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How do?

If you’re reading this, you’re on Dakka. Which means, like me, you effing love your toys. And why shouldn’t you?

And this is a thread to find out the toylines fellow Dakkanauts hold in high regard, either in terms of sheer nostalgia, as active and ongoing collectors, and everything in between.

As a child of the 80’s, I am of course spoiled for choice. But in perhaps a surprise, over He-Man, Transformers and Star Wars, my nomination is one I liked overall, but wasn’t particularly into as a Weedy Lirrul Grot,

And it’s GI Joe.

What range. What variety. What representation! And it took a bloody long time to genuinely jump the shark.

Of course, as a Brit, to me it was Action Force until like, 1988. Then it was GI Joe: The Action Force, and finally GI Joe.

It was a constant toy shelf staple throughout pretty much my whole childhood, into my early teens. And it’s had numerous relaunches and that ever since.

But let’s dial this right back to the start of its 3 3/4” line. Scale inspired by Star Wars, but with the cunning addition of actual articulation. A toy engineering investment I will always respect. And at that point, it was pretty grounded. Nothing overly esoteric, despite a splodge of Fantasy here and there.

Over the years, the war between Joe and Cobra escalated, and ever more fantasy edged in. But incrementally so. Right up to ‘ok now that is objectively silly’ in the early/mid 90’s (depending where you can stretch your credulity to as an individual).

And other than aesthetic, relatively little changed. The articulation remained. The scale remained. So someone picking up a 1984 Joe can have it drive a 1994 Joe. That’s....that’s quite something.

Something I genuinely only noticed today? It was also diverse in the modern term. Figures of all colour, cast and creed were released. And relatively few were stereotypes. An African American Joe was just a Joe, with his own unique accessories (snap on, snap off!). Not a hint of execs demanding ‘Hip-Hop Handgun and Rap Battle Cannon’ etc. Just, a figure, which happened to have a dark skin tone is all. Hispanic, Asian, Caucasian. This range was genuinely way ahead of its time, and so far as I’m aware, nobody really cared or remarked upon it. It just had a super broad appeal.

Best bit for me? Which probably explains why I’m in our shared hobby? The vehicles were model kits! You had to put them together yourself! Which meant when I got bored, I could disassemble and reassemble them. Part transformer appeal, part Lego appeal. All fun!

What’s your vote, Dakka?

Marvel Legends, when ToyBiz was making them. Could play with them, excellent packaging to keep them safe, and they came with a comic book. And then build-a-figures came! Before the dark times. Before Hasbro. Then the ruination of the line was complete. Somehow they continue, but the quality sucks.

LEGO. Bored? Take it apart and build something new! GiJoes need somewhere to battle? Build a fort. Need a tank? Build a tank.

I think I was more of a TMNT boy, then Joe, but I liked both. Transformers was up there, of course.

But LEGO was the toy that was *supposed* to be taken apart. I took everything apart. Wanted to know how it worked, how it was built... GI Joes had ball and socket joints at the torsos with elastic bands holding the limbs on. Additional info: The elastics were not really “replaceable”.

I probably would still have a sizeable toy collection if they didn’t all eventually wind up in bits boxes.

Rocks, sticks, and hyenadons.
-Poke the hyenadon.
-Run from the hyenadon.
-Climb trees to escape the hyenadon.
-Watch the hyenadon catch Nog who slower than you.
-Watch the hyenadon eat Nog.

Good clean fun.

Look, you.

Just like, emerge into the 16th century at least?

Wow, so many fond memories; I suppose if I had to pick just one it would be...

LEGO

Runner-ups:
Micro-Machines (very close 2nd)
Ghostbusters
TMNT
M.A.S.K
Transformers

I never liked G.I. Joe or He-Man

LEGO! I never really got on with Meccano (it was fun but everything seemed to shake itself apart too fast); Hornby was fun but at the same time very space demanding.

LEGO was just pure fun; plus it worked how you wanted it too. You could go full engineer with technic or you could spend hours playing with pew-pew lasers and spaceships all running on pure imagination..

I sort of missed the original Transformers, but the Beast Wars transformers were great - very nicely detailed and good fun to transform


However I think we all really know what the BEST toy is

Look, you.

Gehms Wuhrkashurp are serial business, and not included!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Look, you.

Gehms Wuhrkashurp are serial business, and not included!

All gud toys is serial busness!!

G.I. Joe was pretty superb as a toyline before the show was killed by the laws in 1992 regarding public broadcast cartoons.

My father was a model-maker, toy-soldier fan, etc. so I always was fortunate that my father shared my enthusiasm for toys. I was lucky to have the USS Flag (the aircrafter carrier), and a lot of the large deluxe kits. They had a really cool short-lived resurgence maybe 10 years ago with a bunch of nice retro-themed releases. I don't collect toys, but I always saw the retro-GI joe stuff and thought about it.

