# Ghost of Christmas Toys Past **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 25, 2013, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766 "2013-11-25T17:32:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/21 "2013-11-25T21:07:54Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Amazon tells me it’s been around for over 35 yrs. Well, for me that was _45 yrs_ ago, well over their estimate. I vividly remember walking in and seeing my older sister wrapping it up on Xmas Eve. Bugger Santa, I could play along with the charade for ONE more year. > > 🆒 [It seems that you are correct.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KerPlunk_(game)) ---
**Author:** ![G0sp3l](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c68b51/32.png) [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/22 "2013-11-25T21:21:20Z")
Tonka trucks made of metal!!! 😃 😃 😃 😃 😃 I still remember my yellow dump-truck. I could ride it down a hill into a real truck with nary a scratch. It was also a great weapon against strange dogs, bullies or siblings. I guarantee, when the alien archeologists excavate Earth eons from now they’re going to find functioning Tonka trucks. … and the one with the foot-tall, bearded, GI Joe in the cab will have been mine. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/23 "2013-11-25T21:45:13Z")
I’m an only child. I never understood why my parents bought me a board game every Christmas - who the hell am I going to play it with? I think my favourite Christmas present was a little ceramic unicorn I got when I was about 10. There’s photo of me looking at it in awe just after I unwrapped it. Also a Ms. Pac-Man tabletop arcade game - my dad and I would take turns playing it and writing our high scores in a notebook. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/24 "2013-11-25T21:47:08Z")
Barbies. My sisters and I liked expanding the collection of different characters, and Grandma usually obliged. Also, one year we got about six different Tonka Trucks. This was back when they were metal. There was a crane, a bulldozer, a front-loader, and two dump trucks. They were a given as a set and we were all supposed to share them, which actually worked out pretty well as there were six of them and only three of us. (Mom had always liked playing with her brothers’ toys and didn’t want us to be deprived just because we had no brothers. This was not a typical opinion in the early sixties.) We also got a dedicated pile of dirt in the back yard to play excavation with. The Tonkas wouldn’t have been half as much fun without it. Go dirt! ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/25 "2013-11-25T21:55:46Z")
> [@G0sp3l](#): > > Tonka trucks made of metal!!! I could ride it down a hill into a real truck with nary a scratch. I had a [Winnebago](http://p2.la-img.com/459/8351/1487311_1_l.jpg) with an opening top that a friend and I later tried to destroy with hammers… we succeeded, but it was amazingly difficult (dumb teenagers!). My addition is a Spider-Man [ricochet racer](http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/RicochetSpiderman.jpg) which I remember mostly as the first toy I found in the parental hiding place before Christmas. There was also a 12-String guitar; my parents were splitting up and I was getting sent off, so when I brought it with me everyone assumed I was good… which I wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/26 "2013-11-25T22:53:55Z")
The big GI Joe Helicopter! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xlPu6PXw394/hqdefault.jpg "Hasbro GI Joe Adventure Team Search for the Stolen Idol TV commercial") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPu6PXw394) ---
**Author:** ![Grapefruit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@Grapefruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grapefruit)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/27 "2013-11-25T23:10:50Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > I had a [Winnebago](http://p2.la-img.com/459/8351/1487311_1_l.jpg) with an opening top that a friend and I later tried to destroy with hammers… we succeeded, but it was amazingly difficult (dumb teenagers!). The Winnebago looks awesome. Tsk on destroying it! This reminds me, actually, of how I asked my parents for a dollhouse for a good year and still didn’t get one. I’d go to a local hobby shop and hover around the miniature displays until my sister came to take me home. I think they knew how expensive it’d be to have a real dollhouse and all the innards completed so they didn’t want to go down that path. In retrospect, they did the right thing financially, but it did leave a hole that my adult self is trying to fill (I’m currently on my fifth dollhouse and it doesn’t seem to be stopping there, not to mention the room boxes and other dioramas I’m making a hobby out of). ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/28 "2013-11-26T00:20:52Z")
> [@Grapefruit](#): > > The Winnebago looks awesome. Tsk on destroying it! As I said, teenagers are IDIOTS! However, when you want to talk about creating mild explosives, and soaking tennis balls in flammable liquids which you can ignite and throw at your friends, well, that’s more a Boxing Day thread… ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/29 "2013-11-26T01:02:39Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > My favorite was one of my brother’s gifts – a western town (metal), consisting of a jail, saloon, and general store, with plastic cowboys and Indians and horses. We played with that for hours. That sounds similar to a Fisher Price (plastic) toy that I had and absolutely loved. It was a little town connected by a white piece with a traffic light on it (it didn’t actually light up but you could turn it to make it show the red, green, or yellow “light”). It had a jail that you could actually put a “prisoner” (the residents of the town were little plastic people) into and close the cell, etc. Loved that toy so much. > [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I’m an only child. I never understood why my parents bought me a board game every Christmas - who the hell am I going to play it with? I had this problem too! I loved the board games but didn’t often have anyone to play them with! My most memorable toy would probably be the plastic “Jaws” shark that I got when I was probably around 7. It had open jaws (heh) and you had to use a little plastic fishing rod to get little “bones” and things out of its stomach without causing the jaws to close on your hand. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/30 "2013-11-26T01:07:58Z")
I got a Matchbox [K111 Missile launcher](http://www.junkables.com/dolldetail.php?recordID=96814), which was close enough to the [SHADO Mobiles](http://fabgearusa.com/die_cast_shado_mobiles_from_product_enterprise.html) from the UFO TV show(which I loved when I was a kid) that my imagination could do the rest. A few years ago I tracked one down on eBay and its now got pride of place on my bookshelf. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/31 "2013-11-26T01:26:35Z")
[Buss Buggie Bike](http://i.ebayimg.com/t/FOREMOST-SWINGER-ELIMINATOR-BUZZ-BUGGY-MUSCLE-BIKE-MARK-2-11-MURRAY-/00/s/MTA2NlgxNjAw/z/tycAAOxynLhSA~I2/$(KGrHqR,!o4FHvumeMKwBS!+I2H)b!~~60_57.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/32 "2013-11-26T01:28:50Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > erection set. erector, not erection! ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/33 "2013-11-26T01:55:06Z")
> [@SiXSwordS](#): > > I had a [Winnebago](http://p2.la-img.com/459/8351/1487311_1_l.jpg) with an opening top that a friend and I later tried to destroy with hammers… we succeeded, but it was amazingly difficult (dumb teenagers!). 😃 Got that for one of my boys. Some kid must have been playing with it in the store, because when I went to wrap it, I found a G.I. Joe inside. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/34 "2013-11-26T02:00:35Z")
Back in my disfunctional childhood, most of my Christmas presents were brightly wrapped underware and socks. They probably spent more on the wrapping paper. When I was 14, one of my teachers gave me a jacket (a little big, but I got 2 years out of it), a paperback book of fantasy stories and a little “made in china” glass unicorn. The jacket is long gone, the book got lost, but I still have the unicorn. Now, many years later, one of my biggest holiday pleasures is shopping for the Angel trees in the hopes that I might be able to give some kid the gift of joy, and maybe something they will treasure forever. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/35 "2013-11-26T04:15:18Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > erection set. > [@Canadjun](#): > > erector, not erection! i got very excited about building things. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/36 "2013-11-26T04:50:03Z")
> [@Skypist](#): > > My most memorable toy would probably be the plastic “Jaws” shark that I got when I was probably around 7. It had open jaws (heh) and you had to use a little plastic fishing rod to get little “bones” and things out of its stomach without causing the jaws to close on your hand. 🆒 I had the same game when I was a kid, but it was a birthday present not Christmas. [http://www.genxtinct.com/2011/07/jaws-game.html?m=1](http://www.genxtinct.com/2011/07/jaws-game.html?m=1) I got an unbelievable number of hours of play from this Christmas present. WW2 Navarone Playset > **[Lost Toys: Marx Toys’ Navarone Play Set](http://chrisbaer.net/mp/2010/01/31/lost-toys-marx-toys-navarone-play-set/)** > > At some point, I suppose it’s inevitable that one looks back upon childhood and thinks about toys. No matter your generation, your toys were much cooler than the new-fangled gizmos the curren… ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/37 "2013-11-26T06:17:22Z")
Atari 2600 RC race track Star Track phasers (You could actually play laser tag with this one! [Sonic Ear. (80’s toy)](http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/13933-sonic-ear-by-ohio-art/) I never got an erection set. Now my childhood feels empty. ---
