Your Favorite Toys as a Child? Why? & Your Age?

[Dan in Pasadena]

I'm 52 so I pre-date all true electric toys. I had an electric football game though....for those of you that don't know what those are its basically a vibrating board with little stiff statures, never liked it much.

My favorite? Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots (Think of the Dodge Ram commercial with giant ones), the Wham-O bran Air Blaster - I could put out my Dad's cigarettes (eek, politically incorrect by today's standards) and the good old fashioned Super Ball. All because I could be ACTIVE doing them. I'd have never made it as a child today with only my thumbs and eyes moving!

[the]

I'm in my 40s, by far my favorite toys were my skateboards and bikes. They'd get around 10 hours of use per day every day all summer.

For indoor toys, a local arcade went out of business and my parents bought the Captain America pinball machine for me. That got a lot of use. Before that, my brother and I liked Atari video games (the ice racing one and the tank battle), and even before that, yes, the Granddaddy Of Them All . . . PONG!

[trekkor]

I'm right at 39.

I enjoyed all the "project" toys, Erector set, Legoes, Tinker toys and Lincoln logs...Even just plain old "blocks"...Sand castles were also fun.

I really enjoyed building things. Went on to model cars and airplanes.
We built some insane forts and tree houses.


KT

Electric train sets and slot car racing were good.

[RallyJon]

I'm 40. Spinwelder. Micronauts.

[Nostril Cheese]

Legos. I now design buildings

[M.D. Holloway]

I'm 43 - from when we were 8 till 22! Nurf Football (two hand touch, 3 on 3 or 2 on 2, need two completions for a first down) played in the street or Wiffle Ball taped up with duct tape, Wiffle Ball bat with newspaper wrapped around it for weight bound by duct tape - played in the street as well.

Played year round, even during the college years, sometimes if the boys were home as well we would get a game up. Played till the sun went down and the field was light by street lights. Good times.

[jyl]

Lego. Man, that was the best toy. I built giant aircraft carriers with multiple decks and working elevators, spaceships with cockpits and bunkrooms and engine compartments, cars with working suspension (using flat lego piece as a leaf spring), castles with battlements and turrets, hand-held laser blasters, B-17s, everything I could think of. My family was so proud of me, everyone said I'd do great things someday. Ha! I sure showed them!

Plastic models, of all sorts. Preferably military, because flat paint was easier to brush on than glossy. Tanks, fighter planes, destroyers, PT-109, I built 'em all. I was a child environmentalist, diligently recycling my plastic creations using lighter fluid. The ship models got recycled in the bathtub. Amazingly, I never got in trouble for this. And of course, there were no smoke detectors.

Balsa wood and tissue airplane models. I'd wander around open fields, winding up the rubber band propeller and pretending I was Lindbergh doing his mail flights. I really liked reading The Spirit Of St. Louis. When the plane landed off-kilter and shattered a spar or strut, I'd repair it, pretending that I was stranded and couldn't get home unless my plane was flyable.

GI Joes. Joe's patrols usually ended with him stepping on a mine, which the enemy (me) fashioned from firecrackers bought by the gross. Sometimes Joe was captured. After perfunctory interrogation (he never had much to say), the initial cavity search disclosed that, when Joe's arms and legs were pulled, as if on a torture rack, the hollow interior of his torso was revealed, which could be packed with firecrackers. Joe, his clothes back on, stood grimly at attention while the fuse burned . . . the resulting detonation literally blew his clothes and boots off. Great fun.

Guns. As a rather urban child, I never got to roam the woods with a .22, like the boys did in the books I read. But my dad liked to play with air rifles, so during our periods living in the suburbs I got to shoot .177 cal pellet rifles in the backyard. Later, I received a single-shot bolt-action Remington .22 which I was allowed to shoot in the improvised basement range. Unsupervised. As a result, I nearly shot myself in the head with a stray ricochet. An incident which impressed on a certain 10 y/o boy the importance of gun safety.

Walkie talkies. I remember loving these, even though the concept was always better than the reality. You and your friend had to have the same channel, which meant the same crystal. Then you needed some ridiculous number of batteries, which were not always at hand for a little kid. Then you had to be not too far away from each other, without too much in the way, and no interference sources. Basically they never worked too well. But they sure were cool.

Bicycle. Does this count as a toy? In another post, I described my humiliation, how I had to straddle my Peugeot 10 speed and watch, envious, while the other kids jumped and slid out with their Stingrays. So, I didn't like my bike all that much, even though I rode it a lot. (This is why my daughter has a purple metallic Stingray.)

Almost forgot. Slot cars. Aurora F/X HO scale. I had a big track set up on a spare dining table. Lots of cars, all hot-rodded with the special super-strength magnets and so on. I'd never heard of rally racing, but great minds must think alike, since we always put stuff on the track to make driving harder.

I'm 45.

