What was your favorite toy as a child?

I present to you today a nifty little site called X-entertainment. The site contains a cool collection of 80s toy commercials which you can view online or download. They also produce articles which review 80s toys, print adds and television commercials (vintage commercials of 80s miscellania).

Whilst perusing through their library, I came to realize just how many of these toys I had forgotten about. Of course, most of us remembers G.I. Joe, Transformers, Barbie, Star Wars, He-Man/She-Ra, Thundercats, Straberry Shortcake or the Smurfs; but do you remember: MUSCLE, MASK, Stretch Armstrong, Voltrons, Centurions, Cricket, Pound Puppies, Photons or the Snorks. Have a peek at some of these commercials - you'll be surprised how some of these come back to ya. I'm sure these toys were part of some of your lives. So what were you, were you a Lego Maniac like Zac? Or were you a Ghostbuster that got slimed?

For me, I would have to say that I went through five main toy phases as a kid - all of them pretty much revolving around action figures: Star Wars, G.I. Joe, He-Man and Transformers. Through all of this, LEGOs were always present (a classic that will live on forever in my book). I'll betcha if I pulled out my old box of LEGOs today and sat down with a kid, i'd have as much fun as he would playing with them.

My first action figure was actually a C-3P0 from the Star Wars Kenner toy line. I know, it's an off choice but you have to remember I was about 4 or 5 when I saw Star Wars for the first time. I remember picking him out at Sears in Hull. I must have had 30 or 40 of these SW figures at one point.

I grew into GI Joes because they had cooler accessories and had better joints. You could simulate fights and gestures much better with them. The vehicles were cool too - more realistic and better details. One could go out in the yard and play in a real forest with them. The ultimate secret Cobra Bases.

I think I discovered He-Man through the cartoon. I don't remember any of my friends having any of them. My cousins had figures but I think it was through the shows as well as this cool Castle Greyskull commercial that I ended up wanting in on these (marketing at it's best eh?).

My final action figure stint was in support of a cartoon fix. Transformers were simply the bomb! The details, the engeneering, the cool cars... there were simply awsome... and no doubt about it... they were much much cooler than Go Bots.

If I had to choose but one of these toy lines as my favorites, I would have to pick my LEGOs, for the simple reason that you could never really get tired of them. Heck, I still hold on to them for my future kids.

So there you have it, my little trek through the 80s toy universe.