I Miss 80s Toys

I'm excited about Baby Agbai coming, but what I really anticipate is getting to play with toys all over again! I was totally obsessed with my toys as a child, and I took such good care of them. My friends used to say coming over to play at my house was like going to Toys 'R Us! My dad painted a mural on the wall of my original nursery, and when I grew out of the room it became my playroom. 

Here's a pic:

You'll notice the My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake toys. They along with Care Bares were my favorite icons of the 80s. I still have my Strawberry Shortcake thermos!

I don't know what it was about the 80s, but I think there was something special about the toys back then compared to now. Now everything seems to be electronic, loud and/or light up like video games. When the rest of my friends were getting Nintendo a neighbor gave me an outdated Atari when I was 8 or 9 that I had little interest in. I was more content to make crafts, play with Legos or my absolute favorite . . . the Play-Doh extruder:

Now this was one of those toys that I knew, even as a child, my mother loathed. I would would get the Play-Doh in the carpet and could never quite clean all the Play-Doh out of the extruder so it would get clogged causing me to get frustrated and my mom having to help me dig it out. Play-Doh crumbs would be everywhere. I remember being threatened many times that each play session with the extruder would be the last and I would ever get to use it again, but miraculously there was always another play session! I also have to admit that I once fell under Play-Doh's spell with it's soft, squishy texture and intoxicating smell and ended up eating some. It was very salty and unpleasant.

In college I went through a phase to re-claim my 80s toys and started finding some on Ebay. I ordered a Strawberry Shortcake lamp but it arrived broken (good thing I got insurance on it), Bambi's Fragrant Forest scratch and sniff book (although my siblings tore that book apart and scratched all the sniff out of it, my Ebay treasure is sealed away for Baby Agbai and currently sells for $34 as a collectible), and a Strawberry Shortcake board game.

Here are a few of my other favorite toys you might recognize:

Now I have to pause and pay homage to play food. I'm a big foodie now, and I think it's due to my play food and kiddie kitchen I had as a child. Ahhhhh - I can still smell the particle board and plastic fumes! I would spend hours pretending to cook eggs, grill hot dogs and brew tea. It was fabulous! I went searching for play food to get for Baby Agbai someday, and nowadays it's much more advanced and realistic. Check out this bounty:

If I had received this plethora of groceries as a child I would have wet my pants! This is GORGEOUS! I want Baby Agbai to come out of my womb RIGHT NOW fully formed at 2 years of age so we can play with it together. Seriously, she just did a flip flop in my belly cause she can feel my excitement. I'm not lying!

Now there is one modern "toy" that I'm intent on getting for Baby Agbai and that's a Skuut:

I first saw this in Central Park last fall and have seeing them ever since. I did a little research and it turns out that kids learn better to balance on a Skuut and can forgo training wheels. How awesome is that?! I'm definitely getting one. 

Check out these kids riding their Skuuts in pure bliss: