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Toys used to be a lot different, that’s for sure. Whether they were simpler or more creativity-driven back in the day, toys today have changed. Feeling nostalgic?
Here are some of the most popular toys from the 50s and 60s that kids today wouldn’t recognize.
(Who knows, maybe you've stored away some vintage toys that could be worth quite a bit of money.)
The View-Master — first introduced at the 1939 New York World's Fair — was a testament to a classic case of nothing good on TV. Television sets themselves weren’t that accessible, and even if they were, there’s only so much Jackie Gleason you can watch. The View-Master allowed kids to look at … basic 3D images. Fun!
The popular construction toys known as Erector Sets were immortalized in the 1993 film “The Sandlot” and were mostly just a very high-stakes version of LEGO. Parents these days would probably never let their kids near a set of tools.
Lincoln Logs still exist — and they're once again being made in the U.S. — but most of them are branded with “100 Year Anniversary” and things of that nature, which makes them feel more like a novelty today than an actual toy. There are far too many construction toys to compete with.
Toys that made other toys used to be a big deal back in the day. Shaker Maker made tiny figurines using liquid plaster. There were a slew of characters you could create, including licensed characters from Disney, Star Wars, Marvel and more. Perhaps most amazing of all, those three things were separate companies.
The pull-string doll is a cultural icon (who remembers that “Twilight Zone” episode?), but would kids today get it? A pull-string is basically ancient technology by today’s standards. Chances are high that most kids today have no idea where the popular phrase came from.
Drawing toys aren’t as popular as they used to be, but spirographs were pretty cool. Using a bunch of interlocking gears, you could give the thing a pen and create wacky geometric designs. You can still find retro-style spirographs for sale.
What could be a better idea than giving a bunch of kids access to magma-hot goop? The idea was to use the molds to make bugs and critters, but all you really ever got out of it was a bunch of burns on your fingers and arms.
There were bouncy balls, and then there was the Super Ball, which boasted to be the bounciest of them all. Sounds a lot like “Super Bowl”, doesn’t it? That’s because it inspired the name.
Not enough toys chase you; that’s what I always say. Odd Ogg was a weird little robot-turtle-frog thing who would roll towards you when you tossed balls into its mouth. A less annoying Furby, really.
Clackers clacked. That’s all they did. When you swung them around, they’d clack and wack and make all manner of irritating noises. I would have thrown these things out the window if I was a parent.
No kid today would be satisfied with a tin toy robot, but after “The Day the Earth Stood Still” came out, many of these Japanese-made toys were popular throughout the rest of the 50s.
Apparently children of the 50s and 60s liked dolls, but were in need of a diaper to clean up. Children, am I right? Betsy Wetsy came along to drink water and eventually “wet” itself, which the kid then needed to clean up. Sounds fun, eh?
What did kids in the 60s love? That’s right: space aliens and the Cold War. Hamilton Invaders nailed both of those things, with toy soldiers and giant, insectazoid bugs for them to fight.
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