Your Favorite Toys

Spent many hours playing with my Etch A Sketch.

Jesus that thing annoyed me. Pencil and paper any day!

I loved my action figures - DC (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) or Masters of the Universe (He-Man, She-Ra).

I loved Transformers when I was a kid. And Robotech. Anything that was a robot and could change form into a vehicle, basically I guess haha.

Tanka trucks

Tonka

Kid: Baps puppet theater, Käthe Kruse doll, FAO Schwarz City Mouse/Country Mouse, Pellham Puppets

If you're interested in toys, watch the The Toys That Made Us on Netflix. The nostalgia-induced feels are insane and the shows are produced in a very entertaining way.

There's a similar series that covers movies called, The Movies That Made Us that's also really good.

My troll doll with bright yellow hair.

The "Haunted Mansion" game.

Merlin

R3 Transformation is what got me into Power Rangers (the Megazord was so cool!)

Etch a sketch and Operation.

Matchbox cars, the little troll dolls, Monopoly, Careers, Trouble, Lionel train set.

Mego action figures. Batman, Robin, Superman and everybody else.

Pocket pussy- Ellen

A fire truck and Barbie’s Dream Middle Income House- Anne

Was a Sylvanian Families (Calico Critters) bitch.

Apparently, the flagship store in London is going out of business really soon. It's quite sad. I went there a few times as a kid & preteen, and it was an adorable and charming and well-stocked if pokey little hole-in-the-wall. Once that shop goes, it will be difficult to find Sylvanians to buy in the U.K., as department stores are all closing, and a lot of specialist toy stores don't stock them as that type of business tends to cater more to the interests of boys or adult male collectors.

^^^^

Maybe my dollhouse. It wasn't fancy like you see today. It was a metal midcentury ranch house with plastic molded furniture. I still have some of the furniture somewhere. LOL.

I loved making different furniture from boxes and everyday items.

I liked the game Life.

This house and the little people.

I desperately wanted to play with dolls, but that was not a possibility in my home or neighborhood.

Fisher Price figures were the next best thing.

My fisher price parking garage. I loved this thing. I didn’t have the official cars, but used my hot wheels and micro machines. I wanted to work in a parking garage that looked like this. Didn’t achieve that dream.

Board games, especially Clue and Parcheesi.

My Flintstones Bedrock village. By Marx!

Tinkertoys!!

My bike

And the freedom to ride all over town

I'm not a collector, but I have one very special Britney Spears "Oops! I did it again" Barbie type dolls in the red patent leather suit.

My mom was a school teacher and at Xmas time, she'd buy toys for a LOT of kids who were probably not going to get many (or any) at the school she worked at. One day I went with her because there was a KB toy outlet and she bought like 40 Barbies there. (She also got toys for boys, I just wasn't with her when she did).

While she was picking out Barbies, I was just transfixed by this Britney doll and my mom kept passing by and saying "just get it!" And I'd say "no! It's a toy for little kids. And little girls! I'm an adult man!"

When we went to check out, the last thing I saw her pull out of the cart was the Britney doll and after she paid, she just handed it to me.

And it's in its original box, on my shelf (sitting very near my mom who is in a very small urn).

Simon

Didn’t think of bike as a toy but that would be tops by far. I don’t remember too many long interest toys but slinky, play. dough and silly putty had staying power . I liked Mr. Machine for a long time.

I loved this very complicated to set up 3-D board game called Which Witch that was like a haunted house and you’d put a marble down the chimney and it would fly out in any of the four rooms and maybe knock over another player piece. Did you win after that? I don’t remember.

Cabbage patch dolls.

Yes, r23! And Pick Up Stix and Jacks!

THE board game for me was Candyland. I wanted to live there!

Slightly older I learned playing-card games---Solitaire, Poker, Blackjack.

Never cared for baby dolls.

Kenner Super Powers

Best line ever

no-one's doing it like Jonathan Ross. man has an entire office building for his vintage collection of retro 60s/70s toys

it's actually kind of on a scary sad level of collecting. but hey it's his BBC bl00d money!!!

We were poor. I just made paper planes

Raggedy Ann & Andy- books and dolls. When I was very young, I carried them everywhere with me, even had them sitting to the side while I played with something else. I learned how to read and write with the books.

The Muppets and Sesame Street- handpuppets and Fisher-Price playset. I love puppetry and Jim Henson's worldview.

The Smurfs- the little pvc figures and houses

Star Trek- This was more in my twenties and current. I have so many of the Playmates figures and ships.

I also had the McDonaldLand figures and playset. I played with them so much, their clothes are in bad shape. For some reason, I just loved them and still do! I will forever hate the Kroffts for bringing an end to McDonaldLand!

