Whatever happened to toys?
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Whatever happened to toys? With two kids 6 & 9 - electronics are the thing. The Xbox’s, Ipod’s, Ipad’s, Playstation’s. And we do try to REALLY limit their time on them. The kids now really seem to have a hard time with just games or toys. My kids will play with some toys for a while but they get bored. At least my son still loves frisbee and baseball. The daughter swim team and - dammit! the Ipod.
We have many people here from the 50’s 60’s 70’s and beyond. What the hell did you play with that you loved. The toys from this period are the best. And we could play with them for hours, days!
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My favorite activity was looking under rocks in the backyard. Rock gardens are awesome!
@sammydog01
Hotwheels. I played with them into my teenage years. I also spent 4 or 5 hours a day fishing, riding my bike or doing something outside with friends. It wasn’t even that long ago. Early to mid 90s…
Kids don’t want anything to do with that stuff anymore. I have to bribe my kids to go play outside
@capguncowboy
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/visit-outside
@capguncowboy So right. Bikes use to be so cool. I had a Schwinn Skoot bike I loved.
Fishing +10!
@mfladd That’s an epic bike. I loved my banana seat.
@KittySprinkles Don’t make me go there. I soooo miss you.
@mfladd I had an awesome Evel Knievel bike like this one. I still remember the joy of walking downstairs and seeing it in front of our Christmas tree.
@cinoclav That bike was cool! I was also jealous of the kid who had a stick shift bike. Plus he was a jerk.
@mfladd I remember those bikes. I think I was always afraid I’d slide into the stick shift and never be able to have kids. Ironically, I’ve never had kids…
@cinoclav Give me your address and I will send you one. A kid that is, not the bike.
@mfladd I had a similar bike. We repainted it fluorescent green and pink. Good times.
@mfladd You got it. They’re worth what now, about $20k on the black market?
@mfladd Which kid???
@mikibell Whichever one gives me the most grief on that particular day
@mfladd sign me up…I got to steal our friends’ 3 year old the other day… hubby made me promise to give her back!!!
She was fun…
Erector set (with a REAL motor), chemistry set (with chemicals that you could make stink bombs out of), a microscope (curly hair is oval in shape, and wavy hair is crimped, like you could do with the paper that goes around a straw), and for that matter, straws are great toys. Put it in your drink, put your finger over the top for tension, lift it to your lips when your mother isn’t watching, and shoot your brother with a nice sticky shot of 7-Up.
Trying to sneak up on a bird to put salt on their tail…
Giving a permanent to a doll (don’t do it, their hair melts, and you get into a LOT of trouble). I always hated dolls; dolls are stupid.
Yeah, kids today make me sad. They don’t know how to make fun, mostly. It’s nice to go to the county fair, and see the 4H kids, who are mostly still locked in the 50s and 60s.
@Shrdlu Remember the chemicals that use to come in those?! No way now. (evil laugh).
Erector sets were also a classic!
p.s. wouldn’t these be interesting to see on the market now? How we kids survived I will never know, but we did! And better for it.
@mfladd Never seen one of these in the flesh, but I kind of love that Gilbert made them:
@brhfl that is awesome. After some research that set will know cost you in $1000’s. But you can have the fridge magnet for $4.50
https://www.etsy.com/listing/111433663/fridge-magnet-image-of-atomic-energy-lab?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_e-home_and_living-kitchen_and_dining-kitchen_decor&utm_custom1=3335ca7b-7c6d-4d88-a69a-f0868faa7654&gclid=Cj0KEQjwwry8BRDjsbjMpPSDvagBEiQA5oW0nJWWBpVTE7AOwKGl3diOrtR21kebmKTcEuoqPip9Fz4aAnFj8P8HAQ
@Shrdlu - I remember chasing birds with a salt shaker! I felt completely betrayed when the truth was eventually revealed.
@Shrdlu your comment made me remember crazy straws
those were interesting for about 1 day, and then to the back of the drawer they migrated
@mfladd Save your $1000. I got one, and the Plutonium was almost completely depleted. Left a 1-star review.
The background picture it gave you is for a toy in the cereal. I was just talking about that yesterday.
