Greatest Toys of The 80's | Micro Machines

Micro Machines were the must have toy of the late 80’s through to the mid 90’s. Lets take a look back at what made them so great. Micro Machines – When Did They Come Out? Micro Machines first came out in 1987 were made by Galoob, a US toy manufacturer The advertising for them was slick and featured the fastest speaking man in the world, John Moschitta Jr., telling avid watchers about how cool they were in the 30 second ad spot it had and it really worked as we all went bonkers for them. Here is just one of the TV adverts that we remember seeing on Saturday morning kids TV ad breaks and after seeing it we nagged our parents from then on to get them for us. Micro Machines in a Collection of Five! The standard vehicles came out in series such as the European Exotics, Muscle Cars, 50’s classics and so on and were always in packs of five and were from memory around a fiver a pack, although later they came in bigger packs. They were packaged in a clear case so that you could see them all clearly with a large cardboard backing that showcased other packs to get or playsets. They didn’t stop at cars though as there were planes and motorbikes as well that came out as well and because you got five in a pack you could build up a huge collection pretty-rapidly. On top of the cars there were also lorry's with trailers, helicopters and even presidential limousines (although some of these were in a pack of three) The Micro Machines Considering how small they were they were really detailed for the time and were also virtually indestructible as they were solid lumps of plastic. Our personal faves were the Porsche 911 and the Lamborghini Countach as they looked awesome, but you probably have your own ones as there were so many to choose from! The diminutive size of Micro Machines meant that you could literally take them anywhere compared to the Matchbox, Hot Wheels and Corgi cars we all played with until these came out. The great thing about Micro Machines was that you could fill your pockets up with 20 cars instead of 2 or 3 and they were easy to sneak in to school or take on holiday or to your mate’s houses where you combined your collections for hours of fun or did swaps at school. Special Micro Machines Collections On top of the awesome standard versions of everyone’s favourite vehicles they also gave us kids some pretty-special packs that looking back were really unique. You might have had the ones where the doors, bonnets and boots opened-up which came in a pack of three or the ones with the magnifying glass where you could see what was happening inside. The other cool Micro Machines series were the ones where the headlights worked and ran off a tiny watch battery. These kept us coming back for more. Micro Machines Playsets Not content with creating a 50-car traffic jam that was only about a meter long, Galoob hit us with some amazing play sets that gave us all untold hours of fun and imaginative play. Probably the most popular play set for 80’s kids was Toolbox City, everyone wanted it as it had a massive bridge, tunnels a high street, a river (for Micro Machine boats!) and even an airport. All this in a play set that could be played anywhere as it took up no space at all. There were others of course, including an aircraft carrier which would have been even better if it floated. It was awesome fun! Micro Machines Pocket Playsets Now these were cool as they were modular meaning that you could connect them up together and create a huge play set or just take one on your travels and set it up anywhere. There was a house, hospital, police station, drive through bank, fish and chips drive through, motorbike shop, city dump, airport, hotel and bridge among the many sets that came out. Again, these were around a fiver and each one had roads, so you could connect-up and drive round the whole place and when you finished you took it apart and packed all the pieces up, folded it shut and could put it in your pocket. Excellent stuff! Micro Machines had a starring role in Home Alone 1990 was a great year to be a kid in, along with the cool toys we had, there were also movies like Home Alone that made us want Micro Machines even more! Why? Well if you remember Kevin used his huge collection to slow the burglars down where they painfully slipped and landed on them. Looking back now it was excellent product placement because it worked and made us want them even more and we pestered our parents relentlessly after we saw the movie for more Micro Machines. It also probably reminded our parents of how painful some of them were when you trod of them in the dark and were on a par with Lego but probably not as bad as a standard UK plug though. Savage! Movie and TV Related Micro Machines Not content with playing with tiny real-life representations of car, lorrys, bikes, boats and jets they released a huge amount of licensed Micro Machines, such as Star Trek and Star Wars. These were awesome and now you could create your own stories in these universes. They also released special packs based on James Bond and other movie licenses. Micro Machine Military Whilst they were packs with military vehicles and fighter jets it wasn’t until a few years later that they upped the ante and had dedicated packs and play sets for the soldier in us. The planes and choppers were slightly larger and there were some brilliantly detailed tanks and play sets as well as soldiers to command and play with. Micro Machines Videogames Long after we stopped playing with the playsets and cars, it didn’t stop us from playing the games with it first coming out on the NES and then the best version on the Megadrive where we had quite a few versions including Micro Machines Military. There were also versions on the PS1 and N64 to that made the jump into 3D. Micro Machines Legacy Micro Machines were insanely popular and outsold all the other traditional die cast vehicle manufacturers for a while. 80’s kids went nuts for them and were a product of the time, it’s a huge shame they aren’t around anymore as we think a new generation of kids would probably go just as crazy for them as we did back in the day. For now, they are a happy collection of memories for us and if you want to start collecting them again or buy the originals for your own kids to enjoy then places like eBay are a great place to start looking again and equally worth checking if you have any of the rare ones sitting in a loft somewhere as you might be sitting on a goldmine! If you’re feeling really-nostalgic for them and want to remind yourself about these we totally recommend visiting the Micro Machines Museum, you might be there for a while! Feeling Nostalgic? Did you have a Micro Machine collection? Share your memories of these awesome toys in the comments below. Up Next: Remember GamesMaster? We take a nostalgic look back at the classic gaming show.

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Greatest Toys of The 80’s – Micro Machines

Movie and TV Related Micro Machines

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