Sunday, April 24, 2016

10 Best Toys of the 80s and 90s

I was doing a little reminiscing about toys I had growing up and wondering what ever happened to them. I guess once you get older, you no longer want toys and they end up being given away or passed on. As an adult looking back, it would have been a great idea to hold on to them as collectibles or just for fun! Never the less, I decided to round up a list of my favorite toys from the 80's and 90's. Note: This list is from a boy's perspective so it does not include girl's toys.

10. Yomega YoYo
Yoyo's have been around for a long time and there are a lot of cheap ones out there that do not work very well, but in the 90's we discovered high quality yoyo's like those from the brand Yomega. They allowed you to do lots of tricks and they were not too expensive. I had the Brain yoyo and the Fireball yoyo. They are still available today in case you are looking to pick up a new hobby!

9. Micro Machines / Hot Wheels
Micro Machines were miniature cars you could collect and play with. They had replicas of real cars as well as other things like boats and planes. Also Hot Wheels goes along with this category because they are also collectible cars but are in a larger scale. Both were a lot of fun to collect and play with on the tracks and settings made for the cars.

8. Action Figures
Action figures are a staple in the toy industry and growing up, I had many of these from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to X-Men, to Transformers. They are a great way to own a piece of your favorite cartoons and movies!



7. Nerf Products
Nerf made the foam dart shooting guns and accessories which were always a fun interactive toy. They were a relatively safe way to battle with your friends. I had a few of these Nerf guns which were great until you end up loosing the darts!


6. Gak / Play Doh
As a young kid, Play Doh is another one of those staple toys. It's jar of colorful doh you get to mold into anything you want. Endless fun and possibilities. Nickelodeon Gak came out a bit later and was more of a slime texture but just as much fun!













5. Trading Cards
Technically these might not be considered a toy, but trading cards were a big deal back in the day and it was one of our favorite things to collect and trade with friends. We collected Marvel cards as well as sports cards trying to get the complete sets and the special bonus cards!


 4. Pipeworks 
Playskool Pipeworks may not be as well known as some of the others on this list, but it was one of our best toys as a kid. Basically it was a set of PVC pipes and connectors that allowed you to build many different things from monkey bars, to cars, to slides. They need to bring these back again!


3. Remote Control Cars
Remote control cars were one of my favorite toys. Just charge them up, take them outside and drive them around the neighborhood. We usually got these from Radio Shack where you could get some pretty fast cars!

2. Lego
Another classic toy that has been around for some time and continues to be one of the most successful. Legos let you create things piece by piece following instructions, but you can also use your creativity to build your own things once you have collected a lot of pieced. This is something that is still fun even as an adult.

1. Nintendo
The original Nintendo was pretty much the most amazing thing at the time. It might not have been the very first video game system, but it was the first one that really caught on, at least during this time. From the original Mario Bros and Duck Hunt to all the games after, Nintendo was a great toy and it set the stage for the modern video games we have today.

What were some of your favorite toys growing up? Feel free to leave comments below.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Jimmy Johns $1 Sub Customer Appreciation Day

Today, April 21st, Jimmy Johns Sandwiches is celebrating Customer Appreciation Day by offering subs for just $1. There are some restrictions for example, it is only during lunch hours of 11-3pm and they must be ordered in store, so no delivery. Also it is one per customer but you can get back in line to order more subs.

They are offering subs 1-6, the slim subs, and the BLT for $1. I don't go to Jimmy Johns often, but I figured I would head over to the nearest location to check it out. I was planning on picking up a sub but as soon as I pulled in, I saw the line out the door all the way around the building!

$1 sub is a good deal, but I was not going to wait in line for a half hour just to get a deal on a sub so I decided to pass on it. But if there is a Jimmy Johns near you and you don't mind waiting in line, I recommend taking advantage of this great deal!