Was buying a few boxes of cereal and one of them had a mail in form that you could get some shitty lantern with the proof of purchase from like 8 boxes, and the other one had a code to unlock some shitty flash game on their website.
Do they not have toys in cereal boxes at all anymore? When did that go away?
I remember, as a kid, the toy in the box was a major deciding factor on which cereal to get. I used my light up Lion King spoon daily for years.
@metaphore Yes, my initial pic went bad so I think meh went to a default pic. But kids cereal toys are good too! The good times are gone.
Almost forgot. Bicycles are great toys, as are roller skates. Crap, now that silly song is going to be stuck in my head. (I got a pair of brand new roller skates. You got a brand new key.)
@Shrdlu Your fault. Blame the GoaT.
But, to answer your actual question, the toys that got the most play when I was a kid were Legos. And those marble ramp/maze things, build super giant one, as tall as you could with out it falling over, and then do marble races, probably played with those past the age they are intended for.
There was a lot of running around and playing outside games with all the neighborhood kids too.
@metaphore Lego are a given. I spent so much time with them it isn’t funny. My kids are playing with some I had now. But now they are all about particular sets. When we bought them the they were just big sets of blocks to do with what you want.
@mfladd Lego blocks are still immensely popular with kids. And as much as adults deride the “sets designed to build one particular thing”, kids almost universally build the particular thing once and then tear it apart and then use their imagination for their own creations. The mini-figs are the hook, but childhood imagination is still king.
@metaphore LEGOS ARE STILL A THING.
Legal issues sapped a lot of the fun and potentially
dangerousentertaining stuff of yore, so there’s some unfairness versus the older days.In general, creativity takes more effort than the automatic interaction present in technology – so kids are going to take the easy way out.
@narfcake Yeah, we ran all over the whole city, but now if you let your kids go to the park unaccompanied, CPS shows up at your door.
@narfcake We had Jarts and still have all our eyes. I loved Jarts.
@sammydog01 I think we have a set of those in the garage.
Yanno, I think banning this dangerous stuff has been really bad for the gene pool - it’s not getting thinned out like it used to…
@lisaviolet it’s okay, we’re bringing it back with AR games. Thanks for restoring Darwinism, Pokemon Go!
@sammydog01 Any holes in the tops of your head from Jarts? Did your family also used to try to catch them on the way down?
@sammydog01 my neighbor showed me his set of jarts the other day and told me the modification he and his brother used to have: stand inside the circle and the first one to jump out loses. Talk about insane kids!
@wickhameh I could definitely see my brother doing that.
I loved my Silly Putty and Slinky.
@conandlibrarian My son recently received a quality slinky - not that plastic shit. And he did have fun with it for days - it rocked the stairs.
And who of us old kids don’t remember pulling out comic pics with silly putty?
@mfladd I had both the plastic and metal slinky. Being born in the late 70’s, I began playing with Slinky in the early 80’s, when they had those plastic colorful Slinky.
@conandlibrarian Oh, you need to go back. I was so surprised when my son was given the metal one by his GP’s recently just how awesome that one is. It performed!
@mfladd I still have multiple eggs with silly putty around here, somewhere, in the computer room. Silly putty is nonconductive, and one of the best things possible to pick up a dropped screw or other part in a running computer. Goes right along with dental mirrors, for reading the serial number on the back of something too heavy to move.
Oooohhh, post hole diggers. Those are GREAT toys. You can make all sorts of weird things with them, and then tell the gullible that they are mysterious, and were probably related to those bright lights that were around last night…
Oh, yeah, I forgot. In my world, practically everything’s a toy. Fun is good. It’s one of my favorites.
@Shrdlu Fun is good. Mine too
@mfladd Do you remember de-tangling metal slinkys? Or was I just uncoordinated? All my slinkys had a lot of kinks pretty quickly.
/giphy kinky
@sammydog01 I do, I do. It was a mess. And that at gif - don’t get me started.
@mfladd your image just made me sad all over again.
We lost one hell of a spark of madness…
@mfladd
but if the metal slinky gets twisted or tangled, watch out!Meh. - late to the partySurprised none of you mentioned Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Dominos… all made from real wood, and all 3 could be combined into awesome creations!
