But now, childlike adults can relive their wasted youth because Japanese manufacturer Bandai will soon release an all-colour, new-and-improved version of the classic toy.
I think reconnecting with that childlike version of you is a wonderful diversion from all the stresses and responsibilities that do keep us disconnected.
It is the opening scene of Chinese TV series She and Her Girls, which is based on true stories of Zhang Guimei, the founder of a free public school for girls deep in the mountain.
Justice and friendship are also set at defiance, and that purity of taste is vitiated, which would naturally lead a man to relish an artless display of affection, rather than affected airs.
I believe that everyone who has watched She and Her Girls will admire and respect Zhang as she, like a mountain flower blooming on a cliff, uses her life to light the way forward for children in the mountains.
Her dress was ill-chosen and naively gaudy; her hair was hidden in a red net, her dress of faded blue satin was too tight for her, and thick Swedish gloves reached up to her sharp elbows.
The little artless tricks of children, it is true, are particularly pleasing and attractive; yet, when the pretty freshness of youth is worn off, these artless graces become studied airs, and disgust every person of taste.