PS: As far as the best quality? I'd argue StarCom and ExoSquad were waaaay up there.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Just like, emerge into the 16th century at least?

But then who else would get your "pop culture" references?

I'm not sure I could choose... Lego was a huge deal for me as a kid. Star Wars figures were a constant favorite because they were Star Wars, even if some of the individual figures were disappointing.

I think the gong possibly goes to M.A.S.K., though. Cool figures, the masks were a nice gimmick and the transforming vehicles were awesome, even if some were a bit of a stretch.

And they were the scale that I've long thought Star Wars should have been... Would have allowed for more of the vehicles to be properly in scale.


Honorary mention would go to He-Man and Transformers, though.

 oni wrote:


M.A.S.K

Yes! In my village we just about preferred this to Transformers, but few people remember it now, despite one of the better cartoon themes. I always wanted a Switchblade but I ended up with most of the cars.

There are two UK toy lines that I never see mentioned, the first is Manta Force. A big 'good guy' ship full of smaller vehicles facing off against the evil Red Venom (and smaller Red Viper). They did another wave of toys with a 3rd faction but I'd lost interest by then. My brother had Manta Force, I had Reds Venom and Viper.



And the other is StarCom. Another generic good vs evil sci fi toy line (sue me, it was the 80s, we all believe it was literally 10 years away) where all the figures had magnets in the feet and the playsets had metal strips for them to stick to. I actually barely had any StarCom, there was a set of 4 'crates' that became corners of a base but that's all I ever owned.

Has to be Star Wars circa 2003-2007ish, basically anything that came out between Attack of the Clones and Clone Wars...

And it really was 'anything'. Action figures of basically any character you care to name, all with amazing detail and articulation and props that put the current overpriced and frankly crap ones to shame. Dozens of variations of blaster and lightsaber, from the light-up LEDs to the spring-loaded collapsible to the ones loaded with sound effect and motion sensors. LEGO, of course, a huge variety and so much value for money compared to the current stuff (I feel awful for any kids trying to buy SW LEGO on pocket money these days!). Small scale starfighters, large scale action figures, all manner of props/costumes...

It really was enough to fuel a childhood imagination better than almost anything else, the ultimate nerd origin story for anyone in the right sort of age range. Say what you like about the Prequel generation, we might not have had the best films, but we sure as hell had the best toys!

 insaniak wrote:
I think the gong possibly goes to M.A.S.K., though. Cool figures, the masks were a nice gimmick and the transforming vehicles were awesome, even if some were a bit of a stretch.

I had nearly forgotten about those. Those were fun. Now I remember really liking the one on the right (at 2:52 in this video if the timestamp doesn't work) where the front of the truck can move up. I always liked toys with transformations (Transformers too). But generally my favourites were still LEGO (just the versatility tops any transformation) and Playmobil in second place (not as variable but still quite versatile).

The only toy line to ever matter: Lego Technics. The things you can make with non standard parts and joints... I had a millennium slizer that was the dogs bollocks of toys. Then came girls, drinking and computer game. Not necessarily in that order.. Man it sucks being old...

Second in line would have to be TMNT. Any and all TMNT toys were just awesome, good old times.

Baisicaly as long as it said "Made in Taiwan" you knew you were getting agood quality dinosaur/TMNT.

Legos because it encompasses the rest. But I recognize that's cheating.

I have no problem with GI Joe.

Though Micronauts and Godaikin will always have a place in my heart.

Agreed! I LIVED GIJoe when I was a kid. Had damn near everything they put out. I was a spoiled gak.

 Riquende wrote:

There are two UK toy lines that I never see mentioned, the first is Manta Force. A big 'good guy' ship full of smaller vehicles facing off against the evil Red Venom (and smaller Red Viper). They did another wave of toys with a 3rd faction but I'd lost interest by then. My brother had Manta Force, I had Reds Venom and Viper.

Spoiler:

Oh I forgot about those! For some reason they didn't market as heavy as I think they could have. I recall it being the super cool toy that I only saw at one or two friends homes. Sadly I never got either of the big ships, but I did one day get a Viper and to this days its one of the few toys that I remember owning that I lost. I've never had any recollection what happened to it, all I know is I really loved that little ship then one day it was gone!

Great toys indeed!

This actually reminds me of aother toy line that came along much later - Battle Planets! Round plastic planets chock full of troops and war-engines and a huge mega planet that could eat other planets! I collected a good few though never managed to get them all; then they added moons for the planets and hgue battle tanks as well. Great times - and I recal being very impressed at the spring loaded guns for its day!

