{"id":9382,"date":"2021-10-04T11:08:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T03:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/?p=9382"},"modified":"2021-10-04T11:08:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T03:08:48","slug":"nostalgic-toys-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesmartlocal.com\/vietnam\/nostalgic-toys-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Nostalgic Toys That Prove Your Childhood Was Awesome If You Owned Them Back In The Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nostalgic toys of our childhood<\/b><\/h2>\n
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It appears that without fail, adults all over the world unanimously reach a point in their lives where they develop a sudden urge to tell the next generation something like, \u201cBack in my day, I didn\u2019t have all those fancy toys you kids now play with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I personally don\u2019t have any problem with modern-day kids becoming tech-savvy at a young age, but I do understand the sentiment. Back then, the most \u201chigh-tech\u201d toys we had were Tamagotchi or Tetris machines with terrible pixelated graphics, but I wouldn\u2019t have traded those memories for the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, for old time\u2019s sake, let\u2019s reflect upon some of the <\/span>nostalgic toys that made our childhood awesome<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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1. Tamagotchi \u2013 our first responsibility<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> @usamonita<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Granted, the <\/span>Tamagotchi<\/b> was only a virtual pet made of a few pixels that did nothing but walk around a toy screen. But hey, it depended on us to feed it, clean up after it, and play with it, lest it wither and die – and we needed to start over again from when the \u201canimal\u201d is an egg waiting to hatch.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was nowhere near the effort needed to raise a real pet, of course. All the feeding and cleaning could be done with only a few button presses. Still, we were all too eager to take on the responsibility \u2013 the very first one given to many of us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2. Fishing kit \u2013 which had us think fishing was fun for kids<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> \u0110\u1ed3 ch\u01a1i tr\u1ebb em – C\u00f4 H\u01b0\u1edfng ch\u1ee3 ch\u00f9a<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Okay, who else got bamboozled by these <\/span>fishing toy kits<\/b> into thinking actual fishing was fun? I, for one, still remember vividly the excitement I felt the night before I went on my first fishing trip with my dad when I was 7, despite his warning that I probably wouldn\u2019t like it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my mind at the time, I was going to get to pull fish after fish out of the water like I did with the toy, just with real-sized fish and my dad\u2019s real-sized rod. You can imagine my disappointment when we didn\u2019t catch anything the entire day.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be fair, in adulthood, I begin to understand the draw of just sitting by a quiet lake for a day and ponder my own thoughts. But for a 7-year-old kid? Yeah, just no.<\/span><\/p>\n

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3. Waterful ring toss \u2013 a real test of patience<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> samshop90<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Ah, yes, the good ol\u2019 <\/span>Waterful ring toss<\/b> \u2013 the first of many rage-inducing games that I would go on to subject my patience and self-control ability to. Who would have thought such a simple device could present this big of a challenge – all you had to do was press a couple of buttons and tilt the thing so that the rings went through the two plastic sticks inside, but I just could never get all of them in.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nAnother common version of the waterful ring toss game<\/span>
\n<\/span>Image credit: <\/span>Doron_B<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I am now convinced that the game was designed to be impossible and was just something to keep kids occupied for long periods while their parents do something else. But if you know a trick to completing it that I didn\u2019t, and still don\u2019t, please do enlighten me.<\/span><\/p>\n

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4. Handheld Tetris device \u2013 a pixelated time sink<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> @geracao80.90_nostalgia<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As I grew up and gained access to the Internet, I learned that many 90s kids elsewhere grew up playing Pok\u00e9mon or The Legends of Zelda or other such games on their Gameboy or Nintendo devices. For me, this <\/span>handheld device that held a crude imitation of Tetris<\/b> was my time sink.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was also this other game in the machine I owned. To me back then, it looked as if I was controlling a human and had to move left and right to avoid other humans falling from the sky. It took me way longer than I\u2019m proud to admit to realize that the thing I controlled was supposed to be a race car moving up the road and avoiding other race cars. To this day, I still don\u2019t know what that game is called.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/span><\/i>The abovementioned race car game. In my defense, they <\/span>do<\/span> look like human figures.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Video credit:<\/span> vega365.vn<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

You can still find online shops selling these devices. Kids these days probably wouldn\u2019t enjoy it with all the fancier games readily available on their parents\u2019 smartphones, but if you want to get one for nostalgia\u2019s sake, the option is there.<\/span><\/p>\n

