Top holiday toys from the last 50 years

The holiday season is upon us, which means it’s the perfect time to dive into the history of iconic gifts — and for Americans to gear up accordingly and look out for the best deals. For retailers, it means lining physical and virtual shelves with the most popular toys and newest gadgets.

Toy shopping has transformed over the past 100 years due to advancements in the products or the marketplace. Stacker searched for products from 1920 to today that caught hold of the public zeitgeist through novelty, innovation, kitsch, quirk, or simply great timing, and then rocketed to success. The list was curated using national toy archives and data curated by The Strong National Museum of Play. Some items remain curious relics of the past, while others are essentially as iconic now as they were upon their debut. Each one also functions as a window into American culture.

So how do you choose the perfect toy for your family and friends today? If you’re looking to avoid tech, you could always opt for one of those historic classics that never go out of style, like yo-yos, Tonka Trucks, or teddy bears. If you want to impress with the latest innovations of the past decade, however, you can choose robot puppies, gaming consoles, or tablets for children.

Here are top holiday toys from the last 50 years. May they fill your heart — and stockings! — with joy.

Original estimated retail price: not available

Merle Robbins, a barbershop owner and card game enthusiast, was convinced he could improve upon the game of Crazy Eights. The result was Uno, which Robbins initially sold through local businesses and his own barbershop. Robbins licensed the rights in 1972 to a funeral parlor owner in Illinois, who took Uno onto the national stage with spectacular success.

Original estimated retail price: not available

Shrinky Dinks — thin sheets of decorated plastic that shrunk down and hardened after baking inside an oven — were marketed as pure magic upon their debut in 1973. Of course, the real explanation was polystyrene plastic, which hosts polymer chains that straighten out when heated, rolled, and cooled.

Original estimated retail price: $20 to $60

Skateboarding began in 1958 when people attached roller skate wheels to a board in order to “sidewalk surf.” It wasn’t until the early 1970s, and the creation of urethane wheels to smooth out an otherwise bumpy ride, that skateboards found their enduring stride.

Original estimated retail price: $3.95

Gary Ross Dahl supposedly thought up a pet rock over drinks with friends, imagining the ideal pet as one that made no mess and required no effort. Pair that idea with clever marketing and lucky timing, and you end up with arguably the most famous, most useless product in the history of America. Indeed, even decades later the pet rock stands as both a tribute to and mockery of the perennial wonders of capitalism.

Original estimated retail price: $5

You could pull, twist, throw, beat, and bend Stretch Armstrong, but you couldn’t break him. Made from a proprietary blend of plastic, rubber, and gel, the iconic figurine could stretch his limbs up to four times their normal size.

Original estimated retail price: $199.99

The Atari 2600 was absolutely crucial to the development of gaming. The product offered streamlined playability and a slew of great titles like “Frogger,” “Pac-Man,” and “Space Invaders.” The console wasn’t the first to bring gaming into the home, but it was arguably the earliest, most important catalyst for what would eventually become the home gaming revolution.

Original estimated retail price: $3 and up

“Star Wars” today is the bar by which all other franchises currently aspire. But the movie’s initial success in 1977 caught virtually every industry by surprise, including the toy industry. To account for the sudden demand in merchandise, toy company Kenner hastily released a series of puzzles and games to uneven results. However, as soon as the 3.75-inch action figures of Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia hit the shelves in 1978, Star Wars merchandise became as popular as the film itself.

Original estimated retail price: $24.95

Having invented the first video game system in the 1960s, it’s fitting that Ralph Baer took conceptual cues from an Atari arcade game called “Touch Me” when creating Simon in the mid-’70s. The electronic toy, which tested your memory by playing color patterns you then had to playback in sequence, was unveiled at Studio 54 of all places. It was thereafter a staple in just about every suburban toy chest in America.

Original estimated retail price: $1.99

Hungarian designer Erno Rubik designed a 3D geometric puzzle in 1974 called Magic Cube. By 1980, Rubik’s nifty contraption was in the hands of Ideal Toy & Novelty Company, which renamed it Rubik’s Cube. The puzzle was an instant success, selling 100 million units within the first two years alone. In the time since, a peripheral sphere of competitions, books, and imitators has emerged.

Original estimated retail price: $4.99

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe were created in 1981 and introduced as a series of action figures that could throw punches with a pull-and-release mechanism. In an additional show of strength, each Masters of the Universe action figure was nearly two inches larger than Kenner’s Star Wars and Hasbro’s G.I. Joe action figures.

