Nostalgia klaxon! Prepare to be reminded how rubbish things are for children these days compared to when we were young. Who needs Call of Duty when you could use your imagination and a LEGO gun to smite the evil-doers? And they call it progress…

The Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood has a new exhibition dedicated to martial make-believe, War Games, featuring a host of favourite combatant characters from yesteryear. The earliest exhibits actually date from 1800, which is too far back for even the Editor to remember, but children of the 1970s and ’80s will enjoy reminiscing about Action Man and He-Man, as well as learning something of warfare as represented for the youth market. The exhibition, split into four sections, is not all fun and games, however, exploring the post-war distaste for combat as entertainment and the subsequent move of the industry into the realms of space and fantasy. The exhibition will run until 9th March 2014.

Action Man SAS Key Figure
Palitoy Company Ltd
England, 1978-80
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Space toy ray gun
Japan, 1960-69
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Toy soldier set,
German army medical service,
1936 O M Hausser and A G Lineol
Germany, c.1936
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Get Rid of Huns
maze puzzle
England, 1916
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Red astronaut robot,
Cragstan, 1950-60
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Action Man Mountain Rescuer
Palitoy Company Ltd
England, c.1980
© Victoria & Albert Museum

LEGO gun
© Victoria & Albert Museum

The Original Skeletor
1981
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Captain America
comic
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Tin war elephant
Ernst Heinrichsen
Germany, 1860-1900
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Transformers
Optimus Prime 2010
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Spitfire
Airfix
England, 1970s
© Victoria & Albert Museum

Board game, Blackout
England, 1940-9
© Victoria & Albert Museum

War comic
Published by Atlas Comics,
USA. 1954
© Victoria & Albert Museum