What's Your Favorite Vintage Toy?
erco
Posts: 20,257
With Christmas fast approaching, thoughts turn to toys. Check out this nifty web site with photos & descriptions of vintage toys: http://www.timewarptoys.com/toptoys.htm
My favorite toys from many moons ago were:
Vertibird helicopter (still have it in the box from 1971)
SuperStar freeflight electric cam-steered airplane
HUGE toy robot collection: Horikawa, Cragstan & Remco robots (sold most at yard sales for a quarter)
Mattel Vac-U-Form toy
Kenner Easy Show projector
Erector & Lego Sets
Slot car & train sets
Funtronics electronics set (!)
Later, I got my older brother's hand-me down computer toys: the Think-a-Tron and Digi-Comp 1.
What did you folks have?
My favorite toys from many moons ago were:
Vertibird helicopter (still have it in the box from 1971)
SuperStar freeflight electric cam-steered airplane
HUGE toy robot collection: Horikawa, Cragstan & Remco robots (sold most at yard sales for a quarter)
Mattel Vac-U-Form toy
Kenner Easy Show projector
Erector & Lego Sets
Slot car & train sets
Funtronics electronics set (!)
Later, I got my older brother's hand-me down computer toys: the Think-a-Tron and Digi-Comp 1.
What did you folks have?
Comments
Arcade Machines
OBC
http://www.grandoldtoys.com/toy/1964-remco-barneys-auto-factory-factory-sealed-in-original-box/
http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/marx-pit-change-charger-dragster-76635740
http://www.mysite4u.com/toys/topper/johnny_service/johnny_service.htm
Any building sets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girder_%26_Panel_Building_Sets
http://www.amazon.com/Super-Skyport-Deluxe-Building-Helicopter/dp/B000XPPUK2
Of course there were the trains, slot cars, etc and all the typical stuff. That was all before the video game craze.... A lot of if was gone through the years but I did pickup a couple nice slot cars sets to use with the kids.
Robert
I have a few C-64s and a few arcade games myself: Jungle Queen pinball (Gottlieb 1977, last year of all-mechanical), Battlezone, and Omega Race cocktail table. Previously, I have owned Pole Position 2 and Asteroids Deluxe. Still need to find a good Star Castle, dangit!
Another great toy was an anti-aircraft gun that had a long steel barrel with a very stiff spring. The spring was used to propel a rubber-tipped plastic projectile that could really hurt or damage an eye if hit by it. We used that to demolish models made from the non-Lego plastic bricks we had at the time.
On of our favorite (albeit non-destructive) toys was a battery-powered plastic ladybug with feelers that would cause it to change direction upon encountering an obstacle. The direction change was done entirely mechanically via a gear shift mechanism. (Obviously, our first mission was to disassemble the things to see how they worked.)
-Phil
Tin gas station, with service bay and cars (don't recall the make, but probably Marx)
The early 60s version of Game of Life (with the sculptured game board and Art Linkletter on the money)
Hated: Monopoly
-- Gordon
/Johannes
Mr. Machine robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgIm1mJCyRU
Great Garloo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0p0WRhAp9o&NR=1
Marx Shooting Gallery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGPWnSCdoz8
Classic Toys 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGPWnSCdoz8
2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n56ovXGpSr0
3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7vkc2K6hvw
4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg98ZYkv4mA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO8mlBaCLs8
Notice the first scene with the cars driving themselves. Toys back then could do that, you know. All the commercials showed it.
(And what's wrong with the kid at 0:46?!?! Freaky dude.)
-- Gordon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us6lUPDavNQ
"_Every_ boy wants Remco toys! (and so do girls)". Oh, yeah, girls. Forgot about them.
Those slightly predate me, but the Marx Shooting Gallery ad is deeply embedded in my brain. I must have seen that one a million times. I could almost recite it word-for-word. "Press the switch, and it's a rapid fire machine gun. Reloads itself, too".
I had one of the Easy Show projectors with Huckleberry Hound slides, and an Aurora Model Motoring slot car set, and of course Legos. And I had an Incredible Edibles set, and my friend had Creepy Crawlers. Gobbledy-Goop - I wonder what kinds of chemicals I was eating in that stuff.
[video=youtube_share;zc4Lv835TGI]
and a neat Baracuda submarine (Christmas 1962).
For Christmas (or B-Day - only one day between the two) back in the late 70s or early 80s I received a plastic welding kit that had enough parts to build two cars -a funny car and a dragster. It had a battery operated hand held "welder" into which you would place short rods of plastic. It would spin the plastic fast enough to weld when pressed against another piece. The kit consisted of beams and panels of plastic that all had to be welded together. I though it was the coolest thing ever. So did my step dad and our hired hand (grew up on a farm). Wish I knew what it was called - although I have a faint memory that I have brought this up before... a search for "plastic welding" does not find it.
$5 gets you a partial toy: http://www.shopgoodwill.com/viewItem.asp?ItemID=5915849
Or $200-250 on Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mattel-Spinwelder-Race-Car-Builder-/170684016203
50% Saltpeter & 50% Sugar rocks!
50% ground charcoal, 25% sulphur, 25% saltpeter... all good!
I got my inspiration as a kid for making gunpowder rockets from a book I borrowed from the children's section of the public library. Can you even buy saltpeter from the drugstore any more without at least being quizzed about your intentions?
-Phil
If you're over 50 they probably assume the saltpeter is for that *other* famous use.
-- Gordon
Ross.
Dude! Melt the sugar first, then carefully add the saltpeter.
I recently found out that tree stump killer is a potential source!
That's it alright, thanks!
I'll have to keep a watch out for it on eBay, $200 is a bit high.
Looks like I was wrong about it being battery operated, or perhaps the cord leads to a battery box? (nope, it leads to a 6V lantern battery) Either way, I find it amazing that I can remember something from more than 30 years ago like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiACyulRE78
But my best toy was a radio controlled metal bus. I was about 10, so 1962. Within a few days I discovered lots of motors, etc, much to the dismay of my parents! I probably had more fun with those motors than anything else, but it would have been cheaper for my parents to just buy me some motors!!!
And then there's Battsy Baseball. Still have that one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOTekK7vhs
-Phil
And Major Matt Mason, of course...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Remco-Barracuda-Submarine-/320787493211?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ab06cb15b