Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Some time last year I recalled a board game I played when I was little, back in the 70's. It was called Take The Brain, and I remembered playing it quite a bit. Yesterday I thought of Ricochet Racers, another fun toy. Compared to TTB, it was more action-oriented and less goal-oriented. I mentioned RR to my brother this morning and he remembered another of our favorites: The Vertibird. It wasn't radio-controlled, but it was remote-controlled, and it really did move around due to the rotor thrust, which made it pretty damn cool 30 years ago One of my other favorites was a board game called Mousetrap: as the game progressed players built a Rube Goldberg mousetrap piece by piece. The finale came when one player had to activate the whole thing, which took a good 20 or 30 seconds to play out before lowering a cage onto the player's mouse-shaped game piece. What toys do you remember from a few decades ago? Link to comment
tallman Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Yo-Yo's. Slinky. Sticks and stones, garbage can lids. We didn't have computers, or video games, but we did have fertile imaginations and a serious desire to inflict pain and suffering on one another. Then we'd play a game, like football, streetball, or hide in the trees and throw stuff at the cars then RLH when a car stopped. When this got old, we'd climb up and jump off the roof. Those were the good old days. Forgot about Lincoln logs. These were the cat's pajamas. Link to comment
Spence Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Johnny Seven, One Man Army, toy gun, seven guns in one. Got one for Christmas in 1964 and it was way to cool. Hold on not "cool" but neat back then. Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 My most favorite was a Märklin brand metal building set, similar to what some know as Meccano. Every occasion like birthdays, Christmas, etc., I got a addition. To the point that a great-uncle who had a huge collectors kit willed it to me when he passed away. I built working car differential gears, huge building cranes, etc. Here we are with my best friend building something. I'm on the left: Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 13, 2008 Author Share Posted February 13, 2008 We didn't have computers, or video games, but we did have fertile imaginations and a serious desire to inflict pain and suffering on one another. In our backyard we had a couple of gigantic cable spools, painted up in red/white/blue. Probably 3-4 feet tall and just as wide, we could roll them around the yard, stack them into a tower, or stand them on end and drape a sheet over the side to make a fort (even slept out there once or twice!). Plenty of smash opportunties if they rolled over your fingers or toes... When this got old, we'd climb up and jump off the roof. Spent first 7 yrs living in Erie, about a mile from the lakeshore. We got LOTS of snow, and huge drifts always formed at the elementary school next to our neighborhood; on a couple of occasions the drifts reached the roof, and we were able to climb up and jump off into other drifts. Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 13, 2008 Author Share Posted February 13, 2008 Forgot about Lincoln logs. These were the cat's pajamas. Oh yeah, we had them too! That (and Paul's post) reminded me of the Erector Set my brother had: Strips of crimped/perforated steel, nuts and bolts and tiny wrenches, electric motors. According to the box you could build outrageous and fully functional contraptions like cranes and ferris wheels, but somehow it seemed we always lacked either the parts, the imagination, or the perseverance to make it happen. Still fun to tinker with though. Speaking of which... Tinker Toys! Build lots of cool stuff with that! Unlike the erector set, we actually did build a scaffolding containing a hand-cranked elevator. Also managed to build a cage big enough to sit in at one point. Link to comment
JerryMather Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 My Potato Gun was always a lot of fun. Link to comment
Whip Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 My Potato Gun was always a lot of fun. We sold those in one of my stores last year......had to re-order a couple times. Link to comment
tallman Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 We didn't have computers, or video games, but we did have fertile imaginations and a serious desire to inflict pain and suffering on one another. In our backyard we had a couple of gigantic cable spools, painted up in red/white/blue. Probably 3-4 feet tall and just as wide, we could roll them around the yard, stack them into a tower, or stand them on end and drape a sheet over the side to make a fort (even slept out there once or twice!). Plenty of smash opportunties if they rolled over your fingers or toes... When this got old, we'd climb up and jump off the roof. Spent first 7 yrs living in Erie, about a mile from the lakeshore. We got LOTS of snow, and huge drifts always formed at the elementary school next to our neighborhood; on a couple of occasions the drifts reached the roof, and we were able to climb up and jump off into other drifts. Dang, I always thought we were not doing it right. We did have sand, at ground level, though. Link to comment
