Toys Survey 2018
In the summer of 2018, coinciding with a major exhibition in Bailiffgate, a survey was conducted to find the favourite toys throughout the last 100 years. Results were gathered both from attendees at the Toys exhibition and (to achieve coverage in earlier years of the last century), from residents at a number of local care homes.
Results are given below* and show some fascinating changes by decade born:
*Note that results are given by the decade in which the respondent was born, as this was felt to be the only practical approach. Roughly speaking this corresponds to the decade when a toy was popular, but there will be overlap with the next table where a favourity toy was used in older years. The toys with highest scores in that decade are shown first, in decreasing order of mentions. Toys scoring only one mention are then shown in ascending alphabetical order.
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in 1910s | |
| 2 | Doll |
| Bear | |
| Pram | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1920s | |
| 27 | Doll |
| 7 | Teddy Bear |
| 4 | Dolls Pram |
| 3 | Model railway |
| 2 | Skipping Rope |
| 2 | Spinning Top |
| Ball | |
| Dinky Toys | |
| Dolls Cot | |
| Hornby Train Set | |
| Kite | |
| Painting Set | |
| Playing outside | |
| Roller Skates | |
| Snakes and Ladders | |
| Toy Piano | |
| Toy Post Office | |
| Turn Gramaphone | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1930s | |
| 7 | Doll |
| 4 | Books |
| 3 | Teddy |
| 3 | Toy Rabbit |
| 2 | Golly |
| 2 | Meccano |
| 2 | Tricycle |
| Chinese Chequers | |
| Cigarette Cards | |
| Colouring Books | |
| Conkers | |
| Cricket Bat | |
| Doll dressmaking | |
| Dolls Pram | |
| Jigsaw | |
| Lead figures | |
| Marbles | |
| Mickey Mouse Bike | |
| Nurses Uniform | |
| Pigs Bladder | |
| Plasticine | |
| Rubber Doll | |
| Top and Whip | |
| Toy Cookery Set | |
| Toy Gun | |
| Train Set | |
| Wooden truck + bricks | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1940s | |
| 7 | Doll |
| 6 | Train Set (Hornby) |
| 5 | Teddy Bear |
| 4 | Meccano |
| 3 | Dinky Toys |
| 3 | Marbles |
| 2 | Books |
| 2 | Dolls House |
| 2 | Jigsaws |
| 2 | Scooter |
| Airfix | |
| Babies (real ones) | |
| Ball | |
| Barny Barrow Hmade | |
| Bayko | |
| Bicycle (2 wheel) | |
| Board Games | |
| Books- Famous Five | |
| Books-Rupert | |
| Box Cart | |
| Cars | |
| Clockwork Train | |
| Clockwork Train | |
| Crazy Joe Tractor | |
| Dan Dare Ray Gun | |
| Dolls House | |
| Farm Set | |
| Football | |
| Golly | |
| Guns | |
| HomeMade Toy Cooker | |
| Minibrix (like Lego) | |
| Panda | |
| Pick-Up Truck | |
| Roller Skates | |
| Rubber Doll | |
| Scrap Book | |
| Subbuteo | |
| Top | |
| Typewriter | |
| Wilfred Rabbit | |
| Wooden Dog | |
| Wooden wagon | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1950s | |
| 17 | Doll |
| 8 | Dolls Pram |
| 6 | Teddy Bear |
| 3 | Dinky Toys |
| 3 | Subbuteo |
| 3 | Terrier on Wheels |
| 3 | Train set |
| 3 | Meccano |
| 2 | Bayko |
| 2 | Football |
| 2 | Scooter |
| 2 | Toy Shop |
| 2 | Corgi Cars |
| 2 | Fuzzy Felt |
| 2 | Roller Skates |
| 2 | Lego |
| Action Man | |
| Baby Teardrop | |
| Bagatelle | |
| Barbie Doll | |
| Bayco | |
| Bicycle | |
| Book Topsy And Tim | |
| Bottle Tops | |
| Brittans | |
| Cap Gun | |
| Catapult | |
| Cluedo | |
| Cut-out Paper Dolls | |
| Dolls House | |
| Furniture Playden | |
| Go-Kart | |
| Golly | |
| Home-made Rabbit | |
| Jacks | |
| Jacks | |
| Kaleidoscope | |
| Mr Potato Head | |
| Owzat Cricket Game | |
| Push Along Donkey | |
| Remote Control Car | |
| Robbie the Robot | |
| Rocking Horse | |
| Rupert Annual | |
| Sindy Doll | |
| Soapbox | |
| Sooty Puppet | |
| Subbuteo | |
| Table Tennis | |
| Toy Bricks | |
| Trolls | |
| Typewriter | |
| Weaving Loom | |
| Wind Up Monkey | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1960s | |
| 4 | Spirograph |
| 4 | Action Man/ Men |
