What toys did you love when you were a kid?

[Beacon]

Date: 5/30/2007 6:28:44 PM
Author: neatfreak
Easy Bake Oven and Cabbage Patch dolls! Ohhh and I ADORED my rock tumbler...maybe that's where the addiction started.

I had one too - totally forgot about it til I saw your post. I used to love playing with that thing. I really enjoyed my Easy Bake Oven, surprised I did not kill myself on it. I do recall that some of the miniature cakes I made tasted pretty gross.

I also had one of those magic eightballs, the black one that had a window on one side where it would give you "answers" to the questions you posed to it.

 

[diamondfan]

Monnie, could you get the stick people to stay in the car? I never could! I also loved the magic 8 ball, and those horses, but I did not ride, I just liked collecting them. My cousin rode and collected too, but I just liked them. I also collected little porcelain animal figures. And I had this neat toy that was two metal wires and a round thing with a piece sticking off each side would race up and down the metal things. Not describing it well but...

SLINKY? Loved that too. I also had those click clacks that you smashed around, two glass balls on the end of strings. Many toys from back in the day are not considered safe now...you could smash your fingers in between the two balls as they collided, painful and happened a lot!

I hated to use my stuff up. I saved my Hello Kitty lipgloss and pencils and pads and Twin Star staples and glitter glue etc, never wanted anyone to touch them! Such a waste now, they were saved for looking at and not using!

Funny story (in hindsight) but very indicative of my issues with my sister... I would get a huge set of these great markers, Pentels, in this yellow box, and I would FREAK if anyone did not put the cap back on them, or if they smushed the fine point or did not put them in rainbow order...with 36 or 48 colors rainbow order was a bit tough but I knew where each one went. But I took very good care of my things. One day, my sister was coloring one of those huge posters I mentioned, a jungle themed one. She had long sinced used up all the greens that came with the poster, since she was not one for putting caps back on. She went into my room and used MY MARKERS, smushing the tips and not putting the tops back on. I came back from the weekend (I had gone to a friend's weekend house in Palm Springs and had been gone a couple of days) and went to use them for a project for school. She had put them all back in the case and in my drawer, but not in the right order!!! Plus they were smushed up and dried out, so I knew she had used them without permission. I threw a total fit about her taking my stuff and abusing it (and she was almost 4 years older than I was and at this point I was 11 and she was almost 15!) so my mom made her buy me a new box with her allowance. She was so pissed but I could not have cared less, she was always doing stuff to me and getting away with it, so I was glad!

 

[monarch64]

Date: 5/31/2007 12:58:46 AM
Author: Beacon

Date: 5/30/2007 6:28:44 PM
Author: neatfreak
Easy Bake Oven and Cabbage Patch dolls! Ohhh and I ADORED my rock tumbler...maybe that''s where the addiction started.

I had one too - totally forgot about it til I saw your post. I used to love playing with that thing. I really enjoyed my Easy Bake Oven, surprised I did not kill myself on it. I do recall that some of the miniature cakes I made tasted pretty gross.

I also had one of those magic eightballs, the black one that had a window on one side where it would give you ''answers'' to the questions you posed to it.

Yay! for the rock tumbler! My brother had one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. we used to go to these rock collectors'' shows at the fairgrounds where they had all kinds of quartz and other semi-precious stones, I had forgotten about that!

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 5/31/2007 1:05:13 AM
Author: monarch64

Date: 5/31/2007 12:58:46 AM
Author: Beacon

Date: 5/30/2007 6:28:44 PM
Author: neatfreak
Easy Bake Oven and Cabbage Patch dolls! Ohhh and I ADORED my rock tumbler...maybe that''s where the addiction started.

I had one too - totally forgot about it til I saw your post. I used to love playing with that thing. I really enjoyed my Easy Bake Oven, surprised I did not kill myself on it. I do recall that some of the miniature cakes I made tasted pretty gross.

I also had one of those magic eightballs, the black one that had a window on one side where it would give you ''answers'' to the questions you posed to it.

Yay! for the rock tumbler! My brother had one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. we used to go to these rock collectors'' shows at the fairgrounds where they had all kinds of quartz and other semi-precious stones, I had forgotten about that!

Id forgotten about that....
I made my own from an old paint can and a motor.. but it was taking too long to polish anything so I figured it needed to turn faster,,,, well a 1/2 horsepower motor and a 1 to 3 pulley system sure did make it turn fast (5000rpm) but shattered every stone in it too dust in the 30 seconds it ran before coming apart (needed better bearings). LOL

 

[Lorelei]

Sindy and her horse ( natch!)
Barbies and the little sister Skipper
Tiny Tears ( baby doll who wet and closed her eyes)
Buckaroo
Etch a Sketch
Fuzzy Felt
Chopper bikes
Girls World makeup doll
Kerplunk!
Science kits
Tapestry kits
Flatsy dolls
Little dolls in perfumed bottles named after flowers
Kerknockers which kept giving us bruised wrists!