And whatever happened to playground merry-go-rounds? I took my exes kids on a hard target search of every park and schoolyard in the city trying to find one. By the end of the day they were convinced I was telling tall tales and no such thing ever existed.
@ruouttaurmind Original write up had Lincoln logs, but got deleted - sorry. Tinker toys also a favorite.
Lincoln logs destroyed by the electronic age Noooooooooooo!
@ruouttaurmind Also damn you! Now I want that excavator!
@mfladd Um… I started shopping for one as soon as I finished watching that video last night.
@ruouttaurmind what did you find? There a bunch on amazon. I think my son would have a blast with this (and me).
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=remote+control+excavator
@mfladd I had a look at the Chinese suppliers and it looks like what you saw on Amazon is the better path. Though I’ll check eBay first. Also, I’ve noticed them on Woot! several times in the last few months. Last woot-off featured them at least a couple times.
@ruouttaurmind Thanks! Keep me in mind if you find anything. I will do the same
@mfladd
@ruouttaurmind Where I live, both our apartment’s playground and several of the city playgrounds all have merry-go-rounds. And even see-saws too! One that I remember from my childhood was the Witch’s Hat:
Basically a merry-go-round that also tilts, with the danger of bashed knees and the temptation to swing on the inside and get crushed into the pole.
@thejackalope That looks AWESOME!
@ruouttaurmind wow, lincoln logs and tinker toys, that brings back memories
i think merry-go-rounds are a bit extreme in these litigious days
@Yoda_Daenerys But they were so fun during the day. I remember them from elementary school.
@Yoda_Daenerys Aye, merry-go-rounds are indeed too extreme in our litigious era.
But I had a will, and a welder. An old Ford axle and wheel from the shed, some steel scraps from my old hot rod chassis, a slab of plywood and a couple bags of RediMix from Home Depot… By the next weekend we had the most popular back yard in the neighborhood.
I loved my tinker toys and my Lone Ranger action figure. When Tonto’s horse, Scout, died in a tragic car accident (I still say my little brother left him in the drive way intentionally), I had a lovely service for him and buried him.
@KittySprinkles R.I.P. Scout
@mfladd Sniff. I had a semi-articulated set, but that’s my guys. I loved them.
@KittySprinkles My apologies. Was this it?
@mfladd I do believe so!
@KittySprinkles You owe me a coke.
@mfladd Fine, but the smile costs extra.
@KittySprinkles I had one of these creepy Geronimo action figures:
And the Big Jim RV Playset:
Complete with Big Jim action figure “now with KUNG FU GRIP!”
@ruouttaurmind Those are awesome. I am pretty sure I had the camper. My sister just recently swears that this GI Joe Doglsled kit is floating around the junk of mom’s house - I do remember it.
They bought it because we actually had huskies and a dogsled.
@mfladd WANT! LOL! Remember when GI Joe was a FULL SIZE action figure? Now, action figures are all little squirts. Heck, when my brother was having a fit and chucked his Lone Ranger at me, there was serious risk involved! These puny little things they’re shilling today… not even tantrum-worthy!
@mfladd Random fact- my freshman advisor’s husband is the guy who made GI Joe talk.
@mfladd @ruoutaurmind I’m a big GI Joe fan too! Don’t remember the Polar Explorer, but inherited vintage stuff from my older cousins & bought stuff when eBay was first invented.
Now it’s all packed away in the garage somewhere
We had a little plastic farm, but I gave it to someone more deserving.
@lisaviolet Toy Story 3 incarnate! Good on ya!
On a slight tangent, am I the only one who thought some of the misfit toys were cooler than “regular” toys? A squirt gun that shoots jelly? Ten-year-old me says “sign me up”. And whats wrong with a bird that swims? Penguins and puffins are actually among the most awesome of birds.
Guess what I got yesterday in my bag of crap?
It’s solid wood and will knock your teeth out but it’s fun.
Nobody mentioned Lincoln Logs? It was the key to protecting your millitary scene or making a garage for your matchbox cars. Also Tonka toy trucks for any outdoor dirt scenario. Am I dating myself as a mid 1960’s kid?
