligent Answers
Another game that goes back a generation or two. Singapore Infopedia has a helpful guide if you’ve forgotten the rules.
12. Flippin’ puppies
Photo: Retro Styler
Little wonders of engineering with adorable spindly legs.
13. Flying gliders
Photo: eBay
Three pieces of flimsy styrofoam + one piece of plastic = the miracle of flight.
14. Furbies
Photo: Express and Star
These fluffy critters walked a fine line between adorable and terrifying. Having to stick your finger into its mouth to “feed” it didn’t help matters.
15. Helicopter spin toys
Photo: Alibaba
Wind up the string and let ‘er rip!
16. Hot Wheels
Photo: Hot Wheels
Who could forget that legendary, gravity-defying loop track?
17. Hungry Hungry Hippos
Photo: Amazon
The classic gaming strategy – smash the controls until someone wins.
18. Knockoffs
Photo: Youtube
Transformers that turned into electrical appliances, Power Rangers with wrong colours and terrifying dolls were among the lowlights at heartland toy shops.
19. Kuti Kuti
Photo: Youtube
We must have been pretty bright to not think that these colourful pieces of plastic were edible.
20. Magna Doodle
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There were few things more satisfying than clearing a mess of sketches with one fluid movement.
21. Magnets
Being able to move metal around through another surface was basically magic, until of course you dropped the magnet and it shattered into a million fragments.
22. Marbles
Photo: Retromash
Toys so timeless that even ghosts liked to play with them.
23. Masak masak sets
Photo: Izyandarling
With these miniature cooking sets, every girl could dream of frying eggs while they figured out what too do with confusingly large whole fruits.
24. Micro machines
Photo: Qpoop
If you valued accuracy and variety in your vehicles more than their ability to fly off ramps.
25. Mighty Max
Photo: eBay
If girls had Polly and her dream homes, boys had Max and his Doom Zones.
26. Modelling clay
Photo: Youtube
They sold this at school bookshops, but how many kids actually used it for legitimate projects?
27. Models
Photo: foudoushin
From World War II aircraft to Gundams and Italian sports cars.
28. Playful Penguin Race
Photo: Diapers
These days we get bored with games after 15 minutes, but this bunch of sliding penguins kept us mesmerized for hours on end.
29. Play-Doh
Photo: Moneysavingmom
Inedible spaghetti and ice-cream anyone?
30. Plywood puzzles
Photo: Gabriel Fernandez
Simple, except for having to try your best not to break the wrong piece of wood.
31. Polly Pocket
Photo: Socialphy
A bit of hope for every little girl that you could still live it up while crammed into a tiny apartment.
32. Pop Pop snappers
Photo: Sam’s Alfresco Coffee
The muffled crackling of these little packages was the closest thing to real pyrotechnics we could get (until it was banned too).
33. Puppy in my Pocket
Photo: Mlptp
Toy dogs AND candy bones?!
34. Sandcastle kits
Photo: Aliexpress
Smoothing out the bumps with the rectangular trowel was particularly therapeutic.
35. Scribble pen
Photo: Fun and Function
Back when a handheld vibrating device was innocent.
36. Slime
Photo: Nickolodean
What a profitable idea this must’ve been; throw some goo into a bottle and let the kids figure out the rest.
37. Spring toys
Photo: Toyrific
Fun when you walked them down stairs, not so fun when you had to disentangle them.
38. Slot cars
Photo: Wikipedia
Fast and furious until the brush beneath the cars wore out like an old felt-tip pen.
39. Sparklers
Photo: Alamofireworks
A mainstay at parties and class barbecues, and the source of legends about naughty kids who scraped lots of the powder together, set it alight and blew their fingers off.
40. Spirograph
Photo: Mummyshymz
This magical stencil turned even the most sparingly talented kid into an artist.
41. Sticky hands
Photo: Made-in-China
Great for swinging about carelessly and sticking them to things until they picked up too much dust and lost their stickiness.
42. Suction arrow weapons
Photo: Ebay
With a bit of rubber and a glass surface, we could all be storybook heroes and villains.
43. Super soakers
Photo: Foamnation
Feeling pumped?
44. Tabletop basketball game
Photo: Aliexpress
Nuthin’ but net!
45. Tamiya cars
Photo: Aliexpress
Carrying around your own tool box made you feel like a grown up even if half the cars you built didn’t end up running at first.
46. Tamagotchi
Photo: Tamagotchi-universe
The first toy that made us feel for a jumble of LCD pixels also taught us many valuable life lessons — responsibility, patience and some dark stuff about mortality.
47. Trump cards
Playing a game that involved comparing then arbitrary statistics was pretty sophisticated stuff.
48. Wall crawlers
Photo: Ebay
Sticky toys given a badass ninja twist.
49. Waterful ring toss
Photo: Video screengrab
One of the most difficult games known to humankind.
50. Yoyos
Photo: Ebay
With ‘ProYos’, ‘Bumblebees’, ‘Hyper Russells’ and those complicated Bandai spinners with ball bearings and flashing lights, we rocked the baby, walked the dog and went around the world.
