# Weird toys you vaguely remember **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2003, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231 "2003-06-20T18:16:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Lord\_Il\_Palazzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Il_Palazzo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2012, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/201 "2012-05-09T18:21:00Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > The Animal, a battery powered truck with (fairly sharp) retractable claws built into the wheels. I remember that one! I always wanted one but only ever got a cheap (and smaller, I think) knock-off with the claws permanently sticking out of the wheels and a wire connecting the truck to the remote. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/202 "2012-05-10T05:52:37Z")
> [@CindyH](#): > > Back in my day, we had to use a REAL potato when we played with Mr. Potato Head. I had some of those. And I had [Oscar Orangehead](http://www.mrpotatohead.net/1960/19604.htm)- the head was plastic, but an orange- and [Katie Carrot](http://www.mrpotatohead.net/1960/19606.htm), among others (hand me downs from my sister, actually). And they all smoked (pipes). ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/203 "2012-05-10T06:44:18Z")
Anybody have a U-Fly-It? I was less than 5 (given where we were living at the time) so only have vague memories of the ads and the toy itself, but damn it was awesome. Came (I think) with an airplane on a string (I was easy to impress at 5) and an airplane dashboard of sorts. Or U-Sculpt-It? Whatever my fascination with U-do-something it’s lasted till today. But there were plastic statues encased in … wax? Who knows. They came with sculpting ‘tools’ that you chipped… chipped… maybe they were called Chip-a-ways and my fascination was with hyphenated toys. Whatever. I think they also came with paints. ETA: You’d think I’d Google _first_. Short [documentary](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyhqMD-w5ks)on U-Fly-It. Looks like the tool is as cool as I remember. ---
**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:** [May 10, 2012, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/204 "2012-05-10T10:20:00Z")
Yes, I had one it was set up in our basement. I was really into airplanes and had just about every aviation type toy available at the time. Like: Air Devils, great great toy unfortunately it only worked for one day before it broke, I’m still sad! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/23kt2S4evFk/hqdefault.jpg "Air Devils Danger Mountain Set Commercial Hasbro 1972") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23kt2S4evFk) The Big GI Joe Helicopter, you could really get the rotor spinning! [![](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) Prop Shots, man those were great weapons when you aimed at a fellow kid! [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OenG77q_ys) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/205 "2012-05-10T10:50:54Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > The Big GI Joe Helicopter, you could really get the rotor spinning! > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPu6PXw394](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlPu6PXw394) Oh man, I remember that commercial–even down to the Buddha–and remember the painful longing. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/206 "2012-05-10T13:16:22Z")
Funnily and coincidentally, on the local news this morning was a player from Tampa Bay’s soccer team nicknamed “Dizzy Dan”. The reporter asked him how he got the name and he said “it’s from some game we used to play as kids; my brother has called me that ever since”. I shouted “Battling Tops! _Battling Tops_!” but my cat was not impressed. My weirdest toy (apologies if I’ve mentioned this in the last nine years) was a kit to make shrunken heads out of dried apples. It came with the tools to peel the apple and carve out a face using a template. You’d hang it in this plastic cylinder that had a heat bulb and in a few days the apple would be brown and dehydrated and look like a shrunken head. It also came with beads to use for the eyes and teeth and fake hair.I think Vincent Price did the commercial for it. Of course, I always picture Vincent Price doing the commercial for all the weird 70s toys so I could be mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/207 "2012-05-10T13:19:20Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > Click-clacks, I think they were called. Maybe Clack-Clacks. Two hard plastic balls on either end of a string. Hours of fun banging them together – or across the skulls of your siblings! We had Click-clacks. They got banned from our junior high when someone managed to smash their’s into plastic shards and someone claimed injury. (Early 70’s). ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/208 "2012-05-10T13:56:39Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > My weirdest toy (apologies if I’ve mentioned this in the last nine years) was a kit to make shrunken heads out of dried apples. It came with the tools to peel the apple and carve out a face using a template. You’d hang it in this plastic cylinder that had a heat bulb and in a few days the apple would be brown and dehydrated and look like a shrunken head. It also came with beads to use for the eyes and teeth and fake hair.I think Vincent Price did the commercial for it. Of course, I always picture Vincent Price doing the commercial for all the weird 70s toys so I could be mistaken. you could make a tanning mom head. twenty years from now someone will make an entry for the tanning mom action figure that has just been released. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/209 "2012-05-10T14:22:23Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > We had Click-clacks. They got banned from our junior high when someone managed to smash their’s into plastic shards and someone claimed injury. (Early 70’s). We had Click-Clacks too, the glass kind. Banned from school almost immediately. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/210 "2012-05-12T02:12:13Z")
> [@SmellMyWort](#): > > A rocket that you’d fill with a little water and then pump it up and shoot it into the air (or at your friends). [Like this?](http://www.amazon.com/Prop-Shots-Water-Rocket-Set/dp/B003ATBRPU) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/211 "2012-05-12T03:11:51Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by SmellMyWort View Post > > A rocket that you’d fill with a little water and then pump it up and shoot it into the air (or at your friends). > > [Like this?](http://www.amazon.com/Prop-Shots-Water-Rocket-Set/dp/B003ATBRPU) I remember them being more red in colour … but don’t remember how high they went. I was about ten the last time I saw one, about thirty years ago. They went hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air, right? _Right?!_ ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/212 "2012-05-12T03:20:39Z")