@readnj I called out Lincoln Logs up above a bit. I used to love to make little bridges across my Hot Wheels tracks, or log walls at the end of the track and try to get the cars to bust through the wall (after properly elevating the track into a jump with Tinker Toys!)
Legos, transformers, matchbox type cars, puzzles, coloring books, plastic horse figurines. Playing outside in the trees. Taking our aluminum boat out for a spin. Going fishing. Climbing mountains. I remember we built a platform out of plastic oil type drums, and some scrap lumber and rope. Went floating around in the inlet with that.
When I got older it was Nintendo and Gameboy… And actual horses.
Star Wars action figures! Man, I played SW for hours a day.
@emilyap Awww, you sweet young thing
@compunaut Eh, the first movie was released in '77.
@emilyap Yes; my action-figure playing days were mostly over by then
Lego’s and Science Sets.
Hot Wheels, Lincoln Logs, LEGOs, building plastic model airplanes, action figures (12in size: especially GI Joe but also Johnny West cowboy & Sir Stuart silver knight). Tonka trucks for the sandbox. Rode bikes (various used Schwinns: heavy but hard to break) all over town without supervision. Brother & I also inherited Dad’s old Erector sets & Lionel trains from the 50s
The Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle! Hours and hours of awesome! I’m pretty sure I did some permanent damage to the baseboard at the end of the hall where Evel would have his most spectacular wipe outs. Ah, nothing is that fun anymore.
@rv617
@mfladd Yeah, mine never stuck the landing like that. But it did once bruise my big sister’s ankle. I also had this, by the way:
@rv617 I had the girly version! Debbie Lawler Daredevil Jump Set. I had no idea who she was, but I loved that toy!
@pitamuffin
A female version of Evel Knievel
Awesome!
When I was about 6 or 7 we lived in SoCal and my mom worked for Mattel. You’d think that would pay off, but only once did she bring home an experimental toy - a rocket somehow powered by a garden hose, which promptly got stuck on the roof. Never even got a real Barbie.
Another toy I absolutely loved was…
MATTEL’s THE LOST WORLD STRANGE CHANGE MACHINE (1968)
Great write up about it.
http://boingboing.net/2015/07/20/why-the-strange-change-machine.html
@mfladd OMG! I want this! Why in the hell do I want it? I MUST OWN ONE! Sure, it’ll probably give me lung cancer, but that’s fucking awesome!
@capguncowboy It really was, and one of the toys that really sticks in my memory as a kid.
@mfladd That is AWESOME!!!
@ruouttaurmind @capguncowboy Read em, and weep. Look what I just found and purchased!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/272317530691
I am going to relive my childhood. I made an offer and the guy accepted it with free shipping.
I have been looking online and it is hard to find these so complete, with the box, and in working condition.
The guy also has another one of these to buy, he asked me if I wanted both.
@mfladd that’s awesome! You’ll have a blast with that thing!
@mfladd It’s awesome!!!
@mfladd I still have my creepy crawler thingmaker. I need to dig it out.
@sammydog01 OMG. Was this the one? We also had this but I had forgotten it. (think it was my sisters)
They had newer versions but this is the real deal vintage.
@mfladd Yep, I just found it in the closet. The bugs were my favorites but that shrunken head was really nice too.
@sammydog01 Ahhhhh…that rocks!
@mfladd We loved Thingmaker and Strange Change machine!!!
Legos, Hot Wheels, Knex, Moon Shoes, TalkBoy Recorder, and stuffed toys with noisemakers in them (had a yellow dinosaur that made noise if you squeezed it in and then let go).
Also, bikes & rollerblades.
Occasionally water guns (did have Super Soakers), and a Nerf gun or two.
The big foam airplanes that could easily do loops and such were also quite fun.
Also, MicroMachines were tons of fun even if I didn’t have the fancy sets (Skull Mountain and some desert one with an exploding building/trip point were what I had).
Aside from the Debbie Lawler Motorcycle mentioned above, Easy Bake Oven, Footsie, Spirograph. And what about Click-Clacks (or Clackers)? The oh-so-dangerous Click-Clacks:
@pitamuffin I was waiting for these to show up.
