The 80s was a golden time for children. The toys were amazing. The TV was amazing.
The school supplies were amazing. Pretty much everything was amazing. And reminiscing about this amazingness is something we love to do.
I mean, I don’t want to brag and say that growing up in the 80s was the best. But growing up in the 80s was the best. This slideshow will show you why.
Here are 50 things that will forever be in the hearts of 80s kids:
Everyone knows the Muppets. But in the 80s, the Muppets became babies. Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies was a wildly popular cartoon beloved by 80s kids from 1984 to 1991. The show was rebooted as Disney Muppet Babies on Disney Junior in 2018 so that the kids of 80s kids could love it too.
Parents in the 80s fought each other at Christmas time just to buy their children these dolls. Some find Cabbage Patch Kids to be adorable, others hideous. Either way, 80s kids wanted them and will forever remember them as apart of their childhood.
Kids of the 80s were repeatedly reminded, even while watching cartoons, not to do drugs. They even gave us metaphors using eggs. Most 80s kids will remember these famous Drug-Free America commercials. My favorite was the “I learned it from watching you” one.
Source: ewjxn
4) He-Man and She-Ra
In the 80s, every boy and girl wanted to be a Master of the Universe or a Princess of Power. That’s because they were obsessed with He-Man and She-Ra. The long lost twin brother and sister were in every TV screen, playroom, lunchbox and anything else you can think of in the 80s. They both protected the Universe from evil “For the honor of Grayskull.”
Care Bears were the cuddly cute peace-loving, love spreading toys and cartoon characters of the 80s. They even had their own movies. Care Bears came in all kinds of colors and with different meanings and personalities. They started out as greeting card characters, then graduated to stuffed animals, and then made their television debut.
The 80s were a time of after school specials. They were made for TV movies shown on networks like CBS and ABC that were meant to educate school-aged children and teenagers on topics like pedophiles or family alcoholism. They also served as a cautionary tales to prevent kids from getting pregnant or doing drugs. The Drug Knot was one of the more memorable CBS Schoolbreak Specials.
Once upon a time, Bill Cosby was considered America’s Favorite Dad. His show, The Cosby Show, was must-see TV in the 80s. We all know how that story ended. But for a while it was happy memory in the hearts of 80s kids.
Every 80s girl had a favorite My Little Pony in the 80s. The pretty toy ponies were distinguishable by their different colored bodies and manes. As well as their “cutie marks,” which were adorable little stamps on the side of their butts.
Kids in the 80s loved reading, thanks to LeVar Burton. His show Reading Rainbow was fun and informative. We all couldn’t wait to take a look to see what was in those books. The show also donned one of the greatest TV show theme songs of all time.
Boys wanted her and girls wanted to be her. Punky Brewster was one of the coolest shows on TV in the 80s. It ran for only two years before it went into syndication but it made an impressionable mark on 80s kids.
Though the POGO Bal was invented in 1969, it didn’t hit big until the 80s when Hasbro mass-produced it, according to Wikipedia. Many kids had these but never actually mastered them. There were a lot of Pogo Bals that ended up in attics in the 80s. Still, we remember them fondly.
Rainbow Brite was a magical 80s character that completely intrigued 80s kids. We all wanted to live in her colorful sparkly universe. Even if that meant having to constantly thwart the troublesome Murky and Lurky.
At some point every 80s adolescent wanted to be a character in a John Hughes movie. All kids could relate to being the mischevious, yet chivalrous, Ferris Bueller from Hughes’ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Uncle Buck, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and The Great Outdoors were also some family favorites.
Whatever your beliefs are surrounding the King of Pop, Michael Jackson dominated the 80s. His music inspired millions. Most 80s kids tried to moonwalk across their living room at least once in the 80s. It blew people’s minds.
View-Masters could take you anywhere. To foreign lands, inside movies or cartoons, or to visit historic monuments. All that happened at the push of a button.
Teddy Ruxpin was a robot bear that read to you when you put a cassette tape in him. He looks really creepy, and he was. We just didn’t realize it in the 80s.
Small Wonder was an out-of-the-box comedy sitcom in the 80s. It was about a robotics engineer who creates a human girl robot that his family passes off as their adopted daughter. It was pretty cool to watch.
The Transformers franchise has been going strong for years. But it all began in the 80s. While 80s Americans remember Transformers as a part of their childhood, they actually started out as a toyline that was rebranded from a Japanese toy company’s Diaclone and Microman toylines.
Garbage Pail Kids trading cars were all the rage in the 80s. Kids loved them because they were gross and weird. They also doubled as stickers and puzzle pieces. Die hard GPK fans will also remember The Garbage Pail Kids Movie.
The world was graced with Hi-C Ecto Cooler in the 80s. It was a green sugary juice drink that was created after the Ghostbusters movie and cartoon came out. It featured Slimer from the The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series and was sold for years, until 1997, even though the cartoon was canceled in 1991, according to Wikipedia. The flavor was actually a rebranding of a Hi-C flavor called Citrus Cooler that first came out in 1965.
