What was your favorite toy as a kid?

[bjorn2bwild]

Matches and black cats were pretty exciting.
Added plenty of realism to miniature WW2 reenactments with the plastic army figures.

[samclem]

If a bicycle qualifies as a toy, then that's what I'd vote for. We'd spend all day on our bikes--riding them in the hills, going to neighboring towns, playing Frisbee tag in the street, etc. A Schwinn "Kick-back" Stingray and later a Schwinn Varsity 10 speed (metal rack welded on the back for newspapers).

Other than that:
1) Lincoln logs/pine blocks/green (US) grey (German) army men (all used together to have "wars").
2) Monopoly game
3) Frisbee
4) Crossman 760 BB/pellet gun
5) Estes rockets

Most anticipation with least actual play time: Cox .049 control-line aircraft.

I guess I would have begged for a Gameboy/Playstation if they had made them then. I'm glad they didn't, as I learned a lot more about other things in the absence of "prepackaged" computer games.

[6miths]

I had a 4x8 Tyco HO train layout but I think it was more a toy for my dad. Interestingly, the 'toy' I remember playing with the most was a sewing tool of my mom's. I don't know what it was called but it was a wooden ruler (about 12' long) with a metal Y-base and it had a metal piece that could slide along the the ruler and flip out. It was sort of similar in appearance to Thunderbird 1 and I used to 'fly' it all over the place!

[Tortoise]

I have three brothers and we all had to share stuff like the erector set, lincoln logs, and tinker toys. It was all fun. I had other little toys that were my own, but I don't remember much about them. The first big toy that was my own, was my bicycle. It was a hand-me-down from my older brother, who got it from a friend when he got a new bike, but once I got the bike, it was mine. I think I was 6 years old, and I rode that little bike everywhere.

[Sarah in SC]

I got a pony when I was 8 and never played with anything else after that! His name was Heyward.
I'm sure before that it was Breyer model horses that I played with most.

[Meadbh]

Lego. That is all.

[tfudtuckerpucker]

I had one of these- I think it was a bit disappointing because in the cartoon series the hat makes you fly. Here it just flies away. Was this the origin of the "propeller head"?

[Sue J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah in SC I got a pony when I was 8 and never played with anything else after that! His name was Heyward. I'm sure before that it was Breyer model horses that I played with most.

My favorite was a Slinky, the original metal one, I was very careful to not let it get kinked. I also loved Tinkertoys. I never played with dolls, I thought they were creepy.

But what I really wanted was a PONY!!! Sarah, I'm jealous. Instead I had a nice collection of glass horses on a shelf.


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[check6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister Alas, the layout was stored in the garage from January to November each year

I think our parents all thought the same way back then because mine was stored in pieces for the same time period. When they were out of the house I would sneak up to the attic and look at the engine.

[splitwdw]

I don't remember any special toy. Grew up on a farm and had chores to do before anything else. Built "forts" in the woods and did a lot of fishing. Played board games, read books, card games and dominoes a lot in the Winter. We never watched much TV and computers were for school work.

[Ally]

I had a real pony and spent the most time with him (Stormy). Next were my skates and my Nancy Drew books. My granddaughters recently got a pony and a horse and it's been so much fun teaching them about riding.


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[uncaD]

Intellivision. And Star Wars figures.

[GrayHare]

a Tonka dump truck, Monopoly, my friend's table top hockey with the guys that would routinely fall off their spinny posts

[Idnar7]

Another table top hockey fan. There were only 6 NHL teams then and my friends and I would each be a team and play a whole season.

[tmm99]

Bicycle for sure, if that qualifies as a toy.


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[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

Gaylord, Gaylord, the wonderful walking dog!

[Payin-the-Toll]

A stick and a rock.......we were poor.

[scrabbler1]

Put me down for Erector Set as one of my favorite toys as a kid. I actually had two sets, one my parents bought for me and a second, larger one I inherited from someone (probably a relative who knew I had the first set and liked it). This second set included a large, metal carrying case and lots of parts not included in the smaller set I already had. Combining these two sets was great because I could build things beyond what was shown on the fold-out pamphlet.

I was also a Lego fan. There, I also combined two sets, the one in the big box with the hard, plastic parts and a smaller, second set which had similarly sized softer plastic parts.

We also had a set of plastic train tracks we would snap together with some little plastic train cars. Later, we got one of those "Wye" turntables we could use to rotate a track into one of many exits. We would use a set of wood building blocks to create additional grade-separated overpasses and layer tracks above others.

My brother and I were big fans of card games. We liked to play 500-Rummy and would play with multiple decks of cards, sometimes as many as 6 or 7. With that many cards, we could not hold them in our hands so we created "forts" made from various pillows behind which we would place our cards so we could see them. This type of game would take up most of the floor (in the basement, usually, which half of it had been recently carpeted) and take an hour or two to play.

Another game my cousins and I liked to play was Michigan Rummy. I still have the round item with little cups to place the coins or other "currency" we would use such as the many different buttons my mother had. We eventually graduated to poker chips someone found somewhere. At a recent part we were at, my cousin and I reminisced about it and when I told him I still had the item he asked me to take a picture of it and email it to him. My ladyfriend has a digital camera so I was able to satisfy his request. He got a big kick out of seeing it again.

Another favorite family game was Boggle. This was before I became a big Scrabble player and learned of many unusual, small words which I could use to run up the score.

Then there is Strat-O-Matic, a tabletop board game I mentioned in another thread. I played it a lot in the 1970s and 1980s before I put it away until about 10 years ago.

[mf15]

Chemistry set before I could read.
Trains, logs,tinker toys, those little metal cars that used to come in cereal boxes.
Cardboard refrigerator box,you could get inside and roll it around like a tank,while on your knees.
Old Mike
Old Chemist-I wonder why.

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Payin-the-Toll A stick and a rock.......we were poor.

I liked matches.


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