Mumsnet users share the childhood toys that make them feel nostalgic with BRIO

[EllieMumsnet]

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For many of us when we see or a hear a reference to a toy from our childhood, we are immediately transported by to a specific time when we were younger playing with that toy...queue all the nostalgic feelings. BRIO would love to know all the toys that give you that nostalgic feeling and what it is about them that makes you feel that way.

Here’s what BRIO have to say: “We just turned 130, yet we feel more vital than ever. And that’s a good thing when working with toys. Because just as play develops children, play has developed us as a company. Smart Tech is the latest integrated technology from BRIO which is adding extra layers of functionality and play value to our timeless toys. The Smart Tech trains can stop, turn around, go slower or go faster using the accessories that are in the range, bringing even more magic to the BRIO World. In a world full of technology and computers, traditional play is at the core of what we do at BRIO. Our Smart Tech range combines clever train technology with traditional play patterns, meaning as parents you don’t need to feel nostalgic for those classic toys as they’re at the heart of everything we do.”

Watch this video on the BRIO Smart tech Engine with Action Tunnel Set:

Is it the Troll Dolls that make you feel nostalgic as you remember spending hours styling their bright pink hair? Perhaps seeing your DC talking to imaginary people on your phone makes you remember you doing the same on your Chatter Telephone? Did you think of yourself as a highly-skilled chef with your Easy-Bake Oven? Would you just spend hours drawing out things on your Etch A Sketch? Or is it good old Play-Doh that always make you feel nostalgic whenever your child plays with it?

Whichever toys make you feel nostalgic, share them on the thread below and everyone who comments will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list) and another four MNers will win a BRIO Smart Tech Engine Set with Action Tunnels, worth £89.95 each.

Thanks and good luck.
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs Apply

[BristolMum96]

Barbies always make me feel nostalgic. Used to spend hours with my sister and our barbie dress up box (supplemented by my nans sewing), and have fashion dress up competitions. Shame all the dolls these days seem to have all these extra special functions. Sometimes standard plastic dolls are best for projecting and imagination.

[1sttimeDD]

Oh my days there are so many!
The big red bus, the big yellow teapot (why was everything big in the 90s?!), cabbage patch kids, teddy ruckspin, sky dancers, doodle bear, tamagotchi...the list is endless!

[Flamingosnbears]

*One of my favourite childhood toys would have to be a pull along penguin when you pulled it along its wings would flap.
*Train sets with model villages with the trains that go along on their own used to fascinate me and that has passed on to my son and daughter who have a fondness for train sets also
*Wooden blocks with the alphabet on a firm favourite that has always been loved and my children love them too
*wooden dolls pram again a favourite with my children
*wooden skittles set

[1sttimeDD]

Nothing like a good bit of nostalgia

[TeddyIsaHe]

Crash Test Dummies! I was obsessed. My mum bought me a second-hand one for my 28th birthday and it has pride of place in my bedroom. I love it. Reminds me of endless happy rainy Sundays crashing it into my dad, the man had a lot of patience!

[bikerclaire]

I remember playing an early electronic game called fabulous fred, my brother had one and I inherited it when he moved out and I got his old room! I still have it to this day and bring it out every once in a while. It's really simple to play and has a variety of games.

[Urbanbeetler]

Matchbox and similar type small cars. We had a box of various battered trucks, cars and vans and made whole little words with them. They were families (dad was a 1960s Rolls Royce handed down from a cousin. Mum was a powder Blue Aston Martin with tyres which fell off too often for today’s H&S). There was a little dumped truck which played the part of a wayward brother, and a sharp nosed Cortina big sister. As well as a huge family in between!

My very favourite was a small chipped red transporter with three tractors - to me it was a stoic hard-working mama with her babies as well as a working vehicle. No dad in sight sorry to say - she had to raise these little tractors on her own. It went awol many years ago but lo and behold - I found an exact same little toy transporter with her three tractors at a vintage fair and treated myself to it a few years ago! I was irrationally pleased to see them again.

[Urbanbeetler]

Worlds not words - duh

[m0jit0]

Oh so many! Tiny tears, Barbies, cindy, Sylvianian family, polly pocket, littlest petshop. Loved play doh too but wouldn't get to play with it too often because my mum thought it was too messy haha!!

