# Your favorite cool toys from your childhood **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [March 25, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530 "2019-03-25T22:14:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/61 "2019-03-28T17:27:43Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > We had the vibrating football game and played it a lot. It was a bit chaotic but that was half the fun. > [@OldGuy](#): > > I had one of those. Chaotic is being generous. I got one for my birthday, and at some point during the party, my two older brothers got in a fight, and one of them fell on the game, bending the playing field. From then on, you would line up the players, hit the switch, and they would all immediately make a bee-line to the sideline divot around the 20 yard line. ☹ Just kinda spun around in a huge clump. It looked just like the marching band scene to follow years later in _Animal House_. I never played a single game with that thing. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/62 "2019-03-28T17:29:17Z")
Dude, you missed nothing IME. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/63 "2019-03-29T02:53:16Z")
The Sesame Street [Cookie Counter](https://imgur.com/a/1Osa3b1) was the electronic doodad I had to entertain myself in preschool, instead of, like, a Game Boy or something. I found myself quickly bored by the calculator function. But do you see those left and right buttons underneath Cookie Monster’s hands? There was a juggling game that was my addiction. (It also made a lot of noise.) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/64 "2019-03-29T06:54:59Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > [Tonka Trucks!](https://www.google.com/search?q=vintage+tonka+trucks&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiYl9azh6ThAhUSRK0KHd_MAAoQ_AUIDygC&biw=1280&bih=657) I had about 20 of them, the good ones made out of steel! I even had the firetruck that hooked up to the garden hose and squirted real water via a hydrant and cherry picker. They were awesome! Not quite as fancy, but I had a Tonka Jeep that was great fun in the sand pit of the local playground. Here’s a blast from the past: when I was a child, we often had to go to Grandma’s for dinner. It was kind of dull when the adults were enjoying cocktail hour, so Grandma would pull out some of my Mom’s old toys for us kids; one of which was a mechanical tin merry-go-round. You wound it up, and it would spin and play music, until the spring ran out. Then you did it again. It was a fascinating toy, and I loved it as a child. Just for sentimental reasons, I took it when we cleaned out Grandma’s house. It’s at least 80 years old, but I still have it to this day, and it still works. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/65 "2019-03-29T14:09:51Z")
One that has a lot of nostalgia for me: It was a sort of diorama of a plastic tree in a forest, with cartoony animals in the tree, and a puck with a sticker of a nut on it. You’d push one button, and the raccoon would swat it with his paw, launching it up to the next branch, and then the squirrel would flick it with his tail with another button, until it got to the top, where it’d go into a hole in the tree and fall out the bottom again (flipped over, with a different nut-picture on the other side). OK, on its own merits, it was maybe entertaining to a 3-year-old, but nothing too special. What made it special to me was that I noticed the screws at the back, that could be used to take it apart, and see all the pieces inside that made it work, and then put it back together again. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/66 "2019-03-29T15:12:32Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > We had **Major Matt Mason** (and his bazillion accessories) was an awesome space toy. The creators put a lot of thought and ingenuity into it. I still have one of the 4 D-cell powered tank-like vehicles. In the original box. I remember getting a **Major Matt Mason** flexible action figure one Christmas when I was a wee lad. This same Christmas my brother got a [Billy Blastoff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Blastoff) with battery-powered lunar vehicle accessories. I was soooo jealous. What could the good Major do but strike a pose? Billy, by contrast, could tool around in his cool lunar rover. But I’ve gotten over it. Really, I have. I don’t think my parents loved my brother more than me. I mean, it was probably just an innocent oversight on their part getting me MMM without accessories, and my undeserving older brother getting BB _with_ accessories. ---
**Author:** ![pmwgreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pmwgreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmwgreen)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/67 "2019-03-29T20:02:18Z")
When my daughter was young, we had the Sesame Street Alphabet Roadway, [The Alphabet Roadway - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQWpG0d16K4) which was a lot of fun until we burnt out the clutch on the bus. You could connect the letters to each other in any order to make a track. Some letters like P were turn arounds, X was a cross-over piece, etc. The challenge was making a track from all 26 letters that didn’t have an end the bus could drive off. ---
**Author:** ![caffeinatedgeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@caffeinatedgeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caffeinatedgeek)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/68 "2019-04-01T01:11:29Z")
I used to own a lot of toys but the one that I really remember well and truly missed are my Zoids such as blade liger, storch, elephander, and iron kong. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/69 "2019-04-02T19:28:22Z")
