The Daily O’Collegian

Many things change from one generation to the next. Clothes and music are just a few of the trends that have completely changed from our childhood to kids today.

But one thing has evolved since our days of make-believe: toys.

One can see the drastic change anywhere, from walking down the toy aisles to playing with nieces or nephews to baby-sitting the little kid next door. While observing their surroundings, students can ask: Why do kids today get such better toys?

For most students, playtime is a distant memory. Ladies no longer play with Barbie in her dream house or their million Polly Pockets, and guys no longer build tiny cities out of Legos. Back in our childhood days, the high-tech toys were the Tamagotchi pet and Super Nintendo.

Kids today would look at our stack of wonders and think, “lame.” Their everyday toys are portable video games, and while they still have the Barbies and Legos of our generation, they have advanced to a much higher level.

“Their Legos are so much better than when I grew up,” said Jessica Sovereign, an animal science junior.

Jim Williams, a fire protection and safety technology senior, agreed with Sovereign, saying he is jealous of toys today.

The top category of toys sold to children at Stillwater’s Wal-Mart was board games, according to Wal-Mart. The other big sellers for kids included action figures, fashion dolls, pre-school learning games and Hot Wheels.

Some of Wal-Mart’s top-sellers for young girls included Hannah Montana dolls and Tamagotchi pets. And a big hit for both boys and girls were PlayStations and MP3 players.

Toys “R” Us had a much bigger selection because they are strictly a toy store. Some of their big-sellers were the same as Wal-Mart’s, with board games and action figures being among the most popular, according to its Web site. The big craze at the moment is Transformers action figures for younger boys.

Laura Hale, an animal science junior, said: “Kids these days have much better video games. When I was a kid I loved playing with board and card games, and now kids are playing with their own cell phones.”

Many children have things, like cell phones, for which college students had to wait until they were teens, creating a big gap between the age groups. It is the norm for kids today to have hand-held PlayStation PSPs, iPods and cell phones.

When now-college students were younger, Super Nintendo was the game console of choice, and cell phones were something they knew nothing about. Instead, girls played board games with fake telephones like Mall Mania.

The must-have for any girl in her toy collection was Barbie. Barbie has been around since our parents were young and is still a hit today. However, time has led to cooler accessories for today’s Barbie.

“I would’ve wanted Barbie after she broke up with Ken,” said Jezire Hudson, an undecided sophomore.

When students were kids, Barbie had a pink Corvette and a dream house she shared with Ken. Now, Barbie has 10 cars, a remodeled dream house, more clothes and even a replacement for Ken.

For boys, the action figure is still popular, but the tricks they can do are not the same as the older version. And though the classics like Hot Wheels are still big today, the variety is greater.

So why do kids today get to play with better toys? Blame it on time. Things get more advanced as years pass. For those envious of children’s toys today, they will just have to wait to sneak playtime in with their children’s gadgets.