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5. Toy soldiers \u2013 create wartime fantasies<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> @rr_randoms<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I had always thought these <\/span>green little toy soldiers<\/b> were just a thing in Vietnam. I was so surprised <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>excited when I saw them in Toy Story that I was like, \u201cLook Mom, Andy has the same toys as me!\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anecdotes aside, I guess it\u2019s only expected that boys everywhere are interested in guns and wars. Not that there\u2019s anything surprising about\u00a0 that.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unanimated though these plastic soldiers were, they allowed us to live out our fantasies of fighting on the battlefield with comrades on our sides, just like the wartime stories our grandpas would tell us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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6. Toy guns \u2013 which could shoot firecrackers and create loud noises<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> Shop \u0110\u1ed3 Ch\u01a1i \u2013 Tu\u1ed5i Th\u01a1 8x,9x<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Speaking of guns and wars, one of the greatest desires of my childhood that was never fulfilled was to have a toy gun. Not a plastic gun that shot water or rubber bands, mind you, but the badass kind that looked like a <\/span>real revolver and used firecrackers as bullets<\/b>, allowing them to create loud noises and smoke when fired. My parents would never allow me one, though, telling me it was too dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now looking back, I understand their concerns. I wouldn\u2019t let my kids anywhere near a toy that can go \u201cboom boom\u201d either. But at the time, I just really wanted one.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/span><\/i>The guns could create sparks and smoke like a real gun<\/span>
\n<\/span>Video credit:<\/span> Nguy\u1ec5n \u0110\u00f4ng<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

So I had no choice but to dog the much older neighbor kids who were old enough to have allowances to buy the guns and their firecracker bullets. I\u2019d run all sorts of errands for them just so they\u2019d let me pull the trigger every once in a while.<\/span><\/p>\n

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7. Laser pointers \u2013 which we used to play with cats<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> @to4no_pomnish<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Though sometimes they came with different caps that changed the shapes of their emitted light, <\/span>laser pointers<\/b> were, essentially, just that: a stick that projected a red light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, we could do all sorts of things with it, from pretending we were spies with laser razors that could cut through steel, to messing with cats, to pointing it at our teachers\u2019 backs when they weren\u2019t looking, prompting snickers from the entire class. Yeah\u2026I was not the best of students.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our parents would not let us hear the end of it when they caught us playing with these. They would say the light could damage our eyesight. But of course, we didn\u2019t really think that far ahead as kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

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8. Super Sentai accessories \u2013 merchandise from a popular franchise<\/h3>\n
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\"nostalgic
\n<\/span><\/i>Having one of these was every kid\u2019s dream back in the days<\/span>
\n<\/span>Image credit:<\/span> \u0110\u1ed3 ch\u01a1i si\u00eau nh\u00e2n Gao, Cu\u00f4\u0300ng Phong, Power Ranger<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Super Sentai aka Power Rangers<\/b> \u2013 you know, the series about guys and girls who slip into colorful tight suits in over-the-top transforming animations and fight off evil? \u2013 was a phenomenon in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia in the early 2000s. It came as no surprise, then, that merchandise associated with the brand was also sought after by kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having a model of one of the rangers\u2019 giant robots, which could be disassembled and reassembled again, was a luxury that few kids were afforded. I certainly didn\u2019t fall into that list.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/span><\/i>Image credit:<\/span> \u0110\u1ed3 ch\u01a1i si\u00eau nh\u00e2n Gao, Cu\u00f4\u0300ng Phong, Power Ranger<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I was, however, given one of the phones like those used in the Gao Ranger series, which prompted many an argument with my classmates over who got to be the leading Red Ranger, and who got to be the cool Silver Ranger who worked alone and always swooped in at the last moment to save the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nostalgic toys that made our childhood awesome<\/h3>\n
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As beautiful as these childhood toys were, I think it\u2019s better to let them stay in the past. After all, it\u2019s the memories and the nostalgia that make them irreplaceable for those who had the privilege of growing up with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, monitor your kids\u2019 use of high-tech devices the way you see fit to ensure they are not exposed to inappropriate content on the Internet, but don\u2019t force your version of an ideal childhood upon them. Let them create their own fond memories with what they have, so that one day they can repeat the \u201cback in my day\u201d cycle with their children.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more stories, check out:<\/span><\/p>\n