Great Gift Ideas: Toys fromYour Childhood Updated for Today

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I have been looking around at gift ideas, and darn it, but I wish I had kids (we are trying to adopt), and one of the many reasons is I want an excuse to play with some of these great toys from the past.  I didn't even realize some of these were still made.


For instance, Fashion Plates was one of my favorite toys growing up.

My first grade classroom had a set of Lincoln Logs that I loved, but I never had any at home.

I did have a set of Tinker Toys at home, though.

I spent hours doodling with my Spirograph

Every boy I knew had Rock 'em Sock 'em robots

My cousins had a Simon game I loved playing with them.

Lite Bright has been updated for a whole new generation.  I loved my Light Brite and it always came out on snow days.

I always loved when I got a new Shrinky Dinks kit.

Magic Rocks were so fun I made them a gift to a friend in college who had never experienced them.

Stocking stuffers in the 1980s often included a Barrel of Monkeys twirler toys, Jacob's ladder, Sunprint Paper, Skybar candy, and Sea Monkeys.

When I was a kid, we had to put our Magic Sand in water.  Now there is Kinetic Sand.

I loved my Play Doh Fun Factory.  I used to combine two colors and push it through this machine until I had a lovely pastel blue or pink that you couldn't buy!

One year Santa brought me Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

Yahtzee seemed to be a favorite with everyone but our family where we preferred Kismet because of the added strategy of colors on the dice.

I think my mom loved my Etch-A-Sketch even more than I did (if that was possible!)

I still love to play Mastermind.

Remember when Legos were just bricks and our imagination?

I loved to play school with my dolls and wore out a chalkboard more than once when I was growing up!

When I was a kid, Crayola crayons largest package was the 64 count.  Now there are 152 different colored crayons!

It's Slinky!  It's Slinky!  Remember the ad for this?