I loved Legos and Transformers as a child, sometimes I got something else, but that was never as fun and cool as the first 2 mentioned
In order of preference: Lego (I confess, this is still my primary toy love, superceding even Transformers... favorite was always the Castle and Space lines) Transformers G1 (especially Grimlock, Soundwave and cassettes, Jetfire, and the minibots) G.I. Joe (loved 'em as a kid, strange that they do almost nothing for me now. Too militaristic for my adult tastes, I suppose.) He-Man and MASK (tie... both kind of passing fancies, not much staying power, but I sure enjoyed them at the time) Ninja Turtles (I was probably a bit too old for these, and they were definitely the tail-end of my toy-age days. Actually, I think they were the last toys I had before I stopped being interested in toys. But I did own the first line or two of Turtles figures.)
Lets see: GI Joe - Snake Eyes specifically Ninja Turtles - had lots of em. wish i still had the movie ones Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad - its funny, I hated Power Rangers but loved this Exo Squad - had JT Marsh, Alex ??, Marsalous (probably misspelled the names) and there spaceship thing w/ the little mini exosuits. Always wanted the transforming suits but never got one Dammit, now I'm gonna go scour ebay for some exo-suits
Sadly I didn't own too many toys when I was a kid. So I'll list the ones I love watching at the stores: -Grimlock. I love the Dinobots but T-Rex is my favorite so I spent more time looking at Grimmy than the rest of Dinobots. -Blitzwing. The idea of a triplechanger just blew me away. -Macross Valkyrie. I owned one but didn't get to play with much. Still love it tho. -That robot that can stretch in He-Man. I love how he can turn his limbs into weapons. -Snake Eyes. Nuff said.
...I just typed a really long thing and then managed to lose it. I dont feel like doing that again, so instead of going into details, I'll just do a list. Voltron Air Raiders Gobots/Rock Lords Ghostbusters Mighty Max Ninja Turtles He-man Lego Star Wars Action Fleet Exosquad
My Big Brother My Little Ponies. Only have two left, and one of the very few childhood toys that didn't get sold off when I moved at age fourteen.
Dino Riders! I friggin' loved these things. I had the t-rex, the diplodocus, the stegosaurus and the quetzocoatlus. The t-rex was the inspiration for the character Rex in Toy Story, but I'm seriously the only person in the world who seems to know that.
MOTU was the best action figure line evar. Big chunky figures that stood up by themselves, cool gimmicks that didn't affect the regular playabilty of the figures, great playsets and loads of choice. Plus the advert cartoon was on after the Emu show, which was good because a homoerotic barbarian and an evil talking skeleton is about the only thing on kids TV that was more surreal then a puppet bird that molested people and a fat woman painted green.
Micro Machines took over my Transformers interest about 1987-88. I had so many of those tiny-ass cars. Legos and Transformers have been pretty omnipresent in my childhood, too.
I had/have a little radio control car from Nikko, it was one of the first I'd ever seen with a turbo function on the controller, and high and low gear on the actual car itself. Action Force/G.I.Joe Night Attack Stinger, played with it so much all the drivers joints were super loose. TMNT Leonardo, I even made a card backing to fit the rack so all the weapons could be hung! MASK Iguana, Mudslinger! ON! Heheh, I loved this little buggy guy. Him and Pihrana (sp?) Stilletto ON! Centurions Max Ray. Even when I lost the front keelfin in Hong Kong somewhere I loved this guy. He got binned when his arm broke... But I replaced him. With pretty much the entire first line! Starcom Shadow Parasite. I loved the concealed guns. Hmm. Dunno what else, most of my other toys were TF's... favoritist TF was G1 Prime, even if I did break one of the trailer door hinges. I tried every single way a kid could try to fix that hinge. I eventually had to give up when I lost the little corner bit I kept gluing back on.
IIRC, The Smithsonian used those molds in the own dinosaur line. M.A.S.K - Bulldog, Boulder Hill, Raven, Jackhammer. Stiletto (The vehicle - not the mask) Wolfbeast. G.I.Joe - Mobile Command Center, (Flagg was before my time, Defiant and Terror Drome weren't released here) Phantom X19, Cobra Bugg, Dreadnoks, Cobra Wolf, Condor Z29, Tunnel Rat, Tomahawk. - I could go on forever when it comes to that line. The great thing about that line was that it was cheap, and when you have 'rents who think Lego is the only 'value for money' toy that was ever created that helps alot. Starcom: Sidewinder, Missile Fox, Shadow Bat, Starbase Station. TFS: Honorable mention goes to my eccentric Grandmother who one Xmas bought me Galvatron instead of the usual inexplicable gifts such as trousers i'd grow into by the time i was 40, or frankincense and murr.
Star Wars Star Wars Star Wars Space system LEGO GIJoe GIJoe + SW more LEGO, w/Castle and Town this time TFs TFs TFs vs. LEGO Basically, all about the Star Wars until GIJoe came along, and TFs shortly after. It was GIJoe and TFs alongside each other until I got 'too old' around '87-88. LEGO was pretty much a constant, and I actually fiddled with those a little longer than the others, building more model-like things, such as a 2-baseplate long replica of Soldier Field.
Ahhhh my all time favorites (And STILL in my collection!) Micronauts Baron Karza & Andromeda Micronauts Battle Cruiser Micronauts Micropolis sets (I had a ton of those!) Shogun Warriors Combattra, Dangard & Raydeen Rom Spaceknight and (not in my collection) a Big Wheel type bike called "Spinout 360"...it was a Big Wheel with shopping cart wheels on the back so you'd hit the brakes and spin hopelessly out of control...and probably flip it over onto yourself....GOOD TIMES! (Stupid "product safety" laws....)
This is tough. I loved so many different toys as a kid, though, I never received that many. Plus, I'm sure that I'm going to forget a bunch of them that I loved and just can't recall right now. I'll give it a shot, in no particular order: TFs Radio-Control cars (K.I.T.T. and a Tyco tow truck) Robo Force bots and vehicles Dr. Seuss books (sorta count as toys, I guess) Atari NES Electric race car set Train set Guns and knives (some real, some not ) Water rockets Kites MY F'N HUFFY BMX BIKE!
Oh man! How could I have forgotten the Dino Riders!? I bought a couple of them and like you, I had the T-Rex, diplodocus etc. I wanted to get the Brontsaurus but by them er, my parents felt that I had too much toys. Bummer. Then Jurassic Park came out but as I was so busy with work that I kept passing them up until they were gone from retail...DOH! I think among all the lines I had as a kid, the line that I enjoyed the most was He-man. The quantity (wide range of characters), durability (no breakages due rough play) and cost (affordable) were amazing. TFs are a close second because they were less durable. My G1 collection has its fair share of breakages! LOL!
Wow that's so badass! (No, I didn't know where Rex in Toy Story came from, either.) My brother and I also enjoyed building Gundam models later on, back when we had to paint the whole damn thing.