Your Fave Childhood Toys Are Having A Major Comeback
Loyal Subjects CEO Jonathan Cathey told us, 'I don't think we had a conscious strategy other than to go after what we liked and knew — sort of that age-old writer wisdom — 'write what you know'. Being born in '74, I came of age with these brands, so I had a visceral connection... I knew there were many folks like me... so it just seemed like a no-brainer. It's sort of the anti-data approach, just go with your gut kind-a-thing.'It was a gut instinct that paid off. The brand's Rainbow Brite re-release took home the 'Doll of the Year' award at the 2025 Toy Awards. It's also worth noting that a Transformer toy took home 'Action Figure of the Year' and an updated version of Uno won 'Game of the Year.' Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, explained, 'What makes [these brands] popular is that they have an extra charm and appeal that makes them memorable and endearing, generation after generation. So the brands that bring back memories are the ones that tend to remain popular.'
Some of the toys have been restored just as you remember. Others have been updated slightly to align with current trends. We rounded up some of these throwback toys guaranteed to send you drifting down memory lane and spoke to some collectors about their favorites.
A new kind of Care Bear
Care Bears were originally created in 1981 to be featured on greeting cards. In the decades since, the characters have been the focus of TV shows, movies, games and (of course) dolls. The newest line, including this Grumpy Bear, are designed to help kids express their emotions and made from materials to help comfort children with sensory needs.Get it from Amazon for $13.97+ (available in 11 styles).
A truly outrageous music icon
Barbie has had a chokehold on the pop culture zeitgeist for generations, but the '80s were Jem's time to shine. As the star of an animated series from 1985 to 1988, her flamboyant style and personality left such a lasting impression on kids at the time that they're now snatching up the revived doll line. Our own Noah Michelson is one such collector: "I know some people think nostalgia can be dangerous because it romanticizes the past in a way that often isn't entirely accurate, but I think leaning into it can also be a relief in some ways. So much is terrible right now and these toys are a reminder of — and a portal to — a better time."Get it from Walmart for $34.95.
A colorful intergalactic superhero
First introduced in 1984, Rainbow Brite leads a group of heroes who protect all of the colors of the universe. The Loyal Subjects revival of toy line is one of their most popular endeavors so far, earning them awards and accolades in the industry and from fans. While this 12-inch doll is the clear standout, the collection also includes mini figurines, bag charms and enamel pins. Get it from Amazon for $14 (also available in three other styles).
A set of miniature animal friends
A few years before Pokémon took the world by storm in the '90s, Littlest Pet Shop had young people all over trying to collect them all. Relaunched in 2022 by Basic Fun, fans of the original pets are embracing their tiny friends again with open arms. YouTuber Emily Kay explains, "I have around 750 Littlest Pet Shops. I've been collecting since I was around 6 years old and I'm 23 now! I stopped buying LPS when I went to college, it had been so long since Hasbro had made the type of Littlest Pet Shops that collectors like myself preferred, and there were less and less people involved in the community. I find the community to be a big part of why I enjoy collecting LPS! Once Basic Fun brought back the older style, I started to collect and make videos again with my rediscovered passion."Get them from Amazon for $11.99.
An adorable adoptable dog
Millennials have been living by the "adopt, don't shop" mantra since we were little kids. Between Cabbage Patch Kids and Pound Puppies, we adored dolls that came with adoption certificates and gave them loving homes. The original line of Pound Puppies ceased production in 2003, but the adoption shelter reopened in 2019 when Basic Fun brought back some familiar faces and introduced a few new ones.Get it from Amazon for $14.99.
A boy doll from 1985 with an unforgettable theme song
Historically, most dolls have been designed to appear female and they've been marketed toward girls. Hasbro attempted to shake things up in the mid-'80s by creating My Buddy for boys. There are long-standing rumors that the doll served as visual inspiration for the murderous toy star of "Child's Play" franchise, but not even Chucky could stop this little guy from making his big return to shelves in February of 2025.Get it from Walmart for $34.97.
