80s child, stepping up.
Solar Gak, anyone?
I seem to remember some trading cards, I think they were called Garbage Pail Kids, and they were disgusting.
And I will never forget Totally Hair Barbie. It was my best friend’s birthday and we got her one, and I was so freakin’ jealous that I was basically pissed off for the whole day. My Mom waited until I’d learned my lesson in generosity and then got me the dark-haired one. And as usual it was a massive disappointment.
I am surprised no one mentioned this toy of the 1960s, maybe 1965:
A gun that fired a puff of air. You had to pump it up and it looked fairly cool design-wise; banned (my parents took mine away) cause it could allegedly deafen a kid (if you put it by his ear which no doubt was done).
I think it was fairly accurate: you could knock over a playing card across the room.
A couple of other things: Tank or submarine that was sold from a comic book: just a cardboard thing with a periscope. Actually not bad for 5 bucks but as I recall nothing like the illustration (which was the “educational” aspect, as advertised…)
Interesting–I didn’t know they actually made toys of this, but it was a bit of a fad to do it back in the 70s (at least around where I grew up). I learned to do it in my one year in Girl Scouts. We didn’t have any kind of kit, though, just apples and we made the bodies out of wire and made clothes for them. I was weird–most of the other girls made “Little House on the Prairie” style girls or old ladies–I was really into the Black Stallion at that time, so I made mine into a male jockey, complete with black satin racing silks and electrical-tape boots. Wonder what ever happened to him…
One Christmas mt niece git one. My MIL (the grandma), completely innocently, would call it “totally hairy Barbie”. Laughed unil I couldn’t breathe. We still talk about that.
NB: I’m an old-ass bastard, and this thread has me more nostalgiazed than I ever thought possible, so this might get a little long.
Oh yeah, the THINGMAKER! Such a cool (albeit hot!) toy. The Creepy Crawlers ones came onto the market the year I was in first grade, and oh boy did I want one! If Santy Claus hadn’t come across that year, I’d be an embittered cold-hearted freak to this day! As it was, I spent most of Christmas vacation in the bathroom that year(only room in the house Mom let me play with Thingmaker in) cooking up a huge batch of bugs and spiders and lizards of which I took a cigar box full to school with me the first day after New Years-- where they all got stole off me before lunch,some by other kids but most by the teacher, Mrs. Green – she was a mean old bitch, and she took the whole box I had left by then.
There were several other Thingmaker sets, with molds to make your own army men, or little troll dolls, or costume “jewelry”; but the coolest one of all came out a year or so later – the FRIGHT FACTORY! – you could make your own monster fangs and claws and scars and extra eyeballs, a set of hideous scarred and swollen lips, even little articulated skeletons and SHRUNKEN HEADS! One could monster up one’s appearance real lovely with that set.
Mattell got the biggest part of my allowance for that couple of years with their Plastigoop refills, for sure.
I had that Strange Change Time Machine, too, with the plastic cubes that you heated up and they unfolded into various little monsters.
How’s this for a weird obscure toy – Horrible Hamiltons? They were three wind-up monster bugs like in a Japanese monster movie, with their own playset that included army men and tanks and cannons and so forth so you could play Creature Features all day – and let the monsters win!!
For much more fun involving big plastic insects, there was COOTIES. It was a game where you rolled dice trying to assemble a goofy-looking bug from a heap of arthopod parts --heads and legs and antennae and wings and like that–before the other kid did.
My other favorite game, one I wish was still around, actually, was Barrel Of Monkeys. It was a lot of fun, even for grownups!
I used to have a little battery-operated fuzzy dachshund who, at the flick of a button, walked on his “leash”, wagged his tail, and barked. He was nearly as fun as a real live puppy – such a happy little guy!
Another good friend of mine when I was a kiddo was BLAZE, the talking horse you could really ride! He was a spring-mounted plastic ridey-horse, gifted with speech by that pull-ring-on-a-string gizmo that was once the state of the art in talking toys, like Larry the Lion and my stuffed Casper doll also featured.
My cousins had Clancy the Roller-Skating Chimp; as one of those kids who always wanted a real live pet monkey, I might’ve appreciated him more than they did!
Lotsa robots, natch, it being the sci-fi=saturated Sixties. Me and my brother had Zero-Oids, a team of cyborg heroes like the Bronze Worker, the Steel Warrior and the Golden Rescuer. Less realistic but cuter was Mr Machine with his top hat and wheely feet and set of gears that whirled as he rolled along, whistling a happy tune!
