36 Discontinued Toys People Desperately Want to Return
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From the weird to the wonderful, our favorite childhood toys are simply unforgettable. Whether you grew up in the 1960s with Clackers or didn’t go anywhere without Rainbow Brite in the 1980s, everyone has a discontinued toy they miss more than any other. Check out our list and see if your favorite made it.
Warning: Major throwback moments to follow.
Clackers
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Strictly speaking, Clackers are still around but not as 1960s and 1970s kids remember them. Proving that sometimes the simplest toys are the best, Clackers consisted of two hard acrylic balls (initially, they were tempered glass!) on a string with a ring in the middle; kids spent hours swinging the balls apart and back together to make the satisfying “clack” sound that gave the toy its name.
Unfortunately, the balls sometimes exploded, so they were banned in 1976 by the Food and Drug Administration (despite not being a food or a drug) under the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act.
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Pound Puppies
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Pound Puppies, the stuffed dogs with the saddest eyes in the world, were a big hit with kids in the mid-1980s (they even came with their own cardboard dog houses), but declining popularity by 1988 led to their demise.
However, the launch of an animated TV show of the same name in 2010 brought them back, albeit only for a few years. For fans of the melancholy mutts, eBay has plenty on offer at reasonable prices — you could adopt a litter of eight for around $20.
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Jarts
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Another toy with the potential to cause harm was Jarts (lawn darts), weighted spikes designed to be tossed into the air with the aim of landing in a plastic ring on another part of the lawn. If you’ve never had the pleasure, that’s probably because lawn darts were banned by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1988 for the danger they presented (some 6,000 kids went to the hospital in the 1970s and 1980s with related injuries, including three fatalities.) Yet people persisted with the game, leading to a reissue of the ban in 1997.
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ALF
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ALF was the snarky-yet-charming extraterrestrial star of the sitcom of the same name that aired on NBC from 1986 through 1990. If you wanted ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) in your own home, the large plush toy was introduced in 1986 as part of a merchandise line to cash in on the success of the show.
Basically, ALF was everywhere. There was also a talking version, if you could stand the snark.
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Speak & Spell
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Speak & Spell, one of the most iconic toys of the 1980s, was a handheld electronic device with an educational vibe. Compared to the tech kids are accustomed to today, it’s completely archaic. But at the time it was truly groundbreaking — it was one of the first handheld devices to include an electronic display, expansion cartridges and a speech synthesis engine that could say and spell more than 200 words.
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Boglin
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In the running for the grossest toy of all time is the Boglin. Naturally, it was the grossness that kids loved. Mattel’s monster puppets that came from “a swampy bog that time forgot” were made out of foam latex and came in a box that looked like a wooden crate, with a plastic grate at the front that could be lifted. They hit shelves in 1987, but discontinued after just two years.
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Pocket Rockers
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Today, Fisher-Price Pocket Rockers personal stereos and tape cassettes are collectors’ items. In the late 1980s, they let kids and teens listen to music on the go and make a style statement — the cassettes, which looked like miniature 8-track tapes, could be clipped onto your belt.
You know something’s a craze when schools start banning it. Sadly, Pocket Rockers went out of style when cassettes did, and Fisher-Price discontinued them in 1991.
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Betty Spaghetty
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Despite butchering the Italian language, Betty Spaghetty (launched in 1998) was a pretty cool doll. Super bendy, she had rubbery hair and changeable hands and feet. Alongside Betty were her younger sister, Ally, her pet horse, Dakota, and her best friends, Hannah and Zoe — all equally bendy and rubbery.
Over the next few years, the Betty Spaghetty line branched out with more figures, books and even an album. Betty Spaghetty experienced a few setbacks (and comebacks), before being reintroduced by Australian company Moose Toys in 2016. But the new dolls just don’t have the crazy, long-limbed, spaghetti-like quality of the originals.
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Talkboy
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Tiger’s Talkboy was considered the ultimate in high-tech when it was released in 1993, much to the delight of the tweens who’d lusted after it since Kevin McAllister used it as a prop in the film “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.”
The Talkboy was a simple handheld cassette player with a microphone attached, enabling instant playback. As with all tech-based toys, it became outdated within a few years and was replaced by more portable toys without cassette tapes.
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Micronauts
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A little like Transformers, but on a much smaller scale, Mego’s Micronauts were sold between 1976 and 1980, before being discontinued ahead of Mego’s bankruptcy. However, fans of the tiny action figures have a reason to be hopeful: rumors of a Micronauts movie circulated for years before The Hollywood Reporter confirmed in September 2019 that a release date of June 4, 2021 had been set for the feature. So far, that hasn't happened, but if it does, a revival of the toy line is likely in the works.
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Crissy
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Ideal’s “beautiful” Crissy doll, launched at the New York Toy Fair in 1969, had “adjustable” auburn hair that grew down to her feet.