A special anniversary-edition figurine for horse girls (and boys) everywhere
My Little Pony has had several iterations since its debut in 1981. The adult fanbase for these magical horses is large enough that it was the subject of a documentary made back in 2012. Basic Fun introduced a limited edition re-release of the original line-up to celebrate the brand's 40th anniversary in 2021. I'm not sure they still qualify as ponies at 40 years old. Get it from Amazon for $13.99+ (available in six styles).
A sweet-scented doll with some equally fragrant friends
While Rainbow Brite is off on her intergalactic travel preserving color in the universe, Strawberry Shortcake and her pals are holding it down on Earth baking sweet fruity treats. The first doll was introduced in 1979 and continues to have a devoted following with each new release thanks to The Loyal Subjects. Get it from Amazon for $13.99+ (available in two styles).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
19 Millennials Are Sharing Things That Were Common In The '90s And 2000s That Would "Baffle" Anyone Under The Age Of 25
As time passes and technology evolves, there are certain trends and habits that simply fade out of popularity. And there's no better example than those of the '90s and early 2000s... That's why when Redditor u/ToeKnown9863 asked, "What's a '90s/2000s trend that would baffle kids today?" Thousands of Gen X'ers and millennials shared the good, the bad, and the ugly of Y2K trends. From burning CDs to Pogs — here are 19 of their best responses: If you can think of Y2K trends that would leave the younger generations speechless, feel free to tell us about them using this anonymous form! 1."Downloading music off Limewire to iTunes, running to Walmart while it downloads, buying blank CDs, and burning them once it's downloaded. Then, thinking of a cool name for your new CD." "I spent three days downloading the movie 300 while it was still in theaters. Burned it to a DVD, made some Jiffy Pop, and bought a Code Red Mountain Dew. I popped in my freshly burned DVD that Friday night and thought how awesome it was that I was going to watch a movie that was still playing at the theater down the street. Then the movie started, and I remembered thinking that it looked cheap for a Hollywood movie. Suddenly, a naked guy walked onto the screen, followed by three others...I then realized I had spent three days downloading a dirty movie." —u/Daguvry Related: 2."Playing literally one video game for the entire summer, no online walkthroughs. If you wanted a hint, you needed to buy a paper guidebook, hope your friend knew the tricks, or call a 900 number for help." "My mom had to block 900 numbers because I racked up a huge bill trying to beat a King's Quest game." —u/violent_potatoes 3."Trapper keepers confuse me now, yet I literally screamed to high heaven to get my mom to buy me the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles one." "For those who are unaware: a Trapper Keeper is a binder. Yes, we '90s kids were judging coolness by the kind of binder we had." —u/WitheredRosePetals82 4."Not just having a landline, but SHARING a landline." "Everyone in the house had the same number. If you called, anyone in the house might pick up. If you were calling your crush, you had to be prepared to negotiate with suspicious/hostile family members, but that was somewhat understandable. It got really weird when you had adult roommates! Suddenly, you're the social secretary for your popular, ladies' man roommate, trying to explain that you don't know where your other roommate is to a very angry woman, and ducking calls from a collection agency. And you'd have to collaborate on the voicemail message. Yes, there was only one voicemail/answering machine for the entire household, too. We used to record elaborate and hilarious messages every two weeks, sometimes with running jokes. It was a wild time that I actually don't miss." —u/haysoos2 5."Pogs: We just collected little cardboard circles to play a dumb, boring game." —u/LouBarlowsDisease "Yeah, it was hot for about a year, then it was GONE as if it never existed. People weren't even talking about Pogs anymore. I think my dad might still have my old slammers in storage somewhere." —u/nmezib 6."Buying ringtones." —u/overfiend1976 "And ringbacks! I didn't know how they were popular, but in the early aughts, my girlfriend paid for a service that would play a heavily compressed MP3 to the person calling you, instead of the regular dialing sound prior to answering the phone." —u/markh100 Related: 7."There was no 'Google Maps.' You had a huge book sitting in your glove box. If you didn't know the way, you had to literally chart it and try to follow it. Or just memorize the whole thing." —u/MightBeTrollingMaybe "I used to help my grandpa navigate his RV when I'd spend summers with my grandparents as a kid. Pulling out the atlas because he wasn't sure where to go was always a