# Cool toys you had when you were a kid **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 25, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662 "2013-04-25T14:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/81 "2013-04-26T01:46:48Z")
I had a Pretzel Jetzel, sort of an EZ bake oven for boys. The only cool toy I still have from my youth is an original Emenee brand Mr. Peanut peanut butter maker. One I wish I still had was a belt-buckle Derringer. Just stick out your stomach and the pistol would flip out and shoot a plastic bullet at your victim. Caps optional. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/82 "2013-04-26T02:07:39Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > +1 on both! > > …as well as…[this car](http://www.google.com/search?q=Kenner+SSP+can-am&hl=en&rlz=1C2AFAB_enUS487US488&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Jq95UcSSDKHV0gHy-ICAAQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1920&bih=967#hl=en&rlz=1C2AFAB_enUS487US488&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=james+bond+corgi+aston+martin+db5&oq=James+Bond+corgi&gs_l=img.1.2.0l2j0i24l8.246655.255863.0.258257.16.11.0.5.5.0.89.581.11.11.0...0.0...1c.1.11.img.c_cOR-txbI4&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45645796,d.dmQ&fp=490c5d23a6782040&biw=1920&bih=967&imgrc=ayK3dpKgzEiDvM%3A%3B-9bjfamIzh1-PM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F9%252F98%252F1964_Corgi_Aston_Martin_DB5.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fcommons.wikimedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFile%253A1964_Corgi_Aston_Martin_DB5.jpg%3B639%3B328). I had one of those, too! ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/83 "2013-04-26T04:16:49Z")
Damn, toys were cool where I was growing up. [Captain Power ship/gun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oINYNmrPZCg) Even now there aren’t toys that directly interact with TV in a physical manner. [Entertech battery powered water gun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99UPQEFSGVQ) No such thing as a super soaker then, this was the best you could get outside of a water weenie. Those were homemade squirt things made from surgical tubing and pen tops. They were my favorite toy. [Edison Falcon strip fed metal cap gun](http://www.edisongiocattoli.it/ita/catalogo.html) Page 12 That felt like a real gun. The weight, the trigger pull etc. I was like 9, so no it wasn’t some psychopathic thing. [Roller Racer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOI6LLIzIDk) I could have sworn they called it the Dragon something and renamed it. [Magic Sand](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1id-gHQjbs) Hydrophobic sand can be fun? Kinda, for a little while at least. ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/84 "2013-04-26T05:59:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Remember [Tracer guns](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpmx9345gB1qbuj81o1_500.jpg)? _Loved_ those when I was a kid. (I think we called them phasers.) I bought a couple off of eBay a few years ago, and they didn’t work for anything. I still have my Star Trek tracer gun. And it works, much to the cats’ annoyance. One of my brothers had the rifle version but it didn’t survive the passage of time. > [@Alma](#): > > One Christmas I got a [Merlin](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKnW-YNgeow&feature=youtube_gdata_player). It was so cool that all my cousins passed it around and I didn’t get to play it for days. It taught me to gamble. My sister had a Merlin. I spent a whole afternoon programming it to play “I’m Called Little Buttercup” by Gilbert & Sullivan. It amused me but confused everyone else. Those were the days. One of the best toys we had was a set of giant Tinkertoys. All plastic, some of the rods were nearly a yard long. We built a jail once and put little brother in it. Heeheehee. On the other hand, my older brother had a plastic pistol with plastic bullets that fit into a clip. He used to shoot me with the bullets then make me gather them up so he could do it again. I did not enjoy this. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/85 "2013-04-26T06:12:10Z")
So many…one that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Mighty Men & Monsters Maker. ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/86 "2013-04-26T08:11:48Z")
yoyo pogo stick bicycle spinning tops ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/87 "2013-04-26T09:38:15Z")
Had me one of these: [![](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vv-3Ukr9bmE/T_n74jKFVtI/AAAAAAAAE4U/etU6PP2Zo-8/s400/IMG_4350.JPG) ](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vv-3Ukr9bmE/T_n74jKFVtI/AAAAAAAAE4U/etU6PP2Zo-8/s400/IMG_4350.JPG) Until it just vanished one day. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/88 "2013-04-26T10:11:53Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > And the greatest toys of all remain: a stick, a ball, and a box. > True for me. > True for my daughter. > True for my grandson. So true. I still have my favourite stick from kiddom; I even brought it over to the UK. And a wonderful opportunity to link to a sketch from the delightfully bizarre _Snuffbox_ (caution: contains the line ‘Buy your kids a fucking stick!’ But it’s spoken by a vicar, so that takes some of the edge off, surely.) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/3jQWaCi_ZwM/hqdefault.jpg "snuff box stick") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQWaCi_ZwM) ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/89 "2013-04-26T10:37:50Z")
I was the first person in my primary school to have a lolo ball. I was actually popular for a day. But my favourite toy was [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iuFJvrNDZgg). Very responsible and educational, I know. But I played with that thing for hours. It came with some Dutch children’s songs (I’m Dutch) and then some weirdly melancholy Russian songs. I actually ended up playing the harp later. Maybe this thing’s to blame. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/90 "2013-04-26T11:28:12Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Yup. And in a month or so, so will he. Which one are you, Felix or Oscar? 😉 My contribution to the thread: My most-used toy set, from age three all the way to thirteen, was a set of large-ish, unpainted wooden blocks of various shapes, made by Creative Playthings – some hippie commune (or was it one of those non-Amish Anabaptist groups or other?) in upstate New York in the early 1970s. Ouch, I’m starting to sound like an insufferable hipster…but really, they were great. And durable. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/91 "2013-04-26T11:40:02Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > “When I was a kid, you know what I had for a toy? A stick! You know what I got that year for Christmas? They broke it in half so I’d have TWO sticks!” You had sticks? When I was a kid . . . ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/92 "2013-04-26T12:27:09Z")
