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5 Childhood Toys Whose Birthdates Might Surprise You
Calling all 80s kids for a trip down memory lane
The 80s had unique new toys, Cabbage Patch Kids, Care Bears, and Transformers to name a few. What I didn’t know was that some of the best toys in the 80s were original to earlier generations.
I thought, as I’m sure many other kids did at the time, these were unique toys that no other kid had ever laid eyes on or played with before. I went down a toy rabbit hole, recalling so many fun toys that were, surprisingly, not so new after all.
Play-Doh
I bet you can still remember the excitement of getting a new pack of Play-Doh and the distinct smell when you popped off the lid. When the individual colors were still intact and had not yet been mixed up and turned brown.
It turns out Play-Doh, under a different name, was first marketed as a cleaning product. It was eventually distributed to select classrooms, and soon after teachers and students gave it rave reviews. The producers recognized they had a new marketing audience, kids. Play-Doh, a non-toxic modeling compound for kids was born. This was way back in 1956!