To ask what makes you nostalgic about childhood? (Also a request about an item)

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My children are all but one in secondary school, frankly quite boring independent and want to do their own thing. I find myself almost grieving for their childhoods, looking back through photos and remembering the good times etc.

To get to the point I have become very nostalgic about my own childhood and I am searching up some of my old toys on ebay As they are now considered vintage they are prohibitively expensive.

Some of the things I have lovely memories attached to are:

Lights Alive
Keypers
Sweet Secrets
Diary Milk dispenser thingys at Christmas
Gloworm

Just yesterday I got this sudden flashback to a swimming bag I had in primary school, it was transparent PVC, from Primark and had a beach scene on the front with liquid for the sea (you could squish the liquid IYKWIM) and a plastic beach ball. At the time it was so amazing and I loved it so much that I even stapled the seams together when they split Does anyone know what this type of bag is called (with the liquid inside) I spent ages googling but haven't been able to find it.

My nostalgia is mostly related to items, but what are your items/experiences that make you nostalgic about your own childhood?

We still have my old dolls house that Dad made. It was passed on to 2 daughters ( big age gap) and I suspect will be passed on or assembled again for the forthcoming granddaughter due any day now. Every time painted a new colour.
My dolls house fits my Sasha dolls and was scratch built. It is huge.

DD2 (aged 4) was given a cupcake dolly for Christmas - yes, she turns inside out and has an icing "hat"!
My nick name at one place I worked was Polly as I'm short of stature!

-In The Broom Cupboard - children's BBC
-Black jack chew Sweets
-Count Duckula
-Dogtanian
-Nintendo especially Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Kart and Castlevania -Sega Master System especially Sonic the Hedgehog and Alex the Kidd
-Summer of 95 and 96 were especially brilliant for me
-Dinosaurs the tv show with the baby in the high chair
-Neighbours with Harold, Madge, Mrs Mangle and co.
-Knightmare the tv show
-Spirograph
-Fashion Wheel
-Anais Anais perfume (disgusting but makes me feel nostalgic never the less)

I didn't know they stopped making Polly Pocket

Care Bears - I've been stockpiling vintage Care Bears for when DS is older. He probably won't be the least be interested but I love them. I've got DVDs and books to try and encourage his interest. I dream of sitting snuggled on the sofa with him watching the Care Bears Movie.

The big yellow teapot
Proper lucky bags
Keypers
Commodore 64
Record Breakers
Grange Hill
Gino Ginelli ice cream
Cabbage patch dolls

I remember all of these things and I remember the swimming bag - my friend had one and I remember the smell of it!!! Plasticky and delicious!

Keypers were so awesome. My DDs would love them!

And I remember absolutely breaking my heart to get those key inside shoes from clarks

I've still got my cabbage patch doll.
Jelly bags and shoes
Pound Puppies
Glow worms
Those sticky octopus things that you'd throw at the wall and they climbed down
Pop up treehouse
Sindy house with the lift on the side
Original MLP

Was this the bag? Long shot I know...

The Worst Witch books,
Gummi Bears cartoon
Mood rings
Shag bands (neon coloured plastic bracelets that if someone snapped one, they were supposed to do the deed)

Disclaimer - at ten years old, I was not sexually active

Caroline's doll house
Sindy
Tiny tears
Ghost castle game
Collectible erasers
Scratch n sniff stickers
Garbage pail kids 😂
Fisher price cooker & sink

I desperately wanted an At-At for Christmas and Mum said 'no, it's for boys'. I therefore blamed her entirely for the fact my house is now like a Star Wars museum with full size Stormtroopers and a Han in Carbonite on the wall
DH did buy me an At-At so I did get one in the end.

The only thing that really sticks in my mind was the History Hounds my nana bought me, Abrahound Lincoln and one dressed as some Native American. I do still have those in the loft.

