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30 People Are Reminiscing About Toys They Wanted So Badly As Kids, Yet Never Got Them
According to the philosopher and writer Johan Huizinga, toys are vital for human development, because by playing, the child models their future activities in adulthood, and besides, the game itself, no matter what, is our life in miniature. Therefore, it is necessary and vitally important to play, at literally any age.
Just don't tell your kids about this, or you'll have to buy them whatever toys they want in any store, and buying toys will take up most of your family budget! And for us, adults, in childhood, everything was definitely not like that...
Well, let's agree, each of us - unless, of course, our parents were in the Forbes Top 1000 - had some special toys that we longed for as children, but alas, we never received them. For one it may have been some kind of stunningly beautiful doll, someone else may have desperately wanted a computer game, and someone else was a huge fan of a Transformer car. And all this is united by the fact that we never got the opportunity to play with them. In our childhood, that is.
Recently, a thread appeared in the AskReddit community, the author of which asked readers this question: "What is a toy you always wanted growing up, but never got?" Now there are already more than 700 different comments in the thread - and we could not even imagine that there are so many different cool toys in this world!
Bored Panda has compiled this selection of the most outstanding, interesting and simply popular comments from the original thread especially for you, so please feel free to scroll this list to the very end, upvote the best submissions and, of course, add your own favorite toys in the comments below the post. After all, we all come from childhood, so let's dive into our memory once more!
More info: Reddit
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#1
The Brave Heart care bear. He was my favourite. I asked for him many times, and I never got him (or any care bear for that matter).
This casually came up in conversation once early on in my relationship with my boyfriend. He bought it for me for my 35th birthday that year.
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#2
The Barbie Jeep that you could actually ride in. But once I had kids, I bought them one (not the Barbie version, but still). And guess what? I was five pounds under the weight limit so I was able to ride in their battery-powered Jeep. I mean, it was a couple decades late, but I eventually got to do it.
#3
Castle Grayskull, from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
Mad Dragon 1 year ago
I wanted that SO badly! My best friend had everything He-Man, so I still got to play with it when I was at her house, but I wanted my own!
#4
A chemistry set. This was during the 1960s, before the 1969 Child Protection and Toy Safety Act. I didn't get a chemistry set, but I did get a Thingmaker, which at the time was an open hot plate that metal molds were set on, to cure Thingmaker goo into rubbery shapes. Releasing fumes that would set off coughing fits if breathed too deeply, and sometimes getting burned by the hot plate. 'Twas a wild time for children's toys.
Powerful Katrinka 1 year ago
I had something similar, but it was called "Creepy Crawlers." I shudder to think about what toxins were released during the hearing process.
#6
Easy - Bake Oven
#8
A real RC car. Not the garbage my parents had gotten me from Radio shack that took 723 AA batteries and couldn’t move on anything but the hardwood floor.
No. I wanted a proper Taniya monster truck like the Lunch Box or a buggy like the grasshopper. Or an amazing one from Kyosho. They took real NiCd battery packs. Had real transmitters. Could plow through dirt and grass.
As an adult my wife and I were driving and I saw an RC shop and said “hey hun. Can I stop somewhere for a sec?” She ofc said “sure”.
That was 20 years ago.
I now have 16 different RC vehicles from planes to helicopters to buggies and monster trucks. Of all sizes. Being an adult means getting the things I always wanted.
#9
walkie talkie
unfilteredCigarette73 1 year ago
I bought a set with some chore/B-day $$ when I was 11. Depending on the channel it would pick up neighbor's phone calls if they were cordless phones, cellular phones, and police radio calls it was a blast
#10
Hotweels. But I’m a girl and those were “boy toys”. Still pissed. Anyone old enough to remember the slime ramp s**t they came out with will get it. Hot wheels knew slime was gonna be a hit 20 years prior edit: the Harry Potter slime gummy maker thing. Y’all know what I mean
#11
There was a super mega barbie mansion that came out with an elevator and garage or something. Maybe it was a pool. Idk but it looked sick af to 8 year old me
#14
A typewriter. It was at the top of my Christmas list when I was about 11, and I begged and begged for one. That Christmas, my younger sister got one, but I didn't. I even double checked the tag to make sure there wasn't a mix up.
I didn't say anything, but I was so incredibly disappointed and confused and didn't know what I did to warrant what felt like a punishment. I thought I must have come across as too entitled or something since I had insisted it had to actually type (ie, not a 'pretend' one).
