Something just reminded me of the smell of Tinkertoys. The real ones. The wood ones. That lead to thinking about my favorite toys.
Legos are up there. Silly Putty. But I’m sticking with Tinkertoys.
So what was your favorite toy as a kid. Let’s put the age cutoff at around 10.
Does anyone else remember wood Tinkertoys? And the smell?
I had Tinkertoys, and yes, I remember that faint smell of wood and paint.
But, my favorite toys, when I was a little (under 10) kid were, in no particular order:
Yes I remember wood Tinkertoys. And wood Lincoln Logs. But I don’t remember their smell, but that’s likely because I suffered from extreme hay fever and allergies. My sense of smell isn’t good.
My favorites were:
Battling Tops
Hot Wheels
Legos
Sizzlers
Plastic models by Revell and Monogram
In no particular order.
actually, i was pretty set for toys as a kid I had star wars 80s gi joe legos tinkertoys lincoln logs the plastic army men and cowboys and Indians building blocks hot wheels 2 train sets
A ti4/A a VIC 20 and an atari 2600 oh and a Colecovision…
As soon as I saw the thread title, I said, “Tinkertoy”! And checking on Wikipedia just now, turns out they’re still made.
I don’t know these.
LEGO and it wasn’t even close.
Marx Krazy Kar. Got it for my 8th birthday in 1968. When you think about it the thing was just a wheel chair. But it was fun. I could get that sucker spinning like crazy.
Also loved Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Tonka trucks, Major Matt Mason, and the zillion toy guns I had.
It was my siblings, not mine, but I also loved Hoppity Horse. Bounced that sumbitch down the basement steps once, skipping about 6 steps and almost breaking my damn neck. Good times!
Battling Tops was a game where the players chose which of several spinning tops to use, and they would “battle” against the other players’ tops – I seem to remember that the last top in the arena was the winner.
I didn’t have the toy, but I knew kids who did.
I liked things that went in the air; cheap balsa wood gliders, Pooper Troopers, and kites…lots of kites. We had a collection of huge nautical and topo maps that could be made into 3”+ kites. I’d trash a dozen of them over a summer.
Lego - specifically the Classic Space Star Fleet Voyager :
My Mattel tommy guns. I went through a number of them in five years. Every weekend and all summer long, I was Sgt Saunders from Combat!
(Nowadays, of course, a kid could get shot by the police while playing with one. 
)
I also loved my Topper M1911 .45. Unlike the Thompsons, which were scaled 1 : 3 to make them “kid-friendly,” the Colt was life-size.
If I had a son, I wouldn’t buy stuff for him to play Army. I’d just send him to military school, which would probably be cheaper. 
It’s a boring answer, but it was my baby doll(s). I had one- Ginny- that was hard plastic and realistic (I mean, not too realistic, but she was made to look like a baby rather than a cartoon) and she was my favorite until I got a Bitty Baby. Mine didn’t come with anything and I promise you, she was $35, not $60. I remember that distinctly because, of course, I pored over the catalogs and dreamed of an American Girl doll and all the wonderful accessories, but the regular ones were way too expensive and I never would have gotten Bitty Baby if she hadn’t been relatively reasonably-priced.
Anyway, Bitty Baby (Michelle) was softer than Ginny, which just made her nicer to hold and play with, so she became the favorite baby.
I did eventually get my American Girl doll once I was old enough to save my own babysitting and dog-walking money. By that time, I was too old to really want to play with her, but I loved her all the same.
PlayMobil. I was obsessed. I had boats and cars and houses and lord only knows what. My Dad used to travel to Germany to work once a year where he’s obtain some unavailable-in-the-UK wonder and it was better than Christmas.
I’m still rather wistful when I wonder down the toy aisle in the supermarket and catch the latest models. And I’m a 51 year old woman. If no one was watching, I reckon I’d still but it.
Yeah, I had all sorts of cool guns in the 60’s. Including a Johnny Eagle and a Mattel shooting shell gun.
The one thing I hated though were those Greenie stic m caps. Did you ever have those? They were a pain in the ass. Had to sit half the day setting up your bullets to shoot. Then half the time they’d fall off before you could shoot them and the other half they wouldn’t peel off after being fired.
lol the prototype of beyblades
Creepy Crawlers and their cousin, Fright Factory.
With the Thingmaker and genuine Plastigoop.
Anyone else?
mmm
Meccano for me. I had loads of it in a box my father had specially made. I spent hours building things and learned a lot about how structures work.
Lionel electric train set, with real smoking smokestack.
Do it. Anybody who would judge you for it will assume you’re buying it for some kid anyway.
