Favorite childhood toys...

[runmikeyrun]

there are lots of great blasts from the past here!

My favorites as a younger man- I loved Matchbox cars and setting up the race tracks (I was lucky- my folks never beat me with the track lol) Big Wheels were great too. We grew up during that time on 7 acres with a very large garden and I spent many more hours digging in that garden and playing in the woods than I ever did with toys.

As I got older, my tastes shifted to LEGOs. We used to get the LEGO catalog and drool over all the cool sets. We had a lot of sets and when my parents bought a huge box of them at a garage sale that was the end of us lol. My parents got so tired of LEGO messes in our rooms (and stepping on them) that we had to move into the spare room. I was also big into Transformers and M.A.S.K.

Mostly though, I was outside in the woods whenever it was warm enough building forts and lean-tos, chopping down small trees to build them. The neighbors had a lot of scrap wood so we built a couple of large forts, that I'm sure are still there. We were prepared to fend off an invasion, so when THESE came out it was perfect timing...

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[chicago_mike]

Entertech(sp)! Before the Orange tip and stupid colors!

 

[hypapanuse]

The original erector set. The one with the exposed gearbox on the 110v motor. Yet I still have all my fingers.

;-:/ how did we do it????

 

[Richland123]

I spent a lot of time playing with these toys

 

[Unprofessional]

... Or clothes pinning playing cards to the front and back of the frame to get an "engine" sound?

No deck of playing cards hidden in any house in the neighborhood was safe.

 

[TBird1958]

My hobby desk.......spray booth to the right, it olny looks messy, I'm actually pretty busy with projects

Some finished freight cars, there are about 60 in this box.

 

[nortonrider]

As far as we were concerned....any of those figurine type of "toys" were fair game to be used as targets.
We would set them up in the sand box and take turns shooting at them with a BB gun.

 

[jaywa]

When I was about 9 or 10 my dad bought me a fully functioning steam powered miniature tractor. Like the kind that used to power thrashing machines only toy-sized.

It looked exactly like the pic below, only green not black. I think it was made in England. You filled the boiler with distilled water using a little funnel (provided), and there was this tray at the back with a wick type thing that you filled with wood alcohol. You'd light it, wait a few minutes and then crank open the throttle and watch it work. It even had a whistle. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Now though it probably violates about 72 international safety codes and my dad would be hit for child endangerment for giving it to me. It was really the shiznit though and I think I still have it somewhere though it's probably not in condition to safely operate anymore.

 

[bassteban]

They still make those steam engines- I had a stationary one. They're pretty spendy these days

 

[chicago_mike]

My hobby desk.......spray booth to the right, it olny looks messy, I'm actually pretty busy with projects

Some finished freight cars, there are about 60 in this box.

You know the obvious question I am going to ask....

 

[TBird1958]

You know the obvious question I am going to ask....

Somewhere between 600-700.......

I kinda lost count awhile ago

 

[bassistjoe93]

When I was about 9 or 10 my dad bought me a fully functioning steam powered miniature tractor. Like the kind that used to power thrashing machines only toy-sized.

It looked exactly like the pic below, only green not black. I think it was made in England. You filled the boiler with distilled water using a little funnel (provided), and there was this tray at the back with a wick type thing that you filled with wood alcohol. You'd light it, wait a few minutes and then crank open the throttle and watch it work. It even had a whistle. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen.

Now though it probably violates about 72 international safety codes and my dad would be hit for child endangerment for giving it to me. It was really the shiznit though and I think I still have it somewhere though it's probably not in condition to safely operate anymore.

I imagine something like that nowadays would be worth a pretty good bit of $$$! That's pretty cool.

 

[jaywa]

I imagine something like that nowadays would be worth a pretty good bit of $$$! That's pretty cool.

Yeah... I've been tempted to go on eBay and see what those things are bringing. But it has a lot of sentimental value and I'd have to be pretty hard-up to put it up for sale. My dad even made a thrashing machine in his woodshop (with moving parts and to scale) that I could hook the tractor up to and get the full experience.

 

[chicago_mike]

Somewhere between 600-700.......

I kinda lost count awhile ago

That is NOT the question.....look to the right in one of those piccies...

 

[bassinplace]

Atari 2600. I was about 6 when I got my first one. Loved it.

"Hot Seat" big wheel. Kind of a 3 wheel chopper sorta big wheel. Don't remember the age at which I got it, but I wore out the tires on that thing.

Star Wars and Transformers, in general. I had a bunch of that stuff.

Oh my god, I had that one! Totally forgot until I saw the pic. I was the coolest kid on the street. Until I let one of the big kids ride it and busted off the back wheel.

 

[Joe Nerve]

That is NOT the question.....look to the right in one of those piccies...

Lol. I got it when u posted.... Who is it, and u wanna see the close up.

Edit: or maybe not actually.... Regarding the close up.

 

[TBird1958]

Ahh..................I'm slow on the uptake!

My "day job" is in Lighting/home hardware, (since 1986) that's a 1987 calendar from an Italian door handle mfg. Valli and Columbo, even then it was considered pretty racey

 

[chicago_mike]

Italian you say....

 

[CTC564]

Tudor Games Electric Football...that vibrating metal mess

I was SOOOOO into that game that I had every team in home and away uniforms, had full seasons and kept records...

Nintendo's TECMO BOWL and the Madden videos eventually filled the gap

 

[Richland123]

Ahh..................I'm slow on the uptake!

My "day job" is in Lighting/home hardware, (since 1986) that's a 1987 calendar from an Italian door handle mfg. Valli and Columbo, even then it was considered pretty racey

So, that is what they used to "polish the knobs"?