When you think back to your childhood, I think that one of the things we all remember most is the toys we played with as children. We remember that time of make-believe and the wonderful and crazy imaginations we had in order to make it seem like those toys were coming to life. But what were the toys of the noughties really like? Here is a little insight into some of the toys I had as a child growing up in the noughties that I can vastly remember spending many a happy day playing in my room with...
Barbie
I never had this exact Barbie doll, but I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever been a little girl since Barbie has been around had at least one of them growing up. I'm not sure about anyone else but I was never able to keep her hair looking as immaculate as it was when it was in the box. It always ended up looking like she had been dragged through a bush backwards (a bit like what my hair used to look like whenever I woke up in the morning, not sure how I have managed to stop that from occurring but I'm not complaining). I never had a Ken doll (not that I can remember anyway) but had pretty much every Barbie doll going. I was always really jealous of my friend who had the Barbie house and would always play with it whenever I went to her house. I think Barbie had to be my most loved and most played with toy of the noughties, and was certainly something that was very hard to get rid of when the time came to grow up.
Styling head doll
I had one similar to this, however with mine, you couldn't paint its nails but you could do its makeup, something I don't think you can do with this one. With mine, I learnt how to plait hair, something that was useful for when I would make little plaits in my hair when it was wet so it was wavy the next day, but now I want to do larger plaits I find it quite difficult to do. I loved playing with this as I always thought I would become a hairdresser or a make-up artist when I was older, but it turns out I couldn't be more wrong.
Dance mat
I had two of these when I was growing up. I had a general one that I can't really remember if there was anything special about it. I also had a High School Musical 3 one, which is probably the one I used the most out of the two of them. These dance mats were something that I played with a lot when I first got them, but over time used less and less of. I guess that was with the introduction of many digital technologies that became much more accessible and were easier for me to get out than a dance mat. It would also get to the stage where the batteries had run out and nobody could really be bothered to change them. Despite this, there was always something quite fun about getting your dance mat out, having a song come on and try to keep up and follow the lights on the mat.
Baby Annabell
I think baby Annabell is another toy that every little girl growing up in the noughties had. I loved the absolute bones off this doll and had so many other baby dolls like it you wouldn't believe it (I reckon I had at least eight). Did anyone else have the bottle for it that had milk in it (obviously not actual milk, it was some other form of liquid), but that milk somehow vanished, even though there was no way of it getting out of the bottle and the doll couldn't drink it. I had a cot for baby Annabell and would always put her to bed when I went to bed, although as I had other baby doll toys, it got quite squashed in there and they would always end up on top of one another, which is definitely not good for a real baby.
High School Musical 3 dolls
Forgive me for saying this but I never actually started watching any of the High School Musical films until the third one came out. I had the book of the first one but never actually watched it until I was fifteen. I had the second one on DVD (remember those?) but don't actually remember the point at which I watched it. But I did go to see the third one when it came out at the cinema for a friend's birthday. But either way, I had the Troy and Gabriella dolls from this collection and I'm not sure if anyone else could remember but both of these dolls came with their own microphones and you could sing along with them to one of the songs from the show. I have always loved music and singing (although I can't sing at all) so combining this with a toy doll made it one of my favourite noughties toys.
Barbie microphone
Although I didn't have this exact one (I couldn't find an image of the one I had), I absolutely loved this microphone. If anyone remembers the Barbie Princess and the Pauper film, the microphone I had was from that film. As I said above, I have always loved singing and even though I am bad at it, having my own microphone made me feel like a pop star. I loved being able to use it to sing whatever song I wanted to with it and imagine I was standing on stage with an arena full of fans looking up at me on stage as I gave them a performance they were never going to forget. It is fair to say that I had (and still have) quite an imaginative mind.
Polly Pocket
Again, I don't remember having these exact Polly Pocket toys, but I do remember having them, which I was reminded of by watching Stacy Soloman's Instagram story a while ago. I can remember with these being able to change the clothes they were wearing and thinking they were unique because the clothes were magnetic, which made it a lot easier to change their clothes than any of the other toys I had. I didn't play with these as much as I did with my other toys and I am fairly sure they were a hand-me-down from my cousins, but I still enjoyed playing with them when I did play with them and they were (and always will be) a big part of my noughties upbringing.
Build-A-Bear
The above image is actually of my own Build-A-Bear bear that I have and she is called Georgina (if you never named your toys or teddies as a kid then I can only presume you are a psychopath). I never actually chose her and never got to experience what it was like to go and pick your bear and get to stuff it, give her an official name or choose her clothes. In fact, I'm pretty sure when I got her she didn't have any clothes at all. But that didn't stop me from loving her any less and I always got to go to Build-A-Bear on special occasions to pick out a new outfit for her. The one in the picture is the only one I currently have as I gave the rest away, but some of her other outfits included a pink ice-skating dress (complete with ice skates and ear muffs) and a white dress with sequins at the top. I chose to keep the clothes she has on in the picture because they look comfier and were much better for me to cuddle her with than any of the other clothes she had.
Zhu Zhu Pets - Go-Go hamster
I had the pink version of this and got it towards the end of the noughties, possibly when I was probably slightly too old to really be just receiving one of these as a present. But it was something I asked for and clearly really wanted at the time and I am extremely grateful to the person who spent the money to buy it for me. I had a whole little hamster run for it that it used to travel around, but the one annoying thing about this was that it would always get stuck or wouldn't turn properly so I would have to help it. But I loved playing with this and I am fairly certain my own hamster had died when I still had this so being able to play with this, in some weird way, helped me in getting over the grief of losing a pet.
So there are some of my most loved toys of the noughties. But what are yours? If you can remember any of the toys I have spoken about or can remember any other noughties toys then please let me know in the comments below. And if you have any other suggestions for topics I can talk about all to do with the noughties in Nostalgia Sunday then please let me know that also.
Love Beth xx