 

[autumngems]

Just tossed out my daughters Barbie head, it was a mess even though she rarely used it.

I remember the Barbie Head, Big Wheels, Banana Seat Bikes, roller skates and skateboards

Everyone was into Hardy Boys at that time

 

[eks6426]

I had Barbies. Probably 10 or so.
Barbie babies...would have been about 1981...they were sold with a crib & such. I think I had 2.
I used to make my own clothes and houses for them.....cleared off a bookshelf to make into an "apartment complex" for the Barbie crew. I remember making bathtubs out of Kleenex boxes (the long, low kind), popsical sticks and fabric (to make a shower curtain). I never had any of the real Barbie stuff like dream house or vette.

Little House on the Prairie books. I loved them. I swear I wanted to be Laura Ingalls. I remember wearing prairie style clothes to school...complete with a bonnet. Funny thing is my 10 year old son loved reading my old Little House on the Prairie books. I couldn''t believe he actually liked them enough to take them to school...thought for sure the other boys would make fun of him but he read every one of them this spring.

Boombox--I begged and begged for a boombox. Finally got one with a tape recorder/player & radio. Nothing huge or fancy but I spent hours waiting for the right songs to be played so I could make mixed tapes. I''m sure I drove the radio stations insane with my constant requests.

Dataman---small electronic handheld game that was all math facts. A lot of my friends had Merlin but I never had one. I still have Dataman and it actually works. My 10 year old thinks it''s "quaint". But his Turbo Twist Math does almost the same stuff only it has sound.

Lots of craft stuff. I saved bits of yarn, construction paper, shells, rocks anything. I would make stuff all the time. I got a bunch of tissue paper once and made giant tissue paper flowers. We had to move shortly after I made them and I packed them all up in one of those giant wardrobe boxes. We ran out of room in the truck and my parents had to leave the lawnmower behind. Boy were they pissed to find out my tissue flowers in the wardrobe box took up enough space they could have taken their lawnmower instead.

Kiddie pool...never had a real pool but I had a decent kiddie pool that was about 15 feet across and 3 feet high. It didn''t have a filter or anything but I loved it. I spent hours in the pool.

 

[Jaders731]

Oh my goodness... I am sitting here with my cup of coffee this morning totally enjoying this toy flashback, that I just had to share...

1. Barbies.. you name it, I had it.. but my favorite was the Sensations line... the girl Rock group.. the dolls came with tapes of their songs.. lol.. soooo awesome.. I also had the big pink and blue pool that you pushed the button and it made the bubbles. and I have EVERY holiday barbie that came out.. until they stopped making them for a year or two, and then restarted.. I dont have any of the newer ones.
2. Gem - along the same lines of barbie, but they were Rockstars, Gem had bright pink hair and a pink and purple star over her eye.. it was AWESOME..
3. Cabbage Patch.. I had sooo many, but my fave was the talking ones that came out prolly 1989... my best friend got one for xmas that year too.. we put them together, and they would talk to each other.
4. LiteBrite - although, the most trouble I ever got in was when my mom would vacuum my room and suck up all those stupid pegs.. I can still hear the scolding ringing through my brain...LOL
5. yes.. Garbage Pail kid cards.. those were so nasty, but hysterical... I heard they brought those back.. a kind of retro thing...
6. oh.. I cant believe I am going to admit this: New Kids on the Block trading cards... oooh, I''m sooo ashamed.. and of course every single Tiger Beat and Bop magazine with EVERY single NKOTB picture cut out and taped (yes taped to my wall).. I seriously had newsprint wallpaper in my room.. ha... and lets not forget, every poster, tape/cd, everything NKOTB.. i was a little obsessed... hello, Joey Mcintyre(sp?) anyone???

7. Easy bake oven.. probably turned me into the maniac baker I am today... although, back then (ok.. I realize it wasnt THAT long ago), the refill packs were virtually non-existant... so basically once you used all of the mix that came with the oven.. I was pretty much done.. I wasnt creative enough to use a cake mix or anything like that.
8. Jacks were fun!
9. Board games of course... mouse trap was my fave and Hi-Ho Cherry-O..
10. Any Judy Bloom books... I loooooooved "Forever" I was 11 when I read that.. talk about a little risque.. my mom would have snatched it out of my hand had she known the subject material of that book
11. Any Ramona Quimby books.. loved those too.. my 3rd grade teacher used to read us those in class!

