I am a child of the 80's. Obviously. I don't know why, but for some reason last night I had a dream and I was back in my old house, as a child, playing with all my toys. I woke up, and this blog was forming in my head. I had to rush to find some paper to write down all the toys that were popping up from my childhood! Too many to name, really, and there are some good ones, but I thought I would narrow it down to 10, which has been very difficult. The 80's had some good toys, and we see that these days many of them are making a comeback. As it should be. Respect your elders, and respect their awesome toys. That's what I always say. So here you have my list, in no particular order, because if I had to put them in order we'd be here all day. And please, when you're done reading my list, feel free to comment and let me know if I left something off that you absolutely loved as a child (in which case I will tell you to write about it on your own damn blog), or if you grew up in a different time than the 80's, what were your favorite toys? 10. Sit & Spin This picture is a new Sit & Spin, and apparently, nowadays, they talk. Whatever, that's a load of crap. Back in my day, we had to make our own fun. So we sat, we span, and we sang. And that's just how we did things. I really wish they made adult sized sit & spins. Get your head out of the gutter! I just mean that I would spin and spin for hours (I was easily amused as a child), and I wish I could recapture that feeling, that head rush you got from it. Now, I'd probably vomit all over the place, though. Probably better that they don't make big ones. 9. Mr. Men & Little Miss BooksI loved these books as a child. And the best part is, they are making a comeback. I saw them in the store the other day, and I was very tempted to buy them all up, but they were quite pricey. Good news! I found them in a catalogue, 6 for $7.00, and you can get 1 set of the Mr. and 1 set of the Little Miss and you can be your sweet behind that I did just that. Merry Christmas to me. I do not know what it is about these books that entranced me so as a child. Ok, yes I do. Sort of. After the books came out, Arby's started giving away the small figures in their children's meals. And boy howdy did I love me some Arby's. Any excuse I could get to eat there. A Junior Roast Beef? With only ketchup? And curly fries (before curly fries became popular)? Yes please. And bonus I get a Little Miss Figurine? SOLD. 8. Fisher Price Record Player I used to be a DJ in a former life. Did you know that? Oh yeah. I tore it up with some plastic Fisher Price records. I used to bring down the house with classic jams like "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "London Bridges", and a sure crowd pleaser "Do you know the Muffin Man?" Everyone was on the dance floor when I started scratching. Fivel, Santa Bear, and Rainbow Brite all got up and started to boogy. I gave up DJing when they started using vinyl. Humph. Vinyl. Crazy kids. PS Boogy is a word you don't hear much of any more, and I'm going to try to bring it back. Who's with me? 7. Monchichi Everyone sing it with me now, Monchhichi, Monchhichi! Oh so soft and cud-a-ly! With his thumb in his mouth he's really sweet! It's fun to play with their little feet! La la la! La la la! Happy, happy Monchhichi! I love you Monchichi! I need therapy, but I could do a whole post just on the cuteness and lovability of the Monchichi. Let me be clear. I. Loved. Monchichi. Another picture perhaps? Oh, what the hell. 6. Get in Shape Girl The 80's were the time of Jane Fonda and legwarmers. Of Olivia Newton John's "Let's Get Physical" and headbands. Leotards. High top sneakers. 3 pairs of color coordinated socks, all scrunched down together (over your legwarmers, of course). It was not a time of high fashion, but darn it, it was a time for fitness (and let's face it, we thought we looked good). Get in Shape Girl was for little girls who wanted to get in on the craze. I loved it. There were several different sets that you could buy that included various weights, batons, jump ropes, headbands, sweat bands, water bottles, etc. Some even came with a video. I only had one set, and it came with some sweat bands and a couple of purple weights. I used to put the sweat bands on and climbed some trees. That was my fitness regiment. My cousin Ang had more GISG stuff than I did, and I was jealous of her. I feel certain that this is the reason why to this day, she is skinnier than I am. 5. Dazzle Dolls/Glamour Girls I didn't take the above picture, but it sure looks like something I would have done. I loved nothing more than taking my camera and lining up my dolls, my stuffed animals, my shoes, my rocks, whatever; and taking some pictures. The one above looks like it was taken in the bathtub. Totally something I would have done. But I digress. Glamour Girls/Dazzle Dolls are the toy I had the dream about last night. I had completely forgotten about their existence, which is sad because they played a big roll in life in the 80's. Things are about to get embarrassing. For me. Confession: I have a very clear memory of being in our old house, upstairs playing with my Glamour Girls. I am listening to Kool & The Gang sing "Joanna", and my Dazzle Dolls are dancing to it, while prancing upon the top of our Fisher Price parking garage/car wash toy. My mom is downstairs, watching Falcon Crest. Or maybe Dallas. I'm pretty sure my brother and I are supposed to be in bed, but somehow, we're awake and playing. For some reason, Kool and the Gang songs feature prominently in my childhood memories. "Fresh" and "Joanna" are my 2 favorites. And "Get down on it". And "Cherish". Anyway... 