What were/are your favorite toys?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Evo
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around nostalgic memories of childhood toys, with participants sharing their favorites and reminiscing about their experiences. Popular toys mentioned include classic items like Superballs, Lincoln Logs, Etch A Sketch, Lego, Barbie, and board games such as Monopoly and Scrabble. Many participants express fondness for toys that allowed creativity, like Creepy Crawlers and Erector Sets, while others recall the joy of simpler toys like Slinkys and Play-Doh.The conversation also touches on the playful rivalry between siblings, with anecdotes about toy destruction and sibling pranks, highlighting the sometimes tumultuous but humorous nature of childhood interactions. Participants reflect on the evolution of toys, comparing past favorites to modern options, and express a sense of nostalgia for the more hands-on, imaginative play of their youth. The thread concludes with light-hearted banter about the nature of play and the enduring appeal of classic toys, suggesting a longing for the carefree days of childhood.
Evo
Staff Emeritus
Messages
24,029
Reaction score
3,323
Moonbear got me to thinking about the toys I played with when I was little. What were some of your favorite toys when you were growing up?

Here are some that I played with the most.

Superball, colorforms, lincoln logs, etch a sketch, spirograph, creepy crawlers, erector set, lego, barbie, Mr potato head (back when you used a REAL potato) cootie, scrabble, monopoly, play doh, thingmaker set, silly putty, slinky, The Game of Life. My absolute favorite was my Flinstone playset, it was the entire town of Bedrock, it was in mint condition until I gave it to my kids to play with and they destroyed it. :cry:

I forgot Water Wiggle.
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
One of my favorites is what I just got my nephew (one of the many things I just got him...I'm vying for favorite auntie)...weebles! They weeble and they wobble, but they don't fall down!

I was feeling very nostalgic in the toy store today. Some of the best toys are still made. Cooties and Don't Break the Ice. I liked Operation. Creepy Crawlers was definitely a favorite, especially since everyone else thought it was gross that I wanted to make bugs! Oh, heck, yeah, that whole list Evo put up (um, except Mr Potato Head was a plastic potato by then). Oh, and Toss Across. I loved board games, but didn't get to play much...the only one I had to play those with was my sister (my parents weren't exactly the get involved and play games together as a family type), and since I always won, she would start to cheat. It wasn't much fun then. I had a science lab kit that came complete with a preserved frog that my parents wouldn't let me dissect :frown: I was just dying to get to cut it up and find out what was inside. You can't believe how happy I was when I finally got to 7th grade and they let us dissect a frog in science class! I think I was the ONLY one who was looking forward to it. :biggrin:
 
SEA MONKEYS!
and mr. potato head (of course!), lite brite, magic rocks, erector set, inchworm, barrel of monkeys, legos, and hot wheels and matchbox cars (I wish I still had those - they'd be worth some money now).
 
I too had a spirograph. I also snuck my brother's Erector Set out of his closet now and then.

Do plastic models count as toys? I glued together and painted several 1/32nd scale models of World War II fighter aircraft. But the most satisifying of all may have been the moon bus model from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
 
The Slinky was great fun too, until that danged Jack S. across the street took it and ruined it by stretching out the wires so that it no longer acted right. I think he was the one who tore the leg off of my Gumby too. :cry:
 
Last edited:
Janitor said:
Do plastic models count as toys? I glued together and painted several 1/32nd scale models of World War II fighter aircraft. But the most satisifying of all may have been the moon bus model from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.
How could I forget? I used to spend countless hours sanding, gluing and painting model airplanes and cars. I even had a couple displayed at school. My brother got jealous and after I brought them home he and his friend heated up ice picks and poked holes all over them and then told me they were hit by enemy fire. :frown:
 
Last edited:
spirograph, big wheels, lego

no nintendo or atari, but some of my friends had that stuff
 
Evo said:
How could I forget? I used to spend countless hours sanding, gluing and painting model airplanes and cars. I even had a couple displayed at school. My bother got jealous and after I brought them home he and his friend heated up ice picks and poked holes all over them and then told me they were hit by enemy fire. :frown:

That is just SO messed up! :mad:
I hope you got revenge. :devil:
 
Wow, most of the above less the yucky girly stuff. :biggrin:

I also had this really cool cannon that fired plastic projectiles at a wall that blew up [spring action] when hit. That and toy dart guns were favorites. I really got hooked on walkie-talkies as well.

