I had some technical issues last week which blocked me from getting my #bloganuary posts live. Because I am a huge nerd, and a kid at heart, I wanted to go back and post on this prompt.
Also… there’s no way I could narrow it down to a single toy so I’m going to go ahead and create a list. Keep in mind this isn’t in a specific order by which were my absolute favorites because that would be like asking me to pick a favorite child.
Legos
I probably spent more time building and playing with Legos than I did any other toy or toy set throughout my childhood. Partially because you can start playing with them at a relatively young age and they stay relevant and engaging for a long time after that. There is a huge market right now for bigger/complicated sites for adults and I see tons of adults buying the same sets that are currently made and marketed for kids. Within the wide world of Legos, I collected sets from Ninja to Aquanauts and Insectoids. What’s even more fun is watching my kids collect, play, and build with them today. I, unfortunately, lost a lot of my childhood toys in a flood so we’ve had to start from scratch but Legos are even cooler today so it’s not a big deal.
Kenner Batman Figures
If you know me, you know I’m a Batman guy. Most of my tattoos are Batman, most of the decor in my office is Batman, and most of my personal life philosophies can be tied back to Batman. As a kid, my grandpa bought me my first figure which put me down the spiral I’m still on today. I got hooked on Batman The Animated Series and then naturally started begging for the figures. One of the coolest series of figures that came out was the Legends of Batman figures from Kenner.
Marvey Action Figures (Toy Biz)
There has been a lot of different types of Marvel toys over the years but if you were a kid in the 90’s, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about. The X-Men cartoon really pulled me into the world of Marvel and then I started collecting the Flair ’94 Marvel cards along with these figures. There were just tons of characters and different variations from different story lines so I never got bored.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I don’t feel like I need to say a lot about the TMNT figures. They were fantastic. The cartoon kept me hooked. I wanted to have every single one and I tried to keep all of the weapons and accessories too.
Honorable Mentiones
War Planets – These were life savers on long road trips or boring chore days and way better than Mad Max IMHO.
Exo Squad – Just really, really, cool toys.
Starcom toys – These little toys had a tone of interactive features that leveraged the magnets on the boots of the little figures. At the time, this felt like magic.