Toys

With Mattel's "A Bad Case Of Worms" you got a small plastic briefcase and opened it up to a pair of sticky rubbery worms. They were available in different colours. My mate had a green set. They looked more like ...

While the boys were busy scraping their knees and dreaming of becoming the fifth member of the A-Team, just where were the little girls of the 80s? In the kitchen, that's where (where they belong, some might argue!). But this ...

A.G bear was a small toy bear that had a battery pack in his back. A.G was grey and had a little red shirt on with the words "A.G Bear" written on it. When you talked to A.G Bear he ...

ABC Blocks were extremely hard and thick plastic blocks made by the likes of Mattel, although it was possible to get lots of different versions of the same thing. ABC Blocks were really good for whopping someone up side the ...

Action Jack figures were cheap and cheerful plastic-jointed three-inch high action toys with loads of accessories. I had a lot of Action Jack characters and used them to drive my Lego vehicles. When you bought them they came fresh in ...

Action Man was a multi-jointed action figure who came with a whole range of cool weapons, vehicles and other accessories. The basic figure, first released in Britain in 1966 by Palitoy was officially a licensed version of Hasbro's American G.I ...

Does anyone remember the Aerobie flying disc toy? I had one years ago and it promised to fly for hundreds of metres but mine sadly did not, and it soon found the bin after that! Aerobies were considered to be ...

The Air Blaster was a dune buggy-type car incorporating a clear plastic air tank. You plugged in to it a pipe from a small hand pump to fill it with air, once full of air you gave it a small ...

The Air Jammer Cycle Slammer was a bike that was powered by air pressure. You used a stirrup type air pump fixed to the rear of the bike to build up air pressure, and when you got it up to ...

I had an Air Jammer Road Rammer when I was nine. Made by Tomy (who also released the Air Jammer Cycle Slammer around the same time) and manufactured in Singapore and Japan in 1980, it came with a little bicycle ...

Air Raiders was a series by Hasbro (the makers behind G.I Joe) that debuted in 1987. They comprised air-powered ships that included two-inch tall figures; either Air Raiders or Tyrants of Wind. The ships also shot little air missiles. There ...

This was produced by Airfix around the mid-70's and was a flying model of the glider that was actually built by the POW's in Colditz Castle in WWII. It was brilliant and actually flew quite well. The wingspan was about ...

Following the success of the ALF TV series, the ALF soft toy was created. The soft toy of ALF was a slightly more attractive and cuddly version of what was in actual fact quite an ugly Alien Life Form. The ...

Alphie was a pre-school talking robot from Playskool. Alphie the Learning Robot came with reversible overlay game cards to give different games when placed on Alphie's chest.Gameboards for Alphie included Alphie Explores Mars, Space Pirates, Robot Land and Rhyming star ...

At 7in high, the Amanda Jane doll was always small enough to take anywhere you wanted, but also big enough to dress up and play with. I'm 53 now, but can still remember my Amanda Jane doll - I preferred ...

One of the earliest handheld computer games Amaze-A-Tron was a maze game for 1 or 2 players made by Coleco in the 1970s.Amaze-A-Tron had a grid of 25 squares arranged 5 x 5 and the computer would select a random ...

Amazing Ally was similar to a normal American girl doll, but electronic. She had plastic chips that could be plugged into her to make her talk (about things like her interests, bedtime, good morning talk, etc.) She was blonde and wore a ...

Anna was a fully jointed horse rider and Happytime her "thoroughbred" horse. You could put them in every riding position possible. There was also a male version called Peter and Sundancer, who was a Palamino horse. All different sorts of ...

I remember having a doll called Apple Jack, he was a large doll with plastic face and hands then a soft body, he had red curly hair and freckles. I took him everywhere with me and he smelled of Apples. ...

April Showers was a cute blonde, blue-eyed baby doll with her own bath and shower attachment. I think she giggled and splashed her arms as she had a shower. I really wanted one of these when I was about six, ...

Armatron was a robotic arm toy manufactured by Tandy and distributed by Radio Shack in the late 70s. The robotic arm was a bit like the sort of thing you see on a vehicle production line. Except smaller. And a ...

Army Ants were small plastic figures, roughly two inches tall, of cartoony ants in a military motif. There were two factions: the Orange Army and the Blue Army. Produced by Hasbro in 1987, Army Ants were released on blister cards ...

Army GEAR was a neat and short-lived toy line produced by Galoob in 1988 that combined the ideas of a small playset with military toys. Each play set consisted of an actual army item (such as an M-16, compass, or ...

Aunt Lucy was Paddington Bear's Aunt from deepest, darkest Peru. She was Paddington's only known relative from South America, other than an unnamed uncle who Paddington always said gave him his hat. Aunt Lucy ended up living in the Home ...