blast. I think that those experiences and video games are why my spatial awareness and direction finding are as good as they are. Now, when I look up a new place on Google Maps, I'll street view the final bit just to know what to look for. I've had people act like my ability to know where I'm going is witchcraft." —u/Silbyrn_ 8."Chain emails: I'd be so embarrassed to do that today..." "I used to fill out these long 'About Me' Q&As because I thought people were interested in reading my 50 answers." —u/Advanced-Koala2559 9."Having to wait a week for 10 photos to be processed and printed." "When we would get them back, they were mostly unidentifiable, but we were just excited to have one 'good' picture that was only slightly blurry." —u/Lia_Delphine 10."If you missed a new episode of a TV show, you just missed it." "Your only chance to see it again was when it became a rerun the next season. There was always a showtime that showed old episodes, where new ones aired during the season. The Simpsons aired new episodes on Sundays and had many airtimes during the week, showing old episodes, so you waited until the episode you missed was added to the rotation. This changed in the 2000s when entire seasons were released on DVD box sets. Then you could watch without having to wait for it in the rotation." —u/Embarrassed_Bath5148 Related: 11."Dialing *69 so you could figure out the phone number that just called you. No, we didn't all have Caller ID, and yes, it cost money." "And yes, they used 69." —u/EmperorSexy 12."Having to run to the bathroom/kitchen/do chores during a commercial break and having a sibling yell, 'It's back on,' so you could return to the TV in time." "Additionally, knowing what time shows were premiering, so you knew to do your chores before then, so you could watch undisturbed." —u/ConsistentCollar2694 13."Waiting for songs to come on the radio so you could record them on a cassette tape, and getting mad if the DJ talked over the intro. Kids today will never know the struggle of timing it perfectly and still ending up with the DJ's voice at the beginning." —u/RudeResearcher4761 "I still have one or two songs in my entire playlist that I transferred over from physical media that have radio hosts speaking over the beginning and end, and I can't bring myself to ever find the proper non-radio versions. They are just a part of the song now, and it will sound weird without them." —u/Onigumo-Shishio 14."The simple act of being bored while waiting in a doctor's office, traveling, or attending family parties, etc." "There was no nightmare rectangle keeping us preoccupied." —u/ShedMontgomery 15."When swing music and dancing went from nonexistent to full-blown movement from 1996–1998. That trend was gone in a flash." —u/Coffee-N-Kettlebells "Zoot-suit riot baby! It was a very unique three years in music. Best of all worlds, even our movie soundtracks were amazing." —u/Intrepid_Kiwi_7995 16."Buying a magazine to know what will be on TV this week." —u/Parallel-Unicorn "On that same note: Everyone tuning in and watching a show or movie at the same time, besides a live sports broadcast, you don't see anything like that nowadays because of streaming. I remember when a popular TV show's new season premiered, and everyone would be watching the exact same thing the night it aired, or when a new Disney Channel movie aired, everyone at school would be watching it that night." —u/kakapoopoopeepeeshir Related: 17."Riding to a friend's house to see if they could hang out: If they couldn't, you were just like, 'Okay, I'll start my 2-mile bike ride back home to find something else to do.'" —u/ColdIndependence5820 "I lived in the Midwest for a few years in high school, in a little town a few miles from one of those rail-to-trail bike trails. In the summer, a bunch of us would ride something like 15 miles each an ice cream cone. But at least it was something to do." —u/absolutenobody 18."When TLC was actually 'The Learning Channel.' It was like a no-frills version of the Discovery Channel, except it came standard on cable. You had to pay extra for Discovery." "But you were still able to learn about Egyptian pharaohs, cave murals, origins of the human species, aliens, and other cool stuff. Then it caught the reality TV virus." —u/vsysio 19."Living in the moment: Because there were no smartphones, no one cared about documenting every moment of their lives for likes and views. And if we did, we used a digital or disposable camera." "Not only was it freeing, but none of the dumb things we did were preserved online…unless we spent hours uploading them onto Facebook." —u/Dry-Subject-718 Did you remember any of these trends/habits? What are some other aspects of the '90s and 2000s that would shock kids today? Tell us about them in comments or answer anonymously using the form below! Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds: Also in Internet Finds:
New York Times
11 hours ago
- New York Times