And then there was CAPTAIN ACTION – he was a fully poseable, twelve-inch-tall figure like GI Joe or the different Johnny West figures, but instead of all that soldier or cowboy gear, he had a wardrobe of superhero costumes – he could be Batman, Superman, or The Phantom – I think you could even get him a Flash Gordon or Green Hornet outfit.
But, you know what I really wanted when I was between about five and seven years old? An Easy Bake Oven, that’s what. Because you could bake REAL CAKES in one! Real, little toy-sized cakes! But do you think the 'rents ever bought me one? Fuck, no! On account of that was a GIRL toy. Or so I was told by every damn grownup I ever mentioned it to. My folks were already concerned that I was kind of a sissy, and they just fucking assumed that was why I wanted an Easy Bake. I never could make them (or any other damn grownup, either!) understand why I wanted one – because you could really bake real cakes with it! Ooooh, that made me so fucking MAD!I guess I did grow up and become a bitter coldhearted freak after all!
Regarding all the toys that got hot enough to burn you:
Easy Bake Oven: Yeah, my sister had one and the cakes were not bad. I tried to sell them to other kids, not recalling how that worked out.
The other toys that molded plastic with heat:
I remember even then worrying I think about the fumes – they did not talk about drugs that much in those days and they were not readily available but airplane glue we were warned about and definitely most of us avoided it.
I vaguely remember a toy that was available in the late 70s~early 80s which consisted of a pole with a spiral thing on the top, attached to that was a log string with a tennis ball on the end.
I believe anything up to 4 people could play with this device batting the ball back and forth in a circle. I seem to remember it was taken off the market after several people were almost strangled when they stood too close to the pole and the string got wrapped around their neck!
Like a portable tether ball?
I remember those Estes rockets-they were banned in Massachsetts-they caused quite a few fires.
I don’t think Barrel of Monkeysever went away!
Yep, I had the Wham-O Air Blaster.
I went through a mult-year, very expensive and awesome Estes rocket phase. Can’t wait for the Dudeling to get old enough to enjoy (what, four, maybe four and a half?).
I remember the tether-ball-like toy. Red plastic, I think, that had a plastic spike on the bottom that you drove into the ground. From my dim recollections it came with paddles to bat the ball with. There was something similar too, another toy with a heavy base and a ball attached to a long elastic. Kind of like a pitch-back (ahhh, not even a sports fan and I fondly remember those), you threw the ball and the elastic would make it come back to you (often like a pathetic grounder, but sometimes with an edge to it).
I bet a lot of Dopers went thorugh the building phase; Girders and Panels already being mentioned (love those!). What about Capsella (sp?), those clear orbs with gears and connectors inside? Countless hours building, floating, driving, etc.
Another aviation toy The Hairy Canary stunt bi-plane, all I did was ground loop the craft.
http://www.yoy.org/dareplane/html/Hairy.htm
Um, could be
(what’s tether ball?)
One that I clearly remember but that no-one else has ever heard of was solid lucite cubes that had “tunnels” through them that were straight, curved or did a T or Y split. The outsides of the blocks were able to interlock somehow and you could make these enormous three-dimensional “roller-coaster” things that you put marbles or ball-bearings through.
I’ve never met anyone who remembers them. I loved that toy.
*Exactly like this material. Same colors and everything, but blocks, not disks
Napoleon Dynamite rules at it.
On a playground, erect about a 12’ high metal pole. Get an old soccer ball and about 8’ of rope. Tether the ball to the top of the poll with the rope. Height and length values may vary.
It’s a bit like a henfur.
… I found the name: Zim-Zam. Not a lot of luck finding pages on it though.
In the 80s, there was a store near us that sold vintage-style toys. We used to get what we called “Christmas sparkers”.
They’re mentioned on this page about sparking spinning toys but I can’t find a picture.
You would press the thumb plunger repeatedly and the Christmas tree would whirl round and round spitting out sparks, and if you did it hard and fast enough the tin plates would spin outwards and reveal something tiny in the middle of the tree like a present. IIRC the tin used to get very warm and you could shoot sparks onto your unsuspecting sibling if you really got the spinner going. Ah, good times 
I really, really want one now.
Not just x-mas trees but all sorts of shapes. I miss the sound they made. (whoom whooom whoooom…)
Come to think of it, lots of toys had unique sounds. Those crash-em-up cars with the pull string, the pfffsssst of the water rockets, the brrrzzzzzz of Electric Football, or the wailing fire engine sounds when you burn your house down with any one of the myriad fire hazards…
ooh I should have known what it was then!! :smack:
mother of god, that sounds dangerous!
Bam! That’s it!! Thank you for searching/finding!
Kids with black eyes from the ball, rope burns on their necks, and assorted injuries from being smacked around the head with the rackets!! Hours of fun for all the family.
