Old toys you wish were still available

[Lemonademoney]

Just spent twenty minutes trying to find a tiny piano keyboard toy for my kids for their stockings this year. I had one when I was little and I LOVED it! It was probably only about four of five inches big and came with a little song book. Has anyone seen these or do they just not exist any more?

Are there any other retro toys we all fondly remember but can no longer get?

Those fireworks (Squibs?) you used to light and they'd dance around your feet. Perhaps best left in the past.

Really showing my age here, but my favourite toys as a child were a kaleidoscope? -and a Spirograph.

Tomytronic sky attack. They are available for sale second hand but pretty expensive and not very pre- loved.

Ahh we have a Spirograph and we used to have a kaleidoscope until mine outgrew it

I’m going to go and google this one. I recently found my thirty year old game boy which has gone down an absolute treat in our house.

Yep, the old Gameboy is popular in our house, too. Worth selling.

My son loves Tots TV which we watch on YouTube. He wants a cuddly FurryBoo but they're about £60 secondhand.

I also wish there were more Star Wars and Star Trek toys that aren't either Lego or collectibles. DS likes watching the classic movies /episodes with DH but the only figures of the spaceships he can get are £££ and not actually suitable for playing with.

I remember those keyboards. We've been able to find a few retro things along those lines (although not that exact thing) in Flying Tiger over the years.

Ooh that’s a good shout I will definitely have a look

Know what you mean about the Star Wars toys. My eldest ended up with a couple of micro machine Star Wars sets that were quite cool.

i've still got a kaleidoscope my mum gave me ! Little chips of tiny coloured shards, making impossibly pretty patterns. I could while away many happy moments lying on the lawn and aiming it at the sun so it was really bright. Happy days ! And very lo-tech 🤗

Some branches of Hobbycraft sell Spirographs.

Absolutely. Lovely to lose yourself into something so calm and meditative..

Do you mean a stylophone? Even if not that would likely tick the box! I bought a few for family around 10 years ago and they went down a treat! Just looked online and some places they are £30 quid now which surprised me but there are plenty second hand for cheaper.
A small kalimba might work too, you can get them with note stickers for the keys and a few beginners songs.

The old Matchbox shoe that was a school. DD plays with it at grandmas house and loves it but they are about 40 years old now. Am really glad Polly Pockets made a comeback, DD adores my old ones and her new ones. Barbie dolls with proper moving limbs - how are they worse now than in the 90s?!

Look up Hape for mini pianos that come with little song cards - they also do an electric xylophone. They might be a bit young for you though, IDK.

Are Weebles still a thing? I loved those! And Beanie Babies.

The game 'Downfall'.

Chemistry sets! Unthinkable now.

I had a magnificent one, which somebody had given to me as a present: it had real chemicals, real glass test tubes, and a real spirit burner; but even I was nervous about using it. We only got it out once or twice, with parental supervision, and only did a couple of the experiments in it. I read about some of the others when I started learning chemistry at school, but still never dared to use the set.

I've also seen stocks of this kind of thing in either B&M or home bargains round Christmas, clearly there for stockings. Wooden spinning tops, kaleidoscopes, jacks, gyroscopes, "magnetic gyro wheel" (which I have just had to Google - we always called it the spinny thing), Jacob's ladder. All a generation older than the mini electric pianos though.

We had Christmas crackers one year with bells numbered 1-8 or so in a scale, and instructions of how to play Christmas carols on them together.

We've not had a good run with modern re-made versions of electrical toys. Simon was a good game originally but a modern knock-off was variably too sensitive and not sensitive enough so kids found it frustrating. Bop-it's much better.

I did buy one of the kids a kalimba a few years back. It’s good fun but those teeny tiny piano keyboards with the music books were the cutest things.

Oh I had all of these when I was little - the BEST toys

This is what I mean although they used to be about a fiver I think

Are Etch-a-Sketch still a thing? Google here i come!

Oh I love it, now I want one too!