Whip Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 No store bought toys for this youth........I was a garbage picker........your garbage became my toys.....If you threw out your old washin machine......I would find a way to get it home so I could take it apart and see what I could use for my assorted go-karts. Old fishin poles or any mechanical device you discarded would soon be in my yard. I wish I had pix of some the stuff/junk I made. I remember this one time...........oh never mind. It always ended in some form of punishment from the parental units. Whip Link to comment
Joel Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I had this (Hot Wheels Super Charger), but made a figure 8 out of it. Couldn't run my Indy car through it though, 'cuz of the spindly axles. The dogs found it pretty amusing, chasing the cars around the curves and down the straights, trying to pick them off the track. My favorite car was this (Splitting Image). Link to comment
tobyzusa Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Awesome idea for a post. Did you really have those toys in the original boxes with the instructions???? If so, that's amazing. Mine were: Water Rockets Water Weanies Water Balloon Launchers Balsa Wood Airplanes Walkie Talkies - when they first came out there was an incredible cool factor - and the antennae were loooooong. Pop guns Cap guns Some M16 looking gun that rattled on making noise for quite a while. That Mattel hot plate that cooked up plastic bugs from bottled liquid (someone help me out with the name). Later they had edible bugs. Clackers (how annoying) Gas model airplanes on string that you went around in circles until you barfed. 3-speed bike with the gears in the hub (come on, who ever heard of a three speed bike - ground breaking) This post has brought back a lot of good memories. Thanks Mitch. Link to comment
Dances_With_Wiener_Dogs Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Lincoln Logs were always good, but how about the original GI Joe figures? I'm not talking about the shorty guys with their clothes plastic molded on...I actually still have most of these dolls. Probably worth something on the open market. Of course, we treated these guys pretty rough and they are anything except pristine. I also had too much fun with my Big Wheel. I not-so-fondly remember taking a plywood bicycle jump on it and crashing and forcefully removing most of the skin from my knee. My mom had to pull the pebbles out of the wound and wash it out. I remember that my Grandparents had just come from their winter home in Florida with a 10-pound bag of salt-water taffy. If I'd sit there and not cry I could have the whole bag! Thanks for bringing up some good memories! Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 "I not-so-fondly remember taking a plywood bicycle jump on it and crashing and forcefully removing most of the skin from my knee." Man Steve, you sure started your adventure riding early! Link to comment
Quinn Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Rocks! At least you had rocks. We had to make our own out of clay. And we had to make the clay, too. I remember when the kid in the next cave got a rock for Christmas; he wouldn't let us play with it. Now I'm grown up and successful and can have all the rocks I want. Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 13, 2008 Author Share Posted February 13, 2008 That Mattel hot plate that cooked up plastic bugs from bottled liquid (someone help me out with the name). Later they had edible bugs. Brother had the edible one, called Incredible Edibles. Late 70's I had one called Creepy Crawlers. Gas model airplanes on string that you went around in circles until you barfed. Brother had that; never barfed tho. My job was to hold the running plane until he was in position at the handle, and then release it. 3-speed bike with the gears in the hub (come on, who ever heard of a three speed bike - ground breaking) Schwinn Sting Ray. Classic. I had a purple-metallic one. Banana seat, apehanger bars, wide slick rear tire. Rode it through the rain to go see Star Wars back in '77. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Fun thread !!! Yup, Meccano was my favorite....... how come I never became an engineer !!?? And then we had 'Matador' to build trains and stuff with: And even older was something I forgot the name of.... wooden and pressed carton bits to build houses with. Lets see if I can find it...... Found it !! 