@mfladd I was a pro at clacking. Maybe that’s me in the video.
@pitamuffin ah, my mom had one of those click clack things. I remember that I sucked at it and always hit my hands. I remember hers were translucent red with silver stars inside. I’ll have to try get one for her again. Memories.
@pitamuffin I actually have a pair of those. Glass balls just like the original.
and @jbartus (speaking of toys), I was visiting my mom recently and she found this at a thrift shop for $3.00. It was really well made. She was unwilling to hand it over.
@mfladd I wouldn’t hand it over either, that bear is badass! (And has great taste in sports affiliations)
I spent hours/days/weeks mastering the art of jax. How about jump rope or hula hoop
@tinamarie1974 I once won a hula hoop contest at 13+ minutes at camp - if you tell anyone I will kill you.
Also it is your fault you made me post hula hoop girl again.
Jump rope is also an art form
@mfladd I found the jump ropes more interesting. The hula hooping just didn’t do anything for me.
@mfladd we had a very similar hula hoop girl at a big corporate event . Not sure how it was approved, but the guys really enjoyed her mad skills lol
@tinamarie1974 Ha! How did that get approved? I am sure there were some complaints to HR.
@mfladd some hula hooping I can enjoy. Skip to around 30 seconds in unless you want a slow intro.
Skip it, skip it…
/youtube skip it commercial
I believe I still have this in my closet.
That took me down memory lane of the board games we used to play. Battleship, Monopoly, Pictionary, Parcheesi, Guess Who?, Sorry!, etc.
Card games like Go Fish, solitaire, and War.
@RiotDemon I loved mousetrap and LiteBrite
@RiotDemon War. Also Kings in the Corner. I also grew up with cribbage from a very young age.
@mfladd cribbage? What is this game you speak of?
@mfladd I never played cribbage.
@tinamarie1974 OMG. We need to talk of about cribbage. It is a card game that is in my blood.
Hello? any cribbage player out there?
@tinamarie1974 @RiotDemon There is no easy way to explain this game except that it is awesome.
Here is one tl:dw video
There are also apps
If anyone comes back and says they have learned this game I will send you mad props.
@mfladd Cribbage is great in that it is one of the few card games that really is enjoyable with only two players. Perhaps I should have said “still fun as adult” with only two players. “War” was great as a kid, but there really isn’t enough to it to keep you interested as you get older.
@mfladd
@mfladd waiting on some mad props!!! my most favorite card game ever!!! i love this damn card game!!! there is no one to play with… taught some of my folks how to play… they are either not so much into it or stupid… had to tell them what to lay or count their points…uggg… over and over and over again… do you know of a site?? to play people not just the computer ??? wonder, if you can beat me at cribbage???
Another card game:
/image Uno card game
@mick mad props were for someone new learning the game. But ok…
And did you just lay down a cribbage gauntlet?? My cribbage armor may be rusty but let me look into online sites.
@RiotDemon Finally, someone in my age range! Never got one of those. Apart from the now apparently timeless fun of Legos and Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars, we had some fun Nerf and Koosh toys.
/image koosh paddles
Also the Foxtail
The Goofy Golf Machine was a fun game
I would honestly still play Loopin’ Louie, though. I got really good at dropping him down on people’s barns past their paddle
And apparently Loopin Louie is for sale again, for $12 from Toys ‘R’ Us
@shawn @katylava why am I getting an image that says
$args?@jqubed all the
/images have$argsas the alt text (i guess we should fix that)… that one in particular just won’t load.@jqubed Pup
@mfladd
@jqubed yeah, I feel like a youngin around here sometimes.
Nerf and koosh, definitely. Loved my koosh ball. Never heard of those other toys you linked videos for!
@mfladd uh–oh… i got too excited… my bad… i did however, throw down a big huge gauntlet!!! lol it would be so cool though, if there was some way for the folks who like it could play each other…
We played dress-up a lot. Had boxes of cast-off clothes and high heels from moms and aunts. And dolls, slightly before Barbie.
