Childhood Toys

[quickccc]

here's another i had - i didn't get to a Plastic Man toy figure but here was the next best thing ... Stretch armstrong !!

 

[quickccc]

before there was Transformers ... they were MICRONAUTS ... fun i wish i had taken better care of them

 

[quickccc]

i had a couple of these ... do you remember this ?



Slinky !!

 

[nobody]

 

[nobody]

 

[nobody]

 

[Runwildboys]

This was one of my very favorite action figures - Pulsar - press his back and see his heart and lungs beat and see his blood flow through his upper body torso ...a way of increasing strength, endurance, resistance to injury, etc.

Looks like Burt Reynolds in Striptease.

 

[jsb357]

Lincoln Logs
knockoff Legos
Toss Across
Star Trek Phaser that used the penny sized flying disc

https://www.popscreen.com/prod/MTU4MTg5NDkx/VintageBlueStarTrekRaylineDiscShooterTracerGunwithDiscs-

 

[quickccc]

Reminds me of Operation Battleship game
(dont sink my battleship )

 

[YosemiteSam]

My first (and only) 8 track player was also a toy. This is what I used to listen to Kiss Alive II and AC/DC Back in Black on.



Anyone else have a 2-XL?

 

[Runwildboys]

Lincoln Logs
knockoff Legos
Toss Across
Star Trek Phaser that used the penny sized flying disc

https://www.popscreen.com/prod/MTU4MTg5NDkx/VintageBlueStarTrekRaylineDiscShooterTracerGunwithDiscs-

Ah yes, the phaser. So safe in the hands of young children.

 

[nobody]

Reminds me of Operation Battleship game
(dont sink my battleship )

It basically was an "electronic" Stratego.

My first (and only) 8 track player was also a toy. This is what I used to listen to Kiss Alive II and AC/DC Back in Black on.



Anyone else have a 2-XL?

I did indeed have a 2-XL. Those jokes it told were so corny, but made me laugh.

 

[cwbyfn88]

So @quickccc thread about Saturday morning cartoons got me strolling down memory lane as a kid and thinking about my toys. I have one that still haunts me to this day! I had an all white Optimus Prime Transfomer. That original is SO RARE today and worth some cash. I don't even know what happened to my Transfomer collection to be honest. I probably just got rid of them when I got too old for "kids toys". I had a huge box of transformers I had collected that probably would be worth some cash these days. What sucks is Hasbro released a reissue collection that really blurred the lines on what is original and what isn't. You have to know what you are looking for.


Anybody have any toys they remember, still have, or that got away from them that they regret??

Very similar to this!

Also, Super Soakers were huge when I was a kid during the summer time. Everybody had one chasing each other around the neighborhood yards and down the street.

I also had some of the usual suspect toys from back then. The G.I. Joes and the He-Mans. I specifically remember the He-Man you could punch in the chest and it would flip around like you dented him. haha

I also had a ton of Hot Wheels and a small collection of MicroMachines.

I never had a Nintendo as a kid though. Parents just would never budge. Always had to go to friend's houses for gaming. I didn't get a gaming system until the PS1 when I was like 15-16. Good times!! Crazy how quick time gets behind you.

Of all of those you listed micro machines is what I had as a kid. I was really into construction so I also had a huge set of heavy duty tools for kids. Made of metal not that cheap plastic crap. Had my own tool belt workbox and work bench with a peg board to hang up on my tools. Aside from those few things we didn't have much. So our favorite toy was the tree in our backyard. Until our old landlord cut it down because we fell out of it too many times

 

[CouchCoach]

It is long folks but I gotta tell it.

I was lucky that I got to relive my childhood when I went to work for Mattel as a salesman in 1969 in the Wheels, as in Hot Wheels, division for 3 years. My childhood toys had consisted of Silly Putty, Slinky, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs and my favorite, my Lionel train set with smoke pellets which was a precursor to airplane glue because you could get buzzed on those pellets but you had to slow the train down and get positioned just right to catch the smoke. Years later, that would come in handy taking shotguns, but that's a story for another time.

Part of my job was selling and part of it was sell through. By the time November rolled around, only jobbers had any toys and Mattel was the originator of forced inventory. They'd introduce a new Barbie or Baby Tender Love with a huge ad schedule and force the retailers to stock as much as they could. My hot toys one year were the Sizzler's Race Set, Hot Wheels supercharged with a nickel cadmium battery and would move about 225mph on scale. The other two were the Daredevil Plane and this helicopter that was hard for even an adult to control. That chopper set records for returns.