The Demon Headmaster
Woof (where the boy kept turning into a dog)
The Queen's Nose (where she rubbed the 50p for a wish)
Penny sweets
Corn Pops cereal
Sun Lollies
As someone else has mentioned, Gino Ginelli ice cream mmm!
Those hard plastic stationery packs that had protractors and triangle rulers in...
Super Soakers
Fun House
Arctic Roll
Proper selection boxes
Cassette tapes and the karaoke machine I got for Xmas once
My plastic activity table mat that had the alphabet round the edges
Parker Bradburns bakery
Safeway
Looking through the catalogues
Ice cream vans

This guy

We didn't get many "in" toys-until they got passed down to us cheaply on occasion.

What I did collect was these tiny dolls 2" high. There were two sorts: Naked in a bath with a towel (cost about 99p) or dressed-the clothes were often stuck on (55p). They must have been jointed as they sat on my windowsill.
I had about 50 of them-they were sold at a little china shop of all strange places.
They all had names, birthdays and were arranged into families, and I kept a book with their details in.

They had a uniform that I dressed them in and I made lots of other clothes for them.

I wish I knew if they still do them as they were really nicely made.

I also had these tiny little dolls-I think called Tiny ones. About 3/4" high. They came with a bonnet and little dress on, I think in a matchbox.

I have found my people

I had lots of the things mentioned here! Gloworm, those scented cupcake dolls, keypers, a la Carte kitchen, Care Bears! I had an Ariel The Little Mermaid doll which I always used to take in the bath with me (with my Matey bubble bath!)

I had saved lots of my favourite toys in our loft when I was young and hoped one day I would have a daughter who could inherit them and we would play together! Unfortunately my dad died suddenly when I was 16 and I couldn't face going back to the house which had to be sold pretty quick and thus all my beautiful, treasured play things were thrown away I'm 31 and still cry about that occasionally! Especially as I had my dd a couple of years ago.

I actually watched the Care Bears Adventures in Wonderland a few months ago on YouTube. It was as awesome as I remembered it to be!

We didn't have very many toys. Most of our Christmas and birthday presents were clothes, including underwear and socks. Though I do remember my dolls, books and Lego (I still have them). Our parents were very hard up.

We used to make our fun most of the time. I loved being outdoors. There was so much more freedom for children back then (in the 1960s). From the age of 6 or 7, we would go out all day in pairs or small groups (and sometimes I would go alone), roaming around country lanes, playing in haystacks, climbing over gates, catching minnows and sticklebacks in jam jars, picking wild flowers in the woods, making dens, jumping over streams, crawling through storm drains, climbing trees, making rope swings etc., returning only at teatime.

When I look back on it now, I realise how lucky I was. In many ways, it was a wonderful time to be a child. There was no technology to keep us indoors and most people didn't have much in the way of toys, so when we did receive a present it was wildly exciting, even receiving a pack of pencils and a colouring book felt marvellous. It was a magical time.

These beautiful 1970s Sindy dolls. Most gorgeous doll ever made. I had the blonde one with pink skirt. swoon

@witchend were these the matchbox ones? Baby William?

Also, every single kid in my school had the Midland Bank sports bag and geometry set

Last of all, those toys (mainly koala bears but also a monkey thing) which had a kind of clothes peg thing under their fur so they would clip onto the curtains in your bedroom.

Ahhhh...

Great thread by the way OP!

Vanellope I had that ballerina Sindy too but mine was a redhead. So beautiful! The skirt was lovely and soft.

VanellopeVonSchweetz99 I bought myself a ballerina Sindy when I was 25!! I had always wanted a Sindy but my parents never bought me one. I still have her and the original box she came in.

Cabbage patch kids. And does anyone remember those tshirt places at the beach, where you can go in and choose whatever picture you want and they will print it on a tshirt. So was so happy when I was finally allowed one! Got a glitterly unicorn head :)

80sMum I've bought myself two to replace old ones forever lost! I'm 43. (In fairness DD loves them too and we play together.)

Spangles
Cider lollies
The endless summer of 1976
Being filthy, and not caring
Building dens
Climbing trees
Running across the airfield with the tannoy message 'will someone get those bloody kids off the field' ringing in my ears.
Evading the park keeper

Jenny My Best School Friend
Sweet April

and ballerina Sindy, who I just loved. The pink criss cross shoes.

and Pippa, with the hair.