**Author:** ![Clothilde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Clothilde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothilde)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/38 "2013-11-26T07:06:00Z")
When I was very young, I got a “Show ‘n’ Tell” tv one year for Christmas. It had a record player on top, and you could get story packets that contained a record and a film strip. (Whippersnapper #1: Hey old lady, what’s a record? Whippersnapper #2: Forget the record, hey old lady, what the hell is a FILM STRIP??? Me: Google it, you obnoxious little creeps, and get off my lawn!) You would put the film strip into a slot in the tv and start the record. The film strip would automatically advance as the story was told. You couldn’t watch regular tv on it, though, but I just loved that thing. In one of my last Barbie years, before I discovered Danielle Steele books, clothes, high heels, nail polish, and why Fonzie was really the CUTE one and not just the “cool” one, I asked for and received a Growing Up Skipper. You’d twist her arm around and she would grow up an inch or two and grow “out” quite a bit as well, heh. Everybody laughed about that. I guess it was actually kind of weird how she grew the human equivalent of about 6 inches in height and about three cup sizes with just the twist of her arm. That would have been kinda convenient back during my teen years (the Barbies were long since gone by then) if I could have done that and avoided some of the angst and stress girls that age go through. And, finally, one year, again when I was pretty young, my grandmother gave me a doll for Christmas which was about 1 1/2 to 2 feet tall and walked. It had a battery in its back with a switch. When you turned the switch on, it would start walking. You had to play with it on smooth floors, though. We had that dark green sculpted shag carpet, and if you tried to make it walk on the carpet, it would fall over. It also had better “balance” if you put its arms out in front a bit. It had sort of a stilted, lurching walk (thanks, early 1970’s technology) so it walked a little bit like Frankenstein’s monster in a frilly blue dress. It also had a short in its electrical system, which I found out later. One day I was playing with it in the entryway, which opened into the kitchen. All smooth floors. I had to leave for some reason - I think my dad took me and my brother somewhere. I turned off the doll’s switch and left it standing in the hall. Later after we got back home my mother told me angrily that she almost kicked the doll down the basement stairs. I thought that was a REALLY mean thing to say to me, so I demanded she tell me why. After all, I had done what she said. I had turn off the switch so as not to let the battery run down. And my GRANDMOTHER had given me that doll! That’s when she told me the whole story. It turns out while we were gone my mom was in the kitchen cooking supper and, about ten minutes after we left, she started hearing a buzzing sound, and out of the corner of her eye she spotted this stilted, lurching doll making its stiff-legged way from the entryway into the kitchen, all by itself. And she knew SHE WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE HOUSE! There it was, lurching and buzzing, with its frilly blue dress, making a slow but determined beeline for my mom. If it had had bolts coming out of its neck, it couldn’t have been more monster-like. Remember that short? Well, the doll somehow managed to turn itself on and walk from the entryway, through the doorway into the kitchen, right up to my mom, arms out in front a little. She said it was possessed! She managed to knock it over with a rolled-up newspaper and told me that it lay there on its back, staring up at the ceiling, buzzing, arms up a bit in front, and uselessly moving its stiff legs up and down until finally the battery ran out. Heh, heh, heh. I still laugh about that to this day. I was never allowed to play with that doll again, and it was given away to charity a few years later. But I’ll always remember my mom accusing me of my doll being possessed. At this point in my life, looking back, I think that maybe that was one of the best. presents. ever. I love you, Grandmother! Heh. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/39 "2013-11-26T07:52:10Z")
One year my little brother and I got matching black and white bikes. Freedom! Sometime later he sold them to some guy off the street. My mother had to go get them back. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2013, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766/40 "2013-11-26T11:25:44Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > [Blaze](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F34CJnIw0E0), for sure. My sister and I wanted Blaze so badly, but we figured that was about as likely as getting a real live pony, so when we came down Christmas morning and there stood Blaze in the middle of the living room, it was awesome. Actually I did get a pony when I was 5 and freshly back in the US from my Grandfather. I loved the erector set and lincoln logs, and those architectural blocks, and legos and tinker toys … and another year I got the classic bicycle - I think I was 7. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ghost-of-christmas-toys-past/674766.md?page=3)