My old toys that the children played with (and those they didn't)

I was very lucky that my parents had both the loft space and the inclination to keep lots of my old toys for me. They didn't keep nearly everything of course, but plenty of my childhood favourites made it back to me once I had loft space of my own. 

I've loved watching the children play with my old toys, and some of them have been played with as much as I did. In particular the Duplo - I have a lovely vintage Duplo supermarket set and some Lego Fabuland sets which I remember being bought for me when I was little. We've topped up the Duplo box with their own sets, and it was their most played with toy when they were younger. In fact I wrote all about our love affair with Duplo a few years back. It's still at the front of the toy cupboard as I can't bear to pack it all away just yet, I think they'd still play with it now if I got it out!

I had lots of Lego too, in particular an old Lego train set which still chugs its way around the tracks alongside Harry's newer versions. I've found that the older sets had many more generic pieces, simple blocks and the like, which makes them great for open ended building. When friends come round I often just tip out the big box of Lego in the living room for them to rummage through.

We also have a few of my old board games which they've enjoyed playing, in particular Game of Life and Cluedo. Sadly one of my favourite trivia board games, The Game of Knowledge, seems to have been lost at some point, but most of the questions are probably completely out of date now anyway!

However not all of my old toys were a hit with mine. I remember spending hours playing with my My Little Ponies when I was young, but mine weren't really interested at all. Mia had some of the newer style My Little Ponies but she never really got into them. I used to play with them as though they were horses, making them go over jumps and grooming them, but the new ones are more like dolls. Harry did have fun playing with my beloved My Little Pony Dream Castle though!

Another of my favourite old toys that never sparked much interest was the Barbies. Mia had a few when she was little but she never really played with them. As she got older I realised that she came to replace playing with dolls with playing Roblox. She has characters in Roblox that she dresses up, she decorates their houses, and she plays complicated role playing games with friends online in the same way that I used to play with Barbies. In fact her games are even more involved than mine were, she has whole family trees going on and she makes detailed notes and drawings about her characters. 

Of course we can't possibly keep all of their old toys, but there are some that will definitely be going up into the loft for hypothetical grandchildren. We have lots of wooden train set pieces which were second hand to begin with, and have been well played with, but are still in great condition. The Duplo, Lego and Playmobil sets definitely aren't going anywhere. I'll probably encourage the children to keep plenty of their favourite childhood books, as I've found myself rebuying lots that I got rid of over the years. I'll also keep the marble run, because my parents kept our old one and my children still enjoy playing with it when they go to visit!

Did you keep any of your old toys for your own children? What did they enjoy playing with?

Photo credit Xavi Cabrera via Unsplash