In partnership with NiQuitin.
Let's play!
Shopping with your parents was one of the worst parts of your childhood. Getting dragged around a shopping centre as your parents did the weekly shop or browsed the clothes racks was rarely an appealing proposition.
To be fair to your parents, it probably wasn't much fun putting up with a barrage of "Are we done yet?" questions either. They weren't above a bribe to get your cooperation. The only thing that’d get you through those slogs was the promise of a look in the toy shop when everything else was seen to.
As you've grown up, you've probably put away the toys and got on with the business of being a grown up. But this week we're gonna give you a pass.
As part of our
Quit to Fit challenge with NiQuitin, this week's challenge is to pick up a different toy or game from childhood each day of the week and re-discover how much fun they were. Indulge your nostalgic side. Our five JOE teams will be capturing this trip down memory lane on
Twitter and
Instagram using the hashtag #QuitToFit. We've also inviting you to get involved and tell us how you got on by using the hashtag.
In case you've turned into Robin Williams at the beginning of Hook and completely forgotten your childhood, here are a few of our favourite toys from back in the day to rejig your memory.
1. Super Soaker
Water fights were a serious business. Most of us were armed with water balloons, pound shop water pistols and maybe the odd bucket. But there was always that one kid with a Super Soaker. Most of us would end up having to team up against them because they'd have too much of an advantage.
In the end, everyone would just want a shot of the thing. Nothing quite beats the satisfaction of coming into your house at the end of the day drenched from head to toe after a water fight.
2. Tether Ball
There's the one with the volleyball on the end and the tennis ball one too. Whatever your preference, this was a fixture in most of our back gardens at one stage or another.
3. The Hula Hoop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SwvSu3jxAA
"It's fun, it's healthy, it's good exercise, the kids'll just love it," says Norville Barnes in The Hudsucker Proxy. Need we come up with a better pitch than that? It's a big plastic ring. What's not fun about that?
4. Trampoline
You go up, you come back down. A classic.
5. Lego
These plastic bricks from Denmark are one of the most popular toys in the world, and easily the most populous. Apparently, there are 80 pieces of Lego for every person in the world. No matter what kind of kid you were, Lego probably had something to offer you, from Star Wars ships to Bionicles and everything in between.
6. Tamagotchi
Like having a pet without any of the nitty-gritty stuff. You had to feed it, pick up its droppings and look after it if it got sick. A toy that trained us to be constantly attentive to a small screen... might be responsible for our current dependency on our phones.
7. A stick
The original toy. Use it as a sword, throw it to a dog. If you found a particularly big one you could pretend to be Gandalf or Darth Maul. The possibilities were endless with a trusty stick at your side.
8. A giant foot piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF7-rz9nIn4
Clips Via:
We've never actually played with one of these. But it looked like fun when Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia did it.
NiQuitin is an unbeatable* way of quitting smoking. Try the NiQuitin 14mg patch for 24-hour craving control and the new NiQuitin Fresh Mint 2mg gum to hit sudden cravings hard with great flavour! NiQuitin 14mg Clear Patches and NiQuitin Fresh Mint 2mg gum are "stop smoking" aids that contain nicotine but you still require willpower. Always read the label. *provides significant improvements in quit rates compared to the patch alone.
*No purchase or use of NiQuitin is required.
T&Cs apply.
In partnership with NiQuitin. 