Don't Be a Loser, Gen X Baby
Pour out a Zima for Gen X-ers, who will never end up running the world. This was the theme of a Wall Street Journal article recently about corporations that are skipping over the Slacker generation — those of us born between 1965 and 1980 — and promoting millennials instead to C.E.O. As The Journal put it, presumably channeling the anxieties of one of the paper's frustrated editors: 'As they enter what is usually the prime, C-suite career stage, more businesses are retaining their aging leaders or skipping a generation in search of the next ones.' I was born in 1976, and my reaction to this news was, in Gen X parlance, whatever, man. The disappointment some X-ers feel about this is indicative of an inherent contradiction: They did not trust institutions, empty ambitions and rampant consumerism when they were young, but still feel let down when, as middle-aged adults, the system has not delivered the professional success and extreme run-up of home equity that boomers have accrued. This is especially true of X-ers who happen to be white and male and C.E.O.-shaped. And it's a bummer! In theory, these X-ers were well aware that their parents were probably going to be better off than they themselves would ever be and couldn't decide whether to be angry about it pre-emptively or to just slackerishly opt out of the corporate and political structures that led to it altogether. The Canadian writer Douglas Coupland, who popularized the term 'Generation X' with his 1991 novel of that name, had a character in it named Dag, who puts it thus: 'I don't know … whether I feel more that I want to punish some aging crock for frittering away my world or whether I'm just upset that the world has gotten too big — way beyond our capacity to tell stories about it, and so all we're stuck with are those blips and chunks and snippets on bumpers.' Mr. Coupland has an entire chapter titled 'Our Parents Had More.' And you know what? They did. Education was cheaper, cities were less gentrified and corporations at least put on a show of being loyal to their employees. Many of us aging Gen X-ers work in the gig economy, piecing together several jobs and hoping our potential income isn't undermined by the post-human, tech-oligarch-enriching promises of A.I. As a result, many of us are now background players in the grand narratives we imagined for ourselves. In the words of the iconic X-er band Pavement, we've 'been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life.' These circumstances have turned some of us into self-pitying whiners. (Maybe we always have been: Cue Beck whining, 'I'm a loser, baby.') I've heard so many X-ers complain incessantly about younger generations. First, millennials, but now Gen Z-ers, are accused of not wanting to do any work, being too sensitive, not wanting to pay their dues. But boomers looked down on us, too, and I'm not sure our failure to remember that can be exclusively explained by the brain cells we killed by disregarding Nancy Reagan's 'Just Say No' campaign, or by the perimenopausal brain fog some of us are experiencing. The younger generations are not lazier; they're just more skeptical of institutions than we are. They can already see that they may not be better off than our generation. And the fact that they think John Hughes movies are more creepy than cute does not mean that they're prudes or sensitive little snowflakes. The inability to accept this may explain why so many Gen X-ers voted for Donald Trump. If they view him as anti-establishment, he validates their need to feel that they're being subversive. If you see a post that used generative A.I. to make Mr. Trump look like a U.F.C. fighter or Rambo, I'll bet you a bottle of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill that it was made by a Gen X-er. Mr. Trump is more Beavis or Butt-Head than John Kennedy or Franklin Roosevelt, and that appeals in the sense that he annoys the responsible grown-ups, which X-ers have loved doing since 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.' And mostly, he gives them a story that says: Yes, you were lied to, and that's why your life sucks, dude. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Forbes
How A Pokemon Parody Musical Is Cleverly Skewering Our Childhood