Over the next few years, the Crissy line expanded to include “Movin’ Groovin’ Crissy,” “Look Around Crissy” and “Talky Crissy,” plus various family members and friends like Tressy, Kerry and Velvet. By the late 1970s, they were all out of production.
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New Kids on the Block Dolls
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You can’t be a pop icon without having a doll in your likeness, right? In 1990, every young NKOTB fan wanted their own Jordan, Joe, Jon, Donnie or Danny. Or one of each, if you just couldn’t choose.
(There were actually two series of the dolls: “Hangin’ Tough” and “In Concert” — and yes, some of them did indeed have rat tails.)
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Spice Girls Dolls
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Well, if it was good enough for NKOTB… the Spice Girls got in on the doll act at the height of their fame in 1997, and there were plenty to choose from. Each of the band members (Baby Spice, Sporty Spice, Ginger Spice, Scary Spice and Posh Spice — don’t pretend you don’t remember) had various versions, including “On Tour” and Spice It Up!”
There were even singing variations, and a range of costumes you could buy separately, for all those concert changes, no doubt.
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Erector Sets
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Many a modern plastic toy has been based on the original metal Erector Sets, which were first sold in 1913. Kids loved putting together the sets of metal beams, bolts and nuts, building whatever they liked. Over the decades, Erector Sets became more challenging, and the range expanded to include trains, power plants and even a fully functioning Ferris Wheel.
They were discontinued in the 1980s, and Meccano bought the company in the 2000s, but its version lacks a certain something.
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Sally Secrets
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Released in 1993, Sally Secrets came with hidden stickers and stamps, like some doll/vending machine hybrid. She also rocked the head-to-toe neon look, like every early 1990s babe, and had a range of doll and animal friends. (Everyone wanted the one with the rainbow fringe.)
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HitClips
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“Why listen to a full song when you can listen to 60 seconds of it?” said nobody ever. But as ridiculous as that sounds, it was the premise behind Tiger’s HitClips, marketed as “slick micro audio systems.”
Released in 1999, they looked a little like memory cards and played a snippet of a hit song from the likes of Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. And they were hugely popular until about 2004, presumably when people realized spending money on part of a song when the full song was available for less was madness.
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Barbie and Tanner
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Barbie’s canine companion Tanner caused her quite the headache. The 2006 set, featuring the clever pup who could eat and poop food, was voluntarily recalled by Mattel in 2007 amid safety concerns. The magnet inside the scooper accessory could come loose, and potentially end up in a small child’s intestines.
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Sky Dancers
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Sky Dancers left regular dolls in their wake by literally flying in the air with the pull of a cord. However, it’s hardly surprising that an unpredictable, rapid-moving piece of plastic with stiff foam wings caused more than a little damage.
After receiving hundreds of complaints from customers reporting a range of injuries from temporary blindness to facial lacerations requiring stitches, manufacturer Galoob Toys Inc. recalled about 8.9 million of the hazardous dolls.
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Skip-It
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The Skip-It was huge in the 1980s and — thanks to the TV commercial — its popularity continued into the 1990s. The appeal lay in its simplicity: you slid the loop over one ankle and swung it around in a circular movement, hopping over it whenever it passed your other leg.
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Happy Family Midge
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You may have forgotten that Barbie had a BFF, Midge Hadley. Sadly, they must have had a fallout or something, because red-haired, freckle-faced Midge only hung around for a few years (1963 to 1967, to be precise) before disappearing for a couple decades.
In the late 1980s, Midge came back as part of the “Happy Family” line as a (somewhat controversial) pregnant mom with a newborn baby inside her magnetic removable womb. So many customers complained about pregnant Midge, without a wedding ring, that Walmart removed the Happy Family line from its shelves.
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Poo-Chis
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Poo-Chi, the OG robo-pet, was on the wish list of every kid whose parents wouldn’t let them have a real pet. Among its many talents, it could do tricks, recognize its owner’s voice and even communicate with its fellow Poo-Chis.
It was a popular toy from 2000 to 2002, but the introduction of FurReal Friends, who could do all of the above while being soft and strokeable, signaled the end.
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Wuzzles
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Produced by Disney and Hasbro in 1985, Wuzzles were a range of plush, posable characters consisting of two different animals, such as a “rhinokey” (a rhino and a monkey) and an “eleroo” (an elephant and a kangaroo).
They were cute, in a weird, animal experiment kind of way, and you can still find a reasonable selection on eBay, if you’re so inclined.
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Little Miss Echo
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Sold from 1962 through 1965, Little Miss Echo was the doll you could “teach to talk.” Larger than most dolls at 13 inches tall, she came with a tape recorder hidden inside her body.
Many a 1960s kid has fond memories of annoying the hell out of their sibling by using Little Miss Echo to record them secretly.
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Game Boy
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When the first Nintendo Game Boy was introduced in Japan in 1989, it changed gaming forever by letting you game on the go. It remained popular through the early 2000s, and since the original version was discontinued, its legacy has been kept alive by the Game Boy Color and GameBoy Advance.