I mentioned it years later to my mom - yeah, it stuck with me. She didn't remember it at all and denied doing it as any kind of punishment or lesson. I think she just got a little confused about who wanted what when she was buying gifts and got it in her head that my sister was the one who wanted the typewriter. There were 4 of us to keep track of after all.
My sister was a little s**t about it. She gloated and would never let me use it. Brat.
#16
Play-do Barber Shop. I became a hairstylist years later.
#17
Sea Monkeys.
Once I learned about Artemia nauplii, there was no point...
OurLadyOfLunch 1 year ago
Desperately wanted Sea Monkeys because of the ads in magazines. My 6th grade science teacher had us raise brine shrimp in class. Imagine my 11 year old heartbreak when I realized they were the same thing and not at all like the nuclear underwater family pictured.
#18
A real cabbage patch doll. All my friends had them and would bring them to school and play with them at recess. My mom got me a fake doll from the craft fair. And it looked exactly how you'd picture a fake cabbage patch doll from the craft fair to look
Ches Yamada 1 year ago
"A fake one from the craft fair" - sadly, the "real" cabbage patch kids were created at those craft fairs. Xavier stole the concept from crafters.
#20
The playback voice recorder that kevin had on home alone lol
The red side pistol the power rangers used to carry. Those were the hardest to find toys on the market at the time.
nooneimportant 1 year ago
I finally got a Talkboy about 6 years late, and always wanted the White Power Rangers talking sabre
#21
Barbie. My two sisters each got a Barbie.
I got Midge.
#23
You know all those Lego "Collect all of these sets to make this bigger build" sets? It's not that I never got them, but I never got more than 1 set, so I was never able to make the big build
The next best thing I did get was a similar set of builds from K'Nex, which I did get all 4 sets
Bad Mole 1 year ago
We were too poor for me to ever get Lego, and my dad wouldn't buy me any even when we had a bit of money for Christmas gifts (his hobby was marriages so there were always a rotating cast of step brothers and sisters, too). Now my kids have moved out and one of their bedrooms is my Lego room.
#25
A rock tumbler
Margrete Sonnenberg 1 year ago
Another thing I asked for and my dad already had. We tumbled some rocks, due to the noise it stayed in the garage when it on.
#27
A mini-bike like they advertised in the Sears Christmas catalog.
#29
An American Girl doll. Loved the books so much. I've been tempted to buy myself a Samantha now that she's out again, but I like the original outfit better.
#30
Bop it
What do you think ?
K- THULU 1 year ago
The big AT-AT from empire strikes back...... Wanted it soooo much but we were too poor, 40 yrs later still want it but just can't justify the price the original ones cost now..... ( though I have paid some pretty ridiculous prices for rare toys in the last couple of years! Don't shop when high, kids!!!)
Lousha 1 year ago
I really wanted one of those fishing toys, where a round disk with holes is going round and round, and in each hole there's a little fish and they open their mouth from time to time, exposing a little magnet. The players each have a fishing rod, and the aim is to catch as many fishes as one can by timing it right and touching the fishing rod's magnet to the mouth's magnet when it's exposed. When I was about 38 and happened upon one in a Pound Shop I bought one on my launch break. When I went back to work I played with it for a glorious five minutes, satisfying the long lost child in me, then I dropped it off to a charity shop, hoping it can serve someone else well yet.
V 1 year ago
A Lego pirate ship. But I was a gUrL so no Lego for me unless I paid for it myself, and I was not getting enough birthday or Christmas money for a big set.
K- THULU 1 year ago
The big AT-AT from empire strikes back...... Wanted it soooo much but we were too poor, 40 yrs later still want it but just can't justify the price the original ones cost now..... ( though I have paid some pretty ridiculous prices for rare toys in the last couple of years! Don't shop when high, kids!!!)
Lousha 1 year ago
I really wanted one of those fishing toys, where a round disk with holes is going round and round, and in each hole there's a little fish and they open their mouth from time to time, exposing a little magnet. The players each have a fishing rod, and the aim is to catch as many fishes as one can by timing it right and touching the fishing rod's magnet to the mouth's magnet when it's exposed. When I was about 38 and happened upon one in a Pound Shop I bought one on my launch break. When I went back to work I played with it for a glorious five minutes, satisfying the long lost child in me, then I dropped it off to a charity shop, hoping it can serve someone else well yet.
V 1 year ago
A Lego pirate ship. But I was a gUrL so no Lego for me unless I paid for it myself, and I was not getting enough birthday or Christmas money for a big set.
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