Nostalgia - Childhood Toys
- Thread starter Jer
- Start date
Statute of limitations has lifted for my boys. A lot of the stuff they did I knew about at the time. Some of it is still coming out at get-togethers...after the grandkids have gone to bed, that is! They were kids in the 80s & 90s also.Tying into the 80s/90s thing but life on the farm gave us hay bail forts and stuff like this:
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I used to like making my own toys.
Was inspired by Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves and made my own bow and arrows with certain branches and string.
One 'that could have gone very wrong' moments was (parents weren't home) dousing a cotton ball on the end of an arrow with gasoline and lighting and shooting it around the yard.
I don't remember too many specific toys from my childhood. I remember I had a toy metal shotgun that shot corks. The only reason I remember it is because I dropped it on my big toe barrel down one time and it took the whole toenail off. It was a very heavy toy gun. The other thing I remember is these (I don't know whether to call them rockets or arrows or slingshots) things my dad used to make out of wooden shingles and an elastic band that you could fling miles in the air. At least it seemed like miles to an 8 year old.
I had one of the first '"etch a sketch". It originally only had one dial. I got the newer two dial version after I mastered the straight line
Welcome to my youth. Most of my toys were handed down from my 7 older siblings. Time sorta stood still in the toy department and I loved it.
S***, I had forgotten about Waterful Ring-Toss!
I remember more games than toys, at least in that age range. Had these within a span of a couple of years.
Note: I was so excited to get that Chamberlain basketball game. Extreme dud. Lot of "passing" (more accurately, "swiping unsuccesfully"), waiting for the ball to roll into a hole, and even then you'd probably miss the shot.
Bas-Ket is a less-flashy, stripped-down version, but much more scoring.
Note: I was so excited to get that Chamberlain basketball game. Extreme dud. Lot of "passing" (more accurately, "swiping unsuccesfully"), waiting for the ball to roll into a hole, and even then you'd probably miss the shot.
Bas-Ket is a less-flashy, stripped-down version, but much more scoring.
The classic yellow wiffle bat and ball. Worked great as both a bat to play ball and a weapon against my brother. Fun to play firefly baseball on a warm summer night too.
I had a Dukes of Hazard one as well as Knight Rider. The knight rider one had a hand brake on the back wheel to do slides....so good.
My boys had big wheels. We lived in student housing at Berkeley. The four-plexes were arranged around a central courtyard with tall gates between the buildings so we could let the littles out into the couryard to play. There was a raised circular grassy patch in the center, so there was a natural "race track" around it. All of the kids that were big enough were out there constantly pedaling their little legs off.
So fun. I remember then after awhile the front plastic wheel would get thin and crack.
Our local town had races for the annual celebrations and I have a few trophy's in storage somewhere!
One funny thing I remember about them was that we bought them as Christmas presents. We assembled one each. My ex, the self-proclaimed "motorhead" was absolutely confident that he knew what he was doing, and forged ahead without the instructions. I used the instructions, which were translated by a German from Korean into Spanish, and then someone in France translated the Spanish into English...or at least that's how it seemed. But they had good pictures. I finished in about a half hour, he finished his about 15 minutes later. Next morning the boys found them and started trying to ride them. Guess which Big Wheel lost a wheel almost immediately?
80's kid. These were the go-to toys I played with growing up. We were fairly poor, but my mom was amazing at finding large lots (of most) of the following toys for cheap at garage sales..
GI Joe:
MOTU:
Our family got its first NES in '89.
Got a bunch of these in early 80's.
The small versions that we played with mostly inside:
And the larger versions that we played with outside:
Vintage Little People:
GI Joe:
MOTU:
Our family got its first NES in '89.
Got a bunch of these in early 80's.
The small versions that we played with mostly inside:
And the larger versions that we played with outside:
Vintage Little People:
The sidewalk around our block is what made the Big Wheel so much fun. I wore out my wheels in one summer. However, bikes have their own adventures! I graduated to a Huffy.
I had the ultimate collection of HeMan toys
I remember adjusting the settings on the bottom of the plastic players to get the to run just the right route, lol.
