The Evolution of Children’s Toys

Back in my day (yes, I am an internet user over the age of 50 there are a few of us) the range of toys on the market was nowhere near the amount of toys there are nowadays. I remember being completely overjoyed at receiving a slinky for my birthday. For those not familiar with the slinky it’s basically a spring which would fall down the stairs and give unbridled joy to thousands of children around the world as they ran up and down the stairs all day long - a simpler time.

Nowadays, things are a lot more complicated. This is down to a number of factors. The development of cheap, durable, safe plastics as well as circuit boards that bring toys to life at the flick of a button that are also reasonably inexpensive to produce. You can also put this development in technology down to ever shortening attention span of the younger generation. That’s not a jibe at those growing up in today’s world, it’s a fact.

Take a look at the way that information and media is presented to the younger generation, it’s no wonder that they require something more stimulating to entertain them.  Where I was quite happy with my slinky, I could quite imagine a reasonable amount of disbelief if one was presented to a child of today, they might even ask ‘where’s the rest of it?’

So what do kids have today on the toy market that I didn’t? Well, quite a lot actually apart from all the different ranged of computer consoles that are on the market there are also a wide range of toys on the market to keep kids engaged for hours on end that have become much more advanced from their old school counterparts.

Take remote control toys for example, when I was a wee lad RC toys were few and far between, and there were only a few rickety, not very well designed car toys that would either run out of battery or fall to bits within minutes of use. No longer though, there has been, to put it modestly, quite a bit of development in the world of RC toys. They no longer just drive, they fly, hover, dive, sail, skid and even crawl these days!

RC Planes are now becoming a particular popular toy now for children, and who can blame them for wanting one, I want one! The Spyhawk FPV is every little boys dream to reimagined with twentieth century technology. Never mind the fact that it looks incredible and a fly like a dream, the technology within it is quite astounding. 

As it flies through the air it sends down a live video feed giving you a real time bird’s eye view of what’s going on on the ground. To get even more futuristic you can now buy a headset to go with it, providing you with a stunning 72inch virtual screen to fly your craft from as if you were in the cockpit of a real plane.

RC Toys are getting bigger stranger, and also kind of creepy. They come in all shapes and sizes these days, with everything from robotic spiders designed to simultaneously scare the living hell out of you to the cyber-like scarab beetle which crazy scuttling must bring joy to every boy and terror to every family cat in the country. Of course you also get your standard RC car, with a bit of a 20th century upgrade of course.

Some of the RC cars on the market nowadays are better than the cars coming off the production line in my day! With four wheel independent suspension making hair pin turns, jumps, bumps a doddle and are almost guaranteed to make a total mess out of your lovely new skirting boards. RC toys have come a long way since I was a lad, my slinky looks rather archaic when put next to these hyper toys, I don’t think I’ll be digging it out of the loft any time soon.