Dear LPG, 

When we think of the top of the charts many of us think about our favourite pop songs over the years I suppose, but there are so many more top ten charts to be found on the internet these days apart from those singles and albums charts that have morphed into download and streaming charts while we were looking the other way.

I think that I find them so interesting, especially the ones that are introduced as all-time top-tens, twenties, or thirties because they can offer quite a lot of nostalgia for us older people.  

The most popular all-time best selling toys was a list that caught my attention.  I recently found a top ten list or two which got me thinking back and, though it can be argued that many of us pensioners that are now over 75 will have been too young to enjoy many of them at the most optimum time, I bet we have come into contact with some of them over the years, if only in our capacity as parents, grandparents and present buying relatives.  What do you do with the grandchildren when you are left with them while their mums and dad’s go for a night on the town?  During many a babysitting session I have dressed Barbie dolls, built my fair share of Lego castles and helped to put a Thomas the Tank Engine train track or two together.   Some of us call it tidying up a bit once they are in bed.  

Finding the lists brought back memories especially with some of the toys that are a bit less modern.  I found it interesting that, once you, take the computers out of the way, so many of these toys are still at the top of birthday lists and Christmas lists even though they don’t actually do anything more than they did when they were first introduced to our children.  Although last Christmas I discovered that there are now Hot Wheels that change colour when they get wet, I know this because I got some for a six-year-olds birthday recently, and Barbie now has a state of the art, remote control car to rival any starter version you can get for a boy (barring the pink colour).  But to my mind, Lego remains the ultimate test of the babysitter’s resolve not to utter words containing four letters if you happen to tread on a bit.

From what I can see there has not been much movement around the top–spot and although being able to find four top-tens that have quite a bit of variation in them is a little interesting. 

I have asked LPG to share the links that I found in a bid to get some readers’ memories motivated… 

NS, Catford.

NS shares her research…

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