The 80 series strong points from my perspective as an owner, since you asked what we think of it -
Solid axles
Coil Springs
Lockers
Big Enough w/o being too big
Cheap as snot to put 3" lift and 33's or 35's on.
Weak points -
Leather sucks - have yet to find one that does not have a trashed DS front seat.
Front end does not flex well, it's better than IFS, but if you go beyond an off the shelf lift and start looking for articulation, you're hurting.
Slider cost - There are more options than there were 5 years ago, but they're still all several hundred dollars more than for any comparable vehicle - if you build your own, not such an issue, but the cats are somewhat in the way on '96-97's.
Head gasket - they 'may' be prone to failure - somewhat debatable on how prone as it may just appear to be a high failure rate do to everyone with a failure finding a forum to vent.
EGR system - I've suffered this one, there are multiple Vaccuum Selector Valves in the system, one under the intake can fail and it's hard to reach, but not impossible. The system does appear prone to the failure, but again, don't know about the sample being skewed.
Window felts - tend to dry out and cause hard opening, but when it's a 12-17 year old truck, what do you expect.
A/C System - Some find it to be marginal - but there is a good fix putting a Denalli fan in to boost it, and there is an non-US factory fan that can be put on in front of the coil. After a new dryer / evaporator valve / and recharge mine works great - well, after all that and then figuring out the crazy 40th anniversary and Lexus automatic climate control. Fixing those is easy, once you know what the fix is, but I had dealers stumped on it, and so have others - they just don't see enough of them I guess.
Back in the stone age, 1994 ish, I think it was motortrend that did a 4 wheeler of the year type test and the 80 series was in it. Saw it on TV, and I remember it climbing up something or other, and they said "It will go places no vehicle this size should go and it will make it look easy" - or something to that effect. I love it. I don't know of another vehicle as capable off-road that also has the capability to cary 4 comfortably at 90mph down the hwy all day long. There is no way a vehicle that drives this nice on road should be able to perform offroad the way it does.
. I think lockers are a more common option on the Lexus - it just seems to show up on more of them, but it's a relatively small population.