[qate]

Polly Pocket!! I was a Barbie girl through and through, but the little Polly Pockets (the originals obv) make me so wistful. Also, not exactly a toy as such - but I used to love playing my grandma's old Go For Broke set - the new one just doesn't have the same feel to me.

[WhenDoISleep]

Barbies, the Barbie Showjumping Horse I had which my GP's bought from Germany and also the Fisher Price Little People School (both the 1980's versions). I actually have my Little People School in a box in the loft, I was going to let my DC have it but neither of them showed much interest, so I packed it away to prevent bits getting lost.

The Girl's World hair styling heads also make me nostalgic, as I was never allowed one.

[SnowdropFox]

Duplo and Lego! Spent many playtime with my wee bro making up stories with the characters. I think my favourite was the duplo zoo we had. I think I still have the giraffe somewhere!

[starlight36]

I was a Sindy girl - I had three different ones and a yellow buggy they could ride in. My brother had Action Men so the recent insurance ads using these toys have made me feel v nostalgic.

[MaverickSnoopy]

Barbies - especially the camper van, which was much coveted before I got it for Christmas one year. I also loved Polly pockets - which my mum still has in the loft. My other favourite was meccano, which always felt so grown up!

[SneakyGremlins]

Brio trains! I had them set up along the entire ground floor of the house. Nobody was allowed to move them

Also had a Tonka garbage truck which I used to love ramming into a wooden blocks

[JC4PMPLZ]

Mechano, old style Lego, from when a window was the most deliriously exciting thing.

[triffer]

My all time favourite toy is fuzzy felts. I had them all. the Cowboy and hospital ones to name a few. I would spend hours rearranging them and making up stories. The ones that are available now are not a patch on the ones that i had in the 80s. I also a bright yellow plastic train track set and train. I set hours rearranging the tracks and pushing the train up the inclines. And I had a favourite board game, I can't remember the name, I wish I could, all I can remember is that it was a monster theme and me and my sisters use to have a game every weekend. Those were the days.

[UnalliterativeGeorge]

Lego. Also Barbies. We had a toy cot for them that got banned after we left it at the top of the stairs and our dad tripped over it and broke an ankle

[daniel1996]

I loved my Big Yellow Teapot, I had hours of fun with the little people, getting up, making dinner going to work and coming home. It's still in the loft -----ah happy days, still remember the feeling when I opened it on Christmas morning,

[SmileyShazza]

I was so happy to see Polly Pockets back on sale again when I went to Smyths last week looking for birthday presents for our daughter.

[MrsLem]

My favourite childhood toy (which I still have!) was a bunny rabbit comforter, I have had it since birth and you can also use it as a puppet- I loved my bunny. I also had a wooden train set that my brothers and I would play with for hours, the cars had magnetic links and we would make them into a big line. I'm hoping to get my baby son a train set next year.

[Aozora13]

I absolutely loved my brio train set so decided to get a starter kit for my 2yo DD as a present from her new sister when she arrives any day now. My mum couldn’t stop laughing when I told her - turns out that my first brio train set was a present from my brother when he was born when I was 2!

[cheekychicken24]

Just the mention of play doh in your post made me feel nostalgic! I can still smell it - I had so many accessories for it too. One made hair that looked like spaghetti! I spent hours playing with it, & turning it gradually from bright primary colours into a dirty brown! This would lead to lots of pestering for more to play with!

[biffyboom]

I loved my collection of Ladybird books when I was very young, then a bit later my Questron books and electric pen, which no-one else seems to remember!

[WhyDoesItAlways]

I had a Duplo train set and house with Duplo furniture which was handed down to my cousins. My auntie kept it all these years and has returned it for DS to play with. He definitely prefers it to the newer Duplo he has. Just looking at it reminds me of my childhood.

I also fondly remember playing with my sister and our figure 8 Brio train track when we decided to make a lake in one of the holes of the 8. So naturally we dug a hole in our grandparents lawn and lined it with a plastic bag to hold the water. It didn't work and we got in heaps of trouble for digging the lawn up.