Original estimated retail price: $3 and up

Giving Barbie a literal run for her money this year was Hasbro’s My Little Pony, a range of small, vinyl horses with long, bright, and groomable hair. Each pony also came with an adorable name and a unique emblem branded on its backside.

Original estimated retail price: $40

Defined by their doughy bodies and large, round heads, Cabbage Patch Kids took the world by storm after appearing on a TV show called “Real People” in 1980. That storm turned into a full-blown monsoon by 1983 as desperate parents shoved, scratched, grabbed, elbowed, and punched their way down the toy aisle in hopes of snagging the popular doll before Christmas. Known as the “Great Cabbage Patch Craze,” the incident would later inspire the movie “Jingle All the Way,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad.

Original estimated retail price: $4 and up

The Transformers legacy began in 1984 when Hasbro introduced a range of action figures adapted from two Japanese toys that could shape-shift from robotic aliens into motor vehicles. Along with the toy launch, came an epic backstory and a supporting line of comic books. The Transformers world would only continue to grow with TV shows, games, blockbuster films, and even cereal boxes all entering the fold.

Original estimated retail price: $69.99

A former Disney Imagineer named Ken Forsse created the cuddly, animatronic teddy bear that could read bedtime stories. Using the same technology that Disney used for animatronic theme park attractions, Forsse equipped the top-selling bear with a cassette tape and moving facial features. Even with the somewhat hefty price tag, Teddy Ruxpin was the best-selling toy of 1985 and 1986.

Original estimated retail price: $199.99

The Atari craze had slowed by the mid-’80s to a point where home gaming consoles seemed to be on the brink of extinction in the U.S. That didn’t stop Japan’s Nintendo from trying to penetrate the American market in 1985. To incentivize retailers, Nintendo’s North American division agreed to be paid only for the units that sold, while the units that didn’t sell could be returned. The gamble didn’t exactly pay off, but it got the ball rolling enough to keep the game system afloat until the release of “Super Mario Bros” in 1986. Video games have been a benchmark of American culture ever since.

Original estimated retail price: $12

Jenga involves removing blocks from a tower one at a time until said tower topples over. The addictive game debuted in 1983 but took a few years to catch on. According to legend, entrepreneur Robert Grebler — who’s largely responsible for bringing the game to North America — holds the record for the tallest known Jenga tower at just over 40 levels.

Original estimated retail price: $2 and up

Derived from Scandinavian folklore, Troll Dolls were created out of wood in the late 1950s by a Danish fisherman named Thomas Dam. American toy companies wasted no time ripping off the concept with a plastic variant that rode a wave of popularity in the 1960s. Troll Dolls then reemerged in the late 1980s and early ‘90s as an indispensable toy for kids and work-cubicle decoration for adults.

Original estimated retail price: $89.99

While not the birth of mobile gaming, Nintendo Game Boy arguably remains its biggest step forward. The 8-bit handheld console offered an approachable design, a bunch of great games, and a level of convenience that pretty much speaks for itself. As a follow-up to NES and a revolution unto itself, Game Boy was an instant home run.

Original estimated retail price: $3.99 and up

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rose to fame on the back of a massively popular animated series about witty crime fighters with an appetite for New York pizza. By the time their 1990 live-action movie dropped, the turtles had utterly conquered the youth market with best-selling toys and box office numbers to show for it.

Original estimated retail price: $199.99

Marking a big step up from NES in essentially every department, Super Nintendo duly maintained a masterful grip on the video game console sphere. However, this time around the brand faced stiffer competition in the form of competing 32-bit console Sega Genesis. The first major “console war” had officially begun.

Original estimated retail price: $29.99

The Talkboy made its grand debut in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” as a handheld recording device used by the movie’s young prankster, Kevin McCallister. A retail version was released on the same day as the movie, and thousands of far less effective pranks presumably ensued. The product was so popular that several spin-off versions were created, including Talkgirl and Talkboy FX Plus.

Original estimated retail price: $10 to $50

When not helping NASA with their Galileo Mission to Jupiter, the nuclear engineer Dr. Lonnie Johnson was home working on a heat pump that could use vaporized water pressure instead of hazardous Freon. When the pump sent a stream of water across the room, Johnson pivoted toward creating a high-powered water blaster instead. He built a prototype out of PVC pipe and an empty soda bottle he called the Power Drencher, which used an air pressure chamber to pump water from a reservoir. After a few necessary tweaks, the Super Soaker was born.

Original estimated retail price: $10

As part of the Fox Kids afternoon TV block, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” in 1993 blasted their way into the cultural stratosphere one live-action showdown at a time. Given such immediate success, merchandising a series of toys (and a 1995 movie) was an easy decision. Like so many great toys and franchises, the Power Rangers receded from the spotlight only to triumphantly return years later.