I set up in the Mall of Little Rock, along with my counterpart in the Dolls division, on Black Friday to do hands on demo since we had about 6 retailers in the Mall and I had my race track, only I'd put 3 of them together and I had about 40 Sizzlers to demo and the plane and chopper. You can imagine the crowd gathered all day in the main mall of Little Rock on Black Friday, it looked like Elvis had shown up to play Santa and they'd put a half page ad of our set up in the paper that day.

Well, my counterpart in the Dolls division was a friend and a drinking buddy so we decide at the lunch break to toss down a few and while I didn't have too many, I did have enough to impair good judgment. At some point in the afternoon, I thought it would be fun to toss a handful of these charged and running Sizzlers out to see what would happen. (I should have recalled what my wife of two years had told me, several times, about not everyone sharing in my opinion of what constituted "fun"). Well, I charged them up, about 20, and my bud and I tossed them out while yelling "hey kids". The "hey kids" was totally unnecessary as pandemonium ensued as these kids were chasing cars and knocking people aside and chasing them into the open storefronts and knocking displays over, it was wilder than I had anticipated and actually do not recall exactly what I did anticipate except it wasn't this. I always recall that scene when some mentions the words "chaos" or "mayhem". I had never seen so many people with that "what the hell just happened" look on their faces. Women that didn't know what Sizzlers were went screaming when one went flying past them in a blur.

The newspaper had a reporter there to cover Black Friday and she covered that as well. This rather large woman had been pushed back into the doll display and knocked everything down and was yelling at the cop, while pointing directly at me, "I want him ARRESTED"!!! My wife, who worked in a clothing store in the Mall, was standing there with her mouth wide open in shock that her husband was responsible for this carnage. I look around and my bud, remember the one from the Dolls division, has ghosted. The Mall Manager is there and tells me to pack up and leave in front of a crowd of at least 1000 people that had gathered by now. I did as instructed and it took some time and I tried to avoid eye contact with the angry parents but some would just stand there waiting to make eye contact and just shake their heads disapprovingly. The other part of the crowd were the people that I knew and they were peeing their pants in laughter.

Well, I think I've cost myself my job and I get a call for my District Manager on Monday and he has my Regional Manager on the line as well and I figure, this is it. I am going to get fired and my wife is already pissed at me because everyone's been coming to her that missed the "performance" for the details. The story is in the newspaper and I am mentioned by name. They do not mention firing me but want the details and tell me to hold on, someone wants to speak to me. I hear "__________, this is Ruth Handler, I understand there was an altercation of some kind at the Mall involving you and our product. I don't ever want to hear of our product being mentioned in a situation like this again, do I make myself clear"? I said "yes mam", she said "good and I understand the promotion was successful, good bye". Ruth Handler was the founder of Mattel out of her garage. Successful?? What I didn't know is that my District Manager, doing his due diligence, had spoken with the retailers and they were ecstatic, complete sell through of the demoed products. So, I didn't get fired but I didn't get a trophy for the sell though either.

So, when you ask about childhood toys, you need to be specific about which childhood. The early one or the continuing one.

 

[Seven]

Remember these Slammer?

I still have my glow in the dark yo-yo. Also still have my Duncan light up butterfly yo-yo.....the red one. And a wood Duncan.

Do you remember Click Clacks?

 

[YosemiteSam]

I still have my glow in the dark yo-yo. Also still have my Duncan light up butterfly yo-yo.....the red one. And a wood Duncan.

Do you remember Click Clacks?

Weirdo.

 

[YosemiteSam]

So, when you ask about childhood toys, you need to be specific about which childhood. The early one or the continuing one.

The early one never stopped. So I suppose they are one and the same.

 

[Seven]

Weirdo.

LOL!! Guilty , your Honor......

 

[Ranched]

I still have my glow in the dark yo-yo. Also still have my Duncan light up butterfly yo-yo.....the red one. And a wood Duncan.

Do you remember Click Clacks?

OMG, yes. Good one! Remember doing "Around The World" with those Dungans?!

 

[Seven]

OMG, yes. Good one! Remember doing "Around The World" with those Dungans?!

Yes ma'am!

Walking the dog.......