SMELLS LIKE GEN X BLOG
Explore the written archive for 70s nostalgia, 80s nostalgia, and 90s nostalgia across music, movies, TV shows, toys, commercials, trends, and the weird pop-culture debris that never fully left your brain.
Use this page as the main written gateway into Smells Like Gen X: start with a decade hub, follow a topic lane, search the archive, or jump straight into the latest post.
Looking for a specific year, song list, movie countdown, TV ranking, or toy post? Search the archive directly instead of scrolling the whole feed.
The blog works best when you use the decade hubs as your map. Start with the 70s, jump into the flagship 80s hub, or head into the expanding 90s archive.
Start here for 70s songs, movies, TV, toys, and the slower, stranger, more analog version of Gen X memory.
Big hooks, bigger movies, iconic toy aisles, prime-time TV, mall culture, and the deepest nostalgia hub on the site.
Alt-rock, sitcom empires, CDs, snack-branding overload, holiday toy panic, and the polished late-era Gen X archive.
These topic lanes route into the main category hubs, so visitors can browse the archive by what they actually care about.
Start here for year-end countdowns, chart rewinds, radio nostalgia, and the songs that permanently colonized your brain.
Dive into year-by-year movie countdowns, box office rewinds, poster-wall nostalgia, and video-store-era comfort watches.
Network giants, sitcom empires, Nielsen-era countdowns, forgotten shows, and the TV memories that still feel weirdly personal.
Holiday toy panic, weird products, year-by-year toy posts, and the kind of childhood plastic that still lives in your head rent-free.
These are the strongest written entry points into the current Smells Like Gen X archive.
The strongest decade page on the site right now, with clear paths into songs, movies, TV, toys, and broader 80s nostalgia.
One of the best category hubs on the site, with dynamic year browsing for top songs of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Peak late-90s network power, Seinfeld fallout, ER dominance, and one of the strongest single-year TV entry points.
Fresh nostalgia, deep cuts, countdowns, and beautifully unnecessary rewinds across the Gen X archive.
The top 10 toys of 1987 capture the year the 80s toy aisle got weirder, more tactile, and even more character-driven. From Jenga and Nintendo to My Pet Monster, Transformers, TMNT, Popples, and Koosh Ball, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1987 one of the decade’s strangest and most memorable holiday seasons.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1986 capture the year the 80s toy aisle got louder, stranger, and more aggressive. From Lazer Tag and G.I. Joe to Barbie, Transformers, Teddy Ruxpin, and Madballs, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1986 one of the decade’s wildest holiday seasons.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1985 capture the year the 80s toy aisle got softer, stranger, and more high-tech. From Teddy Ruxpin and Cabbage Patch Kids to Transformers, He-Man, Care Bears, and Trivial Pursuit, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1985 one of the decade’s most unforgettable holiday seasons.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1984 capture the year the 80s toy aisle went full franchise mode. From Cabbage Patch Kids and He-Man to GoBots, Transformers, Trivial Pursuit, and Atari 2600, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1984 one of the decade’s most competitive and unforgettable holiday seasons.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1983 capture the year the 80s toy aisle went fully berserk. From Cabbage Patch Kids and Atari 2600 to Care Bears, He-Man, Rubik’s Cube, and Strawberry Shortcake, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1983 one of the wildest and most unforgettable retail years of the decade.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1982 capture the moment the 80s toy aisle became fully commercialized, character-driven, and impossible to ignore. From Rubik’s Cube and Atari 2600 to Strawberry Shortcake, E.T., G.I. Joe, and Smurfs, this countdown revisits the toys that made 1982 feel bigger, brighter, and more branded than ever.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1981 capture the moment the 80s toy aisle fully turned into a neon mix of puzzle mania, video games, scented dolls, licensed characters, and electronic play. From Rubik’s Cube and Atari 2600 to Strawberry Shortcake, Smurfs, Simon, and Barbie, this countdown revisits the hottest toys of a year when the decade’s identity really started to click.
Read more →The top 10 toys of 1980 capture the exact moment the toy aisle went electronic, branded, and unmistakably 80s. From Rubik’s Cube and Atari 2600 to Strawberry Shortcake, Simon, and Star Wars, this countdown revisits the hottest toys that kicked off the decade in style.
Read more →From Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to Lethal Weapon 2, When Harry Met Sally..., Dead Poets Society, and Parenthood, these were the top 10 movies of 1989. A Smells Like Gen X rewind through the year the 80s balanced giant event movies with warmth, wit, and surprisingly emotional crowd-pleasers.
Read more →From Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit to Coming to America, Big, Die Hard, and Beetlejuice, these were the top 10 movies of 1988. A Smells Like Gen X rewind through one of the broadest, weirdest, and most crowd-pleasing box office years of the 80s.
Read more →Top 10 Movies of 1987: Three Men and a Baby, Fatal Attraction, and the Year the 80s Turned More Adult
Read more →From Top Gun and Crocodile Dundee to Platoon, Aliens, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and The Karate Kid Part II, these were the top 10 movies of 1986. A Smells Like Gen X rewind through one of the slickest, biggest, and most unexpectedly varied box office years of the 80s.
Read more →DON’T MISS THE REWIND
Countdowns, forgotten media, weird rabbit holes, and peak Gen X nostalgia across every category.