I saw the Star Wars Holiday Soecial when it aired. I was 9 or 10. I recall being disappointed and bored. The scene that stuck in my memory for whatever reason was the mother watching a cooking show and tossing pebbles into a pot.
American Bricks. Had those plus the Girder and Panel set and several Erector sets
I remember the watermelon…stupid brain…
No, though Gigglesnort Hotel did feature several other puppets who were well-known in Chicago.
There was a TV host in Chicago, named Bill Jackson, who hosted a popular local kids’ program, “The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show” on WFLD, and later WLS, in Chicago in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Jackson (as “BJ”) was the only human who appeared on the show; the rest of the characters were puppets.
While he was at WLS, Jackson developed a new version of the show with more of an educational focus, to help the station meet FCC requirements – that version was called “Gigglesnort Hotel.” The later show featured most of the same puppets who had been in “BJ and Dirty Dragon,” and WLS wound up syndicating the show to other stations (which is how Darren Garrison had seen it in South Carolina).
OMG, that’s a nearly-fifty-year-old memory you just revived for me. 
We had a set of those in my classroom in first grade – I loved playing with it, and it was something that I wanted for myself for home. Being six years old, I’m sure that I didn’t realize that they had been discontinued for several years at that point.
I got a LEGO set at about that time, and that probably satisfied my desire for a building set, but I’d always though that the Girder and Panel stuff was really cool, too, and I could never remember the name.
They lasted longer. I think I got the airport version around 1974 or 1975. It looks like production lasted until 1979 at least.
Apparently they came back by a different company from 1992 until at least 2016.
Yes, that’s it. They actually made more realistic looking houses than Legos, but not as flexible in what you could make.
My brother had one of those. Really fast. Once, he set up a ramp in the backyard and I swear that sumbitch flew at least 30 feet. Those kids in the commercial are wusses.
Ahh, I see that now in the Wikipedia article. The version that we had in the school was likely from the original run, from the early-to-mid 60s; at that time, even to a six-year-old, the packaging looked a little dated.
I had a set of those with the Fat Track. I only clearly remember playing with 'em one time. The track pieces stuck around forever and became the settings for many Hotwheels and Matchbox battles, but the rechargeable cars and the gas pump that powered them disappeared immediately. I wonder why? Were they loud or something?
Yeah, I know I got this boxin the mid 70’s.
Maybe your friends stole them?
The cars were pretty quiet - they sounded a bit like slot cars (same motor). They used to run for 30 seconds or so on a charge, if I remember correctly. They would be awesome with today’s battery technology!
I think we still have my old hotwheel tracks in the basement. The classic orange ones. My son enjoyed playing with them and then got his own sets in addition.
I remember those Tamagotchis; they also came out around the same time as the first “Baby Think It Over” dolls, which are programmed to cry randomly, etc. and a lot of people said Tamagotchis could pretty much accomplish the same goal, which was teen pregnancy prevention.
Does anyone here remember “Spy” magazine? Apparently it stopped publishing around 2000; I loved it and thought it was hilarious. They did things like put Martha Stewart on the cover, “naked” (her head was retouched onto a model’s body) and they had things like “Separated at Birth” (unlikely celebrities who resemble each other) and “The Spy List”, which listed 10 famous people who had something in common, and you had to guess what it was. The only one I can think of right now included Pete Sampras and George Bush v. 1.0, and the things they all had in common was “Famous people who have vomited in public.” It was really off-the-wall things like that.
I had several Sizzlers when I was young (when I also had a massive collection of Hot Wheels).
I also had a Sizzlers spin-off toy from Mattel, called Hotline Trains. The trains had futuristic styling, and the locomotives were charged up using the same type of charger that Sizzlers used. The tracks were the same as Hot Wheels orange tracks, but were black, with silver stripes (to simulate train rails).
Here’s a Youtube video, with lots of footage of the train sets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUPe_BaWGPY
No.
The Goose was weak sauce, compared to Dirty dragon.
FIIIIEEE!
Nah, wasn’t that. I suspect that I was too young to put the set together by myself and that I just played with the individual components to destruction, eventually losing the good parts.
Wow. I wanted one of these sets so badly. I thunk my Sizzlers set had a picture of these trains on the box or in a booklet that came with the track pieces. I remember staring at the picture hoping that one day I would be so lucky as to have my own. The funny thing is that I’m sure my parents would have gotten it for me but I was uniquely terrible at asking for what I wanted, so I probably ended up with some other crap I didn’t care about.
That said, I thi k I would have been bored with the train in about 30 minutes now that I see it in action. And wow, the pictures looked so much cooler than that blobby matte plastic junk.
I had a fairly basic Lego set and loved it. But it came with the booklets that showed the sets like the Monorail or a Castle. I thought those were the greatest thing.
You should see how many Lego/MegaBlocks sets I bought Nephew and then my daughter & son. 
Remember the football game with the electric board that rumbled when you turned it on and the little men just bounced around on the board? The ball was a little magnet that stuck to the metal base of one of the players and if, by some chance, the player with the ball bounced around enough to get into the end zone, you got points. I had one of those games and hated it, it was not entertaining in the least
Magnet? Luxury!
Ours had a felt sheet with pre-punched oval shapes that served as the ball.
On the other hand, our set had a kicker that could actually kick the ball.