> [@Alma](#): > > One Christmas I got a [Merlin](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKnW-YNgeow&feature=youtube_gdata_player). It was so cool that all my cousins passed it around and I didn’t get to play it for days. It taught me to gamble. Did you know that if you leave your Merlin in the car (In the sun) while enjoying a day at Disney World, it will melt? Neither did I. **JKellyMap** , Felix. Definitely. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/93 "2013-04-26T12:53:30Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > My contribution to the thread: My most-used toy set, from age three all the way to thirteen, was a set of large-ish, unpainted wooden blocks of various shapes, made by Creative Playthings – some hippie commune (or was it one of those non-Amish Anabaptist groups or other?) in upstate New York in the early 1970s. Did they make good sibling defense weapons? ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/94 "2013-04-26T13:17:18Z")
[quote=“Johnny\_L.A, post:1, topic:656662”] \ So what cool toys did _you_ have? > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I had a blue [Kenner SSP](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NxQf-aeDWk) that was an absolute blast to play with. Mine was a ‘snow dragster’ (I don’t remember its actual name) that had tracks in back and skis in front. I had the purple one with the big spoiler in back. Cool toy! > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > And of course, there was the Hot Wheels set with the [Super Charger](http://hotwheelsracetracks.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/super-charger.jpg). The Super Charger also came in handy for a throttle control when I tipped a stool on its side, making it into a space ship. Awesome toy! I had a track set with two of those babies. Did you have Sizzlers? These were Hot Wheels with a motor and rechargeable battery. They ran on the regular orange track or the black, ridged, multilane “Fat Track.” The track and curves were about 4 cars wide, and the curves were hella banked. Fastest car went to the top of the curve and passed the slower ones. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/95 "2013-04-26T14:11:38Z")
A moment of jealousy: my brother had a [Blue Shark](http://matchbox.wikia.com/wiki/Blue_Shark). I never won a single race against it. That was one fast Matchbox. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/96 "2013-04-26T14:21:29Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I never won a single race against it. Did you try chea…arranging the odds to be in your favor? A drop glue on a wheel. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/97 "2013-04-26T14:54:33Z")
I remember having an electric slot cars set by Tyco. Can’t remember anything about it apart from all the glow in the dark stickers and decals it came with. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/98 "2013-04-26T14:58:03Z")
> [@digs](#): > > [INCLUDING THE EXACT ONE JOHN WAYNE USED IN THE GREEN BERETS.](http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Green_Berets,_The#Mattel_M-16_Marauder_Toy_Gun)(Yes, The Duke was carrying a Mattel M-16 in that film I had one of those! I think that’s what started my life-long interest in the AR-15 series. When my Marauder broke, I was disappointed that I could never find another toy gun that I liked as much. > [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I had a water powered rocket. This looks like the exact same model. > [http://www.coolest-toys.com/201003/classic-toys-–-water-rockets.htm](http://www.coolest-toys.com/201003/classic-toys-%E2%80%93-water-rockets.htm) Loved those! I don’t know how many I lost in one or another of the bamboo stands. > [@Chefguy](#): > > Back in the day, you could get frogmen and submarines as toys in your cereal box. You put baking soda into a little compartment… I remember those, and had some. I also got a battery-powered Beatles Yellow Submarine for a couple of box tops and a dollar. (Four to six weeks for delivery.) I wish I still had it. I haven’t even _seen_ one since then! > [@11811](#): > > Awesome toy! I had a track set with two of those babies. Did you have Sizzlers? These were Hot Wheels with a motor and rechargeable battery. Of course! Sizzlers were great. I had the gas-pump charger with the D-cells in it. My Super Charger set (California-something? Daytona-something?) had two Super Chargers. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/99 "2013-04-26T15:20:32Z")
The 1970s version of GI Joe, the 12’’ action figures that all had beards. And I had their [Mobile Support Vehicle](http://s108.photobucket.com/user/echoteam/media/MSVFull.jpg.html). Also, I had a Tonka toy fire engine (back when toys where made out of **metal** , damnit!) which had an attachment in the back for a garden hose, so you could hook it up in the yard and play with the water cannon. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662/100 "2013-04-26T15:31:49Z")
I had all kinds of toys (mostly Star Wars, GI Joe and Masters of the Universe) but the ones that made my friends jealous because they didn’t have them too were: 1. One Christmas I got a toy Godzilla, Rodan and Alien (from the movie Alien). They were each about two feet tall and the Rodan was especially Boss. It had wings that flapped, claws that picked up stuff (using Rubber bands) and a jaw that opened and closed. Best Christmas ever 🙂 2. Dungeons and Dragons had come out with a toy line briefly. The figures were pretty boring but I got the two Monsters they released. A Hook Horror and a cross between a Lion and a Dragon called a Dragoon. The Hook Horror was especially cool and often served as my Rancor for my Jabba’s Rancor pit. The Dragoon looked pretty but had no moving parts so was not as much fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cool-toys-you-had-when-you-were-a-kid/656662.md?page=6)