Tomy Pocket Games. About the size of a deck of cards. Each one a little game like this:[http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tomy-pocket-game-Marble-Catch-1976-/280877781494?pt=LH\_DefaultDomain\_0&hash=item41659ed1f6#ht\_578wt\_689](http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Tomy-pocket-game-Marble-Catch-1976-/280877781494?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item41659ed1f6#ht_578wt_689) God they were fun. I still have few I’ve been carting around for 30 years. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/213 "2012-05-12T06:04:31Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > I remember them being more red in colour … but don’t remember how high they went. I was about ten the last time I saw one, about thirty years ago. They went hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air, right? _Right?!_ I got my son a variation on one (it was actually a kit we built together with a 2-liter soda bottle + PVC pipe), but it was fairly authentic compared to the toy I remembered as a boy. It went up I’d say 60ish feet (remember, that’s a 6 story building-ish), and the general kid crowd was quite impressed: Do it again!! Do it again!! So probably about what you remember through kid-specs. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/214 "2012-05-12T06:18:31Z")
This ones a little esoteric: Ace of Aces books. They were kind of a proto flight simulator. Each player had a book consisting of what he sees from the cockpit of his biplane. You each choose a manuever and that determines what page you each turn to in your books to show you your new cockpit view. It’s kind of hard to explain, anyone else have these? > **[Ace of Aces (picture book game)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Aces_(picture_book_game))** > > Ace of Aces is a two-player combat picture book game designed by Alfred Leonardi and first published in 1980 by Nova Game Designs. > Each set includes a pair of small books, one for each player (generally marked 'German' and 'Allied'). These are like gamebooks in that instead of reading through them, a person is 'at' one particular page, and the book represents a World War I fighter. Each player turns to the same page number in his book; the illustration on that page shows the view from the c... ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/215 "2012-05-12T06:33:05Z")
[QUOTE=Originally Posted by squeegee] Quote: Originally Posted by SmellMyWort View Post A rocket that you’d fill with a little water and then pump it up and shoot it into the air (or at your friends). Like this? [/QUOTE] > [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > I remember them being more red in colour … but don’t remember how high they went. I was about ten the last time I saw one, about thirty years ago. They went hundreds if not thousands of feet in the air, right? _Right?!_ My younger brother either had that or something close to it. Had an annoying tendency to end up on the roof. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/216 "2012-05-12T11:53:40Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > We had Click-Clacks too, the glass kind. Banned from school almost immediately. I remember these things-I think it is an “urban legend” that people got injured from these things shattering-I never saw them break. ---
**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:** [May 12, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/217 "2012-05-12T11:55:20Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > This ones a little esoteric: Ace of Aces books. They were kind of a proto flight simulator. Each player had a book consisting of what he sees from the cockpit of his biplane. You each choose a manuever and that determines what page you each turn to in your books to show you your new cockpit view. It’s kind of hard to explain, anyone else have these? > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace\_of\_Aces\_(picture\_book\_game](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_of_Aces_%28picture_book_game)) I remember that - I am pretty sure we still have the game out in the barn! I grew up with a selection of my Father and Uncles childhood toys [from the 20s and early 30s] including a ride upon train engine [little hobby horse sort, no tracks, unpowered except by imagination, foot power not pedals] a non-HO train set [the cars are all about 4 inches wide and maybe a foot or so long, the engine somehow is supposed to generate smoke out of the smokestack] a wooden/horsehide and horsehair rocking horse and a selection of books, building blocks and _stuff_ =) At the Grandparents summer house next to our summer house they had a corner of the living room with built in cabinets under the bookshelves that held these treasures. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/218 "2012-05-12T11:59:43Z")
Click-Clacks – Plenty of my friends got hurt by being whacked in the head, arms, legs with them. But yeah, I don’t recall seeing any shatters with mine own eyes. Those pump up rockets were fun. They didn’t go hundreds or thousands of feet up, tho. Just seemed that way to the perspective of our untrained childhood eyes. Now _ **Estes** _ rockets, those things REALLY traveled! ---
**Author:** ![Jamicat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c67d28/32.png) [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/219 "2012-05-12T20:19:03Z")
SSP Cars…lol [http://www.toynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ssp12.jpg](http://www.toynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ssp12.jpg) I remember ripping the cord and putting my head next to it to listen to the whirrring…and then… :smack: :eek: :mad: ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231/220 "2012-05-12T22:36:39Z")
This was in the later 60s and I think they might have been called “soda-pop” dolls? Each one was in a miniature bottle (dry) of soda. They were maybe 3 or 4 inches high and the bottom of the pop bottle had a tiny platform which held the doll up inside of the bottle. The bottom unscrewed and that’s how you got the doll out to play with it. The dolls had hair coloring, clothing, and IIRC even make-up that matched the flavor of the pop bottle. The strawberry doll had strawberry red hair, the lemon-lime doll had yellow-green hair and so on. They were really cute. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-toys-you-vaguely-remember/183231.md?page=12)