My Favorite Non-Star Wars Toys Of My Youth

Posted by Chris on 02/05/22 at 07:05 AM Category: Memberberries

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Boy cannot live by Star Wars alone, and I'm not talking about the other tentpole toy franchises of the 80's. So I'm not going to talk about Masters of the Universe, LEGO, G.I. Joe, Transformers, or M.A.S.K. (or the Real Ghostbusters or TMNT for you youngins). There are websites dedicated to all of those lines, and it would make no sense to discuss them on a Star Wars fan site. I'm also putting a cut off for toys I had before I started collecting baseball cards because I view that as when my post-toy transition began. Toys started to have a different meaning after that point. They were possessions and not cherished keepsakes. Therefore you won't find the NES on my list. Leaving LEGO off the list is difficult for me because those LEGO space sets of the 80's definitely captured my imagination as much as Kenner Star Wars, and for a time, maybe even more so. You know I was hooked when I was begging my dad to buy a bunch of those moon baseplates.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Here are some of the one-off toys that I really cherished as a kid. Maybe by me talking about my favorites, it will jog your memory for some of yours.

Capsela

This was a building toy, but not nearly as well know as LEGO or even Kinnex. I loved it. As the name implies, you basically connected a bunch of capsules. One was the motor capsule. The others basically operated as transfers cases which could spin the other attachments. Those could be wheels, paddles or all manner of whirlygig. My parents were really big into sneaking in those educational toys that didn't seem educational. I spent hours making different combinations, and regretting the fact that I didn't have one of the bigger sets. I would stare at those bigger sets in the store, but the price pushed them into birthday/Christmas territory. While I loved Capsela, it never cracked my wishlist for those bigger gift events. That would go to those aforementioned toy franchises or video games.

Dark Tower

I was absolutely hooked on this game. In fact, I'm pretty sure this is what got me fully into the fantasy genre, and later role playing video games like The Bard's Tale. I don't remember the specifics, but I eventually figured out how to play the game without the board and would storm the tower with insurmountable armies. How epic was this board game? THEY GOT ORSON WELLS TO DO THE COMMERCIAL:

Atari 5200

This is it. This is the king of the list. I now know that the Atari 5200 is junk. Just a minor incremental improvement over the 2600 and lacked backwards compatibility, but as a kid, that didn't matter one bit. The Atari 2600 port of Pac-Man was the most disappointing thing to happen in 1982, and that was the year Grease 2 was released! The 5200 Pac-Man looked exactly like the arcade version to my young eyes, and I had to have it. Earlier in the year, McDonald's had a contest where the grand prize was a 5200, and fantasized about winning it. I did not, but Santa would make up for it. Not only that, he dropped it off before midnight on Christmas Eve. My parents decided I would never get to sleep until I got to play it. I ended up playing it all night long and never went to bed. It was the first time in my life that I stayed up all night. I was so cranky on Christmas Day that I called my mother's aunt a "jerk". Good times.

The video game crash was imminent, and this toy burned bright but briefly for me. It was replaced a few years later by the console that saved video games.

There's my list. I decided that Garbage Pail Kids cards (stickers) were not a toy, so they didn't make the list. There's a few others that definitely captivated me, but the memories are too vague, such as Hugo: Man of a Thousand Faces. I have to wonder if there are some I'm forgetting.