I forgot about marbles. I had mad skillz. I won ALL the marbles in the neighborhood when I was 8. My mother said it was mean, and made me give them back. :-{
I kept all the cool ones, though.
Boys are stoopid (at least they were when I was eight).
I loved playing marbles, though. Jacks, too, and hopscotch. Anyone ever play Red Rover? Or Mother May I? Kick the Can? Man, I’m going to have some strange dreams tonight.
@Shrdlu Red Rover has been banned by camps for arm injuries - of course
Mother may I - I don’t know of.
Another one is 4 square. I recently played with my nephew and they had all types of crazy call rules - like black magic and body hits that I never played before. I felt old at that point.
@Shrdlu loved playing Jacks (can’t remember a damn thing that we did with them - ugh) but hopscotch for EVER! & Red Rover, Mother May I? Kickball (before it became professional).
The world has become so opposites now! Back then you couldn’t get us kids inside the house! Our moms were calling us to get in to get cleaned up for dinner and we ate and were out the door as fast as could be waiting for the lighting bugs to come out and play with us…
@Shrdlu Marbles! I forgot all about marbles. Cat eyes, clearies, steelies, aggies, shooters, boulders, jumbos… dang that takes me back. We used to play sort of a modified version of bocce ball we called “chaser”. I’m a little fuzzy on the details by now, but I recall a game could last 30 minutes or more.
@Shrdlu Way back when I was young, “outside” was so great that we even found games to play when it was dark. Kick the Can and Ghost in the Graveyard were the favorites in my neighborhood.
For anyone paying attention, still, “Mother May I” was a localised version of a game something like “Simon Says”.
Simon Says “take three steps”
(and everyone takes three steps forward)
“take one step back”
(and one or two kids take one step back, at which time everyone yells that there was no Simon Says, and it all starts over)
Tough to explain games that I haven’t played, or thought about for more than 60 years.
TL;DR I skimmed, so this may be a duplicate, but what were those two balls on strings called that you could clack back and forth? Also the paddle with the rubber ball attached by a rubber band - the name of that escapes me too.
Yo-Yos were big in the day, they made a come back in my kids younger years too. mi could do some mean tricks with my Butterfly Yo-Yo
Ouiji (sp?) board, was that already mentioned?
Hula hoops?
Oh yea, I had this plastic dinosaur piggy bank too that occupied a lot of my time
@Yoda_Daenerys You did skim. See clackers above.
@Yoda_Daenerys Ouija boards. Now that is an interesting one.
@mfladd My very religious aunt forbade us from playing with the ouija board we found in her house. Which of course made us want to play with it even more.
@pitamuffin So the question is - why did the religious Aunt have one in her house?
@Yoda_Daenerys" Also the paddle with the rubber ball attached by a rubber band - the name of that escapes me too…" it’s called the beat your ass… cause that’s what my folks used, to well… i hate that damn thing!!! lol oh, and Ouija boards!!! we use to scare the bejibbys out of our self’s!!!
@mfladd Great question, but one we never thought to ask.
@mick omg my mother-in-law just bought one of those paddles for my son on vacation. They cause destruction in the house.
@mfladd i use to LOVE thise, intil the ball broke off…they turned into my moms paddles…ouch!
I believe it was just called paddle ball.
@Yoda_Daenerys I had fun with the Ouija board until I experimented one time. While playing with friends, I let a thought linger in my brain, and it was spelled out on the board. I didn’t realize I was the one mostly moving the planchette.
It still moved after I removed my fingers, but not nearly as much.
It would of probably been good if I just wanted to get some subconscious thoughts out of my head.
@RiotDemon i am humming the Twilight Zone tune in my head right now, can you hear it?
Major Matt Mason toys; posable figures, moon toys, space ships, robots, evil aliens… just the thing for kids growing up with moon landings. And Legos, Lincoln Logs, Super-Eyes telescope/microscope set, a chemistry set (not a full blown one, they were already getting dumbed down), Hot Wheels and Matchbox, croquet set, lawn darts, quoits, Tonka trucks and earthmovers (and a big mud and caliche area in the back yard for several years until a doughboy pool was put in… epic!), ping pong table on the patio…
Also bikes. We had metallic green Huffys with banana seats and the high sissy bars, and were allowed to ride them along most of the small streets (just stay away from the park…)
A lot of the stuff was hand-me-downs from relatives as they outgrew or upgraded (even the pool and ping pong table) but we never lacked for toys and back yard adventures.
