10 Retro Toys from the ’80s You Forgot About

The LNJ WWF Wrestling Superstars are certainly some of the most iconic retro toys from the 80s, but that is not what we are talking about here. While those “big rubber guys” are fondly remembered by many, LJN also made a much smaller line of wrestling action figures that were called the “bendies” and these guys could be put into different poses.

They only made a few of these, as many kids who had invested in those bigger rubber figures stuck with those. Still, the WWF Bendies from LJN is an awesome line and features many of the big stars from the WWF at that time such as Hulk Hogan, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Andre the Giant. When people talk about retro wrestling figures, the LJN Bendies never get as much love as the LNJ WWF Superstars or Hasbro’s WWF action figures from the early 90s.

Hey if the LJN WWF Bendies are perhaps a bit too mainstream for you to be on my list of 10 retro toys from the ‘80s you forgot about, don’t worry, I have the AWA All-Star Wrestlers for you here. These actually beat those big rugger guys by LJN to market, making them the first-ever mainstream officially licensed wrestling toy lines.

Based on the American Wrestling Association, they may have lacked the likes of The Hulkster and the Macho Man. However, they did have Ric Flair, The Road Warriors, Larry Zbyszko, and many more names old-timey wrestling fans will recognize.

These were made by the company Remco and they had actual articulation, unlike the figures from LJN. These were smaller and had Masters of the Universe style muscular bodies. They also had cloth clothing as well as some unique small accessories which makes collecting these in mint condition today very hard and very expensive!

Many people are familiar with the likes of Ducktales and Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers, but Disney had so many more awesome shows back in the ‘80s that they have pretty much forgotten about. One of these was The Wuzzles, which were so freaking cool and adorable.

This is a bit of a cheat entry as I am doing a two-for-one here. You see, The Wuzzles was about these creatures that were two things in one. For example, Bumblelion was part bumblebee and part lion and Rhinokey was part rhino and part money. They made these amazing and highly detailed plushies of the characters, but they also had a really fun and cool line of smaller plastic figures too. It would be so awesome if Disney brought The Wuzzles back!

As a kid, I was all in on Inhumanoids! This was a very short lived show and toy line by Hasbro, but it left a massive impression on me. There are these ancient beings called The Inhumanoids that live underground and only the Earth Corps and their high-tech gear can stop them. These were such fun and highly detailed toys for the 80s.

While the various members of Earth Corps were great, what made Inhumanoids have to take a spot on this list of the 10 retro toys from the 80s you forgot about were the actual Inhumanoids. These were massive toys and the best one had to be D’Compose, who was like a zombie dinosaur that would put his victims in his ribcage! No doubt, that is making some nostalgia tingles in your brain. While the show and toys may not be super mainstream, many people remember the horror that was D’Compose! This is another ’80s toy line that has skyrocketed in value!

I told my sister I was making this list of cool ‘80s toys and there were three that she suggested. The Wuzzles, which we already talked bout, Bitsy Bears, which were from the 90s, and lastly, Keypers! As soon as she said Keypers all these memories came flooding back!

Keypers were these really fun toys that were some kind of animal like a swan or a snail. Their gimmick was that part of them could be opened up with a special key. They had little toys inside, or you could store your own thing inside of them.

They made many different variations of these, but they were very popular for a short period of time in the ‘80s. These were made by Tonka and what I remember about these toys was that in typical Tonka fashion, they were very sturdy and solidly made. With the way kids these days love “surprise eggs” and mystery toys, I think something like Keypers with mystery things inside them could be a huge hit with a whole new generation of kids.

Out of all the toys that I have selected for this 10 retro toys from the ‘80s you forgot about list, none hurt me as much as Battle Beasts! I had so many of these as a kid and they all ended up being given away! These were made by Takara and were brought to the West from Japan, similar to what happened with Transformers.

These toys were small, 2 ½ inch figures, and the “gimmick” was that each one would be from a different faction such as water, fire, life, and so on. Their factions were revealed in the ultimate ‘80s fashion and that was with a hologram! You rubbed their chest and a little fire or water icon would appear, showing what that Battle Beast’s allegiance was! These toys have become very, very rare these days and if you want one in good condition, you better pray you have the same allegiance as the guy selling it, as that is the only way you are getting a deal!

The toughest guy in the galaxy has to be Marshall BraveStarr. This is a very fitting entry just after Battle Beasts, as in the ‘80s, I had an epic pair of BraveStarr shoes that had a cool hologram on them.

BraveStarr was an epic sci-fi show set on the planet of New Texas where an outlaw called Tex Hex and his goons are kept in place by BraveStarr and his badass stead, Thirty/Thirty. The toys were made by Mattel and they were not like the other action figures of the day. 3 ¾ inch had become the accepted size for many toy lines, but Mattel went big with BraveStarr.

These toys were huge in comparison to the other toys on the market, and that meant that the vehicles and playsets were much larger too. BraveStarr is something that a lot of people from the 80s remember, but I bet many are shocked when they are shown just how large and impressive these toys are.

One of the 10 retro toy lines from the ‘80s you forgot about that I knew had to be on this list was Visionaries. This was brought to us by Hasbro and like most toy lines of the 80s, Visionaries had a fun TV show that also served as a toy commercial.

The show and the toy line did not last very long, as it could not compete with the other major toy lines. However, the mixture of sci-fi and fantasy that the Visionaries offered was so much fun. The figures would go all in with the hologram gimmick with each figure having one on their chest and also on a flag.

They were so much fun and the detail to this day is very impressive. While the figures are cool and perhaps remembered, the playset and vehicles this line offered are truly some of the most impressive of the ‘80s.

When it comes to toy lines of the ‘80s that I would love to see brought back, Dino-Riders is at the top of this list. Two alien races are traveling through space and they crash on a prehistoric planet. The good Valorians live in harmony with dinosaurs, and the evil Rulons on the other hand use brain boxes to control them.

Both sides use technology with the dinosaurs to turn them into powerful beasts. These toys were made by Tyco and they are epic in every sense of the word. They made smaller dinosaurs, but many people remember the T-Rex and Diplodocus best. Each dinosaur would come with a figure to ride on them and some very heavy artillery! These were a ton of fun to play with and even if you do remember them, do you remember that they made a final series that was based on creatures from the Ice Age?