The Kroffts?

I still love Spirograph and kaleidoscopes, tops too like R27. Still play Monopoly and Clue. Pop-up books still fascinate me. The one thing that I wish I had from my childhood was the Barbie Fashion Maker (ok, ok it was my sister’s). It kept me entertained for hours.

Light bright and Spirograph.

Lite Brite, wooden blocks and Lego.

GI Joe and little green plastic army figures.

I also had a bunch of small airplanes and I’d design airports with them

Marbles, yoyo, and GI Joe

Erector sets & Lincoln Logs

[quote] Star Trek- This was more in my twenties and current. I have so many of the Playmates figures and ships.

What do you even do with these, as an adult?

No disrespect meant, a hobby is a hobby, and if it's safe and sane, no judgement. But as someone who doesn't collect, hates clutter and 'stuff', and isn't much into toys and never was (a movies-and-books kid), it is beyond my ken as a pastime.

Dildoes

R35 Sid and Marty Krofft, creators of H.R. PufnStuf and other nightmare inducing programs intended for children. They sued McDonald's, claiming several of the McDonaldLand characters and the sets were rip offs of their work. Two of the characters were dropped while others went through a redesign. The original designs were in line with the basic "look" of several other characters around at that time (Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits for example). The McDonaldLand IP was eventually dropped.

Jem dolls were superior to Barbies

We loved our board games. Chutes and Ladders Mousetrap, Life, Parcheesi, Monopoly, checkers and some chess. Boggle and Super Boggle. I loved Clue. i had all the board games from my childhood, with some already given up to my grownup children. My one daughter has my grandmothers a Chinese Checkers board. We would play games, such as Snap , War and Old Maid. Visiting my northern family in PA, we would stay up late into the morning hours playing Hot Rum.

We all loved playing Tetherball, but I was the youngest, who could beat the oldest players.

My middle brother and I taught ourselves to play tennis, starting with our Eagle Family Discount $2 tennis racket. As we got a little older, we saved as saved and each bought a steel T2000 racket. These had the little heads, versus the big head rackets off today. I taught both of my daughters to play tennis as well. They both can beat my ass.

I taught my kids to play all the above games, plus Cribbage, Spades., Tripoli & Michigan Rummy. Don’t forget Uno and SkipBo.

During my childhood, my grandmother purchased is building blocks. They were red brick in color, and had little lines in them representing bricks (unlike Legos which were smooth). She would buy a new block set every couple of years. We could build a 3 bedroom house. Living room, dining room, kitchen, carport etc. we had different plastic windows to install, French doors, solid plastic front doors etc. We would build all day long at my grandmother’s house. Great memories. Eventually the blocks could not be found, and we added in the smooth Lego’s…they were interchangeable with our blocks. But we would not mixed them with the first sets, but build smooth Lego style homes. We had tinker toys, but they parked in Compton comparison to our red brick color blocks.

Rubik’s cube. Could never solve that darn thing even with instructions lol. My partner otoh has mastered it

I just remember I used to like our Lie Detector game. It was very advanced for the time (1960) . LOL! Actually I think my mom got it for herslef.

R44 more details and a look back at the Krofft brothers.

They won a million bucks circa 1983 which was a lot more then and is nothing to sneeze at now.

At the Daytime Emmys that year when they won the Lifetime Achievement Award, Marty Krofft said 'on the worst day of your life...try to help someone...'

Those guys are the real deal.

R38 I recall Which Witch vividly. I believe I received it as a birthday gift and it was a favorite for a couple of years.

R3 was into transformers before he transitioned

R36 remember fashion plates?

R36: I just bought a set of fashion plates!

This. I keep it in my home office and I don’t care what people think. Most people see it though and, if they’re around my age, they get excited about it. Otherwise, it’s “what is that green thing?”

It reminds me of my mom. She died like a year after I got the set and it got tossed shortly after in one of many, many moves in the years following.

Scrabble. I kept beating my stepfather when I was 11 or 12 (he was in his 50s). He didn't like me much on a good day, and after a year or so of trying, he finally beat me and was never willing to play it again.

I had one r54 I had lots of fun with mine

Big Trak. I had one of these in the early 80s and couple program it and play with it for hours.

And Capsela. My brother had this and forbid me to play with it. But it was 10x better than legos because you could actually build functioning, working toys.

For a year or so I was digging my SPIROGRAPH.

R58: I bought a set of those off eBay for my nerdy, gadgety nephew when he was little. They’re awesome!

I told my niece my favorite doll was Peteena the Pampered Poodle, and asked what her favorite doll was. She said she didn't have one, because having a favorite doll is weird.

Mattel's Bats in Your Belfry game!