4. ColorForms What a simple concept, and what an awesome toy. ColorForms seriously provided me with hours of entertainment. My favorites were the Smurfs, Garfield, and Muppet Babies. Do they still make ColorForms? Anyone know? Anyone? Bueller? 3. Cabbage Patch Kids I know I can't be the only person who remembers the craze that surrounded these dolls. When they first came out (was it in 1983?), everyone wanted one. You couldn't find them anywhere, and when you did, they were pricey. I don't know how much, it was probably like $9.99 but dammit back in the 80's that was a lot of money! (I'm just kidding, I think they were closer to $25-$30) My first CPK was named Patty Candy and I loved her. She was a preemie, so she looked nothing like the one pictured above. Although my second one did. Her name was Susan Francois. I had a lot of Cabbage Patch Kids. And I remember all their names. I will not bore you with such details. But I will tell you that I have a lot, a LOT of pictures of them. 2. Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine I did not have an Easy Bake Oven. I don't want to talk about it. But I did have a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine Maker, and man, I loved it. For that first day it made great sno-cones. Until the blades, which were already pretty dull, got even duller, and then you'd put the ice chunks in there and you'd have to crank it for 45 minutes just to get a tiny cup-full of ice. Plus, it only came with a few little bottles of syrup, and once those ran out, my parents refused to buy any more, so we had to eat plain ice. And we lived in Michigan, so if we wanted plain crushed ice, we just walked outside during the months of November - April and had all the plain crushed ice we could ever want. It was called snow. 1. Strawberry Shortcake Strawberry Shortcake was my first love. And you know they say that you will always have a place in your heart for your first love. I am not exaggerating when I say that I lived and breathed for Strawberry Shortcake. I. Was. Obsessed. More than the dolls, I had a S.S. bike with streamers and a basket (so bad-ass), the S.S. "pretend" kitchen (which compared to the play kitchens of today is a piece of crap, but I loved it), and I was S.S. for 3, yes that's right, 3 years in a row for Halloween. The first year, my Grandmother, God love the woman, made me by hand a beautiful Strawberry Shortcake costume. She made the hat and the smock out of this wonderful flannel/felt material that had tiny strawberries all over it (it was cold in Michigan, y'all, we had to bundle up on Halloween). She put stuffing in the hat so it would sit high on my head like it did with my real friend Strawberry. We slapped a red shirt and some tights on me, painted some freckles on my face and called it a day. I hated it. Looking back on the pictures now, it was seriously a wonderful costume, so obviously labored over and made with love. I thought it was a giant piece of crap. I wanted the store bought Strawberry Shortcake costume. The one with the plastic "cover" that you tied in the back and the mask that stunk and you could barely breathe with it on your face. All my friends at school at plastic, store bought Halloween costumes, and that is what I wanted too. There is even a picture, somewhere, of me in that wonderful costume with the biggest pout on my face. I promise to try and find it. I'm sorry Gram. That was a wonderful costume. The next year, (and the year after) my mom let me buy the store bought one. You should see the shit-eating-grin on my face in those pictures. Right. Back to the dolls. I wish I could say I had them all, but I didn't. I had Strawberry, Crepe Suzette, Cafe Ole, Lemon Meringue, Blueberry Muffin, and Apple Dumplin'. I always wanted the Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes. Remember how they smelled? Like sweet wonderfulness. I told you I was in love with a girl. A girl named Strawberry. And if I had to only pick one toy from the 80's, it would be her. And her group of fruity friends. Thus concludes my list. And it was really hard to narrow it down, I tell you. So here are some honorable mentions. Pound Puppies, Big Wheel, Rainbow Brite, Shrinky Dinks, Care Bears, My Little Pony, Transformers, He-Man and She-Ra, Pogo Ball........ Do you have any to add?

