Vintage UK Toys & Games Adverts (Vol.1) 

Speak and Spell dissing Americans for nearly 40 years 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I loved being a child in the 80s, cartoons and TV shows were ace, toys were brilliant and the sweets were awesome! That whole Toymation era (were cartoon were essentially 30min toy ads which had you sitting there saying "I want that.") Being a teenager in the 90s was alright with the rise of videogames but the 80s always will hold a place in my heart.

Speak & Spell was released in 1978 at 39.95. That's 203 UKP in 2022 !! That gives you an idea how expensive these electronic toys were !

Would go back to these days in a Heartbeat, no Facebook or Instagram and everyone had respect for each other

Some of them battery games were really expensive. No wonder my parents bought me Connect 4 and Buckaroo 🤣

I love the little dig about American spelling being wrong in the speak and spell advert.

Thank you for these memories, amazing how simple life was in my childhood. I agree, i would go back to these days in a heartbeat.

OMG the memories with family and friends as a child. I honestly believe the toys we had back in this awesome era lasted longer then the rubbish that they make today. Great video fella 😀👍🏼

If you were lucky enough to get one of the electronic games on Christmas morning you can be sure the batteries were forgotten about

in 1979 i was in hospital for a eye operation. I was 5 years old. There was a nurse that would play Guess who with me.

Speak & Spell Every American Should Own One .

My friend had Jaws game in the 70s, those water games I remember were more fun than you would think they would be.

From a time where the delivery of the autumn and winter Christmas catalogue was one the the most eagerly anticipated events of the year and also the book you'd read again and again and again and ag....................

The music for that Hornby advert at the end would make top charts nowadays!

Ahhh the good old days 💕thanks for cheering me up!

I can't believe this reminded me of stuff I had, that I forgot I had!!!!

“Ladies with a sketch-o-graph you can make embroidery patterns..” 😂

I loved ‘Guess Who’. I have a vivid memory of eating cheese on toast with brown sauce on it and getting a blob of brown sauce on the box lid that stained it 😂

The prices on these, a fortune. Kids have it so good these days

A lot of those toys seem more expensive than I remember hahah

Thank you for taking me back to my childhood.

This brings back so man memories. Thanks Steve. I loved growing up in 70's UK. You also have the best name in the world, too 😋

Never heard of the sketch a graph...but i want one!!

So glad I was born in the 70s..

Stock car smash up ,I loved that

Brilliant !!! Some of these games are still current in my house !! Great bit of film,of far better times,sadly missed. Thanks for posting mate 😆😆👍👍👍👍👍👍

An awesome collection of adverts there, takes me back to my childhood. I had that perfection game when I was a kid. Scared me to death though when the timer ran out, every time. You concentrate on putting the shapes in the right holes and you'd forget about the timer and then BANG! Made me jump out my skin. I remember most of these games but I don't think I've ever seen the sketch a graph. Though I do remember I had something a bit similar called the spirograph. This was where you could draw on paper various patterns by using different sized plastic discs that had little holes in and a toothed edge. You put the disc inside the main flat plastic circle and went round and round like a cog. They were great fun. The speak and spell was an interesting thing to say the least. I can remember those words 'spell colour' very well. I can only imagine the number of times the Americans heard those dreaded words 'that's wrong'. I assume those things were produced in America.

I remember getting the 'Jaws' game from a jumble sale, early 1980s. It was great fun.

I had all three of those Texas Instruments toys back then, they were great!

I had Stock Car Smash-Up, a very bullet-proof toy!

I so wanted Speak and Spell because of E.T, but my parents in their wisdom got me the maths one instead. I was horrified! 37 years later I still hold a slight grudge!! 😂

I used to love all the electronic computers they were amazing and helped with my homework’s especially maths ❤️

I've been transported to my childhood.. Thank you Steve

Subbuteo, bestest game, then, now or ever. Stands the test of time, none of the rest do.

Geez- toys were expensive back in the day!

Computer battleship was brilliant ' going on a power trip ' sinking carriers ' quality 😁

I had the first VTech it was both Texas in one and more, man I loved that thing.

I was just a kid back in the 80's so I didn't really notice it like I do now with regards to just how expensive everything was back then. Take the speak spell toy in the first clip for example. rrp of £39.99. That would be the equivalent of about £150 today. The board games too. £16 back then would have been around £60 in today's money. I can only guess that moving the manufacturing to China/Asia is wat as brought down the cost of everything and that if it was to come back to the West, the prices would go back to being like they were in the 80's/90's.

In my collection, i have a collection of items from the late 70s and 80s, all in working order. Picked from 2nd hand shops and car boot sales. One of the items being the early eighties item in the box Spirograph.

PURPLE PEOPLE EATER!!!! So many have told me I was making that thing up. lmao!!!

