Every year when the toy ads begin, I start thinking about toys from my youth (also known as the 60’s) that don’t seem to be around any longer - some of them for good reason.
I know in the past I have mentioned one in particular. It was called Gux. It was a construction toy, the pieces were made of some stick spongey material, and were shaped like four-sided and round rods, discs, and squares. To build things, you just touched pieces together until they stuck, then added more pieces. One of the reason this toy sticks in my mind is because at one of my friend’s single digit birthday parties, one of the boys in attendance started eating the spongey pieces. He said they tasted good, but most of us were just grossed out.
Another game I remember, that has likely evolved into something else, but no longer exists as I remember it, was something my mother and I called ‘the design game’. It consisted of a plywood peg board and several small plastic pieces, all of which had angles that by today’s standards could be considered dangerously sharp. The pieces were in primary colors, and came in a few common geometric shapes; they each had little pegs on their underside to stick into the board. In some sets, the pegboard had outlines on them and the right number of pieces to fill them in. My set had a blank board and my mom and I would make these lovely abstract mosaics.
At least Spirograph still exists..
Have a great week. Hijack away.
I know Lincoln Logs are still sold, but apparently the roof sections are panels rather than the individual green planks. It was always a challenge to get the planks to line up and not fall off. Kids today - they have it easy!!!
We used to play for hours with Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys. I always wanted an Erector Set, but for whatever reason, Mom and Dad never got me one. Probably because it was a boy’s toy. I only got girly stuff. :rolleyes:
We gave our daughter an Erector Set. She appreciated it.
I love Spirograph. I may have to get myself one!!!
I found an original, unopened barrel of Tinker Toys from the 60s in a Crackerbarrel several years ago. Now Jon is old enough to appreciate it. And for Abby, an original Miss MerryWeather Colorforms. 
I bought one of my nephews a tube of knock-off Lincoln Logs for Christmas. I’ve already wrapped it or I’d tell you the name. Actually, since I misspelled his name on the paper…:smack: I’ll rewrap it tomorrow. (I’m using newspaper this year.)
They’re called Tumble Tree Timbers. The roof planks are green slats like the old Lincoln Logs had.
your link is broken - there’s an extra “http://” at the end
Well, hooray for Tumble Tree Timbers for teaching kids to deal with disappointments! 
Makes me wish I had a little kid to buy for.
Hmm, I can’t really recall any toys that truly stick out in my mind. I did have Spirograph. I also Legos; Legos we bought while stationed in Germany in the early sixties. I had lots of toys from Germany that I don’t really recall seeing here, but I couldn’t tell you the names of them, or even what they were. All I knew is that my new American friends loved, loved, loved playing with them.
Ran out to pick up some stocking stuffers and such, but didn’t get all I wanted. I must have been in a “feh” mood for shopping, because nothing caught my eye. Oh, if my kids were like maybe 10 or under, there would have been things. As it is, they are not. Sigh, maybe tomorrow I can wrap up the last of it. Still have one gift to buy as well.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody have time to fix a link after someone pointed out a mistake. Y’all must really love this MMP thing.
('Taint monday here yet, so I guess my post doesn’t exist yet.)
Welcome, T. We often start the mmp on a Sunday evening because some of us just dash of the house in a hurry on a Monday morning.
Just so you don’t worry - the goat and the squid are on vacation until after the holidays. Just deposit your offerings at the appropriate feet:
chocolate to FCM
beer to VBob and swampy
and links to baby animal pics anywhere you please. 
**BigT **- **rosie **actually exists in an alternate time plane, so her Monday may or may not coincide with ours.
OK, I lied. She’s just not motivated enough to get up and post at 5AM Eastern Time. Anyway, technically, it’s Monday Morning somewhere…
I’m still one of the slightly younger folks 'round here, having spent my growing up years in the 70s and 80s, so there aren’t a whole lot of toys I remember from my youth that aren’t still around today in one form or another. Except maybe the electronic wheeled toys that you drove around and had to chase after because they was leashed by the cord that connected them to the control box. I did have one radio controlled van though; it had head and tail lights and everything; I thought it was tremendously cool. I also recall the police car I had that drove itself; reversing and turning around whenever it hit something. (I still see variants of those around today – including the latest craze, Zhu Zhu Pets. though they’re a little more advanced.)