My Lionel train set I was only permitted to set up at Christmas. Even that was iffy.

Construx. My brother and I had a big box full of these and we’d build so many cars, spaceships, buildings. I think this was the toy we played with the longest- from the mid 80’s until the mid 90’s.

They were so much fun to play with. We didn’t have legos or an erector set so this was our building equipment.

My favorite toy to play with that I didn’t own (but desperately wanted) was the Fisher Price Circus Train. It belonged to my dad when he was a kid in the early 60’s and every time I went to my grandma’s house I’d play with it for hours. It came with little ladders that the animals could climb, and a ball for the seal’s nose, and all the equipment fit inside the train car. It was the coolest toy to me.

What’s neat is that my grandparents kept a lot of my dad and aunts’ childhood toys so their basement is like vintage toy heaven with quality toys. I’d love to get this particular toy in the will.

My clear fleshlight

R65 I almost mentioned this. Growing up my best friend who’s mother was my babysitter many days had this and I coveted it so badly and was very envious. I had not seen it in person for many, many decades until I went to the Kidd’s Toy Museum in Portland, Oregon. Many of you posting here would have a field day there.

Orbie the wall walker, had suction cups and climbed the wall. Mother hated it. Always wanted a bozo punch clown with weighted bottom, too afraid to ask for it. Crayons with all the beautiful colors and the beautiful names for the colors…burnt sienna, magenta, violet, and cornflower.

Scrabble isn't a child's toy.

I have Simpsons Monopoly from 2004. All the references are from golden-era 90s Simpsons episodes. I will never part with it.

A teddy bear...Brownie.

I still have him.

GI Joes

[quote] Scrabble isn't a child's toy.

Why not? We played Scrabble as kids.

Ants in the Pants

Jacks with a golf ball

Battleship

Clue

Operation (we didn't own this, but played it at a relative's house)

A GE turntable and speakers in matching blue plastic. It still works sitting on a shelf in my office. I've kept most of my vinyl collection thanks to my Mom who let me store anything in her house. She turned my room into a guest room the week after I moved out and put everything I'd left in a storage room.

Weekend baseball games with a Superball substituted for a baseball. Parents made us neighborhood kids go to the nearby schoolyard to play it.

Bases were FAR apart.

Perennial fave

Marbles. I miss playing with them

my favorite 'toy' was my television.

It took me into other worlds and gave me hope there was something else out there.

I had a horrible family life. Father died super young. Mom became Beth Jarrett (apparently, all that shit about her being a royal bitch was NOT in the book. I'll have to read it someday.)

Older sibling felt displaced by my arrival; that was magnified by dad's death; JFC. It's a wonder I'm alive.

But we had a nice house.

I liked action figures, too.

I have a couple of these, think they’re great gift ideas too.

Hot Wheels. I had a really nice collection, in a Hot Wheels case, of course.

Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman, R25.

I had a big collection of board games like Stratego, Life, Monopoly, Clue, connect four, etc

I still have all my Star Wars toys from the 70's including the Millennium Falcon, Slave 1, Dagobah playset and a lot of action figures. All are without boxes but they are in really great shape. Planning to sell them soon as I realized I'd rather have the money they are worth than some plastic crap that is taking up space.

My favorite though was this Fisher Price Castle.

R83 I'm jealous about the Star Wars related toys but not the Fisher Price stuff.

What was it about my little toy garage that I loved so much?

Monopoly and Risk were my favorite board games. I have two siblings very close in age and we played these two board games constantly.

I also loved my Lite Brite, a new Slinky every Christmas, Silly Putty and a fresh can of Silly String whenever I could beg my parents to get me some.

My mom's uncle, who was only about ten years her senior was kind of a shady character who favored "all cash" types of businesses and once when we visited him he bought a case of Silly String for us to play with in his pool. I imagine he probably stole it!

dildos and buttplugs

I had the Wonder Woman colorforms and the Superfriends colorforms.

[quote]I loved this very complicated to set up 3-D board game called Which Witch...

Yes! We loved Which Witch, and although it was a bitch to put together it was fun. We had to be careful to assemble it very evenly or the damned ball would come down in the same room every time!

Also a shout out to Colorforms, Spirographs and the Creepy Crawlers/Flower Power assemblage of toxic burn opportunities boxes. We loved making things from the plastic goop, and I recall you could buy more goop at hobby stores. It's a wonder I still have skin on my hands. We were never even supervised playing with these toys as I recall!

This is quite fun.

I loved my Viewmaster.

Night glow race track!

those unused colorforms should be in a toy museum

Fisher Price Little People for the win. I had the house, my brother had the garage, and my best friend had the castle, schoolhouse, and barn. Runners up: Super Spirograph, Fashion Plates, and Superfection.