And, don't sink my battleship!
 
  • #10
Evo said:
How could I forget? I used to spend countless hours sanding, gluing and painting model airplanes and cars. I even had a couple displayed at school. My bother got jealous and after I brought them home he and his friend heated up ice picks and poked holes all over them and then told me they were hit by enemy fire. :frown:

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: That made me laugh so HARD! That's the sort of thing I'd do to my sister's toys...well, not quite...I didn't do anything to permanently damage them, but she'd find her favorite stuffed toy (that I really liked too...a purple rabbit with a big buck tooth that looked so goofy you couldn't help but love it) bound and gagged, or with aluminum foil braces on its tooth. She had some sappy name for it, like cottontail, I can't even remember, because I called it Fang, and then even my parents would call it Fang...that rabbit was never the same again. :smile:
 
  • #11
Math Is Hard said:
That is just SO messed up! :mad:
I hope you got revenge. :devil:
No, my mother always condoned everything he did saying he was "just a boy". He destroyed everything I owned, when he wasn't knocking me unconscious, breaking my arm, knocking my teeth out and shooting me with pellet & beebee guns that is. I don't talk to him.
 
  • #12
Oh wow, I just remember my electric slot cars. I got my uncle's old set at about age ten. Now those were cool! I also liked to play with the rubber-band powered balsa wood airplanes. Then again, torturing my brother and sisters was equally fun. :devil:
 
  • #13
Evo said:
No, my mother always condoned everything he did saying he was "just a boy". He destroyed everything I owned, when he wasn't knocking me unconscious, breaking my arm, knocking my teeth out and shooting me with pellet & beebee guns that is. I don't talk to him.

GOOD LORD! I thank my lucky stars that I didn't get any siblings until I went off to college.
 
  • #14
Moonbear said:
:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: That made me laugh so HARD! That's the sort of thing I'd do to my sister's toys...well, not quite...I didn't do anything to permanently damage them, but she'd find her favorite stuffed toy (that I really liked too...a purple rabbit with a big buck tooth that looked so goofy you couldn't help but love it) bound and gagged, or with aluminum foil braces on its tooth. She had some sappy name for it, like cottontail, I can't even remember, because I called it Fang, and then even my parents would call it Fang...that rabbit was never the same again. :smile:
:smile: Now that's FUNNY! :smile:
 
  • #15
Evo said:
told me they were hit by enemy fire.

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

I'm sorry Evo but that's hilarious.
 
  • #16
Math Is Hard said:
SEA MONKEYS!
and mr. potato head (of course!), lite brite, magic rocks, erector set, inchworm, barrel of monkeys, legos, and hot wheels and matchbox cars (I wish I still had those - they'd be worth some money now).
Ooooh, those are great ones too!

Ivan, slot cars were so much fun! I am remembering so many more toys now! Balsa wood wind up planes! Do they still make those?

MIH, you were an only child until college?

I remember my youger sister's Transformers. Those were cool.

I forgot paper dolls.
 
Last edited:
  • #17
Ivan Seeking said:
Oh wow, I just remember my electric slot cars. I got my uncle's old set at about age ten. Now those were cool! I also liked to play with the rubber-band powered balsa wood airplanes. Then again, torturing my brother and sisters was equally fun. :devil:

Oh, that reminds me...I had a toy, I don't even know what it was called, it had these little dragster cars that were the same on both sides (top and bottom), you'd line up 4 of them, and race them down the track. At each end of the track, there was a battery operated contraption that pulled the car in from the bottom and shot it out the top to go the other way, along with a lap counter on one side. So, you could race your cars. I remember the sound the cars made as the whooshed through that turn that flipped them in the other direction (That's why they were the same top and bottom). I just loved that toy.

Oh, and does anyone remember kerbangers? Two hard balls at the end of strings that you clack together until your mom screams for you to stop because you've given her a headache. They were really popular when I was a kid, and the trick was to get them to clack both up and down and see how many times in a row you could keep it going.

And I can never forget the old classic...hula hoops!
 