Another one I just remembered: [Wizzzers!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRbCfXi1Nw) These were essentially just tops aided by an internal gyrostat, and would probably bore today’s kids to tears. But we had hours of fun with these back in the '70s. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/70 "2019-04-02T19:49:55Z")
Apologies if I missed it, but no mention of Hot Wheels so far? My best buddy down the block and I would spend endless hours with them. When my kid was old enough, I brought out my old cars and track. The first thing he did was crash them into each other. I was thinking about how old the cars were and said something like, “Don’t do that!” Then I took a moment and remembered how I used to play with them, and the cars were crashing into each other again! 😃 And yeah - creepy crawlers. I can still remember a few things I burnt with that thing. At a time that I have very little $, what little I had was spent on Hot Wheels cars or that Creepy Crawler goop. Another one that I haven’t seen is a chemistry set. Sure, send Jr into the basement to cook up some chemicals over an alcohol flame! 😃 I remember REALLY liking smoke bombs! ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/71 "2019-04-02T19:53:24Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Another one I just remembered: [Wizzzers!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRbCfXi1Nw) That thing never worked as intended for me… ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/72 "2019-04-02T20:01:36Z")
[Klackers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNWLC16gyOk). Not to be confused with [Clackers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRa_7UYXbb4). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/73 "2019-04-02T20:33:23Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Apologies if I missed it, but no mention of Hot Wheels so far? Oh God, yes! We must have had _miles_ of orange track, and we’d set up courses down the stairs, over furniture, up on countertops, etc. The trick was to keep the car going roller-coaster style for as long as possible without either losing momentum or flying off the track. We also had Sizzlers (motorized Hot Wheels), but the free-wheeling original version was a lot more fun. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/74 "2019-04-02T23:16:10Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > Oh God, yes! We must have had _miles_ of orange track, and we’d set up courses down the stairs, over furniture, up on countertops, etc. The trick was to keep the car going roller-coaster style for as long as possible without either losing momentum or flying off the track. We also had Sizzlers (motorized Hot Wheels), but the free-wheeling original version was a lot more fun. I had [this stuff](https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/hot-wheels-lot-accessories-track-1791706704) that I had inherited from my brother. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/75 "2019-04-06T05:21:18Z")
Space toys were also huge in the mid-late 60’s. My brother and I had all sorts of rockets and stuff. We had a lot of [Major Matt Mason](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foWwW1_CFw4) toys. I was not yet 9 when America landed on the moon. It was a HUGE freaking deal, especially to a kid! ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2019, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/76 "2019-04-06T09:54:37Z")
As a kid in the 70s, Corgi die cast toys stand out as the coolest thing I remember. Specifically, there was a James Bond car that turned into a boat, and a tank that shot projectiles. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/77 "2019-04-09T14:57:17Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I had two Thingmakers and most of the available molds. I also had a Pretzel Jetzel and Incredible Edibles. Neither one worked very well. Neither did the Mr. Peanut peanut butter maker (the only old toy I still have) or the Sno-Cone machine. I’ve heard Kenner E-Z bake ovens also performed poorly. > > For parents interested in a toy that makes edibles as it should, consider cotton candy machines. The small ones go for about thirty bucks, and they really work as they should! > > We also had some monkey bars in the back yard **and a merry-go-round for two people that worked by pumping the footrest/handle bars.** These were awesome, but I am nine years younger than my three older siblings, so those two outside toys were ten years old before I was able to use them and didn’t last long for me. We HAD one of those! We called it what my Dad called it – a whirligig. No idea what it’s official name was, or I’d be able to find a picture of is on google. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/78 "2019-04-09T15:06:52Z")
Another cool one (in a dorky sort of way, in retrospect): [Mr. Machiine.](http://americanclassictoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mrmachine400x274three-300x205.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/79 "2019-04-09T15:21:31Z")
Anyone remember the [Great Garloo](https://youtu.be/z3Ne5GZpd0o)? It was a green robot that stood around two feet high. It had a remote control that could make it “walk,” and it could bend over and pick up things with its hands. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530/80 "2019-04-09T15:41:08Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Another cool one (in a dorky sort of way, in retrospect): [Mr. Machiine.](http://americanclassictoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/mrmachine400x274three-300x205.jpg) Yeah, I remember that being a really cool toy. Hard to believe that today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favorite-cool-toys-from-your-childhood/831530.md?page=5)