When was Peak Toys (as in, toys that don’t rely on screens) for holiday gifts for kids? The 1980’s? Finding something kids want that’s better than iPad/Nintendo time is really tough.
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I’m biased, as in 1999, I was with LeapFrog Toys when the LeapPad was released, creating the electronic edu toy category. No screens on any toys (ex Twist & Shout math that had a 7-segment LCD). We competed w/ Furby & Tickle Me Elmo that holiday season IIRC
Maybe mid-90s? Star Wars toys were having a big resurgence due to the remastered original trilogy release. Legos were at their peak. Video games were a big deal but I feel like the volume of games wasn't enough to crowd out analog toys until the N64/PS1 generation.
In the 90s, my boys loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. Ronin Warriers. Toy Story toys. I realize now they were all related to screens - television and movie.
My son is almost 16 now, and just 10 or 11 years ago, it felt like there was much more kid toy culture than now. My sense is that peak toys was probably around 1994. The 80s brought us movie franchise + cartoons + toys, and that model was hitting stride in 1994 - pre-Playstation and pre-brosdband.
Parents and grandparents still weren’t comfortable with them enough back then though and kids couldn’t play it online with each other so it was a smaller % of kids for less time. Kids didn’t also get gift cards so it ended up toys.
Every year since the 70s has included some screen type toy (Atari 2600 in 1977, Pong before then).
I would agree the 90s were the era of cheap Chinese plastic manufacturing, as well as IP tie in deals
So you got things like Moon Shoes, but also Ghostbuster playsets. 80s was action figures mostly
Yeah, though it takes a while to get real saturation on gaming systems because they were expensive, and kids didn’t start using them as young they do with phones/tablets now. Peak Toy and the beginning of screens being largely concurrent makes sense to me.
With 3 boys, i probably shop for toys online nearly as much as i spend on social media. But we have reward charts, so they "earn" stuff year round. We also have timers on the screens, so they'll eventually get kicked off and have to find something to do IRL.
Mid 80s when Toys R Us was a Dreamland for kids and just before VGs, Gameboys, Nintendo took root.
Nerf was still a ball. Teddy Ruxpin was unattainable. Cabbage Patch Dolls. GI Joe action figures. Star Wars fighter kits. SpinArt. EZ Bake Oven. Popples.
My grandchildren get books from me, 4 of the 7 have said they prefer those to other types of gifts, the other 3 are less eloquent (2 of those are 19 & 22 yrs old now so aren't actually in the kid's gift category))
I think mid 90s... think Jingle All The Way, a movie where the plot is Arnie desperately trying to get *that toy* for his kid for Christmas... 1996 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116705/
See, I'm also half thinking that both these movies are perhaps already nostalgia plays aimed at, or made by, parents distressed that their kids already spend so much time staring at screens rather than, you know, *doing* things in the physical world...
Maybe. And, on reflection, the plot of Toy Story is basically a traditional toy getting rejected in favour of one that appears in a video game. So maybe it captures a downward trajectory that had already started by that point.
I told my son back when he was 11 that I was going to throw his computer out the window if he didn’t agree to taking 3 piano lessons (he loved music and used to try out lessons on different instruments).
He took one piano lesson
Ended up getting a little music funding to go to college with
When I was about 6 or 7 my mum said I couldn't have guitar lessons until I'd learned recorder. I *hated* the recorder. Both of us being max stubborn I ditched the recorder and never learned anything. My younger bros both ended up learning 3 or 4 intruments each. None being the fckn recorder!
I bet you regret it all those times since when you've stumbled across an outrageous recorder jam sesh and you just KNOW all it needs to hit supergroup status is your harmonious tooting
You could argue that something like Gremlins (1984) was a sublimation of parental fears about modern electronic toys (especially those from Japan), like early games consoles that interact with your kid and put them in some kind of *danger*
you know what it's time for ? a remake called 'Jungle All The Way', where has to find an ultimate white label pressing in a race against time vs. . really just an excuse for a soundtrack album, but so what ? cc: @moyeen.bsky.social
In the 1990s I still played with some of the non-screen toys.
Beyblades, remote control cars, Legos, KNEX, those metal constructor sets. Getting a basketball hoop or kid-sized tennis net with sand weighted posts was also still exciting.
Pong (and knock-offs) was 1970s, Atari’s late 1970, and you had handheld games (Coleco Football) as well. I drove my parents crazy asking for a chess computer.
On the other hand, the fad “must have” toys (e.g. Tickle Me Elmo) happened later.
Toys feels like late 80, early 90s. "Objects" feels more like the initial Pokemon craze in early 2000s. It was bonkers. Screens, iTunes, and Internet followed right after.
I just went through the moderation settings and I'm wondering if the original post was detected as belonging to one of the topics being hidden by default
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Tickle Me Elmo and Furbies, too. Those had electronic elements, though, so starting that slide towards the screens of today.
The Atari 2600 and the Mattel Electronic Football Game were introduced in 1977 and were immediately in high demand.
I would agree the 90s were the era of cheap Chinese plastic manufacturing, as well as IP tie in deals
So you got things like Moon Shoes, but also Ghostbuster playsets. 80s was action figures mostly
Nerf was still a ball. Teddy Ruxpin was unattainable. Cabbage Patch Dolls. GI Joe action figures. Star Wars fighter kits. SpinArt. EZ Bake Oven. Popples.
No kid ever played with a singular physical toy for more than a few days/weeks
Video games simply accepted this reality in favor of the content treadmill
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116705/
Lack of imagination even in the face of Fascism nocking the door down
He took one piano lesson
Ended up getting a little music funding to go to college with
My husband wanted to learn the drums
His parents forced him to learn the piano.
4 years of piano lessons, and he can’t play Mary Mary Had a Little Lamb
I would have let my son do *anything* to get him off the computer a little bit
The deal was: 3 piano lessons.
Or something
Beyblades, remote control cars, Legos, KNEX, those metal constructor sets. Getting a basketball hoop or kid-sized tennis net with sand weighted posts was also still exciting.
On the other hand, the fad “must have” toys (e.g. Tickle Me Elmo) happened later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coleco_Electronic_Quarterback.jpg
I’m a Toys R’ Us kid…..
A stack of non-screen toys forgotten in the corner as they go back to their iPads and Switch on Christmas afternoon.
In my defense though, this is usually after they've turned me down for a Christmas movie.