Let me take you back to a simpler time. You get home from school, grab your favorite Build-a-Bear and sit down for hours to play Webkinz. When Webkinz got boring, you switched to Club Penguin or Poptropica. When your mom called you for dinner, you grabbed an empty chair for your American Girl Doll to sit with you. You could see all your Polly Pockets spread across the living room floor and could hardly wait to finish eating and go play with them. Ah, life was so easy then, wasn’t it? Let’s go back to these sweet times and reminisce about just a few of the best toys we had as kids. These are some of my personal favorites among many more.
- Webkinz
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I don’t know about you, but begging for Webkinz was a weekly thing I did as a kid. Whenever a new animal came out, I was desperate to be the first to have it. I’d have competitions with my friends at school to see who had the biggest collection, and yes, it got a bit excessive when my plush collection got to over 100. Not only was it great to have the stuffed animals; the online world was just as fun to play on. Webkinz most definitely started my Internet addiction!
- American Girl Dolls
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I can’t think of a brand that empowered young girls as much as American Girl did. They have dolls of almost every skin tone and hair color to make every girl feel recognized. They also have dolls to celebrate various cultures and backgrounds, such as Kaya, the Native American doll. It was always so exciting to see what the Girl of the Year would look like each year, and visiting an actual American Girl store was a different type of thrill. Not to mention, they had the cutest books to go along with the dolls and to help us all navigate girlhood.
- Polly Pockets
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Dressing my Polly Pockets and rearranging my little playsets to make the perfect mini world was a highlight of my childhood. I remember searching through the isles at Target and Toys R Us for figures and sets that I didn’t have, as well as combining my toys with my neighbor’s. These tiny dolls were the definition of small but mighty.
- Littlest Pet Shop
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There wasn’t a cuter thing to collect than Littlest Pet Shop animals, and that’s a fact. The playsets that you could buy for them, like the pet town, made the littlest world all the better. They were so adorable!
- Nintendo DS + Games
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On top of my Internet addiction with Webkinz was my gaming addiction with my Nintendo DS. I can’t tell you the countless hours I spent playing games like Mario Kart, Pokémon, Nintendogs, and more. Multiplayer options in the games made them even more fun when you could play along with your friends.
While these are only a small handful of my favorite toys I played with as a kid, there are so many more that truly made my childhood amazing. I’ll forever be grateful for the toys I grew up with and the memories they gave me.