Every year, children’s toys seem to get more tricked-out and more hopelessly intertwined with our digital devices. Hot Wheels tracks are available that you control from a computer. Robotic elephants that use a trunk to eat peanuts and owls that transform into drones. Some of these toys are fantastic, but many are very sophisticated, frustrating, or too costly as well.
And they don’t necessarily do what toys should with all their bells and whistles: promote exploration and experimentation, or improve problem solving and by creative play, imagination. Retro toys and classic toys stand the test of time for this reason. Such items are fun and entertaining and impervious to trends. No amount of blasting sounds can beat thoughtful, open-ended architecture, flickering lights, or robotic wizardry. Here are 8 vintage toy options for your children.
Fisher-Price Cash Register
Do you have a budding entrepreneur? Well then it is time to discover how to count. You may think a cash register made of plastic shouldn’t make a good toy. It’s weirdly scientific, weirdly consumerist and weirdly obsolete. But all those decades later, the Fisher-Price cash register is still in development because the mechanics hold a strong appeal to young learners and counters and hoarders. It’s a toy in the Montessori style with no pretensions.
Hasbro Connect 4 Game
Yeah, you can buy complex logic puzzles that require a graduate degree to complete, of course. Or go for a game that is tried and true. You’re dropping discs into slots. You win when you get four discs in a row. It’s so easy. Well, or is it? Just try this. You will surely feel the thrill.
Playskool Sit ‘n Spin
Looking for an easy to play, enjoyable toy for your kid? Well toys don’t get any easier or more enjoyable than this one. Playskool Sit ‘n Spin is apt for your child. You just have to sit on it and just need to turn it around. Over and over again and again. Though the game is easy, it also helps in your child’s development. It allows children to practice their equilibrium, balance and motor skills.
Fisher Price Classic Toys Retro Music Box Record Player
This turntable toy comes straight from 1971 and still occupies a huge place in our heart. This toy plays 10 songs on five albums giving us a full vintage feeling. Meanwhile,’ vinyl’ is placed inside the record player like old times. This is a very cool, compact, robust and simply brilliant toy for your children. In the fast-moving age of music in their phones itself, this is a good reminder of age old techniques.
Slinky – The walking spring toy
You can stretch it,you can bounce it, you can watch it walk the steps up and down. This toy doesn’t need an introduction, everybody loves the slinky – the walking spring toy. Not only do these things go downstairs, they make EDM music (or Imagine Dragons, if you have to) a lot more fun than they normally are. So, what are you waiting for, get your child their own Slinky. They can see a few YouTube videos for inspiration and just that way they will be ready to turn on the music and put on an entertaining show.
Jacks
This classic pastime never loses its appeal, amid the onslaught of video games. Jacks have a half-life that is reduced. Before ending up under the couch, they lead dirty, brutish, and brief lives. But that’s OK. The game is simple and enjoyable. Children get obsessed and concentrated, parents get drawn in. Is there an especially special thing about this set? Actually not. This is a fine one. That’s just what it is and that is enough.
Battleship
Wish to prepare your children for the world outside from within the comforts of their nursery, then this is the game for them. This classic puzzle teaches children how gaming is mainly about reading your opponent’s mind. More often than not, children’s games are about bits or rules or how these things clash (and the inevitability that a combination of these will end in tears).
What distinguishes Battleship is that it’s for other people reading. The Hasbro classic teaches children to search an opponent’s face and draw conclusions. Kids are trained to be tactical.
Lincoln Logs
For 100 years, these genius building blocks have been a crowd-pleaser. Lincoln Logs existed before there were Legos. Today, these constructive wooden cylinders may not get the love they once did, but they remain extremely enjoyable and more versatile than you recall, at least from a play perspective. Wouldn’t you want to build a house? Set them up like pins for bowling. Would you like to make Jenga a little tougher? Build a wall around the tower’s foundation.
These toys will surely make your children’s playtime as memorable as they made yours.