8 toys that Hongkongers loved as kids

Sharing a name with the most common tool appearing in Doraemon, a shame you probably can’t fly using it, but we bet you had nearly as much fun. This one is about as simple as a toy gets, just rub it between your hands and watch it shoot up to the sky. Great for those class outings and picnics – until it gets stuck on a tree that is.

If we are honest, we didn’t know what we were doing with the slinky either. Most just tossed it between their hands and tried to set it off the stairs – though as we all know it rarely goes all the way down, and the frustration of untangling it after a failed attempt makes you understand the pain of Slinky Dog from Toy Story, but when it does, the experience is almost therapeutic.

'Go – shoot!' If you know, you know. The playground duels with these were largely inspired by the anime series Beyblade that was played on TVB. Things got intense and occasionally even dangerous with people modding their tops with weights for a and even razors for an edge – no pun intended – over the others.

Be honest, who bought this thinking it was going to be fun and gave up after hours of fiddling with it and somehow ending up with a more scrambled cube than you started with? Were you one of the select few ‘elite’ children of the playground who did solve it and received the well deserved awe and respect from others?

An electronic, egg-shaped pet that fitted snugly in your pocket, that you had to feed, walk, even clean up after...Ah, it died again. It’s a good thing that most of us weren’t responsible for taking care of any physical pets as children, because judging from how often we forgot to feed these e-pets, it’s likely that wouldn’t have ended well. We can’t believe it, but these are still being sold in Toys”R”us. 

Remember when you tried to juggle this with a group of friends in a circle? It’s more difficult than it sounds like when some of us tend to send it flying miles away with an unfortunately aimed kick; be very proud if you were actually able to control this as a kid – a true display of agility.

How good is your yo-yo game? This one is probably the most globally popular toy on the list, proving to be a favourite of children for decades – is there even a contender that can outstrip the popularity of this simple trinket? Another trend brought about by the power of anime on TVB, these disks were virtually everywhere with kids doing tricks from the basic Walk the Dog to the flashy ‘Barrel Rolls’, varying hours were sunk into this simple spinning toy that comes in all shapes and sizes.

A finger-sized, yet completely functional skateboard replica, most of us just slid these around on the table – perhaps flipping it once or twice and inadvertently filing our nails in the process. Though this trend has since calmed down, surprisingly, these can still be found at a cost ranging from $20 to over $1000! The hardcore enthusiasts even have dedicated models of skatepark staples such as handrails and stairs to create a fingerboard park of sorts. The youth inside us never really left eh?