Top 10 Classic Toys & Games That Defined Our Childhood

Top 10 Classic Toys and Games that Defined Our Childhood

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the games and toys that so many of us associate with our younger years - and some we might still play with today.

#10: The Game of Life

The Milton Bradley Company got its start all the way back in 1860, and the first game they ever made was The Checkered Game of Life. It was the precursor to the modern Game of Life that came out 100 years later. The versions of that 1960 game are the ones we’re all familiar with from game nights with our family growing up. As we’ve gotten older, moved out of our parents’ house and had to pay our own bills, we’ve all been playing the real game of life. But it’s often a lot harder, and sometimes not as much fun as the board game version we loved as a kid.

#9: Tamagotchi

If your childhood years fall somewhere in the late 90s or early 2000s then there’s a very good chance you raised your own Tamagotchi - or at least knew someone who did. These digital pets were all the rage around the turn of the millennium. Kids everywhere were carrying around the little egg-shaped devices in order to potty-train, feed, and care for their pixelated pet. And although many of us moved on from these toys long ago, the obsessive among us might have proved pretty good caretakers of their egg buddies.

#8: Lite-Brite

Whether we were punching out an image of Mickey Mouse or Scooby-Doo, or creating our own design, many of us spent hundreds of our childhood hours, as the slogan said, “making things with light.” The Lite-Brite might not have taught us how to spell either “light” or “bright” but it did help us explore and encourage our brain’s creativity. The younger members of our audience might have been lucky enough to play with some of the more recent Lite-Brite varieties, like the flat-screen one, the 3D cube, or the FX version that plays music and spins around.

#7: Rubik's Cube

Invented in 1974, this toy was released internationally in 1980. It felt like everyone had one of these things. While other toys and games came and went in the public consciousness in the following decades, the Rubik’s Cube continued to intrigue and frustrate. In fact, as we entered the 2000s, the Cube’s popularity went through a resurgence, probably due in part to people sharing their cubing techniques on sites like YouTube. The multi-colored toy has also been referenced in numerous movies and television shows. There’s even an entire Netflix documentary about the greatest speed cubers in the world.

#6: Slinky

2000s kids might have been introduced to the Slinky by the Slinky Dog in the “Toy Story” movies, but children of the previous century spent hours playing with them. And by playing, we mostly mean going to the top of the stairs, watching it “walk” all the way down, then retrieving it and doing it all over again. It might not be the cultural phenomenon now that it was back then, but it’s still around. And today there are those who take slinkying to a whole new level with some amazing tricks.

#5: Sorry!

To those of you who thought this game would be higher on our list we say: Sorry! Based on the centuries-old game of Pachisi, Sorry! was first trademarked in the UK in 1929. By the following year, it had made its way across the pond to North America. The game has been defining childhoods for decades, but appears to have peaked in popularity in the 1980s. It ranked among “Games” magazine’s “Top 100 Games” three years straight from 1980-82. For those looking to relive some childhood memories with an added bit of adult fun, Hasbro released a Sorry! Not Sorry! version of the game which incorporates "have you ever" questions.

#4: View-Master

The first View-Master was released way back in 1939, but it wasn’t until the mid 2010s that Mattel and Google gave us a VR version. Most of us grew up with the plastic Model G – introduced in 1962 – or one of its many iterations that came out in the 70s through the 90s. There was even a talking version! Back in the day, you could pop in a reel and be transported around the world one click at a time. Who needs streaming movies on your phone when you can enjoy static stereoscopic images of the Grand Canyon?

#3: Etch A Sketch

The childhoods of 70s, 80s and 90s kids wasn’t just defined by one plastic-framed, gray-screened drawing toy. We had two of them. The most popular one was the Etch A Sketch, with its two white knobs and the joy and frustration of trying to draw an image using a single connected line. For some of us, the most fun part was going Taylor Swift on our drawings and shaking it off. The other toy in question was Magna Doodle which, we have to assume, experienced a boost in popularity in the 90s due to its almost weekly appearance on the door of Joey and Chandler’s apartment.

#2: Barbie Dolls

Barbie was launched in 1959 and every decade since has seen children obsessed with the doll. As the line has expanded to include more and more friends and family members and accessories galore, every generation's Barbie experience has been unique. And sure, we might all be a little partial to the specific Barbies we had when we were kids. But that’s what’s so great about Barbie – she has something to offer everyone. With over a billion dolls sold all around the world, and countless appearances in movies and TV, there’s no denying the impact Barbie has had on so many lives.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Hungry Hungry Hippos
They Were Hungry Hungry & We Kept Feeding Feeding Them

Skip-It
Only Cats Have Had More Fun with a Ball on a String Than We Did with Skip-It

Furby
Sure, It Looks Creepy Now, but We All Wanted One

Spirograph
It Made Us All Feel Like Amazing Artists

Scrabble
This Game Is the Reason We Know a Lot of Words That Start With “Q”

#1: Monopoly

What family hasn’t been torn apart by a heated game of Monopoly at some point? With over 275 million units sold, it’s one of the best-selling board games of all time. Whether playing the original or one of the many different editions out there, we’ve all been passing GO and collecting $200 for as long as we can remember. Every household seemed to have its own unique set of rules, making the game even more nostalgic. Did you know that in the official rules there’s no reward for landing on Free Parking? No matter how you play it, you can’t think of childhood without thinking of Monopoly.

Which items on our list were a staple of your childhood? Let us know in the comments.