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.
We definitely had the Strange Change machine (boy it’s been a LONG time since I’ve thought about that), Creepy Crawlies and Incredible Edibles.
Lots of Estes rockets too. Before that we had Whizzers!
We also had Hot Birds, die-cast metal fantasy planes that rode a zipline from a handheld platform to a landing tower. The zipline was “corrugated” fishing line so that the wire hook made a buzzing sound to simulate an engine. These things were very cool in their day, and are now rare and apparently valuable (mine are long gone, although one was donated to a thrift shop as recently as five years ago).
I also had a strong attraction to a toy I cannot name or find online. It was a plastic missile or rocket that split open lengthwise and deployed a parachute. It was launched by a strong rubber band that was mounted on an H-shaped handheld frame; the “rocket” hooked onto a foot-plate. You’d pull the rubber band taut and manipulate the foot plate to get the thing to release; it flew up pretty far (as I recall). The cool thing was the parachute timing was controlled by other rubber bands and a lever that would fold down against the rocket body then swing out as the body split to deploy the parachute. It was relatively complex mechanically, with hinges and rubber-band-mounts-posts and swinging parts, but it worked pretty reliably for a long time, considering it was hurled with force. I never saw anyone else who had one, and I was quite fond of it. It MIGHT have been purchased from Edmund Scientific.
This museum piece is a fairly similar thing, but mine was different – for one thing, not recognizably a Nike missile, but more abstract-looking. It is, however, the closest match my various Internet search attempts have found.
My brother and I had a Big Trak, a programmable tank which we used to harass my grandma’s Pekingese, and as a side benefit, the adults.
We also had Fort Apache, the Millenium Falcon, Star Wars action figures, Lego, some metal soldiers, and a Lego-like castle building set. All these things were in a perpetually awkward state of symbiosis.
Also of note:
A plastic McDonalds store. It had a cash register in it with a bell that really rang (at least until the day we played with it too much during Uncle Dan’s nap).
Identical beanbag Kermit frogs. For some reason, I recall that they originally cost seven dollars each, which was a huge value for the fun we got out of them. My brother’s frog wore the beaded shirt from his Tonto action figure, my frog went au naturel so we could tell them apart. I still have them.
I had a Barbie, but bizarrely, I also had the Walton Family dolls. http://www.dollreference.com/images/mego_waltons1975.jpg
I had never seen the show, so they didn’t have names. Who bought me those?
Yup. And in a month or so, so will he.
And I must endorse the previous mention of the Big Trak. It was awsome.
Did you ever shoot it less than 99 times? Neither did we. 
I don’t recall having a Hot Bird specifically, but I do STR that I had a blue, die-cast metal airplane that I hung on a fishing line. Could be I had one?
When dad retired from the Navy, he went to the FAA. He’d bring home ends of teletype paper rolls, and I’d use the paper for a runway (complete with a centerline and numbers).
I didn’t shoot it much at all after the time I programmed it to go out of my room, turn left, go down the hall, turn left, go under my parents bed, and then fire 99 times. When they were sleeping.
I bet you didn’t. Good times!
“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!”
I had this missile silo.
It looked a look cooler in 1964.
I had a toy secret agent gun. It came in a plastic case, white plastic bullets, a grenade and a few other options. Everything snapped into holders in the case. Making it really cool looking.
The grenade was supposed to launch from the gun and fire a cap when it landed. I never could get the cap to go off.
An old thread that had many cool toys mentioned over the course of 241 posts (at last count) was Weird toys you vaguely remember started 06-20-2003, 01:16 PM by NoClueBoy and revived later in 2012. A jewel of a thread! And one of the first I posted to.
This is very close to the toy gun I had. It may even be the same. I’d forgotten about the hidden derringer in the handle. I’m smiling just looking at this again. Lots of good memories.
http://home.comcast.net/~sterling.e/girderandpanel/dr8.jpeg
the commercial
I had a pony. Don’t hate me!
Remember Tracer guns? 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.
Screw you, I had one of these!
My college room mate was on the development team for that and programmed much of the code that went into that toy. You’d be pleased to know that the potential for that toy to be used as harassment was one of the things that motivated him.
I am not worthy!
I like the line about every other toy gun looking old-fashioned. Nothing like playing the jealousy card.
I had these robot dinosaur things with little motors in them that you had to build from a kit. They had these tiny little gold astronauts that sat in the cockpits. They were so sweet! I had the t-rex, the stegosaurus and the scorpion.
I was very much into the build-it-yourself type toys like Capsela and Construx.