  • #18
Ivan Seeking said:
:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

I'm sorry Evo but that's hilarious.
Yeah, he was very clever at covering his tracks. Like when he drew a nasty scar across the face of my Patty Play Pal doll with a Magic Marker and told me she had been in a car wreck. :frown:
 
  • #19
one toy I didn't have when I was young but got recently is the "Airzooka" everybody needs one of these neatest toy I've ever seen.
I hated weebles. (last name's Whipple) Whipple's wobble but they don't fall down~jerks
magnets and magnifying glasses
whipple balls, i mean, wiffle balls
all the electronic handheld games-football,racing,baseball, basketball.
He-Man, skeletor, Masters of the Universe
Uncle Wiggly
skateboards
KISS dolls
chinese checkers suck
Sno-Cone machine
Green Machine
playing doctor with the neighbor girl-Cammy D.~sigh.
tape recorder
 
  • #20
kerbangers knocked out a lot of teeth. Those were really dangerous.

I know the cars that you mention...crud...I can't think of the name. Those were cool.

What was that water thingy called? You hooked up the hose and it darted all around. It was for summer water play.

...and Slip and Slides!
 
  • #21
Evo said:
Yeah, he was very clever at covering his tracks. Like when he drew a nasty scar across the face of my Patty Play Pal doll with a Magic Marker and told me she had been in a car wreck. :frown:

Sounds like that kid in Toy Story 2...what's his name? Sam? The evil one that destroyed all his sister's dolls. That one, though, does sound like a typical boy. I just magic markered make-up onto my dolls ( :rolleyes: how girly of me!)
 
  • #22
Moonbear said:
...Oh, and does anyone remember kerbangers? Two hard balls at the end of strings that you clack together until your mom screams for you to stop because you've given her a headache. They were really popular when I was a kid, and the trick was to get them to clack both up and down and see how many times in a row you could keep it going...

Around these parts, they were known as 'Clackers.' Lawyers put a sudden stop to them. The resin balls were capable of fragmenting and lodging a chip in a kid's eye.
 
  • #23
Evo said:
Yeah, he was very clever at covering his tracks. Like when he drew a nasty scar across the face of my Patty Play Pal doll with a Magic Marker and told me she had been in a car wreck. :frown:

Okay now I'm really sorry but I really like your brother! :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #24
Moonbear said:
Oh, and does anyone remember kerbangers? Two hard balls at the end of strings that you clack together until your mom screams for you to stop because you've given her a headache. They were really popular when I was a kid, and the trick was to get them to clack both up and down and see how many times in a row you could keep it going.
I used to call them clackers. :biggrin:

And I can never forget the old classic...hula hoops!
I was never coordinated enough to keep one going for long. I couldn't do anything with my Duncan Yo-Yo's either. :redface:

There was a toy with a plastic ring that went around your ankle that had a plastic string with a ball at the end that you were supposed to swing around and jump over...couldn't do that either. :blushing:
 
Last edited:
  • #25
tribdog said:
Uncle Wiggly
I don't know if "playing with Uncle Wiggly" counts as a toy. :smile:
 
  • #26
Moonbear said:
Oh, that reminds me...I had a toy, I
Oh, and does anyone remember kerbangers? Two hard balls at the end of strings that you clack together until your mom screams for you to stop because you've given her a headache. They were really popular when I was a kid, and the trick was to get them to clack both up and down and see how many times in a row you could keep it going.
!
We called them klackers. Or wrist busters.
I never should have seen those Australian Aborigines throwing something that looked a lot like my klackers. The first time I went hunting with my klackers I spun them over my head and smacked myself in the forehead. The second time I tried to throw them around my brother's legs as he ran away. smacked him in the elbow. didn't get to throw them a third time.
 
  • #27
Ivan Seeking said:
Okay now I'm really sorry but I really like your brother! :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
I can see the two of you getting along great. He was also a motorcycle enthusiast. He actualy made up to me starting when I was 16 and he is an absolute riot, although I still have a bit of a grudge about the first 16 years. :devil:
 
  • #28
Janitor said:
Around these parts, they were known as 'Clackers.' Lawyers put a sudden stop to them. The resin balls were capable of fragmenting and lodging a chip in a kid's eye.

