Mark Bellomo - Totally Tubular Toys of the ’80s

Was there ever a better time to be a kid than in the '80s? Oh sure, people who grew up in other decades may feel differently, but they are wrong. The '80s were assuredly the greatest. How can a decade that brought us Michael Jackson, MTV, Princess Diana, and John Hughes movies not be the best decade of all time?

We lived in an era of Valley Speak and said things like gag me with a spoon, grody to the max, and barf me out with a straight face. It was a time when Madonna wore eye-threatening bustiers that shook the foundations of conservatism; when the million dollar question on everyone's lips was, Who shot J.R.? A time when every teen-age girl wanted to be Molly Ringwald, while red-blooded boys yearned for the freedom of Ferris Bueller. The '80s was a time of leg warmers, Hawaiian shirts (thanks Magnum, P.I.) neon colors, big Aqua Net-teased hair, Members Only jackets with signature neck-strap-snap, colorful and stylish Swatch watches, faux shoulder pads squarer than that of an NFL linebacker's, preppie stylings of L.L. Bean and the rise of J. Crew, popular and super-dark Wayfarer sunglasses, and acid-washed jeans with matching jackets. It was a decade that encouraged grown men to wear pastel or fuchsia suit jackets with requisite cuffed sleeves and a solid T-shirt underneath, and combine them with linen pants and slip-on Docksiders sans socks, a look that was considered the height of total awesomeness. Affectionately looking back on some of these fashions, it's no wonder Mr. T pitied a lot of fools, myself included.

The '80s are about our youth and the things that shaped it; from the downright silly (Pogo dancing and ruining a perfectly good pair of gloves by cutting the fingers off to be like Madonna or Judd Nelson) to the serious (Reaganomics, the end of the Cold War, and AIDS awareness). Some of the fads of this decade of excess were fleeting (when The Bangles asked us to walk like an Egyptian while we were busy munching away on Gremlins cereal) and some have had a lasting impact (the assassination of John Lennon, and the US Olympic hockey team's Miracle on Ice).

As a result of one of the most tumultuous decades in American history and since toys are not created in a vacuum the '80s has resulted in some of the best toys ever created.

We had a wealth of new toy lines to choose from: Cabbage Patch Kids, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, new G.I. Joes, Strawberry Shortcake dolls that smelled good enough to eat, stickers, Atari, GoBots, Transformers, Smurfs, Fraggles, ThunderCats and Silverhawks, Space Invaders and other arcade games, action figures of wrestling superstars including Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, toys inspired by Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back that encouraged us to adopt the identity of an honorable young rebel who could bring down the sinister forces of an entire evil empire.

The decade offered something for kids of all ages: from the infamously sophisticated fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, to revolutionary new board games that defined the decade: Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, and the tumbling tower of Jenga. And let's not forget one of the top-selling puzzle games of all time: Rubik's Cube, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2010; a commemoration of the widespread infliction known as Rubikmania.