I also got a calculator watch around 1982 or so. To me that was the pinnacle of geek chic, long before being a geek was any degree of cool. You can still get stuff like that today, too – in fact I remember seeing a cheapo plastic 80s-style calculator watch on ThinkGeek recently. Mine was gold-tone metal.
The next year my aunt, having done the backpack-across-Europe thing, brought me back an AM radio watch, which then became the coolest thing ever to me. In theory, anyway. The single white plastic earphone it came with was uncomfortable and wasn’t really much for listening to music, and being that it’s worn on the wrist and thus tended to swing to and fro as you walked, the station you were listening to tended to rhythmically fade in and out of static in time with your arms – unless you were walking in a direction where it could always get a clear line of sight to wherever the signal was coming from. But still, I loved that thing.
I also found a pen on the ground near the library where I lived around the same time. It had an LCD clock in the end of the pen.
The rest of the stuff filling my Christmases were pretty mundane for the period; video game systems, Rubik’s Cubes, board games, record albums, that sort of thing.
So I’m eating solid food again. Technically I don’t think I’m supposed to be, but as long as I chew on the other side of my mouth I’m fine. Which is good, because there’s only so much soup a guy can take, especially when you’re like me and tend not to eat most Campbell’s varieties. (They all have this similar underlying flavour – all those preservatives and salt and nitrates and stuff I guess, and I just don’t like it.) I suppose I should have found a good recipe to make my own. I’ve never made my own before though, so I dunno how it’d turn out.
Nice short week this week. Work 'til about noon Thursday, then we cut out for the company luncheon with some knick-knackey (or occasionally alcoholic) door prizes.
Wow, great idea for the MMP OP, Rosie! Your pics of the Blizzard of 2009 aka “Snowpocalypse” were great, btw.
Oh, so many favorite toys, so little time! 
I had one of the original Barbie dolls, as well as a Midge and Ken original (wish I still had them). I loved board games too, and one of my very favorites when I was young was an Uncle Wiggly one that my Grandmother had. My very favorite toy, though, was a stuffed basset hound dog that I named Cleo after the basset hound Cleo on “The People’s Choice,” starring Jackie Cooper and Cleo’s voice was supplied by Mary Jane Croft. Unfortunately, Cleo the stuffed dog was in a trunk that was stolen back in 1975; I’m still looking for a replacement, unsuccessfully so far.
Woo hoo, no work for me tomorrow! LOL sorry, just had to add that ::does happy dance::
Soup is easy - Buy a whole rotisserie chicken from the store, and after you’ve taken all the meat off, throw the bones into a big stock pot, add your favorite veggies and seasonings, let it simmer, and after about an hour or so, throw in some pasta or rice. There are, of course, more sophisticated recipes out there, but that’s the basic idea. Don’t forget a little salt and something acidic, like citris juice or wine.
And that’s why I wouldn’t have made a good soup. I had a general sort of idea about the rest of it, but I wouldn’t have thought to add something acidic. Salt, I get. Lemon juice wouldn’t have occurred to me – but it does go well with chicken. (As does lime and orange, though I’m not sure how good orange chicken soup would taste.)
I’d love to try and make Tom Yum or something similar – something with lemongrass and chili. That stuff is awesome. Even the cheap packaged stuff you get at Asian food stores is good, but the fresh stuff with real meat and veggies is to die for.
The best and worse Christmas present I ever got were one in the same. We didn’t have a real toy store or nothing back in my home town; just a sort of toy department on top of the freezer chests at the grocery store. Not this crap little bags of plastic soldiers and stuff city grocers had ---- I’m talking real Tonka trucks and Barbies and stuff. OK – usually dated by a couple years but they were damn good toys to a ridgerunner kid. We kids would see toys disappear from that shelf and wonder and dream who the lucky kid was that got it. And we’ld always find out ---- it was a small coal patch and no-one had any secrets.
One Christmas a couple kinfolk pitched in and got me the Robot Commando. For a eight/seven/sumptin year old this sucker was HUGE and cool as all get out. The eyes rolled and the arms swayed back and forth like it was marching. And it threw balls at you and fired rockets and EVERYTHING! I was in hog heaven!!!
Problem was it terrified my dog. Poor thing - slightest sound of this monster being turned on and he just froze and started shivering and looking all panic and all. He wouldn’t howl or bark or cry or something - he was too afraid for that. Just freeze against the nearest wall, lean against it sitting and shaking, with one paw raised. Somehow that silence made it all that much worse. Me and him were real close; closer than me and my brother were. He wasn’t a pet - he was what an adult would have called a co-conspirator or something. And seeing him all frightened like that took all the joy out of the thing for me. And I do mean ALL. I played with it just that once.