Wow.. I could go on.. and on.. and on...

Thanks for the throwbacks.. what a great way to start the day!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

OH I loved that game "Operation"; my sister would bug me by hitting the sides of the body on purpose to make lots of noise...... Always wanted an esay bake oven, but never got one!!!
Got a lot of use out of roller skates and a bubble wand
And my ride-a-roo was a hoot, and in hindsight, it was great excerise
Those plastic glittery shoes with large bows and Disney characters

cheers--Sharon

 

[Pandora II]

I was another lego and playmobile fan.

Jigsaws!

I also had Sindy - which was the UK equivalent of Barbie only with smaller boobs! How come they never came with underwear unlike Action man who has blue plastic y-fronts!

I was a boardgame fanatic - Monopoly, Cludeo, Scrabble, 221b Baker Street, Contraband, Diplomacy - in fact I''m still hooked to those.

I also loved playing starwars figures with my baby brother (still would give half a chance)

Craft things were pretty high up my list,

but most of my time was spent fossil hunting - my first degree was in Archaeology. I had all the plastic dinosaurs...

 

[blushingbride]

Let''s see...

Snoppy Snow Cone Machine (never got it and will never forget that!)
My Little Ponies
Cabbage Patch Dolls
Glamour Girls (someone else mentioned them - we had the huge Glamour Girl Cruise Ship too!)
Rainbow Brite Dolls
Jem and the Holograms
Teddy Ruxpin
Care Bears
Barbie (of course)
GoBots and Transformers
LiteBrite
Glo Worms
Shirt Tales
Holly Hobbie
Atari Video Games
My Buddy and Kid Sister (I always thought these dolls were a bit odd)
Garbage Pail Kids (the trading cards)

 

[firebirdgold]

Oh WOW! What a great thread!

My all-time favorite toy: Playskool Play Friends National Park Set! I promptly lost all the little people, but I played with the animals with their little caves and trees on the vinyl map for years!

• My bike (I named it)
• Legos (I built robots with my Dad)
• Little metal toy cars. I inherited my father's toy car collection so I had everything from a new 1970's camero to a milk truck from the 20's. (I think my grandfather might have started the collection) I played with them constantly!
• Starwars action figures. I even had a hovercar... I adored that thing!
• Wooden block farm set. (fences, wood cows, etc.. I can't remember what I did with it but I do remember having it set up across my room... I think it got combined with the starwars figures. )
• The chess set (I didn't play chess, I used them as toys and would play war scenarios with daring rescues of captured soliders in enemy territory. I got into my father's go set once and was grounded for months for chipping the stones!)
• Battleship. the only board game I could beat my older sister at.
• Stuffed animals (they had a thriving village economy on my lower bunk bed)
• mud - I kept trying to build dams in the gutter, that kept me occupied for hours.
• Water, I loved swimming in the ocean or the pool. I often pretended I was a mermaid.
• Little mermaids. (my only girly toy I actually liked)
• Books. Books, and more Books.
• The computer.. I played early versions of nethack, something involving a turtle that drew things, a flight simulator, and I 'published' a newsletter/paper.
• I really wanted a chemistry set but my mother wouldn't give me one and freaked when I found my sister's old set. I think she was convinced that I was going to blow something up... which was probably accurate!

I guess I was a little tomboyish myself! While my father always said he wanted daughters not sons, nevertheless he treated his youngest daughter (me) like a son, so it's all his fault!

Hmmm... I better get him something really nice for father's day!

 

[Pandora II]

Weren''t toy chemistry sets soooo boring - impossible to blow anything up!

I remember a friend of mine and I aged about 11 were really into explosions. We used to get the rolls of caps for toy guns and open them with a knife and scrape all the gunpowder out and make really big ones!

One day we were playing in the woods near his house and they had been copicing (cutting down trees to make space for new ones for timber) and had left loads of almost out bonfires. We got one going again and had loads of fun heating up all these old plates we found and then dropping them in puddles to watch them explode. Then we found an old gas cylinder... yup, we chucked it on the bonfire and then hid behind a log about 30ft away to see what would happen.

Luckily his mother came to get us for supper, saw what we had done and called the Fire Brigade! One of the few times I was spanked by someone other than my parents! She was so angry - as were the Fire Brigade.

I still feel sick thinking what might have happened!

 

[AmberWaves]

Oh my gosh, my favorite years...

