Retro Gift Ideas

What was once cool – is cool again! Here are some great ideas to make kids of all ages (even if they’re really adults) smile on Christmas morning

Mr. Potato Head

After 50 years on the toy market, Mr. Potato Head is as classic as it gets. The first toy to be advertised on TV, the silly faced spud has never gone out of production — although a plastic body has been added, making kitchens safer everywhere for real potatoes.
Now available as Spud Bunny, Trick or Tater or even Sports Spuds — which feature NHL, NBA and NFL team costumes — you can get add-on packages that turn Mr. Potato Head into almost anything you can imagine. If you want to get even more creative, check out Pontiki, a spud-inspired line of Japanese toys that turn into unusual mouse-like creatures.

Sea Monkeys

Sea Monkeys will never go out of style. The jazzed-up brine shrimp come in a plastic container with magnified portions. If you want to get fancy, try some of the more extreme habitats like Sea Monkeys on Mars, Sea Monkeys at the Beach or schedule some craft time and make your own Sea Monkey haven.
After an initial 24-hour period to let the specialized salt sanitize the water, pour the mix of Sea Monkey eggs and food into the container. Because the mischievous water monkeys only need to be fed once a week, even your own little monkeys can take care of their very own underwater monkey family.

Pogs

You’re only a few circles of cardboard away from ineffable fun with Pogs, the phenomenon that briefly but intensely took grade schools by storm in the mid-’90s. Originally the fever dream of either bored early-twentieth-century Hawaiians or bored seventeenth-century Japanese folk, you compete to flip over piles of circular paper disks with heavier metal disks. It’s proven both its timeless simplicity and infinite appeal.
Pogs can still be found on eBay and through devoted fan communities on the Internet, but are easy enough to make if you have access to milk jugs, or more specifically the wax disks that seal the nutritious beverage inside. Bonus advantage: more milk around the house.

Barrel of Monkeys

Playing off the saying, “more fun than a Barrel of Monkeys,” this Milton Bradley linking game has been fun since 1965. Twelve plastic monkeys come in colorful barrels, and the name of the game is to link as many as possible.
The monkeys are built so that their arms, legs, hands and feet can form stable links, allowing a pair of monkeys to hook around each other in more than 80 different ways. For tykes try My First Barrel of Monkeys, for a fun counting game.

Pin Art

Who doesn’t remember Pin Art? Featuring hundreds of slide-able metal or plastic bars attached to a square sheet of plastic, this toy allows kids to create three-dimensional relief art with their hands, faces or small objects. For older kids alarm clocks made out of pin art can make a neat gift.

Devil Sticks

Don’t be fooled by the name, there’s nothing malevolent about these old-time circus standbys. The name of the game is hand-eye coordination, creativity and a unique blend of balance and juggling, twirling sticks with other sticks. These can be found in specialty toy stores, but are fairly easy to build with some doweling and colored tape.

The learning curve for the toy is that rare combination of shallow and wide that guarantee an immediate good time and a future full of lessons in gyroscopy. Additionally, if it gets too boring, an element of danger (read: fire) can be added to impress crowds and amp up the adrenaline (warning: fire is not generally considered child-safe).

Play-Doh

What childhood would be complete without the ability to sculpt neon unicorns and six-armed dinosaurs? Luckily, Play-Doh honed in on this important demographic and pastime in the 1950s, and has been perfecting the technology ever since.
There is a literal plethora of hues and kits to indulge every object of a kid’s fancy from bugs to spaceships. For the industrious or budget-restrained — or for kids who can’t stop mashing all the colors together into a wonderful non-descript brown — there are several recipes around the web to cook up your very own batch of colorful, delicious and non-toxic modeling dough on the cheap.

Shrinky Dinks

Originally made in the kitchen of a Cub Scout leader, Shrinky Dinks is shrinkable plastic that kids draw on and then put in the oven. The artwork then shrinks to one-third of its original size, while becoming nine times thicker. The scaled-down replica can be used from anything from gift cards and necklace charms, to bike decorations and costumes. The old time favorite now comes in ink jet printer sheets, making transferring photographs a breeze.