Legos, especially the space series.
Yeah, it is sort of surprising how long it took to mention LEGO. I had the lunar lander set, which was way cool. I’m also surprised no one has talked about those little, green Betty Crocker ovens, Pocketeers (I must have 40 of those somewhere) or those table hockey (or even basketball!) games.
My bike was the best thing I had growing up, but I’d have to say that Lite Brite, Castle Greykull and assorted He Man figurines (Man-At-Arms, Evilyn, Skeletor…we had a debate the other day in my house about Battlecat’s other name, does anyone remember it???), the Play-doh hamburger maker thing, and the Barbie Townhouse (not to be confused with the Barbie mansion - these are very different things).
Another great thing that I’ve not been able to find in recent years is a Sea Monkey kit. I had a few of these growing up and the sea monkeys always met untimely deaths.
My Little Pony, where have you gone?
I still have silly putty in my desk drawer at work.
I played with these a lot. Unfortunately we had a large stand of bamboo in the back yard (the stalks were about 4" in diameter) and I lost my rocket in it.
Another cool flying toy was a plastic “dart” with two strips of plastic on it. You’d hold the plastic in your thumb and forefinger and launch the dart skyward with a robber band on a stick. When it reached apogee, the plastic strips would come out in a curved “V” shape and it would come down like a helicopter.
legos…by far
Thanks for the “Chutes Away” clue. You’re right. And observe: http://www.swcp.com/~sfcanci/toybox/ChutesAway.html
I also had a glow-plug real flying helicopter with a tiny powered prop that pulled it about 150 feet into the air, and big rotors that kept it from smashing itself on its uncontrolled way down. My dad bought it for us, mostly so he could play with it. We never of course took the time to actually go to the local airport so we’d have a lot of space, and we lost it into the swampy woods behind the house about the 6th time we flew it. This was in south-east Georgia, and we had a real man-time tromping through looking for it, but to no avail.
I spent more time even before 4th grade with a plastic bat and a tennis ball than should be legal.
Uh oh. Glow plugs.
I had a Cox PT-19 Trainer control-line model with an .049 (“Oh-four-nine” for those who didn’t play with them) engine. That was a blast, as was my Testor’s Messerschmidt Bf-109 .049 control line model.
I loved those little engines! I’ve been eying some free-flight .020 and .049 powered models lately. I wish I could get the plans for the Sniffer free flight plane (described in another thread. search for it if you want to.). That one was a great flyer!
Fenris: You’re thinking of the Crystal Roller Coaster. I’ve still got mine. Endless fun for the nephews. Always wished I had about ten sets. There were never enough blocks and ramps to build what I wanted. Great fun, though.
Spirograph
Intellivision
Nerf Footbal
Sleds (Flexible Flyer)
Pimple Balls (probably only known to Philly, New York and Boston youths)
Lincoln Logs (Legos for the country set)
Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down.
Microvision (very early handheld electronic game w/ cartridges)
Tonka Trucks (the bigger the better)
By far the best “toy” I had was my huffy bicycle! (toy, transportation, and accident in waiting)
Jack Batty, I had totally forgotten about the Evel Knevel bike. Your right it did go like heck, I can remember Mom telling me to “get that thing out of the house!” Well, that spelled its doom. A little dirt in the gear case and the thing couldn’t beat a tortoise with two broken legs.
the mickey monkey story brought tears of joy to my eyes! Let your mom know that her ill-considered present brought joy into this world.
now I am going to get disgusting.
A friend of mine is a social worker here in the boonies, and she makes trips to impoverished local farms to check up on the poor kids…
At one home, the kids were so excited… they had just butchered a cow, and now they had a NEW TOY!
She followed the happy chilluns into the barn, to where they kept the wonderous plaything…
Needless to say, she was suprised. The TOY was a COW’S UDDER!!!
now, THAT’S poor!!!
I was also a Breyer horse fanatic, but the best present my brother, particlewill, and I ever recieved were matching cassette tape recorders ( the old black radio shack ones). Those puppies were employed in various nefarious and evil ways… such as recording the parents doing embarassing things, and playing the tapes back for the Avon lady. we also recorded hours of “radio plays”–ad lib horrors with great sound effects, such as the toilet flushing…
those were the days…
Ahhh the old tape recorders! I hadn’t thought of those for years! and in case you all were wondering, the toilet flushing was used as a spaceship sound effect…
My favorite toy had to be the toy that started off my video game addiction :
The Coleco Tabletop Pac-man Mini Arcade Game
I had the blue one, with Ms. Pacman. I still remember the “unguh unguh” sound, the high pitched music that plays when you win or lose, the path to take so you never get eaten by the ghosts and go up to hundreds of levels.
Sadly, I let a friend “borrow” it, then he moved out before I could get it back 
My favorite toy was a monorail, which had elaborate sets and I was always cutting down milk boxes to make more buildings.
Peter Paul and Mary smart-ass… 
[ul][li]Simple wooden building blocks[/li][li]Colorforms (they were shapes and figures that statically clung to a slick background)[/li][li]Fisher Price little people (you know, those wooden fellows with round plastic heads)[/li][li]Lego (something with which I could still play for hours)[/li]Micronauts (though the feet kept breaking off those little Time Traveler guys)[/ul]
So much good stuff here! I was gonna mention the Evil Kenivel stunt bike before, but it was really my little brother’s so it wouldn’t be fair. Other good stuff; frisbees, skateboards, and the toy I’ve been enjoying for the past 33 years (in different incarnations), my bike.
heh. That reminds me of something… A few years back I was out walking my dog, and I saw a little boy and girl down the street, playing catch with what looked to be a stuffed animal. As I got closer I saw that it was actually a dead squirell. A real, dead squirell. The boy, sensing my confusion/revulsion, says to me as I walk by, “Don’t worry, he was dead when we found him.” Oh yeah, that makes it so much better…