Popples were another adorable toy. Like Care Bears, they were brightly colored teddy bears. Except these ones could be rolled into a ball. This toy line also had their own cartoon.
Caboodles were a mainstay at 80s sleepovers. Girls loved storing all their makeup and hair products in them. They came in all different bright 80s colors. All the cool girls had them.
The Walkman changed family car rides forever for 80s kids. No longer bickering over the radio station, the Walkman allowed us to listen to whatever we wanted. And whereever we wanted!
Sweet Secrets was a seriously awesome toy in the 80s. It featured a doll or animal that could fold in on itself and be used as jewelry or hair accessory. Some even had makeup inside.
Trapper Keepers were all the rage in the 80s. It kept all your folders and supplies in one place. And for some reason, no one really minded carrying these huge things around. Probably because most of them had adorable Lisa Frank characters or other cute scenes on them.
Jim Henson’s cult classic movies were born in the 80s. Labyrinth, starring David Bowie, and The Dark Crystal will forever be some of our fav movies. You can throw Mirror Mask in with that lot too. Even if they were dark, kind of weird, and scary.
Before Nintendo or Playstation or XBox, there was Atari. It was the first home gaming system that went big for kids. It was introduced in 1977, but lots of kids were playing Pac-Man and Pitfall in their homes by the 80s thanks to Atari.
We all knew the phrase. And we lived by the phrase. It was written on every video tape we rented reminding us to rewind it to the beginning in our VCR before we returned it.
It started out as the Hungarian Magic Cube when it as invented in 1977. But by the time the U.S. got their hands on it, it was the Rubik’s Cube. And 80s kids loved them. Even though most of them couldn’t solve them.
There was nothing more thrilling for an 80s kid than watching Nickelodeon’s Double Dare. It was a game show were two teams had to compete in gross physical, and often messy, challenges. There was a lot of slime involved and contestants would have to pick a giant nose covered in it.
Jem and the Holograms was hands down the coolest cartoon in the 80s. It was about a young beautiful music company owner who had an alter-ego as the lead singer of a rock band. She also had a cute boyfriend and even cooler earrings.
Atari and Nintendo competed hard for the affection of 80s kids. Nintendo won us over with games like Duck Hunt. It was awesome and involved a gun you plug into the console to shoot birds with.
The best part of Saturday morning cartoons in the 80s wasn’t a cartoon. It was Pee-wee’s Playhouse. It was fun, weird, and like nothing you had ever seen before.
In the 80s, we skipped. Thanks to a ball and chain-like toy called Skip-It. Skip-It got even better in the 90s when they added a counter to it that would count all your skips.
Kids of the 80s loved drawing on the Etch-A-Sketch. Even though it was too hard to really draw anything on it. And it would cause you to lose your mind when you would accidentally erase what you managed to draw just by moving it.
Out of this World was a late 80s show. Though it didn’t get great reviews, 80s kids loved it. It was about a girl who discovers that she is half alien and has superhuman powers. Pretty cool stuff for a sitcom.
If you were a kid in the 80s, your brothers had My Buddy and your sisters had Kid Sister. But being a lifelike doll wasn’t the best part about these toys. It was their catchy TV theme song.
The 80s was all about branding. So, if there was something that was popular, it was recreated in every format imaginable, including cake pans. Eighties kids didn’t have regular birthday cakes. We had character birthday cakes.
A magical show called Zoobilee Zoo existed in the 80s. It involved grownup actors dressed as colorful animal characters. Ben Vereen starred on the show as Mayor Ben. It was epic… as was its’ theme song.
In the 80s, rock and roll gods covened at Wembley Stadium for a monumental event. Live Aid was a concert aimed at raising funds to stop the famine in Ethiopia. More than 1.9 billion people, or 40 percent of the world’s population, watched the concert/fundraiser featuring bands like Queen and Led Zeppelin.
Once upon a time, video games came in the form of catridges. And sometimes they didn’t work. But sometimes you could blow into them and get them to work. Nintendo claims this doesn’t actually work and is a bad idea, but 80s kids swore by it.
Lunches in the 80s came with Handi-Snacks. Now they’re all kinds of Handi-Snacks. But in the 80s, it was mostly Ritz crackers and gross fake cheese you spread with a red stick.
Columbia House used to offer a tape membership where could get a bunch of albums for super cheap. After that you paid full price. There’s a lot of 80s kids out there who still own them a chunk of change.
50 things that will forever be in the hearts of '80s kids
D.G. Sciortino
02.12.20
The 80s was a golden time for children. The toys were amazing. The TV was amazing.
The school supplies were amazing. Pretty much everything was amazing. And reminiscing about this amazingness is something we love to do.
I mean, I don’t want to brag and say that growing up in the 80s was the best. But growing up in the 80s was the best. This slideshow will show you why.
Here are 50 things that will forever be in the hearts of 80s kids:
