Bestselling toys

Revisit those most-coveted pressies that have delighted children at Christmas over the years

1 Buzz Lightyear (1996) Initially Buzz struggled to make it to Britain in big enough numbers, let alone “To Infinity and Beyond”. He’s since made it onto a NASA space shuttle 2 Game Boy (1991) To date, it’s sold around 120 million units worldwide. For many users it fell into place with Tetris, but it also gave Pokemon to the world.. 3 Care Bears (1985) Originating on greeting cards, soon the Care Bear Stare focused on colourful soft toys. From Wish Bear to Cheer Bear, these cute creatures were certainly Loved-a-lot. 7 Twister (1966) Requires mobility, tenacity and a willingness to invade personal space. Just don’t tell Aunt Joan it was accused of selling “sex in a box”. 8 Mastermind (1971) Turn codebreaker and work out the coloured pegs and their position to win. Easy? Well, with 1,296 combos, it may be a long Boxing day. 4 Cabbage Patch Kids (1983) Xavier Roberts’ dolls became an 80s icon – with one “born” every 6.8 seconds. They’ve appeared on stamps, as Olympic mascots and one even went into space. 5 Rubik’s Cube (1978) With 350 million plus cubes sold, it’s the world’s bestselling toy EVER. Struggling? It even took its inventor, Erno Rubik, over a month to solve. 6 Uno (1972) Ask for a number one at Merle Robbins’ barbershop in Ohio and you’d have likely left with Merle’s invention: the Numero Uno card game of the 1970s. 9 Etch A Sketch (1960) France’s reputation for fine art remains intact as the home of this classic drawing game. Revived in the 1990s, thanks to Toy Story.