Today I have a big 1/32 scale slot car setup, which unfortunately is currently in storage. Various guns, including that same Remington bolt-action .22. No GI Joe, though. I could borrow my daughter's Joe, I'm sure he'd like some time away from those vapid Barbies, but blowing his clothes off with firecrackers would land me in the doghouse.

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by LubeMaster77
.......... Played till the sun went down and the field was light by street lights. Good times.

Not to hijack my own thread but this reminded methat I had to come in or check in when the street lights went on when I was a kid. Things were so much easier for a kid back then.

[rouxroux]

Mr. Machine, Vac-U-Form (with "ThingMaker"), Tinkertoys, "real" Tonka trucks with sharp edges, Chemistry sets. super balls, battery-powered "remote conrol" cars/planes with the big control lines attached. Ah, memories!

[johnco]

51. don't really remember many store bought toys that come to mind except the usual kid toys. for some reason we always found something dangerous to do. BB guns, bows, dangerous knife games with sharp knives, moped at 9, upsidedown bicycles and way too tall stilts. bigger bikes and smaller boats. betting who could go faster hanging onto back of cars on bicycles(80mph my best), cars at 15, dunebuggies and riding various things towed behind trucks... truck hoods, bathtubs, small boats.. damn parachute would lift rear wheels off the ground before you could get any altitude.. always something unusual and different, usually dangerous. then we got old enough to go out drinking legally. that's when things got stupid

[Jim Bremner]

legos

bmx bikes

plastic models

lawn darts

bb guns

40

[kycarguy 935]

Morey boogie boards, skateboards, surboards, Evil Knievel motorcycle, BB guns, army men, .22 caliber bolt action rifle(had since I was 8yo), model trains, large slot cars racing and H.O. slot car tracks.


I remember the street light check in. Good memories.

[sand_man]

I'm 37...

-Micronauts
-Star Wars action figures
-G.I. Joe (the largish ones)
-Hot Wheels
-Slot cars
-Building model cars
-Skateboards
-BMX bikes
-2X2 rollerskates (what are roller blades)

[Dan in Pasadena]

Originally posted by johnco
........... for some reason we always found something dangerous to do. ...... betting who could go faster hanging onto back of cars on bicycles(80mph my best).........always something unusual and different, usually dangerous.........

'Ya think?

Geeeeez, 80 mph?! Dude, you're lucky to be alive....or at least to have most of your skin still attached.

We did the hang on to the car thing; but we were physically riding on the roof of the car (which was incredibly STUPID!) while our buddy tried to drive fast and throw us off it. Talk about your basic Darwin challenge! I came flying off intentionally when he (kinda) slowed down to make a corner. Let's just say I got tossed but fortunately I landed on a lawn.

[lendaddy]

We used to play "stuntmasters" here at work. One guy would drive the car at a set speed and you had to jump slightly and do the sideways roll onto the hood, windshield, and ultimately over the car. It would launch you up in the air a bit but was surprisingly controlable. The game was to keep increasing the cars speed until someone quit..... We quit when I went through the windshield of my buddies TC3. IIRC that was at ~35mph

I was bloodied up but fine. Man I hope my boys never read this.....stupid!!!

OH yea, the toys. I remember the "BigWheels", I had a Blue Maxx and my brother had The Green Machine. Those things were a riot.

[cool_chick]

Originally posted by LubeMaster77

Played till the sun went down and the field was light by street lights. Good times.

This reminded me of Ghosts in the Graveyard. Had to wait until the sun went down to play, though.

[johnco]

yep, my tires were screaming.. what makes you think most of my skin is attached? at least in the original location. a buddy had a habit of turning left while reaching over and pulling your door handle. he found it very entertaining as you tumbled out the car.

[VINMAN]

Originally posted by RallyJon
I'm 40. Spinwelder.

Thank you! I couldnt remember the name ! That was a great thing but it didnt last long. took it off the shelves real quick.

I'm 42. Hot wheels, GI Joes( still have a bunch of my original ones), Erector sets, Lincoln Logs, those little plastic soldiers,had thousands of those. Big Jim, was a outdoors lumberjack type action figure, Tonka trucks( still have some of them).

When i was real young, Playdough and Colorforms

[Tim Hancock]

40.... GI Joe, some sort of zip racer that you pulled a plastic cord to make go, Crossman 760 bb gun, pocketknives, firecrackers, .22 Marlin semi-auto, Schwinn Stingray, BMX bikes, Honda Z50, CT70, XR75, Bow and arrow set, slot cars, Stretch Armstrong, wrist rocket sling shot, pipe bombs, hammer/nails and scrap wood (to build "battle ships" to plink at in the creek with the bb gun)

[on2wheels52]

Mid-50's, got a Kenner(?) building and roadbuilding set one Christmas. As a farm kid I thought those little red I-beams were pretty neat compared to Lincoln Logs. An 027 Marx train set was laid out a couple of times a year, took a 4x8 space so couldn't be up all the time.
Jim