The Toys That Made Us

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Admiral2, Nov 7, 2019.

  1. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    I raced my matchbox cars in single elimination tournaments.
     
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  2. Henoch

    Henoch Glowing Globe Premium Member

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    Hot Wheels were faster...
     
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  3. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Depends on how you shoot 'em. I never saw a difference when I was stunt ramp shooting them out my window.
     
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  4. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    I had a LOT of Hot Wheels & Matchbox cars. All long gone, sadly.

    70's era Tonka trucks too. All probably worth a fortune now.
     
  5. Random_Spock

    Random_Spock Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Cool. Sounds like a nice collection.
     
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  6. Kerock

    Kerock Commander Red Shirt

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    I'll never forget that Christmas morning when I got my first Daisy BB gun. Looked like an old Winchester model 94 lever action.....so cool. We had some orange and grapefruit trees in the back yard. My Dad was sure mad when he was eating a grapefruit one morning and had to spit out a BB.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Kira's Mom

    Kira's Mom Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Kira's Mom is in Virginia
    You'll shoot your eye out!
     
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  8. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    Only if you pull the trigger with your toe.
     
  9. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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  10. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    My brother and I were definitely in the thick of the 3-inch action figure era. In addition to Star Wars of course, there were Fisher-Price "Adventure People" mentioned by auntiehill, and some that never caught on big like Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. Those figures could quick-draw with spring-loaded arms if you pushed a little catch on their backs. Of course the guns were soon lost. They also had horses which could be made to gallop by pushing a little button on their sides. I had pretty much aged out when the 3-inch GI Joes came out, but I did have a one or two.

    We combined all these figures into our own world, where they all interacted in elaborate plots and schemes, and where the Star Wars characters weren't necessarily Star Wars characters anymore.

    Kenner came out with a Star Wars TIE fighter but no TIE pilot, they actually expected you to stick a white stormtrooper in there! Well that was not acceptable, I took a can of glossy black spray paint to a spare stormtrooper. When they actually made a TIE pilot figure I was too grown up (c. 12 years old!) to play with them anymore.

    We had the first issue, my brother had the Viper and I had the Raider. The tiny pilot figure barely looked like the TV Cylons. IIRC we could have sent them back and gotten non-shooting replacements, but we liked firing off the little missiles until they got lost.

    Those were great. They stood a lot of abuse. My brother had one set with a forest ranger and a fine-looking collie dog. We just assumed it was Lassie and Ranger Corey, which I suspect was the intent. There were some dune buggy-riding figures called "Dune Busters" who, in my brother's conception of them, became disreputable borderline-criminal types. He had great fun playing them as total low-lifes. We lived on top of a hill and would take the Adventure People skydiver and fling him off the deck to land on the street below. The parachute worked well until one time it didn't open, and the parachutist figure shattered into its basic components. We found all the parts and tried to glue his torso back together, but the model glue didn't take well and he was prone to falling apart. Also the motorcycle rider had knee joints so he could straddle his bike, but the pins that held them together broke so we wired his legs together. Sometimes we would loosen the wire for a dangerous stunt so his leg might fly off.

    My brother also had little plastic cowboys and Indians. In some convoluted storyline he came up with, the Indian chief was melted, but he kept the little red plastic puddle, which continued on as the chief character, Ben Kenobi-like, with strong and spooky powers.
     
  11. XCV330

    XCV330 Premium Member

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    I would sometimes set up my lite-bright to look like a mainframe, but i could never the the blinkenlights effect.
     
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  12. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    So let's try to get the thread going again by talking about the Toys That Eluded Us.

    Here's what I mean. When GIJOE and The Transformers came out I was one of the bajillions who bought in whole hog, especially Transformers. Watched the cartoon, read the Marvel comics and of course, desperately wanted the toys, specifically my two favorites:

    AUTOBOT JAZZ
    [​IMG]

    and DECEPTICON SOUNDWAVE
    [​IMG]

    Now I come from a poor family, so getting anything less practical than socks for
    Christmas or birthdays was a genuine treat, but I did get such things, as all of the toys i've talked about so far were gifts, and I even got Transformers as gifts. These ones:

    ULTRA MAGNUS
    [​IMG]

    JETFIRE
    [​IMG]

    SHOCKWAVE
    [​IMG]

    and METROPLEX
    [​IMG]

    Now I can't say that my family didn't come through for me. Not only are these great toys in their own right, they're all bigger and more expensive than the ones I actually wanted. But...I was left with that unfulfilled desire all the way until I had a full time job and could start bidding on ebay.

    So, while you're thinking about the toys you got to play with, are there any you always dreamed of having but never got until you could gift yourself with them, or never got at all?
     
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  13. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The computer on Wonder Woman did look like a Lite-Brite.
     
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  14. Kor

    Kor Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I had some of the cheaper, smaller Transformers, such as the ones that turned into cassette tapes that you could put into Soundwave.

    Kor
     
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  15. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, those were the main reason I wanted Soundwave. I think the original toy came with one of the birds and you had to buy the others as accessories. then later they came up with the Autobot version Blaster, but it just wasn't the same.
     
  16. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Also the time I fully collected Ultrazord and they changed them out for new robots taught me about capitalism.
     
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  17. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Among the sellers.
    They made a version for bridges, too. I had that one.

    girder.png
     
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  18. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Among the sellers.
    1moldm.jpg
    Mattel_4401[1].jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2019
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  19. StarCruiser

    StarCruiser Commodore Commodore

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    Houston, we have a problem...
    Kept seeing that one in the Sears Holiday Catalogs (I think) during the 70's and wanted it bad...
     
  20. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Somebody else mentioned Bridge and Tunnel in the thread. i didn't even know about until this thread.