Lego (well it is an obvious one)

Star Wars toys from the original trilogy (The AT-AT and Millennium Falcon showed what big plastic preassembled toys could be)

and to date myself Action Man! Yes it was a dress up doll for boys, but with uniforms, guns and adventure (plus 'realistic' flock hair, gripping hands and eagle eyes).


The later relaunched modern Action Man stuff is pretty poor and really no more than an upscaled action figure and the kind of SF/kind of eco-mentalism story line they brought in was fairly terrible and generic too

Max Steele and the Robo Force.


Er, I mean micromachines. Micromachines followed by Lego, the toy you use if there is no micromachine for your current spaceship crush.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

and to date myself Action Man! Yes it was a dress up doll for boys, but with uniforms, guns and adventure (plus 'realistic' flock hair, gripping hands and eagle eyes).

I had an Action Man. Mum found it at a garage sale. It didn't have any clothes or gear, so was just Action Man running about in his tightie-whities. The only other figure I had that size (which possibly came from the same garage sale) was some weird, transparent guy with a colourful, spinning flywheel in his chest. They didn't get played with often...

Zoids!!!!!!
FIGHT ME!!!
But in all seriousness, I loved those toys. God I had so many, I loved building them and seeing them move.

I think its obviously transformers. While some lines of transformers are crap, the vast VAST majority are basically 2 toys in 1. Which is great. You can mindless change them back and forth without ever actually "playing". Transformers ftw.

Transformers were a toy that I always wanted to be better... While the newer ones have improved a lot, the original transformers toys were often really limited as action figures, or just looked bad in robot form.

It also always bugged me that the scale was all over the place, which is still a problem with the modern range as well... If someone were to make a full range of properly-articulated Transformers toys in 1/72 scale, I would have to sell my children.

 insaniak wrote:
Transformers were a toy that I always wanted to be better... While the newer ones have improved a lot, the original transformers toys were often really limited as action figures, or just looked bad in robot form.

It also always bugged me that the scale was all over the place, which is still a problem with the modern range as well... If someone were to make a full range of properly-articulated Transformers toys in 1/72 scale, I would have to sell my children.

The scale was a problem from the fact that the toys where actually two lines, one designed as toy cars that turn into appropriatly sized robots, one where "Scaled Down" toys of robots hundred of yard high

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
And this is a thread to find out the toylines fellow Dakkanauts hold in high regard, either in terms of sheer nostalgia, as active and ongoing collectors, and everything in between.

Alot of whats listed in this thread really tickles my nostalgia bone. GI Joe pretty much shaped my childhood. As did the Transformers and TMNT.

Back in 1994 when I was 13, I remember going to my local comics shop and saw my first Mcfarlane Toy. It was all Spawn and his Image Comics affiliates for the first few series, and that was fine by me as that was all I was reading at the time I think, but I recall looking at them and realizing they were game changers. The level of detail, the presentation of the product, and at the time they were in huge demand, so every release was an event.

I had long since retired all of my other toys to that box(es) in the attic/basement that I’m sure alot of us had, but these things made me want to collect and play with toys again. I did collect them for a few years, but I got into High School sports, chicks and Warhammer shortly after so I lost interest, but I still checkout MCfarlane Toys website to marvel at how far they’ve come. I may even buy a few of his MLB figures for my non gaming shelves.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:

The scale was a problem from the fact that the toys where actually two lines, one designed as toy cars that turn into appropriatly sized robots, one where "Scaled Down" toys of robots hundred of yard high

Originally, yes. But then as they went along, they added in different ranges in different sizes. So you had the 'full size' versions, and the little more-or-less Hotwheels sized versions, but like Hotwheels cars they were scaled to 'what fits in the packet' rather than to a consistent scale.

Of course, nailing down what size everything should have been would have been tricky, given that scale tended to be rather... er... fluid in the cartoon as well, even ignoring the more blatantly stupid things like Megatron going from Optimus Prime-sized to an appropriately sized handgun for whoever was holding him... Later versions of Transformers changing Megatron to a tank was a good decision.

LEGO by a mile.
Mainly because it enables self directed play more than any other.
You dont need a bro, sis, mom, dad, friend or teacher. Just you in a corner with a bucket of bricks and your crazy child imagination.
Whether its battling pirates off the coast, a medieval castle siege or a police chase through town, the only limit is sheer inventiveness.

A lot of my other tops have already been mentioned - MASK, Starcom, He-Man - all amazing too especially MASK. Such a great range of toys.

Big shout out to this lot too.
Anyone remember in the 80s they had a french, british, german and USA set. I still have a few of them out in the shed. Seriously considered kit bashing the howitzers into Ork Mekgunz

I remember the old Dino Rider toys, still have a couple of them somewhere and the old Micro Machines, still remember the 40's willy panelvan with flames I had.