Childhood Memorabilia: Classic Toys that They Do Not Make Anymore

Nothing makes you feel more aged than seeing your old toys show up in museums and antique stores. I was born in the 1970s, grew up in the 1980s, and reached adulthood in the 1990s. These are some of the classic toys from my youth that no longer exist, except perhaps in a box in my attic.

Little Professor

Ah, the Little Professor. He was like our first hand-held computer game. The brim of his graduation cap was actually a display screen that would give you a simple mathematical equation in red print. You had to type in the answer, using the keypad that resembled a regular calculator. You also got to choose which mathematical operation you wanted to study, as well as the difficulty level of the questions. I played with mine incessantly, and was actually disappointed when I had mastered the whole thing.

My Friend Dolls

My first My Friend doll was the blonde doll named Mandy. I loved Mandy so much that I carried her everywhere with me. One day, I wanted to put some makeup on her to make her even more beautiful. I used Magic Marker. She still bears the designs to this day.

A few years later, for Christmas, my sister got Jenny, who had black hair and looked Asian. I loved her jet black hair and yellow gingham dress. I got Becky, who wore a green dress to complement her blue eyes and red hair. Becky was probably my best friend. I played with those three dolls constantly.

Eventually, there was a little boy doll introduced, as well as one who was supposed to be Mandy's little sister. We never got those, because they just didn't seem to fit in with our original three. I was devastated when I saw a Becky doll in an antique store when I was barely out of high school.

O-Ring Bracelets

Forget Silly Bandz. When I was a kid, we had O-ring bracelets. O-ring bracelets were thick and made out of plastic, similar to jelly shoes. They didn't snap and break easily. They may not have had fun shapes, but who can tell what shape Silly Bandz are when you're wearing them, anyway?

O-ring bracelets came in every color in the rainbow. Some of the really cool ones were clear with glitter in them. Instead of purchasing them in a variety pack, you had to put a coin in a machine and turn a knob, as if you were getting a gumball. You never knew what you were going to get. And then, the fun began.

Some people liked to wear them all the way up their arms. Madonna used to wear a bunch of black ones, but some of us preferred an entire rainbow. You could loop two together for a fun design, or tie a bunch together to create a necklace. You could make your own designs and patterns, and even hook things on them.

I was cool enough to put a purple one around my right ankle. I never took it off. It finally turned brown. But, to be in my cousin's wedding in 1988, I was forced to finally cut it off. I'm sure the rest ended up in the trash, as well.

Speak 'n' Spell

Speak 'n' Spell was the predecessor of the Leap Frog. How many of us mastered our spelling skills by typing in the letters of the requested words? It was also fun to make up your own words to type in, especially the dirty ones. Alas, I never was the proud owner of one, but one of my friends had one. I always loved to bust out the Speak 'n' Spell when I was at her house. And I was a master speller.

Trolls

Remember the Norfin trolls in the early 1990s? They were extremely ugly, yet adorable at the same time. They had wild and crazy hair that you could stroke for luck. They came in all sizes, from tiny pencil toppers, to 8-inch figurines. Their hair was every color in the rainbow and they all had that rubbery plastic smell to them. It was my goal to collect one in every color. I also had them in all kinds of sizes and as all kinds of characters. I even had one with a rare indigo-colored hair. Unfortunately, the boys in my youth group thought it would be funny to steal that troll during a church lock-in, and they cut off his hair. Poor thing never looked right again with a buzz cut.

Many other old toys from my childhood are no longer in existence. These five are the ones that meant the most to me. Perhaps some CEO of a company will become nostalgic and try to recreate them some day.