I always feel like i am posting some thread that’s been posted many times, but anyway…we are talking about old toys in my office today…so what toys did you play with when you were a young’un in the 80’s?
we just thought of the moncheche’s the little monkey dudes and of course weeble wobbles…any more fun ones?
Masters of the Universe! I used to love He-Man and Skeletor and Beast-Man and all the others. I even had Castle Greyskull and Snake Mountain and almost all the vehicles.
I also used to love those little GIJoes, not the 12" dolls, but the little plastic action figures.
HeMan sucked! GI Joe ruled! I used to go in the backyard and dig big-ass GI Joe bases with little garages for the vehicles and command posts and security checkpoints and traps and…and…and… Hell, I’d still do it today if I actually had a backyard.
Some other favorites: Legos, Robotix, Capsela and model rockets.
Oh Man! Transformers, Donkey Kong, BB-Gun wars, Kite wars, Defender, Intellivision, Atari, Erector Sets, Silly Putty, Legos (used to build HUGE Lego things), Stretch Armstrong.
I had a cool little robot, car/trick thingy called a Big Trac. I could program its moves (that took forever) I wasted countless hours with that thing and all it did was roll around the house and bump into stuff.
Mask, Glo-worm, Robotman, and Lego to name a few.
OK, actually late 70s. I got this for Xmas after having seen it in the Sears Xmas catalog.
I think it was called “Avalanche,” but I’m not sure.
It wasn’t even a game at all. It was just a plastic or acrylic cube with a bunch of BB’s in it.
Inside the cube, there were *eight or so staggered, slightly angled “levels.” So when you turned the cube over, the BB’s raced first one way, then dropped a *quarter inch or so to the next level, then go racing back the other way.
Until it reached the bottom.
The cube itself was about 4" on the side.
It even came with a little bit of a “scientific” blurb, stating that since the BB’s were constantly going thru a constant cycle of acceleration and rest, that if you dropped those same BB’s from the top of the Empire State Building, they would reach the ground long before the ones inside the cube, even though the total drop there was only 4" (I think).
(I know that the ESB analogy is a little flawed, that IRL, they’d actually land on the 86th floor and stop.:D)
*Those numbers are a little flawed, too, but I don’t have one in front of me to be exact.)
Now here’s a thread I can relate to!
I love action figues, especially from the 80’s. I still have most of mine, too. Here are some of my favorites:
He-man: I loved these things! I was a huge fan of the cartoon, and I wish they would show it again. (You hear that Hallmark! Let go of the rights, already!) The bodies were virtually identical, but they had enough differences to make me get them all. How cool was Moss Man? Or Mosquitor? Has there ever been a playset as cool as Eternia?
Super Powers: These things were soooo cool! Accurate representations of several DC superheroes and supervillians! Each came with an action feature that made sense (Flash ran, Aquaman swam, Batman punched, etc.). Figures with capes had cloth capes (not those crappy plastic ones). I have everything from this line except for the Batcopter.
Transformers: Another excellent toy line. I could never put the stickers on right, though.
G.I. Joe: I didn’t get a lot of these. My uncle bought both my brother and I Wild Bill with his helicopter. I don’t know why he bought us both the same thing, I guess that’s one of the disadvantages of being a twin. These 3 3/4" figures were great, though. And so poseable! I can remember setting them up in some interesting positions…
M.U.S.C.L.E.: Millions of Unusually Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere! I loved these little pink guys. They were fun to set up and have huge battle royals with.
Visionaries: Neat toys that were faithful to the cartoon. Each figure had a hologram on their chest depicting their power and they each came with a weapon and a power staff with a hologram on it.
That’s all I’ll mention now, but I could go on and on…
Oh man, Kite Wars! Yeah! We used to sharpen popsicle sticks and duct tape them on to the tip of our kites for more effective destruction. You can’t beat a few hours of fun for a buck. I always loved those cheap-ass kites with the bloodshot eyes on them.
And, M.U.S.C.L.E. I remember those too. I don’t know why they were so cool. I guess they were like the little green army men (Which I also loved), except for people who liked sci-fi/fantasy.
Something I forgot to mention, besides the toys, was how much fun blowing the toys up with fireworks was! Man, when I was a kid (or now ;)) I could spend hours and hours with a brick of firecrackers and some GI Joes. I also remember making my Cub Scout Pinewood Derby car into a jet car by affixing a model rocket engine to the top along with some fins. That thing rocked!