Sadly we couldn’t use the nearby park; for our best formative years when we could have it was overrun with hippies and not safe for kids.
Damn… we weren’t all that well off but my parents really managed to lavish us with lots of amazing toys. Lucky kids
@duodec Money doesn’t matter. Your parents provided you some great toys. Were the tonka trucks the serious ones that I remember? All metal?
Those things were serious fun.
Also lovin the metallic green huffy’s, as I had the same in the skoot. It was the the boss color those days!
@mfladd All metal except for cosmetics like the caution lights on top of the cab, and the tires. I still have my tow truck, gifted back by my sister after her kids outgrew it, but the earthmovers that were passed on to the nieces and nephews either didn’t make it or have been further passed on.
I hope they’re still out there somewhere digging holes and tunnels, knocking down mud mountains, making kids as happy (and dirty!) as they made me.
@mfladd I freaking LOVED my truck like this. Ok, really all my toys that I loved aren’t helping prove that I’m a girl.
It’s just that girl toys were mostly stupid. Except for my horse collection. I adored them.
Can I just say people - this thread has brought me great fun and nostalgic memories. Thank you
(don’t ask me why - I is what I is)
@mfladd +1!!! Compelled me to dig out my keepsake box from the back of the closet. Oh, the treasures contained therein! Even one magical toy I had forgotten all about… my old STOMPER 4x4 truck! (I’ll post a pic tomorrow)
@ruouttaurmind Sweet!
me and my 2 brother’s had so many of all the great toys and board games and kits and gadgets that everyone as mentioned… did someone already say yahtzee or the magic eight ball??? these were all great for indoor stuff to do… but that was only for crappy days, spring, summer, fall or winter, did not matter… or when it was too dark… most everyone’s parents kicked your ass out of the house!!! so you played and got in trouble with all the other kids who got kicked out the house. you found shit to do… kickball, street hockey, walking, riding your bikes, nosying around the neighbors private business… lots of other crap, i just, can’t recall at this time!!! lol i mean, folks told you to come home when the streetlights came on… we had joyous, learn some making good decisions freedom!!! kids don’t have that today… their like under a microscope… i sooooooo would have hated that!!!
@mick Great post. Instead of Yahtzee we did Kismet - the competitor in that dice game. Street hockey and bike riding I did for hours. You are right, I was lucky to get home by dark because I was out playing. Those were different times - I sooooo miss. The farthest I let my kids go now is the neighbors yard. Sad to say - but times are different. They will never get to know the freedom we did. Stop making me feel so nostalgic and sad for them at the same time!
@mfladd i don’t know??? are times so different??? seems like kids are protected WAY more than they ever were before… with cell phones and most good folks watching… i think we all are more scared than we need be…
Punch balloons anyone?
@RiotDemon I remember those
probably considered too violent today
@duodec They still make them. My niece’s cousin was given one just this past Sunday.
I used to play with Construx a lot. Make forts out of cardboard boxes. All kinds of board games and puzzles. Ride my bicycle. Voltron and Transformers. And GoBots (I actually have Leader-One hanging out at my desk right now)! Matchbox cars. Star wars figurines. A plastic set of cowboys and indians, and another one of Army men. A giant wooden box filled with various shaped wooden blocks. SO MUCH FUN!
We got an Atari 2600 when I was very young and that really changed everything. Of course, then my neighbor got a NES and it was all Super Mario Brothers all the time.
My 3yo loves her tablet, but I make sure to do plenty of imaginative play with her too. You know, where you’re using a My Little Pony figure, but it’s actually an evil fire-breathing horse wrecking the Shopkin’s town and the Octonauts have to stop it.
It’s a pretty good mix. The electronics teach her a different kind of problem solving. She, like most kids, is going to be very adept at dealing with new technology.