Original estimated retail price: $5 and up

Why exactly did small, inexpensive, bead-filled animals lead to a collectors frenzy in the mid- to late-’90s? Barring the basic principles of supply and demand, the phenomenon will likely remain a mystery — as will the fact that rare Beanie Babies still routinely fetch thousands of dollars on the resale market.

Original estimated retail price: $29.99

Tyco Toys cashed in on Elmo’s infectious laugh by giving the popular Sesame Street character a doll of its own in 1996. What they didn’t anticipate were the hysteric levels of demand after the toy sold out in the midst of the holiday shopping season. During the “Tickle Me Elmo Craze,” shoppers trampled store employees and engaged in physical battle all in the name of the Christmas spirit.

Original estimated retail price: $17.99

Before cell phones, teens and preteens were hooked on a virtual pet named Tamagotchi. To be fair, if left alone Tamagotchi would starve and die; so a consistent level of attention was more or less mandatory.

Original estimated retail price: $35

Like some adorable descendant of Gizmo from the “Gremlins” movies, Hasbro’s Furby charmed his way into millions of homes after a 1998 debut. While the animatronic pet’s native tongue was “Furbish,” he could pick up irresistible English phrases like “I love you” in no time at all.

Original estimated retail price: $3 to $4

Hailing from Japan, Pokémon began as a 1996 Game Boy game and then quickly segued into a full-blown franchise complete with TV shows, toys, and movies. But nothing seemed to stoke the masses’ furor like Pokémon trading cards. Besides their collector appeal, the cards inspired an official competitive league known as Pokémon Organized Play.

Original estimated retail price: $299

While the original PlayStation positioned itself as a leader of the new gaming guard in the mid-1990s, it was the PlayStation 2 that cemented Sony’s status as the veritable king of home entertainment. The console took in $250 million on the first day alone, selling out quickly because of manufacturing delays and then fetching extremely high numbers on the secondhand market. Gaming has never been quite the same since.

Original estimated retail price: $9.99 to $22.99

Scantily dressed and brimming with sass, the appropriately named Bratz dolls were marketed as “anti-Barbies” for a modern audience. The initial 2001 rollout included just four dolls, but that number rapidly grew as profits soared. A slew of movies, CDs, shows, and video games naturally followed.

Original estimated retail price: $10 and up

With roots in a Japanese Manga series, Beyblades are spinning tops that battle against one another inside a toy stadium. Their explosive success resulted in nationwide tournaments, while the manga books were developed into an anime TV series that ran for three seasons.

Original estimated retail price: not available

Cranium’s Hullabaloo was ranked the #1 game of the year for 2003 by the Toy Association. One part Twister and one part musical chairs, the game challenges children to find their way to marked pads on the floor before the electronic caller instructs everyone to freeze. Hullabaloo was lauded for keeping kids active even during indoor play.

Original estimated retail price: $99

Designed by Mark Tilden and manufactured by WowWee toys, Robosapien was a remote-controlled robot capable of vocals and 67 preprogrammed moves. In an extra-clever touch of ingenuity, Robosapien would imitate the iconic Rosebud scene from “Citizen Kane” every time you turned it off using the remote.

Original estimated retail price: $399

In the 21st-century console wars, Microsoft released a game-changer with the Xbox 360 in 2005. Touting improvements on every front along with internet connectivity, Xbox 360 would sell over 77 million units over the next eight years.

Original estimated retail price: $250

Nintendo burst back onto the video game scene with the release of the Nintendo Wii, delivering bubbly graphics, a personalized ecosystem, and handheld motion controllers for a friendlier and more interactive approach. Skyrocketing sales and popular awards let Nintendo know they had a qualified hit on their hands.

Original estimated retail price: $90

“Guitar Hero” first launched in 2005 and immediately capitalized on the interactive possibilities of modern gaming. The third installment, “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,” was not just the best-selling video game of 2007, but was reportedly the first retail video game to reach $1 billion dollars in sales.

Original estimated retail price: $7 and up

Renowned for its sophisticated themes and stunning visuals, Disney/Pixar’s 2008 film “WALL-E” played to all ages and enraptured an audience of millions. Despite the film’s wasteland vibes, Disney quickly released tons of subsequent WALL-E merchandise that sold in large enough quantities to help actualize the film’s own dire predictions.