I loved:

Rainbow Brite Stuff
Strawberry Shortcake (not the creepy new one) Doll that smelled like strawberries
My Barbie Mc. Donalds's restaurant (remember that??)
Lite Brite
All the old games (I loved having twins in the game Life)
Barbies
I had the only girl GI Joe
She-Ra
He-man and the castle of greyskull
Easy Bake Oven
My Little Pony (I had the stable)
Anne of Green gables and the following series
Baby-Sitters Club
Christopher Pike, Lowis Lowery, Judy Blume, R.L. Stine
My Snoopy Sno Cone Maker
The weird thing that made paint splatters? A spinner thing?
My Smurfs big wheels, and then when my brother broke off my smurf head my Dukes of Hazzard big wheel

I haa Zotz just last week!

I loved my flower pressing kit, too!

ETA: Loved the pound puppies and cabbage patch kids (I still have my preemie Nigel), Tiger Beat and garfield!!

 

[sumbride]

Ah... so fun!

I loved Barbie and I had not only the "Dream House" but also the "Townhouse" with working elevator inherited from my older sister. Also had the bathtub, which was kind of boring.

I had about 8 Cabbage Patch kids, including a preemie and the "Koosa" pet.

I collected stickers, but I stuck them to things... I had a full length mirror on my closet door that was absolutely covered in stickers by the time I was 8 or so.

Also had a rock tumbler but my parents thought it was too loud so I had to put it in the garage. I forgot about it for a while so everything was very smooth when I finally unplugged it!

I read a lot (loved Little House!) and played outside and on the boat at the lake all the time.

We didn''t have Legos, but we did have "castle blocks". They were white and had turrets and such... we would build castles and then use my the small catapults my dad built for my brothers to launch steel ple-chen-ko(sp) balls at them and destroy them! What my dad was thinking when he gave ball bearings and a catapult to two boys, I have no idea. One of them put holes in the tv screen with them!

But what I really remember is what I was "deprived of", being the 4th kid and victim to my parents starting a new company... my friends had these, but not me...

I DIDN''T have:
- a lite brite
- easy bake oven
- speak n'' spell
- simon
- snoopy sno cone machine
- Operation
- Atari (we finally got "intellivision" but I thought it was boring)
- The game of Life
- any game with all the parts!

 

[Beacon]

Did anyone ever play the game "Masterpiece"? It was about buying art. I could not remember the name of the game last night when I was reading this forum so I googled the description and found an eBay listing. I was so excited I bought the game off eBay!

It''s a vintage set from the 70''s. I was so happy to see the old thing so like a loony I bought it. Should have it in a few days

 

[monarch64]

Jaders, I forgot about NKOTB...first I was in love with Jordan Knight but quickly realized he was 9 years older than me so it would never work out (LOL), so I dumped him for Joey McIntyre.

Things didn''t pan out with us either, though, but that''s probably a good thing since he''s only 5''6" or something and I grew up to be 5''10.

 

[monarch64]

"Monnie, could you get the stick people to stay in the car? I never could! I also loved the magic 8 ball, and those horses, but I did not ride, I just liked collecting them. My cousin rode and collected too, but I just liked them. I also collected little porcelain animal figures. And I had this neat toy that was two metal wires and a round thing with a piece sticking off each side would race up and down the metal things. Not describing it well but..."--Diamondfan


DF, I do seem to recall that they didn''t really want to stay in the car. And my brother and cousins, both boys, usually ended up "crashing" the cars anyway, which took away some of the enjoyment for me.

 

[anchor31]

Date: 5/31/2007 9:39:27 AM
Author: Jaders731
Oh my goodness... I am sitting here with my cup of coffee this morning totally enjoying this toy flashback, that I just had to share...

1. Barbies.. you name it, I had it.. but my favorite was the Sensations line... the girl Rock group.. the dolls came with tapes of their songs.. lol.. soooo awesome.. I also had the big pink and blue pool that you pushed the button and it made the bubbles. and I have EVERY holiday barbie that came out.. until they stopped making them for a year or two, and then restarted.. I dont have any of the newer ones.

Haha, I had that too! It was so cool.

Oooh, and the LiteBrite! My siblings and I would have so much fun with that.

 

[diamondfan]

I loved Simon and was great at it. I also loved the game where you hid a pattern of little pegs and the person had to guess it, forgot what it was called, Mastermind? I loved Etch a sketch too but when I could not get it to do what I wanted it annoyed me. I loved to play jacks and hopscotch too, and always had a lemonde stand or something going on. I lived in Beverly Hills and the tour buses would go by my house, the ones that were showing people where the celebrities lived (three lived on my block at one time) so my friends and I used to run around on the lawn outside and act odd when the buses were going past...what can I say, we were easily amused!

