Growing Up in the 1980s: Things My Kids Should Know About My Childhood (Part 3)

There are still more things I want to tell my kids about my childhood in the totally awesome '80s. It's hard for my 5-year-old and 9-year-old to imagine a time when people still used pay phones and checkbooks, a time when Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus did not exist. They wonder how we survived without an XBox 360, DVR, cell phones, and laptops. Listen up, kids, and I'll tell you what I did for fun in the 1980s.

'80s Toys and Collectibles
When I was your age, in the 1980s, much like today, many of the most popular toys were associated with popular movies or TV series. My brother played with Indiana Jones, Star Wars, He-Man, and G.I. Joe action figures, and had tons of Transformers and Gobots vehicles/robots. I had Strawberry Shortcake dolls, Rainbow Brite toys, Smurfs and My Little Pony figures. Popular stuffed animals were Care Bears, Pound Puppies, and Popples .

A word about the Transformers toys being produced today and marketed alongside the god-awful Transformers movies: Don't even think about buying those pieces of crap! I'm talking specifically about the Transformers toys that transform from a vehicle into a robot. I'll pretend that those other new Transformers toys-the ones that are merely action figures that do not transform-do not exist. Why would any kid want Transformers toys that don't transform?! My son has received several Transformers toys as gifts, and all of them have broken into pieces the very first time he tries to transform them. The old Transformers toys from the 1980s, which you can still find on eBay and at stores like Vintage Stock, were much better. My brother transformed his Transformers toys over and over and over again; the joints got loose after awhile, but they held together.

In the '80s, we played with Play-Doh, Slinkys, Tinkertoys, and Etch A Sketch, all of which were available when my parents were children. I loved our Lite-Brite and 3D View-Master, and always wanted an Easy-Bake Oven, but never got one.

I had three Barbie dolls. My favorite Barbie had a swimsuit and long blonde hair that came down to her knees. One Barbie had a button on her back that made one of her eyes wink. Until I got a Ken doll, my Barbies had to date my brother's much shorter Han Solo and He-Man action figures. We didn't have Bratz dolls in the '80s (no big loss).

I loved looking at Hello Kitty merchandise whenever I went into a Hallmark store with my mom. I think I have a pink Hello Kitty diary, but my very first diary had Poochie on the cover. Poochie was a cute little white dog with pink ears, and sunglasses.

My brother was a LEGO maniac. I remember one LEGO line in particular that he really liked: these "Forestmen" sets (they're not called "Robin Hood," but they should be). He also had tons of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars, and probably some Micro Machines, which were popular in the '80s. I also remember him collecting M.U.S.C.L.E men, small pink figures that looked like professional wrestlers.

Who can forget the Cabbage Patch Kids craze of 1983? I was 6 years old, and I thought Cabbage Patch Kids were ugly the first time I saw them. But then all the girls started bringing their Cabbage Patch Kids to school, and I had to have one too! The dolls were impossible to find, so for awhile I had to make do with a Cabbage Patch Kid knock-off. Then my aunt came across a real-life Cabbage Patch Kid in a store, grabbed it, and called my mom. That's how I became the proud mommy of "Adele Essy" (I didn't make up that awful name-it was printed on her birth certificate), who had dark-blonde yarn hair and a single tooth. Adele was never one of my favorite toys, but I suppose I thought she saved me from being a social outcast in first grade.

I also collected stickers in first grade. A lot of the kids in my class brought their sticker collections to school. We weren't allowed to look at our sticker books during class, but we could take them out to recess. Scratch 'n' sniff, shiny, rainbow, and "puffy" stickers were the cool stickers that everyone wanted.

In the mid-'80s, my brother and I jumped on the Garbage Pail Kids bandwagon. Garbage Pail Kids were like Cabbage Patch Kids' disgusting, politically-incorrect step-cousins. I'm amazed that my mom ever let us buy Garbage Pail Kids cards. (I found an impressive Garbage Pail Kids collector's website here. I had fun looking through the image gallery, remembering which cards I had and which cards I always wanted. Some of the clever names still make me laugh.) Sadly, I don't have any of my old Garbage Pail Kids cards now. My mom probably threw them away when I wasn't paying attention.

The Kansas City Royals, my home team, won the World Series in 1985. I'm sure it was no coincidence that my interest in Major League Baseball was at its all-time high that year. I started collecting baseball cards-Topps, mostly (Topps also produced Garbage Pail Kids)-and kept at it for about five years. Today I can't name a single player on the Kansas City Royals, but in the '80s I worshiped George Brett, Bret Saberhagen, Dan Quisenberry, and Frank White.

In 1987, I wanted to collect every single California Raisins figure at Hardee's. We loved those singing raisins. Watch the commercial that started the craze here.

I collected comic books for a couple of years, starting in the late '80s. My husband likes to point out that I didn't collect any good comics. My favorite comics were ALF (based on the '80s sitcom), Archie, Betty & Veronica, and Katy Keene. I also liked Mad and Cracked magazine, even if I didn't always get the jokes. My brother had a comic-book version of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and we were very happy to have it because we weren't allowed to see the movie when it came out.

In Part Four, I discuss my favorite '80s video games and more.

Sources:
Wikipedia.com
My own sweet memories

Related Articles by Maria Roth:

Growing Up in the 1980s...Part 1

Growing Up in the 1980s...Part 2

Totally Awesome '80s Poem