Original estimated retail price: $5 and up

For cheap, addictive games, Angry Birds remains the franchise to beat. It debuted in 2009 and has lost little momentum since. Besides the video game itself, there’s a TV series, feature film, and a range of plush toys that have sold in the millions.

Original estimated retail price: $499

Apple’s iPad launched in 2010 and quickly found its niche in the realm between laptops and cell phones. A million units sold within the first month. Indeed, the iPad became so ubiquitous so rapidly that when the NFL struck a deal with Microsoft to use its Surface tablets exclusively in 2015, announcers couldn’t help but refer to those tablets as iPads on national TV.

Original estimated retail price: $5 and up

Skylanders brings real-life toys into the video game world using near-field communication (NFC) technology. The toys-to-life genre, and Skylanders in particular, have earned massive followings among young gamers.

Original estimated retail price: $99.99

Imagine a sturdy iPad for kids with its own proprietary range of apps, and you’ve pretty much nailed the LeapPad Explorer. The popular device has origins going back to 1999 when it debuted as an interactive talking book.

Original estimated retail price: $94.99

Tekno the Robotic Puppy came into the world in the year 2000 and has been selling in huge numbers ever since. In addition to heeding commands, the razor-sharp robot dog uses light sensor technology to react to its environment. It can also go to sleep on its own and perform backflips. In 2013, new color options were introduced and owners were granted the ability to control the toy using smart devices.

Original estimated retail price: $10 and up

The “Frozen” theme song might say to “Let it Go,” but audiences nevertheless clung feverishly to the 2013 Disney film. A subsequent range of dolls was likewise immensely popular, taking Barbie off her mantle as the best-selling toy for girls in 2014.

Original estimated retail price: $5 and up

Shopkins is more than a range of cute, collectible plastic figurines; it’s an immersive world unto itself that includes books, cards, and videos. The line of toys was in fact so popular that an entire counterfeit industry cropped up around it, with police seizing 150,000 fake Shopkins toys from two Chinese manufacturers in 2015.

Original estimated retail price: $49.99 to $59.99

Hatchimals were created by James Martin after he noticed how unboxing videos on YouTube were drawing huge numbers. In turn, he conceived a robotic animal toy that would unbox, or hatch, itself. The result was Hatchimals, and the demand was so intense that the toy sold out almost right away — much to the chagrin of numerous disappointed parents. The following year was looking no less remarkable for the irrefutably popular toy.

Original estimated retail price: $14.99

Fingerlings — the adorable, animated companions that wrap around your finger — were released in August of 2017 nearly impossible to get your hands on as the holidays approached. The craze hardly slowed down, either — its 2018 models continued expanding the range of animals and features.

Original estimated retail price: $19.99

With Hasbro’s “Don’t Step In It” game, players mold rainbow-colored clay into piles of unicorn poop, place them on the floor mat, and take several blindfolded steps determined by the spinner across the mat while trying to avoid stepping in the piles. The Toy Insider’s Jackie Breyer says gross-out toys, in general, are “a hot topic.”

Original estimated retail price: $19.99

Baby Shark has been all the rage since the song exploded in 2016. Like most pop-culture crazes, the song’s colossal impact transitioned to physical products. WowWee, the makers of Fingerlings, has produced one of the hottest toys of the season in the Pinkfrog Baby Shark Official Song Puppet. Not only do you kick-start the song upon moving the shark’s mouth, but you can actually control the tempo based on how fast or slow you open and close the jaws. Amazon offers three options: yellow Baby Shark, blue Daddy Shark, and pink Mommy Shark.

Original estimated retail price: $62.99

He goes by many names, only some of which are correct. “The Child,” (aka “Grogu” or, incorrectly, “Baby Yoda”), from Disney’s “The Mandalorian” had a major moment in pop culture history — a moment that lasted nearly two years since the “Star Wars” series release in 2019. Season two focused on the Mandalorian’s quest to return Grogu to the Jedi. This story line gave fans exactly what they were craving — more adorable scenes with the toddling green character playing off his stoic, mysterious guardian, the Mandalorian. It also gave toy manufacturers the perfect inspiration. “The Mandalorian” toys were included on many curated holiday toy lists in 2020 and this animatronic toy gave children — and let’s be serious, countless adults, too — the chance to live our their fantasies of having a Grogu of their own.

Original estimated retail price: $15

This best-selling plushie is soft and cuddly, helps children with emotional communication, and is reversible with a happy face on one side and an angry face on the other. Children and adults can enjoy collecting a variety of plushies: From unicorns to pandas, cats, and dogs, there’s something for everyone.

This piece was originally published by Stacker. You can read the original article, with toys going back to 1920, here.