'Mobaco' it was called. Wooden rectangular poles with slits on four sides where walls and door could slide down. http://www.architoys.net/toys/toypages/mobaco.html No pictures anywhere :-( Then we got Lego.. the plastic bricks... Lego replaced the Mobaco sets and was much more flexible and detailed. And I had a Schuco car that would follow a metal, flexible wire laid on the floor... it had a little wheel in the middle and a key/spring mechanism to power the spring engine. And GI Joe of course..... I had to nag my parents for several years, and save for almost half a year when they allowed me to buy HIM....... That was the ULTIMATE in high-tech, sophisticated toys at the time ! All-American, of course !! http://www.hasbro.com/gijoe/default.cfm?page=history§ion=60s I had the Action Marine..... took me many years to get more 'kit'.... no store would stock it here and mail order from the US was too expensive. Oh man...... so many memories !!!! And then of course we moved on to electric model trains (and cars) My brother and I had a large Trix emplacement and we used Faller electric cars to go with it... all H0 scale ! Trix apparently still exists: http://www.trixtrains.com/index.html Link to comment
roadscholar Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Tricycle. Rode it off the end of the front porch full speed when I was three. It's the last one I remember. Link to comment
tallman Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 OOO, Slotcar racing. First time running for Pinks Link to comment
Huzband Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Twenty replies & nobody's come with one of these. Had one on my first 26" bike in the 60's. Prolly what got me started. That, & my best friends Yamaha 90. Link to comment
baggerchris Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Those little Lesney car toys from the 50's. My Dad built me a little area in our backyard where I could play with them. When I turned 50 my Mom gave all of them back to me. I didn't know she had saved them. What a treat. There must be upwards of 50 or sixty of them. Mom's are great, rest her beautiful soul. Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I had one of those! Link to comment
Kitsap Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Remember SSP Racers? http://www.feelingretro.com/toys/Boy-Toys/ssp-racers-2006.php Link to comment
Mike Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 My memory of my favorite toys is steeped in tragedy. For me, my favorites were always guns, something that most parents would now find abhorrent. I had a pretty respectable arsenal for a kid whose family was not all the well off. The pièce de résistance of my martial tools was a periscope, which afforded me a serious tactical advantage over my enemies. As soon as I got home from school, I would immediately go to war, with the battles being interrupted only by a call to the supper table and, ultimately, bedtime. On one particularly fine evening I was doing battle side by side with my second-best friend, Joel. We conducted the campaign from within a large pile of maple trees that had been felled by my dad, who was clearing a bit of land. The maple trees made a fine fort, with numerous nooks and crannies, and places to crawl about. As sunset drew nigh, Joel and I were forced to disengage the enemy, as our families called. As I contemplated dragging my whole arsenal--pistols, a couple of rifles, and my beloved periscope--back home, Joel noted that we would be rejoining the battle the next night and urged that the best approach was to secrete our weapons in the fort. I agreed and we parted ways. Throughout the next day at school, my mind frequently drifted off to the battlefield, and I eagerly anticipated that night's combat. Living in the country, I took a bus to and from school. That night, as I sat by Joel, my second-best friend, we somberly reflected on the task ahead of us that night. That somber reflection didn't last very long. About two miles from our farm, I spotted huge column of smoke. As the bus got closer, it was clear what had happened--that was the day that my dad decided to burn the big pile of maple logs. There was no hope for my trusty weapons, nor my periscope, all consumed by flames whose intensity surely exceed that of the surface of the sun. Many a tear flowed that night. A show of emotion unbecoming a soldier, but one I couldn't help. This prompted a trip to the big city, where my loss was compensated for by a toy rifle with a real wood stock. It was a fine rifle, but the periscope was never replaced, nor were the myriad other pieces of weaponry that were converted from solids to thermal energy that fateful day. Ah, my periscope. My poor, poor periscope. Link to comment
waylap Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Thanks alot captain bring down! Now I'm all sad. Link to comment
