What were your favorite toys and gifts?

[Ivan Seeking]

The holidays got me thinking about toys and some of my Christmas favorites. I think my battery operated, self-propelled, talking and lighted Lost in Space robot was an all time favorite. My first walkie talkies were very cool, and I spent who knows how many hours looking at stuff through my microscope [a toy really]. We also had these battery powered trucks called Johnny Electric...or something like that, that my friends and I spend many hours driving around a dirt lot. These were like big RC trucks but without the RC. They were WC.

 

[mezarashi]

Wow, I can't really remember all the gifts I've got in the past. I don't think I ever really valued 'toys' (the conventional type). Maybe it was how I was brought up or something else. a lot of my 'toys' were home-made with things found around the house.

But I did get some presents that were memorable, like my first astronomy book and also this ultra-fun (at that time atleast) math quiz calculator. I remember wearing the keys out >.< Ah, thinking of the past makes you feel old.

 

[Mk]

My first pair of socks. I still wear them. On my thumbs.

 

[wolram]

An apple and an orange, maybe some nuts and a turkey banger for dinner

 

[dx]

Batman action figures and my nintendo.

 

[Artman]

GI Joe space capsule and space suit! I still have it (although it has some broken pieces). The year I got it, I remember sitting and watching the Christmas tree lights reflected in the plastic canopy.

One of my favorite presents was just a cheap little lighted magnifying glass. I played with that for hours and hours.

I got a 3" reflecting telescope one year, which started my interest in astronomy. I still have that too (also has some broken pieces, I was tough on things).

One year my brother and I got some WC cars. They were fun. I took mine apart and used the motor and steering mechanism for other projects. Like I said, I was tough on things.

 

[hypatia]

A little science lab geogology/mineral kit, I think I was around 8. lol I would put on a oversized lab coat and walk the neighborhood. Doing inspections of peoples yards for alien rocks which might of come from Mars.

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

Luxury! When ah were a lad ah got a lump o' coal an' a smack 'round the 'ead... an ah were GRAIRTFUL!

 

[hypnagogue]

One word. Transformers.

 

[hypnagogue]

The transformers catchphrase was "More than meets the eyes." I don't recall doing this, but my father tells me when I was very young I used to pronounce it with a very earnest air, "Morgan eats the eyes."

 

[Artman]

Luxury! When ah were a lad ah got a lump o' coal an' a smack 'round the 'ead... an ah were GRAIRTFUL!

You got smacked in the head a lot, didn't you ElHI?

 

[Artman]

A little science lab geogology/mineral kit, I think I was around 8. lol I would put on a oversized lab coat and walk the neighborhood. Doing inspections of peoples yards for alien rocks which might of come from Mars.

Oh, this is too cute.

 

[El Hombre Invisible]

You got smacked in the head a lot, didn't you ElHI?

Aye, AN' IT NE'ER DID ME ANY 'ARM!

 

[Astronuc]

I think my battery operated, self-propelled, talking and lighted Lost in Space robot was an all time favorite.

I go the same toy, probably in the same year.

Then there were some smaller space robots.

Erector sets and pieces were fun. We also had Meccano.

I was into model trains (HO, primarily Athearn) ,and so getting a new locomotive or freight cars, especially unique ones, was great.

Like hypatia, I got a mineral set one year, and for one birthday, I received a microsope - I spent a lot of time looking at small things.

Back around 4-5th grade, my parents bought me Van Nostrand's Scientific Encylopedia - and I still have it. That was one of my main sources of inspiration in study science and math.

 

[BobG]

Favorite: A box of chalk. A box of chalk, a cement driveway, and a sunny day and I was set. A couple of us used to go a little overboard in creating entire cities of roadways, even naming all the streets.

Number two: A highway set, where you snap the various pieces of the road together. You could make city roads with four-way, three-way intersections, overpasses, cloverleaf exits for the interstate, etc. I even began accumulating buildings to make my cities more than just a map.

(If Sim City had been around when I was a kid, I probably never would have seen the light of day.)

Third favorite was an erector set. The electric motor that could be used to power an elevator, vehicle, etc. was nicest touch.

 

[Math Is Hard]

When I was about 5, I wanted this toy called an "Inchworm" more than anything in the world. It was this kid-sized vehicle that looked like a friendly, plastic, green worm on wheels, and you powered the thing by bouncing up and down on it. It had been on TV and there was a fun little song in the commercial that I went around singing. When we went to see Santa I told him that was exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

Christmas morning came and I opened up my presents. No inchworm. Shoot! Oh, well. Maybe next year. Then Mom took me over to my grandparents' house to have Christmas dinner. Grandpa started saying that there was this funny green thing out on the lawn and he figured Santa must have left it there by mistake. I ran to the window and there it was - the INCHWORM! My eyes were like saucers. I started screaming at the top of my lungs -
IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I got the same toy, probably in the same year.

From the Sears catalog?

 

[Astronuc]

From the Sears catalog?

