Inspired by a King Of Queens episode…
Did you ever want a toy(or game) as a kid, that you didn’t get or couldn’t afford and then as an adult go out and buy that toy?
If so what was it?
Yes, frequently. I’ve mentioned before that I bought Sea Monkeys a few years back. I had a Merlin electronic toy when I was a very young adult, and lent it to a friend who promptly disappeared. I bought a replacement a couple of weeks ago. I’ve also mentioned that I wanted a home computer before there really was such a thing.
For that matter, there were several library books that I regularly checked out as a child and teen. As an adult, with eBay, Amazon, and similar online shopping resources, I have searched out and bought several. Some have proved to be as magical as I remembered. Others…not so much. For instance, Season of the Witch was very much a novel of its time, and I was disappointed upon rereading it.
I’m still looking for an old Wham O Magic Window at a reasonable price. I can get the modern version, but it’s not what I’m after. And the originals that I find online are generally priced as collector’s items. I just want one I can play with.
Generally, I’ve been happy with my nostalgic toys and books.
Not a toy, per se, but I bought a bass guitar a few weeks ago. The last time I played bass was in 8th grade music class, about thirteen years ago. I love it 
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Also - after Wayne’s World, I decided the the guitar brand to own was Fender, and whaddya know, my new bass is a Fender!
I’m sure that the answer is yes, but I’m drawing a blank when it comes to toys.
However, a few Christmases ago my best friend bought me Pat The Bunny because “everyone should own that book at least once.” I thought it was very sweet of her. And on the book theme, I’ve bought myself the Harold and The Purple Crayon series, Where The Wild Things Are, and the Bunnicula books, just because.
I collect horse statues… have since I was about 5 or so. And every now and then I find one on eBay that is just like one I had as a kid, long gone, and if I have the extra money, I’ll buy it. It’s like having an olld friend come home. One particular one that comes to mond is a glossy palomino that I carried EVERYWHERE with me… she went on my first vacatio to Florida when I was 6, she went to the vet’s office when we took the dogs in (he would pretend to give her shots for me), and eventually, her legs and ears were all gone and she isappeared from my room.
I found her twin on eBay a couple years ago-tho she DOES have her ears and legs- and bought her. She has many rubs and scrapes in her paint job, but I love her anyway!
I have a Misty of Chincoteague model looking at me right now…
Since reaching adulthood I have bought a TurboGrafx 16 with lots of games and controllers, and the handheld and the TV tuner. (Later sold the whole shebang on eBay for a hefty sum.)
I also own a couple pinball machines.
Oh good one, I forgot about Breyer horses. I had one as a child, but only one, because they were very expensive for my family’s budget.
I bought myself a few as an adult, and at a discount store, too. They’re so pretty.
My ex-husband has hundreds of action figures, i.e. male dolls. Hundreds of them, and accessories up the wazoo.
Comic books are fairly obvious.
But kids books certainly count.
I own a copy of Half Magic.
Toy I wish I still had: my Lionel train set. It’s worth big bucks now.
For my birthday a week ago, Mom got me the first two volumes of THE CREEPY ARCHIVES. Each volume reprints five issues of the Warren Publication horror comic CREEPY. Vol 1 is issues 1 thru 5, Vol 2- issues 6-10, etc., including the full color covers, letters AND ads!
THE EERIE ARCHIVES are in preparation. Thank you, Dark Horse Comics, for making these available!
Btw, I did get a lot of these when I was a kid, and thought that comics were meant to be read till they fell apart, not read once & then stored away & never touched again.
Now for someone to reprint CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED!
I keep looking for an Electroshot Shooting Gallery (by Marx). The ones that turn up never seem to be in working order, or the clear plastic is yellow and crazed. I desperately wanted one of these as a kid, but never got it.
When I was 12 (in 1939), I bought a wonerful old brass Zeiss microscope from a hock shop for $5. Very primitive today, but it did have three lenses (which had to screw off and on to replace one). This led me into a wonder world of microscopy, and used it until I graduated HS.
A couple of years ago, when too difficult to haul my telescope out and set it up any more, I changed my hobby from astronomy back to microscopy. Bought a wonderful scope with a built-in digital camera, so can view objects right on the monitor screen as well as through the eyepiece. What a change in technology.
I’ve bought a Pulsar( a 6 million dollar man ripoff) doll.
I’ve bought many Micronauts/Interchangables toys.
I’ve bought baseball card sets as an adult. It wasn’t common to buy a whole set of baseball cards of the current year back in the 1970s.
Oh, I’ve done this too. I mean I had a lot of these books as a child but ended up re-collecting them, too. Lots of guilty pleasures. One of my faves to rebuy was the Alvin Schwartz scary stories to tell in the dark series.
Well, yes, but not because I can now afford them and couldn’t as a child, but because I still have a mental age of about 6…
Since I technically became an adult I think I have bought, some Sylvanian Family toys, a My Little Pony, and numerous Jellycat toys.
The Sylvanian Family toys were presents for other people though, but then they are adults too!!
Within the past five years they released a toy called something else, but was definitely the same thing with a different name. The indie toy store next to Barnes and Noble carried them for a while.
I liked the game called “chutes away” where you had a rotating disc with different “drop targets” and you looked through a sight above and aimed and dropped weighted “paratroopers”. There was also some kind of spaceship that made a rising engine noise if you tilted the nose up. If someone came up with a franchise that would allow adults to rent or borrow toys from yesteryear a la Netflix or a library, I would love it. There are lots of toys and games I know I would enjoy revisiting, but I really don’t need them cluttering up my living space.
That sounds like one of a group of space toys made by Fisher Price. The ships would make a cruising noise that changed when the nose was tilted up or down. I still have mine somewhere.
Unfortunately, I can’t recall the name of the line and Fisher Price has made a lot of other space toys since then, making a search difficult.