Favorite toys as a kid

[Opsimath]

To go along with all the recent threads taking us down memory lane, what were your favorite toys or things to play with when you were a kid?

I had the usual bicycle and roller skates (all metal wheel skates, absolutely no rubber coating, and needed a key to latch them onto the sneakers), but the things I remember having the most fun with were:

A rope swing in a pecan tree, actually too close to the trunk as I recall bashing into the tree trunk fairly often. We had a notched board for a seat if we wanted it but we usually took that out and swung like Tarzan.

My dad's wheelbarrow. We had great fun wheeling each other around and dumping or getting dumped onto the ground.

An empty 55 gallon drum. The kids next door had one. We stood on top and went forward and backwards. It was wide enough for two kids and we'd see how fast we could go before one fell off. We could get inside on all fours and hunch our backs up to brace inside and someone else would roll us around, of course seeing how fast we could go and trying to get the person inside dizzy.

All good times!

 

[dreadnut]

Stingray bike

Flexible Flyer sled

Model cars and airplanes

Estes Model rockets

 

[GuildedCage]

As a infant, I had a Fisher Price dual purpose tool. Perfect for mowing the lawn beside dad and doubles as a vacuum to help mum clean the house! Then I had Stretch Armstrong when I was a few years older, part action figure, part exercise tool. 2 years later I got a pocket knife. Mysteriously, Stretch Armstrong got stabbed one night and all his gunk leaked out. It must have happened during a Home Invasion or something. After that all I cared about was being in the woods, archery and fishing, until I took up guitar.

 

[GGJaguar]

Model planes, model trains and a BB gun.

 

[GAD]

I built many models, usually either planes or Star-Trek related.

Some toys that stand out in my memory:

Lego. So much Lego (and I still have every brick of it)

The Verti-Bird!

I had every toy gun you could possibly imagine including Ricochet Racers where the bullets were cars!

SSP Racers!

 

[Westerly Wood]

swiss army knife
compass
banana seat bike with cool orange flag
Big Wheels
toboggan
Ross 10 speed bike, still to this day, best bike i have ever owned. never broke, great build quality back then too...flipped handle bars up when i got older too, to be extra cool.
tonka trucks
swing set
jarts (though rather dangerous)
my very first leather baseball mit

 

[walrus]

Lots and lots of bike riding! And like GAD's phoo, no helmets!

Table hockey
GI Joe
Whammo Super Balls

...and all different versions of the Creepy Crawlers "pour and cook" rubber creatures!

walrus

 

[Westerly Wood]

yeah, Air Hockey

 

[davismanLV]

I had a Stingray bike as well!! I was all over the place on that thing, until we moved to Thousand Oaks before the summer I turned 13 and then I got my first horse. After that, it was horses.... all the time!!

 

[GuildedCage]

Lots and lots of bike riding! And like GAD's phoo, no helmets!

Table hockey
GI Joe
Whammo Super Balls

...and all different versions of the Creepy Crawlers "pour and cook" rubber creatures!

walrus

Whammo Super Balls! I lost all mine, probably still bouncing wherever they are!

 

[The Guilds of Grot]

GAD and I could have been boyhood friends.

Let me throw Jarts into the mix! (Pun intended!)

 

[Stuball48]

Slingshot
BB Gun
Basketball
Baseball

 

[dreadnut]

How could I forget Super Ball?

Anyone else remember "Clackers?"

 

[GGJaguar]

SSP Racers!

Ooooh, I forgot about those! I got one for my birthday one year.

 

[GAD]

I had a Fireball Superball for a day. It was so cool but I decided to see how far it would go when I hit it with a baseball bat.

It’s likely still in orbit.

 

[GuildedCage]

Did any of you play ''Trackball''??? The curves you could put on that ball were so much fun!

 

[FNG]

Box hockey!

Box hockey - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[GuildedCage]

I had a Fireball Superball for a day. It was so cool but I decided to see how far it would go when I hit it with a baseball bat.

It’s likely still in orbit.

It probably bounced off a meteorite after it left the atmosphere then it re-entered and landed in Costa Rica somewhere.

 

[dreadnut]

Like the Superball I had a pretty abysmal record of recovering my Estes model rockets after launching them too., Especially when I outfitted them with the biggest possible engine.

Which reminds me of a funny story from 8th grade - our teacher allowed us to shoot a lizard or some such thing up in one of the big Estes rockets with a payload. It was supposed to go up and float back down by parachute. What we hadn't counted on was that only one or two of the engines ignited and it didn't go very high before it took on a horizontal attitude. Somebody watching through binoculars said "It landed on the roof of the Steelcase factory!" which was aboout 1/4 mile away. My teacher called and explained the situation, and they sent someone up there to retrieve it for us. The Lizard was fine. Better than the space monkey anyway.

 

[Opsimath]

I had Clackers, but was in high school by then.

I also had Creepy Crawlers when I was 9. I made bugs for years, up until they stopped making Plasti-Goop. Imagine today trying to sell an open face hotplate as a toy for kids!

I had a Superball, too. The original all black one. I didn't play with it much because it bounced so much and I was afraid it would break a window or something. The thing was pretty hard. Actually I think it's in a box in the closet.

I don't suppose any of you guys had a Jingle Jump?