Toys you had when you were a kid (nostalgia)

[Everton FC]

Originally Posted by blue

My "Rosebud" was Major Matt Mason. We only had one and I had to share him with my older brother, so you know, I rarely got to play with him.

What raises it to "Rosebud" level is pretty much everything we had came from the Salvation Army store. So I didn't even know what the toy line was called. It wasn't until after 2010 that I realized with a little digging on youtube I could find it. And I did!

We had Major Matt Mason, and his buddy, Lt. Jeff Long - the African-American astronaut in blue! I still have him. Lt. Long, that is...

I liked the old table-top hockey games w/the metal players. And Tudor's Electric Football - our dad got us all the teams in the NFL, home and away jerseys, and we had a league - full-season, winners of the Super Bowl went to either the Millrose Games or the New York Golden Gloves event at MSG. The winner also got dinner at a fine NYC restaurant, before these events. Pretty cool.

[Neil K Walk]

I was a kid in the 70s so I had a lot of Matchbox/Hot Wheels stuff but when Star Wars came out I saved up my Cheerios box tops for the first four "action figures." I added to that collection and played with them HARD. Several years ago my packrat mother "surprised" me with an old shoe box full of them. They are by no means in "mint" condition. My mom's a packrat, not a collector and they stank of moisture and mold.

Once upon a time I had an erector set but my fascination with them came to a sudden shocking end. My later father was an electronics technician but sadly he passed on before he could teach me the valuable lesson of not sticking bare wires into a power outlet. Hoo boy, what a jolt!

[Bikewer]

I was a kid through the 50s, and many of the early toys I recall included the “Lincoln Logs” building set, and also the white “brick” building sets which were sort of the predecessor of Lego.
We loved vehicles of all kinds, And I had a big steel crane with a string and pulley you could use to lift things.
And of course... Guns. An endless number of cap guns of all sorts that we used to play “cowboys” or “war” or “cops and robbers”. I was a gun-geek even then and wanted the “correct” toy gun for each scenario.

As I got a bit older, BB guns and pellet guns. Yes, I had a Daisy “Red Ryder” and no, I didn’t shoot my eye out.

[joe white]

Man oh man, so many great toys come to mind. I loved hot wheels and the orange track with the red connectors. Sizzlers came along and were the same scale as hot wheels but had motors and you used a gas pump looking thing to charge it up and turn it loose on a track. I had the Evil Knievel stunt cycle AND the motor home that pulled the motorcycle. I had HO race cars, never got into trains. There were the SSP cars that you pulled that plastic T-handled thing through the car with a big rubber coated wheel in the middle that made them go. Countless model cars were a favorite of mine and one of my absolute favorite toys was the Vertibird helicopter. I played with that thing for hours on end until my cousin ruined it. I probably went through several thousand BBs with my Red Ryder and Crossman pump BB/pellet gun. I still have the little Harmony guitar I got got Christmas in 67 or 68. The Johnny West cowboy figures were fun too. I remember all the small accessories for him (hat, holster, pistol, rifle, mess kit with frying pan, coffee pot,) Great Stuff. I even ran across this fun toy that my grampa got me one Chtistmas. He even got down in the floor with me and taught me a few games. Here's a photo of that, LOL

[dougdnh]

I was a child of the '50's: Erector set, Marx Castle set, Lincoln Logs, Chemistry set, View Master, rubber band powered gliders, cap guns & water guns. One of my favorites was a 6" long, hard plastic jet fighter that was launched with a powerful rubber band - flew like a bat out of hell!

[sevargnhoj]

We had lots of the fabulous toys previously mentioned, as kids of the 60s.

One that I vividly remember finding under the tree at 3 AM was the Mighty Matilda aircraft carrier.

It was almost 3 feet long with working powered elevators, motorized elliptical wheels that made the ship rise and fall as it rolled along, a spring loaded catapult and missile launcher that would surely take your eye out and a loud battle stations claxon.

My brother and I loaded them up and "sailed" our fleet down the hallway towards our parents bedroom with claxons blaring!

[JCave]

Originally Posted by sevargnhoj

We had lots of the fabulous toys previously mentioned, as kids of the 60s.

Toys I had as a child all came from Frank Dillows Second Hand store. My father worked for Frank doing whatever needed to be done. We never had nice new toys and were not allowed to ask for anything. Lucky for me I had friends that would share. Every Christmas meant going to the neighbors to see what cool new toys they got.

[reeve21]

Electric football--turns out they still make it.

And my absolute favorite, the Estes Saturn V model rocket kit that we actually launched and retrieved miles away! Turns out they still make that one, too.

[Dru Edwards]

Speaking of electronic games, I had this baseball game. IIRC, you could play against someone or solo. One person would pitch with the controller and the other would bat with the two yellow buttons on the console.

[BrunoBlack]

When I was 3 or 4 this punching bag.



Then from 5 to 16 years old this.

[Acousticado]

There was the “Slinky” that’s still around...


And of course, slingshots, which are far more refined these days...


I used to love play “sports cards wall toss” with other kids as a means of card trading...stand-ups, knock-downs, leaners, nearsies, topsies, bounce-backs. It was sure tough on card condition, but boy was it fun...

[seannx]

Growing up in the 50's I had many of the same toys, and the Lincoln Logs and tinker toys got a lot of play time, along with a Crosman air rifle and a BB pistol when I was old enough. One of my all time favorites came one Christmas. We were 5 kids, and everyone would get one big present, plus a few more less expensive ones including clothes. That year there wasn’t one under the tree for me, and I tried to hide my disappointment. But then I discovered a card tied to one of the branches with a note saying to follow the attached string. It led me down to our basement rec room, where I found an electric train set. That was the best present I ever got, and my all time favorite toy.

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Speaking of electronic games, I had this baseball game. IIRC, you could play against someone or solo. One person would pitch with the controller and the other would bat with the two yellow buttons on the console.

OMG! I forgot all about that thing. I'm pretty sure I owned it. I remember logging a lot of hours on that game.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by spock

My brothers and I were actually given this for Christmas when I was 3+ and my "older" brother was six. It involved the heating of lead and pouring the molten lead into molds to make soldiers, and it was one of my earliest, and fondest memories of early childhood. BTW, we were usually in the basement doing this and were unsupervised, just to show you how far things have come in our bubble wrap society.

Ohhh, the horror.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by sevargnhoj

....One that I vividly remember finding under the tree at 3 AM was the Mighty Matilda aircraft carrier.

It was almost 3 feet long with working powered elevators, motorized elliptical wheels that made the ship rise and fall as it rolled along, a spring loaded catapult and missile launcher that would surely take your eye out and a loud battle stations claxon.

Don't know how I missed that one back in the 60's, as my father served on a carrier (USS Ticonderoga, CV-14) in the mid 50's and I eventually went into the Navy myself toward the end of the 70's. As a kid, I built many Revell models of ships, subs, and aircraft.

I was a kid who always had a Daisy BB gun in my hands. One of my favorite toys was a very un-PC (by current standards) Mattel Marauder M-16 with realistic firing sounds. I loved that toy, but after my uncles got home from Vietnam in poor mental shape, it "disappeared" never to be seen again.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1960s-Matte...-/382889192801