Brandon Zelman and Harrison Bryan are grabbing life by the balls! Maybe I should back up for a second. Like most millennials, the creative partners grew up on a steady diet of Pokémon. From the video games, to the collectable trading cards, to the anime TV series, the wonderful world of Pocket Monsters was — and continues to be — a cornerstone of their respective identities. "I'm a lifelong fan,' Zelman, who hosts a Pokémon-centric podcast, declares over Zoom. 'And now we're coming up on the 30th year. It's so crazy to have been a fan of something for that long and for it to have been engaging the whole time.' Meanwhile, Bryan (creator of A Hanukkah Carol) recently attempted to beat the original Pokémon Blue with nothing but a roster of Meowths. Pretty hardcore. Given the duo's undying affection for the franchise, it only made sense for them to write — what else? — an immersive Pokémon parody musical! And given that Pokémon trainers catch and store their pugilistic creatures in nifty orbs that fit snugly on one's belt, the project could only be named — what else? — BALLS: The Monster-Catchin' Musical Comedy, which has enjoyed an extremely limited pop-up run throughout New York City these last few months. 'We were sort of averse to the typical parody, things that are just a little too one-to-one for us,' Zelman explains. 'So we set off with the intention of playing in this sandbox of a slightly existing world and then subverting it; restructuring it into our own sand castles to create an original story that was as much about our relationship to the video game and anime in the '90s as it was about the material itself.' 'As we developed the piece, as we wrote it, as we created these songs and these scenes, we never lost sight of how excited our 10-year-old [selves] would be that we get to re-examine our childhood through this parody,' echoes Bryan, who also stars in the show as the antagonistic Warlordturtle. That's just one of 151 original 'Collectabuddies" — all of whom have their own 'satiric game cards' and are safe from incurring the wrath of the notoriously litigious Nintendo, which owns stake in the Pokémon franchise — created for BALLS. 'It's really both a celebration and an evolution of the material,' Zelman affirms. 'We managed to dance our way through where we never actually quite touch any trademarked material. It was an elegant dance around any of that kind of stuff. We're really, really proud of the material and the world that we created out of it.' The resultant book and lyrics shine a hilarious spotlight on the dubious premise Pokémon presents: encouraging the player to capture wild animals and force them into combat. 'There's this suspension of disbelief when you're playing it,' notes Zelman. 'Obviously, we're in this magical world, this is how it works. The monsters listen, you tell them what to do, you capture them, you fight them, and all of this is totally kosher. It's the basis of this whole society.' 'What does it mean to capture a wild monster and force it to be my friend and fight other monsters?' muses Bryan. 'These are the ethical and kind of hilarious questions we now get to explore in our 30s when, at 10-years-old, we were just begging for more and never asking." Another question they both had: 'What if the non-playable character becomes the hero?' To that end, BALLS imagines a reality where the kindly Professor NPC who offers you a choice of three starter monsters is actually the one who created both the technology and normalized culture of trapping living things in spherical prisons. This plan to make the world safe by rebranding wild animals into 'Collectabuddies' eventually blows up in The Professor's face like a self-destructing Electrode and sparks an adventure that also ropes in the man's 'piece of sh** — aka The Rival (Teresa Attridge dialing the insufferable Gary Oak archetype up to eleven). 'The major relationship in the show is between an older generation and a younger generation fighting over what's right about this world,' explains Bryan, who doesn't 'see a ton of parody musicals' with messages about defying limitations (both personal and societal) and the critical need for environmental conservation. 'We've been in contact and partnership with the New York Marine Rescue Center, and some of our our proceeds have gone to helping these turtles get rehabilitated and returned to the wild. We've even adopted a turtle.' He later continues: 'We have embraced the interactivity of the raw material and [the fact] that this show is not just a theater experience. This show is also a game. It is also a cartoon … It's very rare to experience both a non-scripted narrative and a very precise, timed-out musical to a track. We are so ambitious in how we tell this story that I think traditional theatergoers will be like, 'Wow, look at these theatrical conceptions!' And non-theater goers are going into this and saying, 'Wow, what a party!'" To raise money for the multimedia production that involves everything from puppets to video segments, the creators turned to Kickstarter, ultimately netting just over $36,000 out of a $30,000 goal and becoming one of the crowdfunding site's 'Projects We Love.' For the music, Zelman and Bryan called on composers like Lena Gabrielle (Emojiland), Pippa Cleary (The Great British Bake Off Musical), Joriah Kwamé (Little Miss Perfect), Aaron Kenny (The Little Mermaid), and Grace Yurchuk (Caesar: The Musical), Allan Nalven ("LSDJ"), and Matthew Ryan Hunter (NBC) for something in the vein of the "SpongeBob musical where you have a lot of different musical artists lending their voices to give that sort of eclectic feel," Zelman says. Allan Nalven even went so far as to compose music inside an actual GameBoy console 'to create the most authentic music and sound effects that you could achieve,' Zelman adds. And while the show is very much a satire, it never forgets to pay homage to the fandom that led to its existence in the first place. 