It’s a list that will take you back to your childhood, whenever that was: train sets, Tonka Trucks, Top Trumps and Tamagotchis have all been named among the top 100 toys of all time.
Drawn up by buyers at the retailer Hamleys to mark its 265th anniversary, the selection includes both hardy perennials and passing playground crazes, all of which have appeared on the toy shop’s shelves, and children’s Christmas lists, over that time.
About a fifth of the picks are dolls and action figures – Sindy, launched in 1963, and Barbie, from 1959, have aged well, while the Tammy doll is no longer with us. The category continues to grow, with the global doll market worth a reported £9.8bn last year.
Among the classic toys on the list are hula hoops and marbles, which were some of the first toys sold by Hamleys when it opened its original shop in London in 1760. The game of marbles dates back thousands of years, and they are known to have been made commercially since the 1840s.
Recent years have seen electronic toys grow in popularity and the list traces the trend from some of the earliest versions, including the first Scalextric in 1957, to 2017’s Nintendo Switch, via the Speak and Spell and the memory game Simon, both from 1978.
Some of the toys on the list burned fast and bright – becoming must-haves before falling out of fashion. Thunderbird Tracy Island flew off the shelves so quickly that Blue Peter taught disappointed children how to make their own.
And the list would not have been complete without sets from Lego – currently the biggest toy maker in the world – or the Rubik’s Cube. More than 500m cubes have been sold since it launched in 1974, making it the biggest-selling puzzle game of all time.
Victoria Kay, head buyer at Hamleys and chair of the panel that created the list, said her favourites included the Sindy doll. “I also adored Glo Worm, even though I was maybe a bit old for it, and Simon felt like properly cutting-edge, advanced technology when it came out – it was literally the soundtrack of Christmas in the 80s,” she said.
Kay said a toy could have many purposes, including education, problem solving or offering comfort, and that some of the big-selling games also brought together people of all ages.
Simplicity combined “with a good dose of jeopardy and you have something truly memorable – think Operation or KerPlunk, Jenga or Buckaroo – they are so simple. I used to panic trying to balance the boot in Mousetrap and be terrified of the noise Operation would make when I got it wrong or just burst with panicky laughter when the Jenga tower finally wobbled and collapsed. Toys like that will last forever,” she said.
Despite reporting profits for 2024, Hamleys recently closed 29 shops.