| 3 | Poupee Doll |
| 3 | Roller Skates |
| 2 | Fisher Price Play People |
| 2 | Lego |
| 2 | Sindy Doll |
| 2 | Teeny Tiny Tears |
| Barbie | |
| Books | |
| Buccaneers Board Game | |
| Bunty Annual | |
| Captain Scarlet Board Game | |
| Clockwork Train | |
| Daleks (Dr Who) | |
| Dinky toys | |
| Dolls | |
| Dolls House | |
| Dol-Toi Dolls House | |
| Dr Who Figure | |
| Football | |
| Fuzzy Felt | |
| Hobby Horse | |
| Hornby Tain Set | |
| Matchbox Cars | |
| Matchbox Superfast | |
| Meccano | |
| Mums Cupboard | |
| Panda | |
| Patience | |
| Peter Rabbit Boardgame | |
| Puppet | |
| Scalextric | |
| Skateboard | |
| Smurfs | |
| Snoopy Dog | |
| StickleBricks | |
| Stylophone | |
| Sweet April Doll | |
| Swingball | |
| Toy Electric Guitar | |
| Toy Sewing Machine | |
| Train Set | |
| Two Wheeler bike | |
| Typewriter | |
| Viewfinder | |
| Whip and Top | |
| ZX Spectrum | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1970s | |
| 6 | Lego |
| 4 | Lego Star Wars |
| 3 | Action Man |
| 3 | My Little Pony |
| 3 | Sindy Doll |
| 2 | Roller Skates/Boots |
| 2 | Star Wars Figures |
| 2 | Tiny Tears |
| 2 | Toy Tree House |
| 2 | Evil Knieval toy |
| 2 | Roller Skates/Boots |
| A Team figures | |
| Airfix | |
| Barbie | |
| Basil Brush | |
| Bicycle | |
| Big Traxx | |
| Britains Farm set | |
| Cuddly Toys | |
| Darth Vader Mask | |
| Doll- Cabbage Patch | |
| Dolls house | |
| Dolls House | |
| Doll-Sindy | |
| Flower Fairies | |
| Glow Worms | |
| He Man | |
| Keepers | |
| Mamod Steam Engine | |
| Marbles | |
| Meccano | |
| Monopoly | |
| Pogo Stick | |
| Slinky | |
| Snoopy the Dog | |
| Spotty dog pull along | |
| Star Wars figures | |
| Stilts | |
| Stretch Armstrong | |
| Sylvanian Families | |
| Teddies | |
| Teddy Bears | |
| Typewriter | |
| Weebles | |
| Wendy House | |
| X Wing Fighter | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 1980s | |
| 5 | Barbie Doll |
| 4 | My Little Pony |
| 3 | Playmobil |
| 3 | Polly Pocket |
| 3 | Rainbow Bright |
| 3 | Sylvanian Families |
| 3 | Lego |
| 2 | Action Man |
| 2 | Downfall game |
| 2 | Gameboy |
| 2 | Mastermind Game |
| 2 | Thundercats |
| 2 | Toy Shop |
| 2 | Sindy Doll |
| 2 | A la Carte Kitchen |
| Baby Shivers | |
| Ball | |
| Big Red Fun Bus | |
| Big Yellow Teapot | |
| Brio Train set | |
| Brone | |
| Cycling Sindy | |
| Dolls | |
| Dolls House | |
| Doll-Tiny Tears | |
| Downfall Game | |
| Drone | |
| Football | |
| Fuzzy Felts | |
| Hero Turtles | |
| Major Morgan | |
| Meccano | |
| Pound Puppies | |
| Roller Skates | |
| Scalextric | |
| Sega Megadrive | |
| Sindy | |
| Snakes and Ladders | |
| Soft Toys | |
| Sooty and Sweep | |
| Speak and Spell | |
| Subbuteo | |
| Swingball | |
| Sylvanian Families | |
| Tiny Tears | |
| Train Set | |
| Transformers | |
| Yellow Teapot | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| BORN in 1990s | |
| 3 | Lego |
| 2 | Knex |
| 2 | Barbie |
| Action Man | |
| Doll | |
| Go-Kart | |
| Gooey Aliens | |
| Kitty Cat | |
| Mysteries of Old Peking Game | |
| Polly Pockets | |
| Roller Blades | |
| Sega Megadrive | |
| Walkie Talkie | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 2000s | |
| 9 | Lego |
| 8 | Football |
| 2 | X Box |
| Brio Train | |
| Brownie Doll | |
| Bunny | |
| Dolls House | |
| Dragon Puppet | |
| Football goal | |
| Guess Who | |
| Monster Truck | |
| Nibbles the Pony | |
| Nurf Gun | |
| Puppets | |
| Rainbow the Bear | |
| Slime | |
| Space Hopper | |
| Sparky the Cat | |
| Teddy Bear | |
| Unicorn | |
| Vehicles | |
| Qty of Mentions | |
| Born in the 2010s | |
| 5 | Lego |
| 2 | My Little Pony |
| 2 | Paw Patrol |
| 2 | Puppets |
| 2 | Peppa Pig |
| 2 | Dinosaurs |
| Arts and Crafts | |
| Barbie | |
| Cars (from the Movie) | |
| Computer | |
| Farm Animals | |
| Little Pet Shop | |
| Match Attacks | |
| Plastic cars | |
| Reindeer Teddy | |
| Teddy | |
| Toy Rabbit | |
| Uno | |