 

[Fancy605]

I had sisters and tons of girl cousins, so we had GREAT games.
Grand Champions- What can I say, I was a horse crazy kid.
My Little Pony- Wow, I had tons of them, and loved them AND the show.
Breyer Horses- My ponies and grand campions eventually gave way to an extensive collection of breyer horses (I still have quite a few)
Sylvanian Family ("to collect and love"--anyone remember that theme song?) I had Mice, Rabbits, and Racoons.
Thunder Cats- I was obsessed with the show even though it was a "boy" show and had several of the action figures.
Littlest Pet Shop- soo cute!
Barbie- I loved putting on beauty pagents and weddings.
The Heart Family- I didn''t actually have them, but my cousin did, and I got to play with them a lot.
American Girl Dolls- all those lil accessories! We knew a lady who made us clothes too.
Play Mobile- there were so many different sets of those things.
And finally
Any doll house- my sister and I had custody of an AMAZING doll house for several years, and my cousins had some pretty cool ones too.

 

[Fancy605]

Date: 5/31/2007 12:11:07 PM
Author: IndieJones
O
[*]Water, I loved swimming in the ocean or the pool. I often pretended I was a mermaid.

Ohhh we played mermaid in our pool a lot. Did you ever put the rings you dive for around your feet to make a tail? We did that a lot.

 

[TravelingGal]

OK, speaking of LEGO, check out this LEGO artist!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/05/31/lego.artist/index.html

The story has a link to his gallery and a video. The video is worth a look...the guy''s not bad looking (and apparently single. He looks better in the video than in the gallery photos). Used to be an attorney. Hmmm...

 

[anchor31]

Date: 5/31/2007 10:35:39 PM
Author: Fancy605

Date: 5/31/2007 12:11:07 PM
Author: IndieJones
O

[*]Water, I loved swimming in the ocean or the pool. I often pretended I was a mermaid.

Ohhh we played mermaid in our pool a lot. Did you ever put the rings you dive for around your feet to make a tail? We did that a lot.

lol I wanted to be a mermaid when I was little!

 

[diamondfan]

TG, that is AMAZING. Who could think a childhood passion could turn into that?

 

[oshinbreez]

Some of you are making me feel sooooo old by talking about toys my kids played with.

I never played much with dolls. I had a few baby dolls, but was never interested in Barbies. I''d lots rather play with my brothers hot wheels, erector set, lincoln logs.

I loved playing Ker-plunk, Yahtzee, Monopoly.

I seemed to spend alot of time outside playing on the swing set, riding my bike, skating (the skates you put on your shoes that adjusted and you needed a key), and an all time favorite was an old spool from the electric company. I''d walk on it, roll on it, and used it as a table. And I used to love giving the dog a ride in the wagon.

 

[oshinbreez]

Also Play-doh and coloring books.

 

[AmberWaves]

Totally forgot about the play-doh! Anyone remember painting with water? And this is so lame.. we used to do ribbon dancing. I don''t know where my grandma got the cassette tape, but my cousins and I made some totally awesome moves with that ribbon on a stick.

Also, kind of like DF, my family were physical therapists and I spent a lot of time cruising around my front yard in a wheel chair or on crutches. I even made my own perfume and sold some- it wasn''t until later I realized they may have bought it because I was in a wheelchair. Now I feel kind of bad, but hey, sometimes my ashtma was so bad I needed that wheelchair!

 

[FireGoddess]

Date: 5/31/2007 2:23:46 PM
Author: sumbride

I DIDN'T have:
- a lite brite
- easy bake oven
- speak n' spell
- simon
- snoopy sno cone machine
- Operation
- Atari (we finally got 'intellivision' but I thought it was boring)
- The game of Life
- any game with all the parts!

Yep, still bitter about all of those too...right up to us also getting Intellivision but not Atari!!!

I begged and begged for the easy bake oven, but my parents would never relent. "Why would you want to bake something with a LIGHTBULB when you can help me really cook?"

Uh, because it's WAY MORE FUN with the lightbulb? LOL!!!!!

 

[Aloros]

Loved legos. I put together dollhouses and dollhouse furniture as well, with my mother''s help. I also really liked that labyrinth toy, the one where you have this ball and you tilt the maze around using knobs to get it to the end. I never had it, but I really wanted that hungry hungry hippos game.

Twisty ties. My sis and I used to nab them from grocery stores and make people and animals out of them.

My little ponies and this thing called light brite or something? You put these colored plastic pins through a black sheet of paper mounted on this light box, and then when you lit it up it made a picture.

Oh, and those spirograph thingies.