In the early '80’s my favorite toy was a 1972 Olds Cutlass SS. 350cc’s of pure testosterone fun!
i also had Construx building things similar to lego or other toys… I also had lego, he man, g.i. joe and all the other biggies
My father used to have one of these things on his desk. I would play with it for hours. Ahhhh, to be young and easily ammused…
Mostly Legos, but also Construx, Transformers/Go-Bots (I played with them interchangable, and ignored the size difference. Only problem was, I had both Optimus Prime and Leader-1, but neither lead bad guy.), Erector sets, although that’s not really an 80’s toy, and Atari, the 2600XL one with the keyboard that you could never find cartidges for. A friend had all of the Star Wars toys, and we were always jealous.
And thank you, Democritus, I’ve now got the image fixed in my head of a JATO Pinewood. If only they allowed that in the races!
Finally, a thread that I can post in and not be the dumbest person in the room…
GI Joe was the best toy ever, hands down.
In any event, you guys should check this out: http://www.wizardworld.com/polling/toyfare/toy_vote/toy_vote.html
Its a poll for the best toy ever. Toyfare does this periodically. The last time, Transformers came out on top.
Toyfare is a great magazine, I suggest you try it if you are a 80’s toy fan. Their URL is http://www.toyfare.com. It’s worth the subscription just for “Twisted Mego Theater” alone…
No one has been able to help me on this one-
my favorite toy back in the eighties was a THING.
It might have been a generic toy because i can’t remember the series it came from:
It was a brain with eyes and a beak. And it had ten green tentacles that you could pose and bend. I loved that thing more than life itself.
I’m a girl, and so when I brought it over to my friend’s house when they were playing Barbies or Jem or My Little Pony, I always got my head chewed off by the other girls until I finally caught on that Mother Brain was better received at my friend Wesley’s house- he had the Jabba the Hut action figure thing with the trapdoor.
Wasn’t He-Man great? I loved that Stinkor the skunk- dude actually smelled quite bad.
Your pointy beak thing was from the dungeons and dragons action figure line, i had one too…i can’t remember the name, but he was scary, pink brain, green arms…cool stuff
Democritus BITE YOUR TONGUE. He-man did so NOT suck.
I grew up with all my brothers toys so am really relating to all the action figures, and lego god bless it.
Soldiers, cowboys and indians, hula hoops, pop-guns, ah the joys of being little.
jaytini wrote:
Sounds vaguely like the Morkoth from the AD&D Monster Manual. (Or maybe the Rust Monster.)
Oh boy! I’m busted now! 
OK, here’s my take on He-Man action figures, besides the stupid name. I mean, come on, He-Man? Sheesh!
Demo’s He-Man Show and Tell Report
As someone noted before, the He-Man action figure’s bodies are almost all the same, which isn’t that big of a deal. GI Joes were pretty much the same too. But I always hated the big, bloated look of the muscles and facial features. This comes from that hollow plastic crappy construction. Another problem with this is poseability. So whoopee, all He-Man figures can assume the Lotus position and nothing else besides standing? Wassup wit dat? Another thing is their size. I consider anything that big to be a “doll” just like those stupid, old GI Joes from the 50’s or whenever. Those were dolls too, and I never would’ve played with that crap. (Yes, I know they sell for thousands now! ;)) Also, the character concepts in He-Man were so weak! I can’t remember the names, but they were like Monstro and Tiger Man and shit like that. LAME!The only cool one on the whole show was that psychic-bird lady that lived in castle Grayskull. She was a hottie. Oh yeah, and when Orko came along, he was cool too, if for nothing else than being a dipshit. In conclusion, I believe He-Man action figures suck ass big time. The End.
I was(am) a Spiderman fan, some cool things I remember: This ‘webslinger’ toy withthis plastic type stuff that made a mess of my room but was so cool. Lots of action figures.
I also loved Evil Knievel and I loved taking weeble wobbles apart. Those magnetic ‘BB gun through the plastic’ toys always thrilled me, I actually have been looking for one of those. Tyco Nite-Glow and the Dukes of Hazzard racing tracks. Matchbox cars. There are lots more, but most of them I actually still have. I’ll never grow up.