Your favorite toys as a kid?

[Gatsby84]

We had all the fun stuff (well, fun to me). 3 3/4" G.I. Joe's, cowboys and indians with pre-orange tipped cap guns, a bb-gun (because every 5 year old needs a bb-gun), Legos, bike, and you can't be a growing boy without a ballglove. I'm sure there were lots of other little things that were every bit as fun, but none of those stick out right now. There has to be a lot more though, I don't recall a day of ever sitting still.

-Allen

 

[CopperNY]

for some reason we seemed to have a lot of old toys around. i think my grandfather kept them around "for the kids".

there was an ancient battery powered steamshovel, where small chains raised/lowered the arm.

long before Indy i had a toy braided leather whip from some carnival. i was allowed to practice popping Dixie Cups off things.

also had a "toy" bow/arrow set. not a toy by todays standards, basically a target bow, but on a 3/4 scale.

finally, embarrassing as it may be, i was forever carrying my plastic "Tarzan" knife in my belt (until i was about 8).

 

[scottyrocks]

SLOT CARS!

In the '60s & '70s, particularly in the north/midwest where long winters compel indoor activities, Aurora/AFX electric slot cars were the rage. HO scale for the little home track and 1/24th scale for taking to the slot car hobby shop to compete with other little neighborhood racers. Man, those were so fun. I wound up getting back into collecting the HO scale cars a few years ago, but it just wasn't the same...

Yes, thank you, I had completely forgotten. I had a Tyco slot car set. I also remember that getting it all to work just right was no easy task.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Nok Hockey

 

[MattJH]

I was born in 1977 and no toy was used more often than Construx. Whenever new toys came out that my parents wouldn't buy me, I'd just build it!

 

[Joonie]

If the toy was large enough, the box in which it came was always the preferred toy. Soooo many uses!

 

[Shangas]

I was a child of the 90s. My toys were LEGO and an electric train-set that belonged to my brother.

 

[scottyrocks]

Some other stuff, some mentioned here:

Monopoly

Life

Frustration, later call Trouble (pop-a-matic, pop the dice, pop a 6 and you move twice, race your men around the track and try to send the others back!)

skelly (or skully) - the bottle caps in the street game

Leggos - a plastic bell at the end of a plastic rope. The other end was attached to a plastic ring that you put around your ankle. You had to run and spin the bell around around while you hopped over it. Fun for about 5 minutes.

Hula-hoops

Tops. Yes, real wooden tops with string. It was an art getting them to work.

Klik-Klaks. A recipe for disaster in more ways than one. This toy was two ~2 inch balls of acrylic plastic, anchored together with string and a ring handle in the middle. The idea was to get the balls to bounce off each other at the top and bottom of the stroke more than 2 or 3 times in succession, and without hitting your arm (or worse) which would make a black and blue mark the size of Canarsie. Occasionally one or both would shatter, giving living meaning to the parental admonishment, 'youre gonna put someone's eye out with that!'

 

[handlebar bart]

My brother and I had Big Wheels that we lived for. We would ride down our street humming the CHiPs theme song, power slide into the driveway and jump off to dish out some street justice to some 'bad guys'. Even better our Dad was a motorcycle cop so our Big Wheels got parked next to his.
Little green army guys ,GI Joe, and Lincoln Logs, real Tonka trucks.
Oh and Stompers, the battery powered little trucks, were big too.

 

[Viola]

Leggos - a plastic bell at the end of a plastic rope. The other end was attached to a plastic ring that you put around your ankle. You had to run and spin the bell around around while you hopped over it. Fun for about 5 minutes.

Skip-it! The one I coveted had an old-digital roll-over counter like an odometer that counted your jumps. I loved that danged thing soooo much but I didn't have my own. Fun for a half hour at a go, then it was chocolate milk time.

I can still see the one I loved.

 

[Foofoogal]

Klik-Klaks.

I loved these and was so mad when they stopped selling them. I was a whiz with them. lol

 

[Warden]

Taking a turn down Tangent Boulevard, Edna is about to give birth to our 3rd child and so our daughter does not feel left out we just got her a wonderful dolls pram of her own ~ just like mummy.

http://twitpic.com/5178je

 

[shazzabanazza]

I was born in 84'. I grew up with Barbies, Cabbage Patch Kids, roller skates ( i used to love them to bits!). I loved Lego too and matchbox cars.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Corgi and Dinky diecast. I had the Batmobile, James Bond Aston Martin, and I currently have the ladder truck. An older kid who lived across the street from me had the Green Hornet car -- I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a tad envious.

 

[W-D Forties]

I never had many toys growing up but I did have lots of LEGO. I was obsessed with building houses and cars. I used to spend most of my time drawing, either copying photographs of Lana Turner, etc that the old lady next door used to give me, or designing clothes and super cars that had tons of gadgets. I was super-obsessed with building dens.

I used to spend hours with a box of costume jewellery of my grandma's that I used to prise the rinestones out of and reglue into others. The I would spend ages peeling Bostick off my fingers!

 

[W-D Forties]

Klik-Klaks. A recipe for disaster in more ways than one. This toy was two ~2 inch balls of acrylic plastic, anchored together with string and a ring handle in the middle. The idea was to get the balls to bounce off each other at the top and bottom of the stroke more than 2 or 3 times in succession, and without hitting your arm (or worse) which would make a black and blue mark the size of Canarsie. Occasionally one or both would shatter, giving living meaning to the parental admonishment, 'youre gonna put someone's eye out with that!'[/QUOTE]

We called 'em Clackers. A recipe for broken knuckles if ever there was one. They brought back a 'safe' version a few years ago that had stiff pieces of plastic instead of the string. Took all the fun out of them!

 

[shazzabanazza]

Corgi and Dinky diecast. I had the Batmobile, James Bond Aston Martin, and I currently have the ladder truck. An older kid who lived across the street from me had the Green Hornet car -- I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a tad envious.

You had all the cool cars! I take it you are a collector nowdays?

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

You had all the cool cars! I take it you are a collector nowdays?

Indeed I am!

One of the things I collect are vintage toys. It seems like the coolest toys were either the ones from before your time or after you had "outgrown" them. I had the whole lot when I was a kid: Hot Wheels, Matchbox, etc.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?53893-What-do-you-collect-other-than-Hats/page6

 

[John in Covina]

As a kid we played with Jarts the big lawn darts that I think are banned now. (Another case of sure every one laughs until someone gets hurt.)

We also played Badminton in the yard. And a form of volley ball / handball off of my friends garage roof.

Later I was a sharpshooter Crossman pump pellet / B-B gun guy. Mostly in the basement but sometimes we'd go to Kelly's Lake at the end of Lake Drive in Copiague by Montauk Hwy / Merrick Road to shoot a variety of item we could float in the water and sink by shooting.

We played board games , also Knock hockey.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Later I was a sharpshooter Crossman pump pellet / B-B gun guy.

John, you didn't happen to have this one, did you?

http://airgun-academy.pyramydair.com/blog/2005/07/crosman-m1-carbine-bb-gun-looks-like-its-ancestor/