The prices for some of these were so expensive. Even by today's standards. They would be a fortune in today's money.

I remember most of these. Whatever happened to Action GT...? I love how they used to tell you the price!!

Omg all these ads take me back

Just look how many of these have versions or rip-offs still in sale today- says everything!

Fantastic collection of memories, I’ve still got my subbuteo set, we had the best games back in the day I feel sorry for kids now days,

Who remembers Boris the spider. I've been trying to find it to show my family what I used to play with.

Does anyone remember the last day at school before the summer holidays when you could bring in one of these from home?

That was an amazing collection of adverts

Amazing compilation thanks very much

Man, I used to have about 5-6 of those Ideal Water Games, I loved them, but by the time I was into them in the late 80s, I think the branding was Tomy. Also, I'll always remember our doctors surgery having one of those Perfection games with about 1/2 the pieces missing. xD

Remember most of these 😌 Great vid sir 👍 really enjoy watching them

Ace video. Legit my entire childhood right there

I had one of those Big Badge Factory things when I was little! :D

£45 for the micro electronics game??!!! Wow!!!

I used to have that Little Professor ! If you got a calculation wrong, it said "EEEEEEEE !" , the implication being he was laughing at you !

Simpler, more fun times.

Demon driver, I forgot about that game, brillant game, if only we had rechargable batteries back then.

Speak & Spell: Spell "Colour" Kid: **spells it the American way** Speak & Spell: WRONG Shade thrown XD

Excellent compilation @RetroSteveUK. Just subscribed after looking at your past videos 👍

Loved the Hornby Advert big time

Subbuteo 1,000s of games with me and my friends, the arguments, the shouting. It was like being at a real match!

Demon driver I had one of those 😍

Great memories, had some of those games

I love that subtle dig on American English in that first clip

I remembered about half these toys maybe, but not the other half. However, what was crazy- a few of these adverts just created such a strong association with the time, that I "felt" the same way that I did when buying other toys completely- not in this video. That is mad.

Is anyone else going straight to eBay after watching these videos?

The Hurican Higgins Cue Ball game was brilliant because it also came with a bottle of vodka and a few lines of cocaine.

I’d play with Perfection now if I could!! Loved that game.

Used to hate the 'batteries not included' notification lol - I had computer battles ships - such a fab game! and Simon, Merlin, Subbuteo etc!

Still got my Palitoy Blip game! (‘No TV set needed’)

Simpler times. We seemed to have more time - remember many afternoons in playing connect4 not all this rushing about like today.

The rough conversion of these prices to todays money is 285% based on when I played with Little Professor. No wonder I had crappy toys as a kid, some of these are really expensive.

35 quid for a speech synthesised toy, that's amazing, even then!

I miss my Split Second game, it was so simple, but it was still fun.

killing myself laughing looking back at my childhood memories

youtube should have an option to watch all old videos in a wooden telly.

Some of these toys games were really expensive for their time

so many memories

I remember these TV add from my childhood.

I see in the TV ad for the 'Connect' game the boy beats the girl. That wouldn't happen now. Girl beats boy every time

Had battle ship 😍

Not heard of any of these except the last two.😁 No sign of Bernard Cribbins - bring on the 70s!

I loved my Little Professor, I think that’s why I’m good at mental arithmetic today. Does anyone remember Bond tests at school (circa 1980s)

Looking at that Hornby ad at the end I think I discovered where they got the idea for the toy train sequence in The Wrong Trousers (Wallace and Gromit)

I like the Hornby Train Sets ad. The green engine reminds me of Henry from Thomas the Tank Engine.

You will never see a girl loose and a boy win these day.

Still have my speak & spell and Speak & Math...both still work!!

Some of the electronic games weren't cheap at the time!

Sketch a graph, that took me bk, I'm sure mine never worked lol

I now times move on etc, but I think the beauty of these toys is in their unsophistication and the fact that they involve children playing together.

Haha I just saw mr pop by ideal in a toy shop today and had to buy it

I had at least half of these toys as a kid in the 70s.

Speak and spell.my cousins just used it to spell out swear words Lol!

The 80’s ‘electronic’ Hornby ad is a bit pants compared with the classic Bernard Cribbins ‘Look! I’m Hornby size again!’

I remember desperately wanted the “harrier jump jet” game where you launched it of a carrier, flew up a wire and you flew it back. I got it one Christmas, it was complete rubbish! Never forgot the let down!

some of these were not electronic, just pop up mechanical games, but was fun to watch

Battleship we never played this. I was too young to understand it.

I remember having talking battle ships

I think my ambition is to own everything in these ads, I've just bought Merlin, but worry it may be awful

It’s surprising how expensive some of these are for the time