Stupid lawyers, ruin the fun for everyone. :mad: I never heard of anyone breaking one of the balls; we did hit ourselves with them a lot, but you learned quickly to hold them at arm's length.
 
  • #29
Down Memory Lane...

I had a metal gyroscope for a while. Wind a string up around the shaft and pull hard on it to spin it up, and for as much as a minute or so it would stand on end. (Not to be confused with a top, which was cool in its own right.)

Which reminds me--a neighbor kid had Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. Pull on your robot's strings and make it knock the head off of the other robot.
 
Last edited:
  • #30
Math Is Hard said:
I don't know if "playing with Uncle Wiggly" counts as a toy. :smile:

Sounds more like an adult toy than one for kids to play with. :biggrin:
 
  • #31
Moonbear said:
but you learned quickly to hold them at arm's length.

oh. :rolleyes:
 
  • #32
I loved my duncan butterfly yo-yo. For about 2 hours, then it was so tangled up that the only think it was good for was hunting with, Aborigine style.
 
  • #33
tribdog said:
I loved my duncan butterfly yo-yo. For about 2 hours, then it was so tangled up that the only think it was good for was hunting with, Aborigine style.

I never really got the knack for yo-yos. I managed to make them go up and down, but not much more. Mine lived in the bottom of the closet...probably the only toy that was actually in the closet where it was supposed to be.
 
  • #34
best toy: empty refridgerator box
 
  • #35
Paddle balls. Those wooden paddles with the rubber band stapled to it and attached to a small rubber ball on the other end.
 
  • #36
tribdog said:
best toy: empty refridgerator box

Or a few blankets thrown over the kitchen chairs to make a fortress! Or better yet, throw the blankets over the lawn chairs and launch a water balloon attack from behind the fortress.
 
  • #37
tribdog said:
best toy: empty refridgerator box
We used to cut doors and windows into them to make forts.

Do kids now days do any of this stuff or do they just sit glued to their video games all day?

Whatever happened to the good old days when children were given dangerous toys to play with. Talk about weeding out the weak and clumsy. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
  • #38
Evo said:
Paddle balls. Those wooden paddles with the rubber band stapled to it and attached to a small rubber ball on the other end.

If they outlawed kerbangers, or clackers, surely that contraption ought to be banned with it! I really used to bonk myself in the head with that one. I learned it's much easier if you cut the elastic shorter and restaple it to the board. Whoever came up with that idea was a genius though...take a small piece of wood, staple an elastic and rubber ball to it, and make a fortune!
 
  • #39
blanket forts it the kitchen are awesome. I might make one right now.
 
  • #40
tribdog said:
blanket forts it the kitchen are awesome. I might make one right now.

Those were also good places for playing "If I show you mine, you show me yours." :smile:
 
  • #41
that settles it. I'm building a fort. coming over?
 
  • #42
Mouse Trap
 
  • #43
We can have a sleep over and make blanket forts. I'll bring my easy bake oven and cook.

Moonbear, I'm shocked.
 
  • #44
tribdog said:
that settles it. I'm building a fort. coming over?

:smile: There's definitely more than one way to read that sentence. :smile:

Not to change the subject too much, but am I the only one who would find a fort in the kitchen romantic?
 
  • #45
mousetrap was fun.
 
  • #46
Evo said:
We can have a sleep over and make blanket forts. I'll bring my easy bake oven and cook.

Moonbear, I'm shocked.

I got my start studying anatomy early. Went well with the doctor kit.

Oh, yes, Easy Bake Ovens! My sister had an Easy Bake Microwave...I don't think it cooked those little pans of mystery batter any faster than my oven though.
 
  • #47
Evo said:
mousetrap was fun.
I found that using live mice added to the thrill and challenge of the game. The cats rather liked it, too.
 
  • #48
Moonbear said:
Not to change the subject too much, but am I the only one who would find a fort in the kitchen romantic?
I think it would be great. We used to make tents over the bed. I wouldn't mind one of those. :approve:
 
  • #49
Math Is Hard said:
I found that using live mice added to the thrill and challenge of the game. The cats rather liked it, too.

That's just pure evil! :smile: I liked that game too.
 
  • #50
Wheelo wheelo
a wonderful wonderful toy...
 

Similar threads

What were your favorite toys and gifts?
2
Replies
52
Views
7K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top