Childhood toys

[SoonerDave]

the gyro, lincoln logs, hot wheels, yard darts, slinky, bag of green army men, car and plane models, erector sets made of metal, evil water wiggle, rat fink, and others i know i have forgot.

Wow, General, there's some overlap between you and me in that list.

I loved Legos back when Legos were creative toys, not the packaged, build-one-thing-only things they've become. My mom still has some Lego components that haven't been made in years - operable garage doors, roof tiles, shrubs, virtually all the sets I had as a kid that they just don't make anymore. I used to build model buildings with them. They were awesome, and they just sold big boxes of assorted pieces, not "build a spaceship" kits.

I also had *original* TinkerToys, the original, smaller wooden ones; built elevators, windmills, even a record player (that worked, if you got close enough to a record to listen to it). Now all they have are the big ones you can't do squat with.

Licoln Logs were and are one of the most underrated toys ever. I loved 'em. I used to build huge bulidings with them to see how much I could cantilever on those logs as the building grew up and out.

I hate the way toys have stripped imagination away. Everything has *just* the parts to build exactly *one* thing *one* way. I used to imagine I built a camera out of Legos, and put together "flim packs" out of other Legos. I got a certificate from Tinkertoy for a carwash design I sent them. It was incredbly cool, imaginitive stuff.

Also had TONS of crayons and coloring books, and was forever building things out of contstruction paper - and tinkertoys made GREAT frames for construction paper "coverings." I used to build model buildings by taking yellow construction paper and cutting them into "studs," gray construction paper as my concrete "foundation," and black paper as the "sheathing." It was a wonderful era.

I just don't thik we cultivate imagination anymore. If it doesn't beep, blip, require batteries, or hook up to the Internet, no one likes it....I really lament the "passing" of truly creative, "blank canvas" toys...


-SoonerDave

[NativeOkie]

I noticed children this past Christmas playing with the empty boxes and styrofoam peanuts.
I sure could have saved a lot of money.

[danielf1935]

My favorite gifts were Hot Wheels and Hot Wheels accessories, track, tire shaped carrying case, car wash, etc;
Hot Wheels are now very collectible, my son and I went to a large Hot Wheel Convention last summer in California, there were several old Hot Wheels priced anywhere from $500.00to over $2500.00. The record for one Hot Wheel $75,000.00.

[Karried]

This tells you how poor we were.. we didn't really have many toys but did we ever use our imagination!

One thing that really stands out is putting Ketchup all over our mouths and faces and instead of Tag, chase each other all over the yard at dusk playing 'Night of the Living Dead!' lol, scared the bejeezus out of all of us!

One time my younger sister gets the bright idea to pour ketchup all over herself, lay in the gutter and have her friend run to get me to tell me she was hit by a car! We were so warped!

[westsidesooner]

My favorite gifts were Hot Wheels and Hot Wheels accessories, track, tire shaped carrying case, car wash, etc;
Hot Wheels are now very collectible, my son and I went to a large Hot Wheel Convention last summer in California, there were several old Hot Wheels priced anywhere from $500.00to over $2500.00. The record for one Hot Wheel $75,000.00.

Darn darn darn. As mentioned before we use to like to destroy things when we were kids. Disaster movie syndrome I guess. I'll credit it to the movie "Gone in sixty seconds" (the original). We use to blow up our hot wheels with fire crackers. DOH!!!

But the accessories were what made hot wheels so much fun. We had so much track we use to make a ramp from the top of our roof to the backyard (about 60' with a 20' drop) Unfortunatley the power pack (little staion they went through that kinda resembled a car wash to speed the cars up) wasn't strong enough to get the cars back on the roof.

One more cool toy I almost forgot about.....All Tonka Trucks and tractors. <---They were tuff.

[SoonerDave]

Darn darn darn. As mentioned before we use to like to destroy things when we were kids. Disaster movie syndrome I guess. I'll credit it to the movie "Gone in sixty seconds" (the original). We use to blow up our hot wheels with fire crackers. DOH!!!

But the accessories were what made hot wheels so much fun. We had so much track we use to make a ramp from the top of our roof to the backyard (about 60' with a 20' drop) Unfortunatley the power pack (little staion they went through that kinda resembled a car wash to speed the cars up) wasn't strong enough to get the cars back on the roof.

One more cool toy I almost forgot about.....All Tonka Trucks and tractors. <---They were tuff.

I had one of those little power station boxes - two spinning shafts with a spongy styrofoam "gasket" that pushed the cars through; the only problem was that the "gasket" got squashed and couldn't "grab" the cars pretty darned fast.

And my original, flawless red Tonka cement truck is still at my mom's house, in mint condition, too.

Some other similarly great Tonka toys were GIVEN AWAY accidentally by my aunt when we lent them to her for use by her nephew. She thought we were giving them to her, and she in turn gave them away. Probably a fortune in lost Tonka toys....original, all-metal toys... *sigh*

-SoonerDave

[SoonerDave]

I hate how most new toys are made of plastic. Tonka re-released many of its original metal toys and they were (and are) fantastic. Somewhere along the way, we lost our minds and allowed the safety folks to get way ahead of common sense, and some great, perfectly safe toys got lost in the shuffle.

I'll never forget some safetynik on one show a few years ago telling parents never to buy Tinkertoys at a garage sale - YES, original, time-honored Tinkertoys - because they were a choking hazard. She called them a "terrible" toy, IIRC. I about came unglued. My kids played with the same tinkertoys I had (and this lady was telling parents not to use), and they never choked on 'em, either. The only new Tinkertoys you could buy were these ridiculous, oversized things you couldn't build much of anything with - they were just too big. I remember building a record player with my original Tinkertoys, one that could actually play a record if you got close and listened to it.

I wonder when we changed so much that we let the worrywarts take over...alas...that's another thread, I suppose...

[bluedogok]

I wonder when we changed so much that we let the worrywarts take over...alas...that's another thread, I suppose...

Product liability lawsuits, that's when. With the manufacturers it really isn't about "safety", it's about protecting themselves from lawsuits.

[MikeOKC]

I was reading this thread the other day and didn't have time to post. Nobody had mentioned Tonka Toys when I read the thread. Thank God it's since been mentioned as I don't know what my childhood would have been without my Tonkas. I remember having the dump truck, a big shovel truck, a plow and more. I played in the dirt all the time! I got to thinking, with video games, computers and 700 channels on cable TV, do kids play in the dirt anymore? If not, they're missing out! I built some pretty awesome freeways and neighborhoods right in my backyard.

[Buickcarnut]

Tonka Toys, Verti-bird fights and Hotwheels Oh yea!!