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

I was the youngest of 3 children with an older sister and brother so probably had the most toys to play with. Most were handed down of course but my favourites were my brothers toy cars.

They were metal matchbox types and I would spend ages playing with them, lining them up and making traffic jams. The best one was a car transporter that you could put 3 other cars on. I have watched my DC do the same with all their cars - sadly not mine as I'm not sure what happened to them when I left home.

I was also given a Sindy (not Barbie!) set from a girl across the road that included so many clothes, furniture and a car!! I was so excited to get them as I had played with them in her house and thought she was so lucky, so it was nice that her mum suggested she give them to me once she was 'too old' - she was probably only 10.

Sylvanian Families and Polly Pockets. Thanks to far too much time scouting boot sales my 6yo ds now has quite the collection of both and enjoys them too. I played with the sylvanians especially til I was far too old to ever admit it! We were pretty poor when I was little, my mum was a single parent and new toys just weren’t a possibility very often so we really treasured what we had. Makes me feel quite guilty about the piles of toys my dc have actually. I’m not sure they appreciate them in the same way.

Wooden toys (am I old? ) like the class clicky-clacky caterpillar/sausage dog on a string. Metal trikes with a high saddle, especially painted blue and white. Rocking horses. Hornby train sets. Basic Lego. Chemistry sets. Orange space hoppers. Pogo sticks. Those pogo-y things with a round platform forced over an inflated ball. Jacks. Skipping ropes made from proper rope.

I could go on

LEGO always a winner and delighted that both my children love it too.
Playmobil was always something I wanted and never had, I may have made sure that my children haven’t suffered the same fate

The old tiny Polly Pocket, and Sylvanian Families.

Lego doesn't make me particularly nostalgic as I've never really stopped playing with it :-D

Sindy Dolls - loved them especially the ionic ballerina one. And rollerboots - oh how I adored those!

Wow! Best thread ever

My favourite toy growing up was definitely my fisher price dolls house. I loved that it had a little table which flipped over and there was food on the other side and that the front had a little balcony that I used to pretend the little kids would sneak out at night and go on adventures then sneak back in (alas, this actually came true as a teenager!).

I keep looking for one for my daughter - but I reckon she won't like it as much as I did and would prefer something LOL related. Maybe I should just buy one for me?

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/609745237019328028/

Polly pocket - I remember getting one from Santa when I went to visit him and I was amazed he knew exactly what I wanted 

Not strictly a toy but Enid Blyton books too - Mallory Towers, St Clare's and the Famous Five. Read them over and over.

Playmobil and polly pockets here. Also tamagotchis and Lego 😊

Fisher price record player. Au Clair de la lune was my favourite record

Lego and Barbies, loved them. Now I'm getting the kids into it for my own nostalgia (although not so much barbie, I have two voys)

Honestly? It’s Brio (promise I’m not sucking up!). Vivid memories of making elaborate Brio tracks that spanned the entire room ‘with’ my little brother (in reality he wasn’t allowed to interfere!). My son is nearly three and I keep getting huge nostalgia pangs as we make tracks together.

I always wanted BRIO but wasn’t allowed any 😭🎻

My bright orange spacehopper in the 1970's, I named mine 'tigerlilly'. I Loved bouncing around and that plastic smell when it got warm, bouncing high made me feel like I was flying, I loved it!

A firm favourite was the He-man action figure with movable arms. He used to play with Sindy a lot, fighting bad guys and protecting the other toys.

Oh and one of those cupcake dolls whose dress turned up to make cupcake frosting and smelt of something vaguely resembling sweet. Her topping hat was cool but never really sat in place, despite the elastic. Actually, she's at my parents now 20 years later and still smells of "something".

Sindy dolls take me straight back!

I loved making a little village out of lego in the garden with car tracks.
Also loved playing sylvanian families with my sister.
We always ran to the brio set up in the local department store but could never afford our own. sob.
I also loved my Keyper with the secret compartment.

My favourites were a Daisy doll - all my friend's had Sindy dolls but I preferred Daisy, and fuzzy felt. I saw a picture of fuzzy felt on an 80s nostalgia page recently and I was right back into the 1980s - I could even remember the smell and the noise the plastic tray made as you took it in and out of the box!

The thing that makes me feel nostalgic is thinking about the 'techy' toys I had. There was a calculator - Professor something? - that you could play maths games on and one of those view finder things with the slides that you put into it. Oh and a colour changing torch.
I think about how my toddler will undoubtedly be asking for a tablet soon and it seems like we've come so far in such a short time.
Love the sound of the brio smart tech. The only chance I got to play with brio was when we visited the early learning centre.

I used to have a Fisher Price telephone that I placed on my bedside table to make my bedroom look like my mum’s! I really wish I had kept it. I also had a sort of wooden clock which when you wound it up played Hickory dickory dock. It was so heavy! Basically a block of wood - would obviously be far too dangerous for today!!!

Babies for me. I had everything for them spent hours dressing them up, playing with them in all the accessories.

Duplo, Lego, Farm Animals and My Little Ponies

We stayed with relatives in the country for quite a while, I was made two lovely wooden toys. I got over having to leave the big red ride on engine behind as it was so big and we travelled by train. The blue painted flat trolley came back to the city with us. I left it out one evening and it was gone by morning. I still wish I'd brought it in that night!

I also loved Bunty comic where you got a cut out paper doll and clothes on the back page.

Polly pockets, Cabbage patch kids, Keepers , sweet secrets , popples and poochie.
Oh and strawberry shortcake , Glowworms, The Getalong gang and tinytears.

I loved playing with my Sindys , who had lovely knitted jumpsuits and loved my Little Ponies, who weren't quite as svelt then and looked much more pony like!
I'd love to have a mooch among the Argos book from the 80's and look up all my favourite toys !!!