Amplified by the almost permanent presence of The Hobbit on ‘70s and ‘80s English Lit. syllabuses, Dungeons & Dragons offered those who were unpopular in the playground some solace in an imaginary Tolkein-esque world that they could control. ... more>>>

One word. Decals. It’s hard to imagine a time when we hadn’t heard of them; a time, perhaps, when we could see or think of RAF livery without immediately picturing one; a time before we soaked one in a bowl of warm water, slid it off its backing paper and placed it on the wing of a Spitfire or a Wellington Bomber. But that was in those elusive and pre-evocative days we tend not to concern ourselves with here at TVC Towers. So there it is: a word that only exists for us in the context of one thing, Airfix models. ... more>>>

Where to start? Barbie had been knocking around since the arse-end of the ‘Fifties in one perma-tanned form or other, but we’re most interested in the so-called “aspirational” late ‘Eighties when manufacturer Mattel realised they could sell the dolls as collectors items as well as mere playthings. ... more>>>

You have to hand it to some genius at Mattel; once they’d hit on the brilliant consonant-swapping simplicity of the name, the Boglins story must’ve written itself. Essentially near-relatives of the Finger Fright family, these fist-powered fuckers sprung seemingly full-armoured from the ground and onto toy shelves back in the late ‘Eighties. Packed into caged boxes which doubled as display cases (replete with faux bent bars and plenty of “do not feed” warnings) Boglin lore borrowed quite heavily from that other mischievous monster hit of the era, Gremlins. ... more>>>

So we’ll take it as read that everyone had at least one Star Wars figure, because otherwise this is just going to be an uphill struggle - the card-mounted Kenner character was the standard unit by which all collections were measured and/or founded, whether you owned just Luke Skywalker or a whole squadron of stormtroopers. ... more>>>

Looking like a vulcanised Gonzo or other freak cast-off from the Henson workshop, Finger Frights promised “hours of joy for a girl or boy”, or so cried the nicotine-stained street trader who sold them out of a suitcase in the city centre. (The same scruffy fella later made a living peddling Gordon the Gopher squeaky hand puppets, only to return the following year with exactly the same stock dyed pink and touted as Mr Blobby.) ... more>>>

For sheer too-excited-to-eat-breakfast thrills, you couldn’t beat tumbling down the stairs of a birthday morning to find a bloody big, rattly box of Technic LEGO waiting for you. Just pray it wasn’t a school day. The hours would just fly by as you knelt, elbow deep in the most advanced children’s construction set ever, replete with working piston engines, pneumatic hoists, chunky, steerable rubber wheels and – if you were lucky - a working motor. By evening, you’d be driving around a custom dune buggy fork lift truck some seven feet in length. Or so it seemed. ... more>>>

While the males of the species were busily trying to cover every available surface in their bedroom with the massed ranks of Zoids and Transformers, what was it that girls were supposed to be doing? The answer, of course, is playing horses, albeit it in the most nauseatingly candy-coloured fashion possible. ... more>>>

In our youth, and back in the day when he was still wearing the wig (and - be honest - who wasn’t genuinely surprised when he revealed he’d discovered “a way to comb his hair to cover the bald patch” and discarded the rug?), there was nothing we wanted to save up our pocket money for more than to buy another one of Paul Daniels’ TV magic tricks. It was, of course, marketing genius. ... more>>>

Possessing a playground collectability factor to rival that of Panini sticker albums and Top Trumps, Pocketeers were initially either teensy-ball-bearing variations of bagatelle, magnet-based racing games, or against-the-clock mazes. A Japanese invention (thanks Tomy - now take your Pokemon and fuck off), in fact nothing more than a bonsai version of that old parlour game Pachinko, they were marketed by Palitoy in the UK and were, naturally, just big enough to fit into a school-blazer-sized pocket (which was handily now empty of money). ... more>>>