41 Nostalgia-Inducing Old School Toys From The 70s, 80s, and 90s

If you grew up in the 90s, chances are you knew about, if didn’t own outright, more toys than any previous generation. Frankly, I blame cartoons.

They had to make laws against TV shows that were clearly commercials for toys because kids are that susceptible to ads. There was no law, however, against showing a Skip-It ad 600 times a day.

Full disclosure: I never had one but I tried it at a neighbor’s house.

The following photos will take you on a journey into your own past. Whether you had these toys or not, you probably recognize all of them if you were born after 1970.

Here are the most memorable old school toys for people who grew up in the 70s, 80s, and 90s:


1. Sticking these to the wall day and night. I think they were banned at my school.

2. I owned a pair and bounced around my front lawn alone. It’s sadder than I thought.

3. My friend put these in his above-ground pool. Wasn’t that fun.

4. Mighty Max was awesome.

5. I could play with one of these for 10 years and not make anything close.

6. I bought these recently for my nieces and they loved them.

7. Anyone want to fish?

8. Dump them all out at once and let chaos reign.

9. Oddly frustrating toy I played with at school.

10. I spent more time with this than anyone in my family.

11. This is responsible for me going to art school.

12. Mostly maddening when you tried to use it like a regular marker.

13. I have one still.

14. This is what my health insurance covers.

15. I can remember exactly how he feels.

16. Polly Pocket was great and I wanted one, but instead got Mighty Max.

17. If you had the name-brand, congrats. You’re rich.

18. Pogs.

19. Koosh.

20. My brother threw fastballs at me and I never got it to stick.

21. Hours of fun (and setting up).

22. My first real friends.

23. Inviting kids in the neighborhood over because they were good at it.

24. Did not help my driving skills.

25. Go count your tickets and see how many you can get.

26. Wish it taught me more about Physics.

27. Didn’t understand it but played with it whenever I saw one.

28. Another toy banned from school.

29. When you can’t afford Disneyland.

30. I can already see it covered in dog hair.

31. It glows!

32. Is this technically even a toy?

33. Don’t bump into me when I’m holding my bird!

34. Swearing only.

35. The weird kid brought this to school and they had to have a whole meeting about it.

36. BRB. Going to ruin a neighbor’s sunbathing day.

37. The neighbor had one and I was deeply jealous.

38. You only had both if your parents were divorced and you got two Christmases.

39. The OG.

40. McDonald’s toys that were also Transformers.

41. I wanted to be a Ghostbuster so bad. I had the tools. I had the talent.