My childhood toys (in Mexico)

On this christmas season to many of us it comes memories of toys we had as kids as christmas gifts or from the three wise men, which are the characters that kids in Latin Amrica are used to ask gifts with a letter on the night of January 5th instead of Santa Claus. And we get aware how the tchnology and communications media evolution besides the daily habits have changed a lot of the tastes and kind of toys that children today prefer. In addition with the globalization of many products like the toys now the ones that are predominant are created by the big brands, in Mexico’s case with brands from U.S.A., Spain and a few local.

For me that was a kid mostly on the 80’s, I got to know some toys that now are considered classic and I got to know the beloved mexican toys company Lily Ledy, that dissapeared on the 90’s. Lily Ledy was an uncommon case because as many companies on the late 70’s it was rescued by the state being finced by them which allowed them to prosper even if they took risks with their products so the innovated with many of their own toys and many others that were adaptations of toys created in U.S.A. sometimes improving the original product.

I want to share you here just some of the toys that I remember the most from that time from between the great quantity of toys that there were and that I at tha time as the son of a moderately whealty family, I could have many of these toys.

Fabuloso Fred I y II – It’s an adaptation and improvement from the Ensueño toys company of the toy known as Simon on U.S.A. that in this case it consisted on a board with 12 big colorful and iluminated buttons that have another switches or selection buttons to select different kinds of games because besides the classic memorization game it included at least another 7 to 11 additional games with those buttons like pressing as fast as possible the buttons as they lighted, hide and seek, where you tried to nail the place where the correct button was hidden and many others that I don’t remember very well.

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Idema – This Lego predecessor in Mexico brought from Spain consisted on plastic color and even trnslucent blocks that one could link together to build many things like houses, animals and vehicles. The pieces of this toy were smaller and harder than the Lego ones but also more breakable and in contrast of another similar toys it only had block shaped pieces very few round shaped and some small metal bars that were used as axles or shafts for rotatory objects like the arms of a windmil or the wheels of a car. Some other building toys of that time were Exin mostly of castles and Tente mostly with space vehicles both having bigger more varied and specific pieces.

Playmobil – The small action figures brought from Germany and famous mostly on Europe had the distinction of having the same body with the same kind of face only with variations on the hair and with limited articulations that only allowed them raise or lower their arms, turn their heads and stand, bow or sit down. But the main feature were the accessories, animals, furniture, vehicles and buildings that came with them which were very colorful and very curious receating some themes like cops, firemen, doctors, pirates, knights, cowboys, astronauts, etcetera, being the cars, trucks and space ships my favorite.

These are some of the toys that I immediately remember from the 80’s and that I had, I’m sure that in future publictions I’ll keep telling you about more toys that I had or knew with friends, cousins or on the toy stores that were in exhibition.

What toys do you remember form your childhood?, which ones were your favorite and which ones were the most popular in the place where you grew?