The Nintendo DS, released in 2004, moved away from the retro look and feel of the original Game Boy with its 8-bit graphics.
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Dream Phone
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The Dream Phone board game, released by Milton Bradley in 1991, involved finding out what boy had a crush on you by dialing various “phone numbers” and piecing together clues from his friends. Many of today’s kids may be growing up without landlines, but this means a lot to anyone who had a crush on someone before the days of text talk and heart-eyes emojis.
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The Heart Family
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Mattel’s Heart Family (Mom, Dad and two kids) were introduced to the world in 1985 as friends of Barbie, but they quickly became popular in their own right. In their “home full of love and laughter,” the Heart Family represented everything that fun-loving, globe-trekking, scantily-clad Barbie didn’t: security, realism and common sense.
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Original Rainbow Brite
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Rainbow Brite started life as an animated Hallmark TV series in 1984, which quickly led to a range of plush dolls, figures and miniatures. In 2009, Rainbow Brite was given an update, which inexplicably put several years onto her life and made her look more like Barbie than the original innocent young girl with tremendous powers over nature. However, vintage Rainbow Brite and several of her friends, including her trusty unicorn Starlite, are available on eBay.
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Jem and the Holograms
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The epitome of the 1980s girl, rocker doll Jem was Barbie for the MTV generation, and she even had her own band, the Holograms. Their big hair and glam-rock styling gave them the edge over Barbie, who’s always been kind of vanilla no matter what she wore (Rocker Barbie, we’re talking to you).
In 1986, Jem became the 10th most popular toy line, the highest position any fashion doll had taken since Barbie’s arrival in 1959. Alas, Barbie still far outsold Jem, and she and her Holograms went out of production in late 1987.
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M.A.S.K. Figures
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The toy line M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand), introduced by Kenner in 1985, consisted of commonplace vehicles that transformed into different vehicle types or revealed hidden weapons and armor.
Basically, they were Transformers, but with much smaller people (each vehicle came with a two-inch figure). Despite persistent rumors about a potential reboot of M.A.S.K., fans are still waiting for official confirmation.
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Princess of Power Crystal Castle
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One of the main locations in the 1985 animated Filmation series “She-Ra: Princess of Power,” the Crystal Castle was shrouded in secrecy; only a select few knew exactly where it was. This made the toy version a much sought-after item, and it’s become a collector’s piece, with sets going for up to $150 on eBay.
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Sesame Street Little People
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The hugely popular Fisher-Price Little People (small figures with cylindrical bodies designed to fit into specifically-made vehicles and buildings, like a school bus with circular holes instead of seats) joined forces with hit children’s TV show Sesame Street in the 1970s.
Two sets were available, “Sesame Street Apartments” and “Sesame Street Clubhouse,” featuring Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and other favorite characters. There’s no doubt these would be just as popular with new generations of “Sesame Street” fans today, but they were strictly limited edition.
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Flatsy
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There was something strangely endearing about Flatsy dolls, which were a cross between paper dolls and 3D dolls like Barbie. Introduced by the Ideal Toy Co. in 1969, they had long hair, a range of brightly colored outfits and plastic shoes. (Beware “vintage” Flatsies with painted-on shoes. They’re not real.)
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What’s Her Face
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When you got over the weirdness of a doll with no features on her face, it was oddly satisfying to add them yourself. The Mattel What’s Her Face doll, released in 2001, came with markers and stamps, plus interchangeable wigs so you could switch up the hair as well as the face.
The doll options were Hip, Cool, Sweet and Glam, but the expression options were only limited by your artistic skills.
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Keypers
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Tonka Keypers, produced from 1985 to 1992, came in two sizes: the large creatures (initially ladybirds, kangaroos, penguins, snails, swans and tortoises) with hard plastic bodies were the adults, and the smaller, softer plastic-bodied counterparts were the babies.
The adult Keypers came with a key to lock and unlock a “door” on their body, and the baby Keypers had a space in their back to store things.
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My Pet Monster
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Released in 1986, My Pet Monster was a huge ogre in neon orange handcuffs, and he was something of a celebrity. Not only did he have a cartoon (it aired on ABC in 1987); he had a full-length live-action (direct to video) movie. After being discontinued, the beast was relaunched by Toymax in 2001 — and this time he could talk.
In May 2018, it was announced that Hasbro had retained the rights to My Pet Monster — could this mean a movie (and more toys) in the pipeline?
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Gotta Dance Girls!
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Gotta Dance Girls! dolls never really took off, but what’s not to love about a doll who can move of her own accord? Well, almost. The four IR-controlled dolls in the range (a blonde, a brunette, a redhead and an African American) danced to three one-minute songs, busting out their best pop, dance, Latin and hip hop moves.
When you’d had enough of their strutting, you could make them stop — sorry, strike a pose — with Freeze Mode.
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