Pet rocks and Rubik’s Cubes: The greatest toy fads since the 70s

I hear you Rockin': In the mid 1970s, US advertising executive Gary Dahl released pet rocks into the wild - or at least onto toy shop shelves.

His “pets”never needed to be walked, fed or groomed and they would never pee on your rugs because they were, you know, inanimate rocks.

Dahl used stones collected from a local beach and flogged them for $3.95 each.

Amazingly people bought them. In fact people went mad - literally - for them.

Millions flew off the shelves in 1975 and made their inventor a multimillionaire in six months.

Nice cube: The daddy of the faddiness is the Rubik's Cube, invented by 29-year-old Erno Rubik in 1974.

It wasn’t until it made its debut at international toy fairs six years later that it became an overnight sensation.

It featured on the Late Late Toy Show and became a must-have toy in Christmas stockings in Ireland in 1980.

Irritatingly smug people were able to solve it in less than a minute. Its sales have now topped 400 million.

Patchworking: The really clever thing about the Cabbage Patch Dolls was the "adoption certificate". That was the brainchild of Xavier Roberts.

He figured that if kids could adopt a doll they’d be more inclidned to love them. And he was right.

In the US riots were reported at some shops as frantic parents came to blows in order to get the last of the things. In 1984 alone sales came close to $1 billion.

Trivial matters: In 1984, long before the invention of the Web or the Smart phone or even computer games more complicated than Pong we had Trival Pursuit.

Families and friends would gather to fight over random questions in a non-table quiz setting.

It was invented by Canadians Chris Haney and Scott Abbott and it turned them into millionaires.

Sales have now topped €1 billion although the pair did sell the rights to Hasbro in 2008 for $80 million.

Its in the Game, boy: In the late 1970s the only home computer game on the market was Pong - white paddles on a black screen sort of replicating tennis.

Then computers such as the Commodore 64 came along and gaming improved - slowly, very, very slowly .

Boffins at Nintendo developed a games console in the late 1980s that changed the world .

In the United States in 1988 one out of every six dollars spent on toys went on consoles and Nintendo's revenue came to to $1.7 billion.

Barney Trouble: "I love you. You love me. We're a happy family. With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you, won't you say you love me too." Shut up Barney, it's not 1992 anymore.

Tickled black and blue: It was possible to bring great joy to Tickle Me Elmo by stimulating certain spots around his body to make him laugh.

It started selling in the US but it was in so much demand in 1996 that online bids topped $1,000.

Furby-mania: Two years later the world's attention had switched to a 5-inch talking robot. In its first Christmas 1.8 million units of the irritating toy sold and almost 10 times that sold a year later. Furbies are supposed to start out speaking "Furbish" and then "learn". This hardly ever happens and they are still rubbish conversationalists.

Pony up: My Little Pony just won't go away. It became a runaway hit in the mid 1980s when there were more than 50 of the beasts to collect - a burden for any parent.

Frozen dolls. Oh, just let it go, please.