'We were dedicated to making sure the lyrics were dense with Easter eggs. So you could go back, revisit it, and be like, 'Oh, that's a reference to that very, very niche memory I have of this very, very peculiar aspect of this thing that was buried in the back recesses of my brain!'' 'It's important to us that we're celebrating it while we're lampooning it,' agrees Bryan. "I think it's fair to say that in many respects, it shaped so much of our social interactions and friendships. That's really important to celebrate while lampooning." The creators also sought input from individuals who aren't die-hard Pokémon fans as a way to combat any rose-colored missteps. 'If they didn't love the story and characters, they wouldn't be as on board as they are now with this adventure,' Bryan explains. 'So I think working outside of our own fandom actually proved tremendous in the creative process.' About a month before BALLS was set to debut its first performance, however, the actor playing the Professor dropped out, leaving the entire production in the lurch. With nothing to lose, Zelman and Bryan made a Hail Mary offer to Stuart Zagnit, OG voice of Professor Oak in the English dub of the Pokémon anime series, never thinking he'd actually accept. 'It is a very strange merging of the things that are probably the most important to me,' Zagnit, a veteran of the musical theater scene, says of the meta casting. 'Having been involved with Pokémon for the first 10 years of its existence is something I'm very proud of, but I kind of put it in a different side of my life and career. It wasn't until the anime convention world really emerged that I re-embraced it. So now, to have a vehicle that actually blends both sides of my professional performing career, is kind of like a dream that I never imagined would be realized.' One thing's for certain: this ain't the kindly Professor of you remember, with BALLS taking Zagnit to 'places I have never gone before,' he says. 'People get to hear me say really off color-things that I would never have said [in the anime]. It's kind of fun to let go and be in that persona, but also be breaking out of the persona at the same time.' Zelman adds that a lot of the "crude, rude, and lewd stuff' contained within the show isn't just for shock value. "It's all there because when you're a little kid and you have the power to name your character, you might just go ahead and call them 'Butthead,'' he notes. 'That might be an act of rebellion, [but] you walk around and you get a laugh every single time. We're trying to really lock into that youthful feeling of picking up a game and entering this world that's familiar, but different every time.' Because of the pop-up rollout, there have only been about a week's worth of BALLS performances across a period of fourth months, according to Zagnit's estimate (those wishing to check it out can follow the official Instagram for regular announcements). But if the team has its way, this smattering of shows is the start of something much bigger, 'the beginning of a movement," Bryan says. 'I think what we're creating here is really special, and there's a huge community for it in New York and around the world. There is a renaissance of independent theater-making Off-Broadway that is proving to be a more sustainable model than the large, corporate worlds of the Broadway theaters. If we can help pave a way for more theater makers who are game to think outside the box and include audiences of larger accessibilities, then that would be a very noble endeavor for BALLS.' 'We've got all kinds of dreams,' Zelman finishes. 'As we continue to grow and reach our audience, we're really trying to find ways to touch people who maybe aren't so familiar with theater, but are familiar with our inspiration. So we want to go to conventions. We want to take it out on the road and meet people where they are … I want to be at trading card shows. I want to have 'BALLS Fest.' I'm hungry for it. I want people to meet our monsters, see our show, and celebrate with us." Zagnit closes out the discussion by appealing to potential investors, who have a unique opportunity 'to get in on the ground floor" of a project with plenty of room to — dare I say it? — evolve. 'There's a big audience out there that just wants to go and have a good time," he concludes. "And we certainly give them a good time.' The musical will enjoy a panel at this year's edition of New York Comic Con with the Q&A discussion moderated by none other than Veronica Taylor, the original voice of Ash Ketchum. More details can be found here!