Cabbage Patch Dolls are a collectible, and even though some now living in this modern times may not be so familiar with these dolls, the hunt is on for them. Th

Man, we wish we'd held on to so. many. things.

This summer will see the return of 80s toy craze The Cabbage Patch Kids with the birth of a new generation of toys.

Did you guys have Fashion Plates? Oh man...It was the best! You put these little raised templates underneath paper and rolled a black crayon sort of thing over them and it made an imprint of the outfit you created. The plates were divided up unto tops, bottoms and heads with hairstyles and hats. After you created a design you got to color in the outfit you created! I didn't use those hateful colored pencils it came with. I used my neon crayons, which were the very best. I was not into understated beiges and sands and creams- no sir-ee! I was straight up Versace and shit! I remember I liked the hoochie outfits best. Yikes! Okay, I showed you all a picture of the box of the lovely BARBIE PERFUME MAKER, but here is a picture of the actual toy, which I would consider one of my very favorite toys I have ever owned. You put the little "scent sticks" in water, cranked the wheel and the scent/color infiltrated the water in the little cup. Then you could pour the scent into the bottle of your choice and even BOX the thing up! My favorite scent was Strawberry Fields. The Snoopy Snow Cone Machine was awesome. I would sit there cranking the little cheese grater, trying to shave down a rock hard ice cube for 20 minutes. I would be dripping sweat afterwards. But I didn't give up- I still tried to sell my weak sno-cones to the mailman for 25 cents! Here is the actual ad for Cabbage Patch Kids in the Sears Catalog, where my mother got all of our toys. Remember how AWESOME sleeping bags were? They had such colorful ones back then. Sleeping on the floor with my friends was always so fun. My friend Erin had a Garfield one and mine was the Shirt Tales. Was there anything more incredible than Strawberry Shortcake dolls back then? The white and red and pink- it was always looking like Valentine's day and I didn't even mind the red. Her strawberry scent was so yummy! And she had all these cute little friends with fat heads and freckles! I wanted Angel Cake (was that her name?) so desperately! Did any of you have this house? I didn't even know this existed. The little girl in the ad is totally eyeballing her mother and trying to tell her with her eyes " I WANT THIS FOR CHRISTMAS." I played with this one a LOT. My sister and our friend Erin would always play dentist. The playdoh molds had little cavity faces on them. You made a bunch of teeth, most of which were like, supposed to be rotted, and you put them in this old guys mouth. Then you went to work on extracting those bad boys! We would be so detailed in playing dentist, that I would draw up an invoice and bill your ass for my work. THIS. IS. THE. GREATEST. TOY. EVER. (deep breath) You guys...I am serious...I think it was my uncle who bought me this and thank heavens he did- I got to make my own MAKE UP!!!!! I also had the hair extension one and dyed all of the hair pink. Did I already tell you about that? Anyway, it was a GREAT toy for those of us who loved make up. I love make up to this day thanks to Fresh n' Fancy. Cabbage Patch Kid commercial another Strawberry Shortcake commercial:

1983 The first edition of Coleco Mass Marketed Cabbage Patch Kids came out. The head molds they used were 1, 2, 3, and 4. #1 Th...

Amanda Lillie, 32, from Georgia, U.S. has created a range of crocheted wigs so fans of the Cabbage Patch Kids can dress up like iconic child's toy.