Mike Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Thanks alot captain bring down! Now I'm all sad. You think you're sad . . . that was over 40 years ago and I'm still all broken up about it. Actually, in the aftermath of the tragedy there was a short-lived period of optimism. As we were driving to the big city, I had a glimmer of hope that I might be able to convert my grief into a Johnny Seven One Man Army, the coolest weapon available to any kid in 1964. We got to the store and they didn't have any Johnny Sevens. I was crushed (again), but it was clear to me that I was nearing the half-life of parental sympathy. The rifle with the wooden stock was the finest weapon in the toy gun aisle, so I went for it, rather than dithering about and hoping that I might be able to talk my parents into a Johnny Seven at some later point, when their sympathy might have faded. In the end, the wooden gun served me well. I decimated vast enemy forces with it over the next couple of years, until I entered the secret agent era of my childhood. Link to comment
smiller Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Yes, but do you miss it as much as I miss... Link to comment
KevinH Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Hours and Hours living on the Moon with...Major Matt Mason Link to comment
BeniciaRT_GT Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 That Johnny 7 is awesome, but your lucky you didn't put your eye out kid!!! Lego GI Joe (pre and post Kung Fu Grip) I got quite a lot of stick time on the Vertibird and Cox control line airplanes. I also built quite a few Estes Rockets, several with payload capability! Schwinn Sting Ray (red) with banana seat and sissy bar However, it was replaced with the Yamaha Bicycle!!! This thing cost me a lot of allowance/chores, but was the coolest thing EVER in a small south Georgia town. I think it weighed more than a TX750 at the time (maybe not, as it weighed 529 lbs.) but had real air/oil shocks up front and coil over shocks in the rear! edit: I looked it up, the bike only weighed 42 pounds! Link to comment
Richard_D Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 http://www.discoverthis.com/mazda-wankel-rotary-engine.html Link to comment
Richard_D Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I also remembering climbing the highest tree and attatching a pully. Ran the string to the ground and let GI Joe hang on and go all the way up. Then shoot him down with a 760 BB rifle.. Link to comment
Limecreek Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I still have two of my favorites. The sled is now 40 years old and the unicycle is 38 years old. Link to comment
BFG Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 The perfect accessory for little green army men... Link to comment
lawnchairboy Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 I had a vertibird, loved it. Link to comment
Limecreek Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 That is a cool bike. Is it an early 80's bike? Do you still have it? Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Veritbird Cox control-line planes (it's a plane on the end of a string with a nitro-powered motor turning a propeller at high speed and the pilot is a kid standing in the middle spinning around and around until he gets dizzy...what could go wrong with that toy?!??) Estes rockets (I remember one time when the nose cone of a brand new rocket was accidentally glued in place and when the rocket fired the charge to depoy the paracute, the whole thing exploded into a zillion pieces) Various balsa wood airplanes and plastic model planes. Armatron RC cars of every flavor (we prefered the Baja Buggy style) BB gun (oh the horrors...a kid with a gun.) Various Star Wars toys and action figures Tons of Legos Before that was Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys We had some kick-ass toys. When I go to toy stores now to buy stuff for our nieces, it seems like there's nothing but cheap plastic crap. They've got 4,000 TV channels and much better video games, but it seems like the really cool toys are going away. Link to comment
BeniciaRT_GT Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 That is a cool bike. Is it an early 80's bike? Do you still have it? No, it went away sometime in a house clean-up when I wasn't home... 1974 was the model... Do you still ride the Unicycle??? Link to comment
Limecreek Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 Do you still ride the Unicycle??? Actually I can--just not very good at riding backwards anymore. Freaks the neighborhood kids out.... Too bad about the bike. Link to comment