Possibly, or my parents simply bought it at Sears. That was sometime around the mid-60's.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

On my 4th birthday, I got a big red tricycle. I remember my reaction upon seeing it as if it were yesterday (it was 51 years ago). I not only loved the toy, but I really felt my parents' love.

 

[Evo]

The transformers catchphrase was "More than meets the eyes." I don't recall doing this, but my father tells me when I was very young I used to pronounce it with a very earnest air, "Morgan eats the eyes."

My little sister has every transformer that McDonalds had with their happy meals. I loved those things.

 

[Evo]

When I was about 5, I wanted this toy called an "Inchworm" more than anything in the world. It was this kid-sized vehicle that looked like a friendly, plastic, green worm on wheels, and you powered the thing by bouncing up and down on it. It had been on TV and there was a fun little song in the commercial that I went around singing. When we went to see Santa I told him that was exactly what I wanted for Christmas.
Christmas morning came and I opened up my presents. No inchworm. Shoot! Oh, well. Maybe next year. Then Mom took me over to my grandparents' house to have Christmas dinner. Grandpa started saying that there was this funny green thing out on the lawn and he figured Santa must have left it there by mistake. I ran to the window and there it was - the INCHWORM! My eyes were like saucers. I started screaming at the top of my lungs -
IT'S MINE! IT'S MINE!

That's so cute!

I bought my oldest (the spawn of Evo) a bubble frog. It was a big green frog riding toy that as she rode around in it, bubbles would come out of it's head. Why don't they make toys like that for grown ups?

 

[Kazza_765]

I got a physics kit. I remember doing experiments with dad when I was really young, must have been about 7 or 8. I don't remember a lot, but I clearly remember learning about momentum at that age. It had a little flat car, and you would put a weight on top of it, then run it into an obstacle, and the weight would fly off. Oh, and I remember dropping two different weights and seeing that they fall at the same speed, and shooting a coin off a table and dropping another at the same time to show they both fall the same.

My other favourite was Leggo Technic. I built my own remote control car using switches and electric motors from Tandy (radioshack equivalent), because the motors that came from Leggo were way too expensive.

Lol, no wonder I'm studying Engineering/Science now.

 

[edward]

The toy I remember the most was a RADIO FLYER WAGON. I think I was about six or seven. I do remember that I could not get one until WWII was over. There were a few available but my dad thought that it was unpatriotic to use that much steel in a toy during war time.

I used to love to take things apart to see what made them work, and sometimes I didn't always get the old wind up toys back toghether again.
But the old Radio flyer was indestructible and perfect for that.

Of course this was in the days BP (before plastic)

 

[Astronuc]

I got a physics kit. I remember doing experiments with dad when I was really young, must have been about 7 or 8. I don't remember a lot, but I clearly remember learning about momentum at that age. It had a little flat car, and you would put a weight on top of it, then run it into an obstacle, and the weight would fly off. Oh, and I remember dropping two different weights and seeing that they fall at the same speed, and shooting a coin off a table and dropping another at the same time to show they both fall the same.
My other favourite was Leggo Technic. I built my own remote control car using switches and electric motors from Tandy (radioshack equivalent), because the motors that came from Leggo were way too expensive.
Lol, no wonder I'm studying Engineering/Science now.

That reminds me of a gift that kept me busy when I was about 11 or 12 - and electronics kit in which components were on a board, and I could build about 100 or so circuits, including a short wave radio, which actually work. It was all low voltage (DC) as I recall.

I wonder, do they make such kits anymore? I went to Radio Shack, and they don't sell those kits - just components if that. Most shops now sell consumer electronics, cell phones, and stuff.

 

[edward]

ASTRONUC

My first radio kit was a crystal kit.(no batteries needed) There are some specialty stores still selling them , so I would imagine you could find an electronics kit.

http://www.discoverthis.com/crystal-radio.html

 

[Janus]

Tinkertoys were a a Christmas standard. (I always got a set every year, which helped replace the bits I lost or broke over the course of the previous year)
One year I got the BIG set which came with an electric motor and everything!

Major Matt Mason, Mattel's man in space.

When I was nine, I got a chemistry set.

 

[Kazza_765]

That reminds me of a gift that kept me busy when I was about 11 or 12 - and electronics kit in which components were on a board, and I could build about 100 or so circuits, including a short wave radio, which actually work. It was all low voltage (DC) as I recall.
I wonder, do they make such kits anymore? I went to Radio Shack, and they don't sell those kits - just components if that. Most shops now sell consumer electronics, cell phones, and stuff.

I had that one too :) I forgot about that. I've seen them occasionally in the last few years over here, but not often. And besides the one I had as a kid, I don't think I've ever seen another physics kit for kids.

 

[JasonRox]

Legos!

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I always loved Legos, Tinkertoys, and Lincoln Logs.
Any more I usually love getting books the most.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, Lincoln Logs!

So did the Indians burn all of your buildings as well?