As a child I was obsessed with horses. Taught myself how to accurately draw them at a fairly young age. I guess that was the first artistic thing I ever really did. All I knew is it gave me access to seeing my favorite thing whenever I wanted to!
I had a collection of these horses. Years later, found out they had a tiny bit of value to them. Not mine pictured, but I had the white stallion, family and a few others.
@KittySprinkles Oh Lord, My sister had a ton of those horses. They had stables and everything. I am not sure if they out in a yard sale or they are still floating around mom’s house. But they are from the 50’s, 60’s.
@mfladd Mine were given to rotten neighbor kids who destroyed them along with my My Little Pony. That was hard to forgive.
@KittySprinkles Breyers?
@KittySprinkles I still have my original my little pony barn in the closet… I should pull it out for a photo.
@RiotDemon The big one was, not sure about the others. He was the real prize.
@KittySprinkles I had a friend who must of had thousands of dollars of Breyer toys. I was pretty jealous. She had a full on barn and jump course set up.
I had smaller horses called Grand Champions “the most beautiful horses in the world.” I ended up also getting a whole barn set up… And then I mostly grew out of it because I was riding real horses.
I would still look at the Breyer horses as an adult if I came across them in a store since there was such attention to detail to get proportions right. Most plastic horses would have the saddles touching their butts, or weirdly shaped faces.
@KittySprinkles
@RiotDemon
@mfladd
OMG I had a stable if these, including some of these exact ones. Mostly Breyer. Endless hours on indoor days with my other horse mad friends.
I wish I knew what became of my collection.
The new Breyer ones I’ve seen are smaller, and nice, but not quite as nice as the ones from back then.
How about Pong? and Pachinko? and the little tabletop air hockey?
… and Romper Stompers?? Of course, we tried to make them out of tin cans and rope until we got the real ones… The Pogo stick! The metal roller skates that clamped onto your shoes. Then I got the white lace-up skates with the big orange wheels (I still have them). Oh, and stilts! I loved those things until my friend pushed me off and I sprained my ankle
. Tether ball was always fun, until the big kids would fling the ball back at you so fast it left welts… When we were allowed back outside after dark, I remember putting paper bags on our head to run to our friends house because we we didn’t want the bats to nest in our hair. I guess while we were catching lightening bugs or playing Ghost in the Graveyard they didn’t bother us…
Did anyone else have one of these Mattel handheld football games? I thought I still had mine, but I’ve been digging around through my boxes of old stuff & can’t find it…
There was also a racing version called… like Digital Derby or something. I never had one but lots of my buddies did.
@ruouttaurmind of course! Hours of enjoyment!
@ruouttaurmind I had one, and may still but if so its in storage and has been for a long time. It worked the last time I saw it. I wired a switch into the speaker so that it wouldn’t make sounds in class…
@ruouttaurmind I saw one of those at a yard sale yesterday! We still have a baseball version.
My siblings and I, all in our 50’s, were just reminiscing about the games we used to play as kids on the streets of Philadelphia: kick the can, pom pom pullaway, buck buck, hopscotch, pitching pennies, half ball, stick ball, dodge ball, Knuckles card game, and especially Deadbox or Skully.
One huge difference was there were tons of kids outside to get games going and you had siblings at home to play with.
How did I miss this thread?
Much of my childhood entertainment would be obsolete now, due to obsolete rules and radically increased expenses:
Don’t be alone
Parents need to know where you are
You need to be with friends who parents have met and approved of
Don’t talk to, or interact with strangers unless an emergency
If emergency, seek a police officer or a reasonably well-dressed lady or someone inside a business that serves the public
Be home before dark or before dinner
In summer, it might be ok to be out after dark, but parents need to know exactly where you are and who you are with
There is a sort of kinda 5 mile radius, roughly, and you are spozed to be inside that radius, “and don’t play games with me, you two, you know where you are not allowed to go without advance permission”
So very repressive. Crippled for life.
Along with many entertainments mentioned here, etch-a-sketch, toy metal or plastic soldiers, pick-up-stix, spirograph, radio shack outlet stuff, and most time spent with these
A tennis pic that won’t load
And family outings
@f00l
Forgot these