Rich_O Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 The first one that comes to mind was an old tractor/trailer. Made of sheet metal, long the same lines as a Tonka truck. About 2 ft long, 8 or 9 inches wide and tall. It had the markings of one of the big chain department stores, Broadway, or something like that. I stuck a square of some sort of contact paper on the top for a seat. This was when I was small enough to sit on it and ride down the sloped driveway. I had that truck until it was totally rusted over. Really, though, I had more fun playing with the hand-truck we had for moving the trash cans around. ....and dad's roto-tiller. I used to start that thing, put it in gear, and ride it around the back yard (it wasn't made for riding, I lived dangerously back then). Sometimes I would just start it up and rev the snot out of it for a little while. This stuff happened during the two hours after I got home before my parents got home...jeez, a LOT of stuff happened during those two hours. Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 13, 2008 Share Posted February 13, 2008 ....and dad's roto-tiller. I used to start that thing, put it in gear, and ride it around the back yard (it wasn't made for riding, I lived dangerously back then). Sometimes I would just start it up and rev the snot out of it for a little while. This stuff happened during the two hours after I got home before my parents got home...jeez, a LOT of stuff happened during those two hours. LOL!!! Link to comment
Shaman97 Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 For indoor fun: The Great Garloo And for outdoor fun: Schwinn Fastback w/5-speed stick shift. Link to comment
WestTX RT Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 We were so poor, that if a tumbleweed didn't blow through the yard, we didn't have anything to play with that day. Seriously though, we had a lot of the stuff you guys are talking about. I haven't thought of some of these thing for years. We lived out on a farm, so it was just my brother and I most of the time. We had a lot of the standards, Hot Wheels, GI Joe, slot cars, the Vacuform, lots of other stuff. We spent a lot of time trying to play the old vibrating electric football. I say trying, because playing that thing always ended in a fist fight. The interpretation of a "complete pass" was always the kicker. We had a Getway Chase Game, that was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen, just playing that thing was a side splitter. Link to comment
StuGotz Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 VROOOM! by Mattel It was a battery powered motor lookin' thingy that you mounted in between your frame on your bicycle, and had a key switch that when you turned it ON, sounded like a motor running.. WAY better than baseball cards clothespinned to your spokes! MB> Link to comment
Les is more Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 I had a pair of skates similar to the ones in the picture except that mine had only 2 in line wheels. My idea of a good time was to put on my skates, leash up the dog and have him pull me as fast as he could down the trail in one of the local canyons. but Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 I had a pair of skates similar to the ones in the picture except that mine had only 2 in line wheels. My idea of a good time was to put on my skates, leash up the dog and have him pull me as fast as he could down the trail in one of the local canyons. but Nice! One I forgot was the Go-Kart. Purchased for $50 at a garage sale. Briggs & Stratton motor, ultra-cool Corvette-looking fiberglass body. No seat belt. No roll cage. That was great fun, and I got to learn a little about fiberglass repair when my little brother understeered it into a curb at full speed. Every once in a while, one of the neighborhood kids will be out riding their quad up and down the street, and it makes me smile. Link to comment
Bob Palin Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 I also remembering climbing the highest tree and attatching a pully. Ran the string to the ground and let GI Joe hang on and go all the way up. Then shoot him down with a 760 BB rifle.. GI Joe was called Action Man in the UK, I had a couple of them. I put them through 'astronaut training', tied one to the end of a long string and swung him round and round. Eventually his arm came off at the elbow and he had to retire, I welded his arm back together with some matches. The other one was actually put in a home made rocket, he didn't survive... I had a bicycle of course, can't remember what kind, I rode it 128 times round the cul-de-sac (Close in English) that we lived in on the day England won the world cup in 1966. I missed the kick off because I wanted to get to 128 which was my favourite number, it's so long ago binary hadn't even been invented but I was still a geek. Lots of soccer balls. I remember the names of my teddy bears (no Richard, I don't still sleep with them) Link to comment
Jerry_75_Guy Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Hours and Hours living on the Moon with...Major Matt Mason Thank God someone remembers Major Matt Mason!!; I was starting to tweek a bit! (I had all of the "MMM" stuff, including the 'space sled' and 'can' suit shown). Link to comment
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