Right after the holidays I explained that to my uncle (who headed the effort in getting it) and he understood. Heck - I knew how rare extravagances like that were for families like ours. I think though in some ways he admired me a little for it and being upfront with him about why I wasn’t playing with it and all - that I went to him rather than him asking me. We put it in the box and he took it to his place so “he (meaning me) has something to play with when I’m sitting him”. That was our cover for my parents. Never did play with it though - just bad juju in my brain.
My pooch lived to be almost 18 years old. Damn toy would have never lasted that long. My wife knew she came second to him; she was cool with that. Friends came and went, kin, jobs – but me and him were there forever united against the world.
Long and short ------- maybe ten years back my uncle passed away and I was one of the ones with the job of cleaning out his place. He still lived in the same place. I looked all over that little shack for that thing but it wasn’t there. I know after we moved and I was in High School and all he talked about “passing it on to one of the poor kids”. Poorer than us? Yeah – there always were some. Hope he did.
I saw the thread title and all this flashed back into my brain. Don’t know why. Guess it must be the season to remember and laugh and cry a bit. I’m fine now telling you but I’m thinking I may not read this post ------- I’m an odd duck like that.
Now its time to get to hijackin stuff
<makes pistol out of finger>
“Take this thread to Havana?”
Does McCall’s magazine still have a new Betsy McCall paper doll page anymore? I loved paper dolls and often made my own from the Sears and Roebuck catalog, but Betsy was special, with new clothes and an “event” every month. One of my happiest moments was being old enough to use scissors with sharp tips so I could make her and her clothes and accessories perfect!
I swear that one still exists, of course it’s plastic now. There was an edition where half the pieces were glow-in-the-dark… HAH! These ones only come in three shapes: round, triangles and squares. The pics look like it’s a screen but it’s not, it’s pegs.
My favorite toy at Grandma’s, which I liked so much it almost counted as a reason to go visit, was this construction set. Later she bought a mecano, which was also a huge success.
My brothers had quite a few Lego sets and about 10L worth of Clicks. About 10L because their storage boxes were 2 clothes-soap containers, 5L each. That seems to be the Traditional Clicks Box, so much so that people jokingly point to the dissapearance of those boxes as a horrible consequence of all the eco-drive everybody has nowadays. At a party we came up with the word “clickgasm” to express the feeling of pouring the clicky goodness out of its big container.
We’ve never added anything acidic to soup, at home 
It’s like when Sheboss and Silent Girl insisted that “everybody” thickens sauces with flour, they were equally confused (and Sheboss-the-Coeliac, angry) when it turned out that none of the other four people at the table, nor our mothers, nor (after some phone consultations) our grandmothers used flour except in bechamel (a reduction of milk and flour, and Mathmom the school cook makes it with maize flour because of the coeliac kids).
At home the shorthand for people who discover they hate a profession after getting eddycated on it and working on it for one or two years is “another one who studied Biology because animals are pretty.” Hint: if the idea of cutting up an earthworm makes you want to throw up farther than the little girl in The Exorcist, don’t study Biology.
Do they still make Simon, that game with the flashing lights? Or Lite Brite? Etch-a-Sketch?
Happy to see Spirograph is still around.
Etch-a-sketch? Nooooooo… Have some Lite-Brite too. Looking at it, Lite-Brite seems to be a close relative of rosie’s own mosaics too.
I know I’ve seen Simon games as well. There’s both the original one with the lights and a ton of variations where the sequence involves something else than hitting colored pads.
And horror of horrors, I forgot about Exin Castillos! I think that before Legos kicked them off the planet, it was the most popular construction game in Spain.
I cannot believe, given so many little boys’ destructive tendencies, that SSP Smash-up Derby ever went off the market. Man, it was pure, unadulterated greatness in 1970’s toy car form. You’d just point the car toward something solid (or, best of all, point two cars toward each other), pull the cord, and let 'er fly. The wheels, doors, hood, and trunk would fly off on impact, ready to be snapped back on for the next collision. The measure of a good collision was the trunk piece on the rear of the VW bug model. That piece almost never came off, so anytime you found it separately in the wreckage, you knew you’d engineered a great crash.