The first toy I remember was a little wooden racing car.
Later I had a teddy which was about as big as me.
And later still I had a teddy that I loved to bits. I remember I loved that thing more than I would love a ferrari if I had one (now).
Then I got into lego. (castles, space ships)
Then Technic lego. (yellow pneumatic JCB, red car with suspensio and a ‘working’ piston engine, red tow truck. And various completely custom things that were experimental including a car whos’ back half swivveled independantly of the front so that all 4 wheels were on the ground on uneven surfaces)
Now my toys are a PDA, PC, etc…
I’m actually a toy collector–mainly action figures, but also Pez dispensers. I collect comic books too, but they aren’t toys. I’ve got pictures of some of my action figure collections up on my website, including my Transformers, Super Powers (DC Comics heroes) and Secret Wars (Marvel Comics heroes) from the '80s:
The tower on the left was battery-operated. The yellow helical thing, enclosed in clear plastic, would then turn, carrying ball bearings up to the top where they would drop off, bouncing from one drum to another, ending up in the hopper at the other end.
From there, the ball bearings would go thru one of the holes in the back of the hopper, back down the blue rame shown in the photo. The blue “off-ramp” connects to the red runners which take the ball bearing back to the base of the tower, where it will be carried back up, and so on.
There were actually scoring games that you could play with it, but the main thing for me was just to watch the balls bounce around. Hey, I was (am) easily amused.
SSP Racers were totally cool. The only drag was with the “Smash Up Derby” cars, because you could never get them to have a proper head on collision like in the commercials.
Star Wars figures. Definitely. Oh, sure, we had a few Battlestar Galactica guys mixed in there, but mos’ly it was Star Wars.
Blocks. Yes, blocks! We had a big set of variously sized blocks from which we made Secret Moon Bases and stuff for the Star Wars figures. We also mixed the Star Wars figures with the blocks and some Play-Doh to make one holy hell of a mess.
Add to that some Legos—not the dumb Legos today that come in tiny boxes (“Pirate Ship! Space Patrol! Pod Racer!”) but the big box of universal blocks. No frickin’ Lego palm trees or Lego wheelbarrows or pre-numbered Lego parts for making a Fire Engine, no sir. The big box of do-anything-with-'em Legos.
We also made our own toys. We used paper, pencil, scissors and tape to make 3-D models of dinosaurs and X-wings and other important architectural renderings.
And the fun you can have with pile carpet and the lid to the Masterpiece game…
My sister and I had a version of this that I’ve never heard of anyone else having. I KNOW I didn’t dream this. It had one contraption wherein you’d bake a half-sphere cake. Then you’d frost it and the candies you’d make were eyes, lips, arms etc. so the end product was a cake-head sort of thing. I loved that toy even more than the Suzy Homemaker oven!
And Cervaise callously and deliberately and cruelly lost our poor Jawa figure in some scraggly school bushes where the Jawa-munching Yallapappuses live, knowing that the poor action figure couldn’t possibly fend for himself.
I’ll bet he was laughing evilly when he accidentally fell over and threw it behind him.
I’ve been wondering where to put my 1000th post, and here it is:
My favorite toys were a handful of different things. I had a set of metal trucks, two of which were a Tonka crane and dump truck; I must have moved half the dirt in the yard from one spot to another.
I loved building miniature towns using Lego buildings, plastic toy buildings, cinder blocks, bricks- anything that looked like a building. I loved making bridges and dams, and I would set up the green Army guys and the cowboys and indians in places around the town. This would go on all day, until it was almost time to go in- then the attacks would start.
First, my friends and I would use slingshots with BBs or spent 22 casings to knock down the soldiers on guard; this was accompanied by us making gunfire noises and spitting all over the place. If we had a firecracker or a smoke bonb it would be used in round 2, placed for maximum effect- usually to destroy the bridge or dam. We would follow up with the big artillery- rocks and bricks. Sometimes we broke the toys, but even the broken ones were useful as battle decorations.
I also had some dinosaurs- a T. rex and a triceratops, both of which had a battery pack attached to a six foot wire that controlled the thing. Push the left button, it turned right; push both it moved forward, and reverse the above to move right. They would sometimes lead the attack on the city, if we had batteries.
I had a T. rex skeleton made of styrofoam; it was about six feet tall and the parts fit together lika a puzzle. I used it to chase my little sister out of my room. She would not go near the skull.
Did anyone else have the game Hands Down? I was five when it was given to me as a Christmas present. I bugged everybody to play, then got mad when I lost and cried. I didn’t take into account that my opponents were all adults, and I never played it with them again.
I had a robot. As far as I knew it had no brand name - it was just a cool robot that walked, moved its arms, rotated its head, and flashed its red eyes. It would walk into walls and turn around. Ran on batteries, I think. It was about a foot tall, black, silver, with some rubber parts but mostly metal.
I LOVED these guys! I must have had like 54,000 of the little bastards, they were the only toy I liked for most of my childhood. They were so versatile, because of their size and because they fully movable, only the hands and feet were stiff. And they were hardy too, I remember using BB guns to recreate artillery.
We had a bunch of building sets that were lots of fun. Lego (of course), Lincoln Logs, Castillos (I’m glad someone else mentioned that one too-I was beginning to wonder if I’d imagined it), Erector set-the metal one, and one of my favorites Giant Tinkertoys. These things were made of plastic and big enough to construct an actual jail in which to put one’s annoying younger brother. Heh. They were great.
We also got some of my older brother’s cast-offs including some sort of architectural-type building set you could make skyscrapers with. The box was lost so I don’t know what it was called but it was kind of cool. It had snap-in textured panels simulating different surfaces such as brick, stone, and rippled glass.
I also found an old music toy of my brother’s. It had a green plastic tread that went around on rollers just like a tank tread. The plastic had rows of holes in it. There were all these little marching band figures with pegs at the bottom that fit into the holes. You put the figures into the holes and then cranked this handle so the tread would go around, the band would march and play music. Different holes, different song. It was basically just a big music box but I found it fascinating. Especially since I had no idea which holes corresponded to which notes.
It went zip! when it moved and bop!when it stopped and whrrr, when it stood still. I never knew just what it was, and I guess I never will! (apologies to Tom Paxton)
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