I miss quality children's toys...

[doctor_wu]

Was there ever a toyota pickup(or highlux for world other than US) hotwheel?

[Azten]

Legos and Hotwheels... Power Ranger Megazords... Beast Wars Transformers...

I've got to go do something... important.

Like build a Lego City and have the Megazords stomp on Hotwheels while Silverbolt and Waspinator fight in the sky.

[LazarX]

Freehold DM wrote:

I'd say the big issue is the end of die cast metal. Sure, kids were hurting themselves, but those things were unbreakable. I remember when we tried to break a kid's transformer(heresy, I know) with firecrackers. I forget which one it was, but he was still playing with it later on that day. Only the plastic parts were messed up.

Plastic parts are cheaper to make and ship. The fact that the toys break sooner is a microcosm of the same system Detroit has employed for decades... planned obsolescence.

[TheWhiteknife]

Matthew Morris wrote:

Urizen wrote:

I need my vision checked. I thought you had said Hentai toys.

<wipes brow> That was a close one.

Umm, ever heard of the Hello Kitty 'neck' massager?

Hahhahahaha I had to buy my girlfriend this. Its a piece of crap. Of course we werent using it for its intended purpose.

I live in Hello Kitty Hell.

[BigNorseWolf]

I dunno. I've boug.. erm.. seen some of the imaginex dinosaurs and they're pretty sturdy.

I think the tougher toys stay in our memories longer because we didn't destroy and forget them after three days. Its a selective process.

[Azten]

Artificial Selection at it's finest.

[Russ Taylor]

Vic Wertz wrote:

I love that one of their best-selling models is called the "Mighty Dump."

Got one of those for each kid :)

[Kryzbyn]

About had a heart attack bakc in the late 90's, when they started to re-issue most of the 80's Gi Joe line of toys. I bought a re-issued Cobra Rattler, and was disgusted when I saw the shabby plastic crap they made it out of! WTF!?!?

[General Kelth]

Back in my day, D&D miniatures were made of lead.

[Fake Healer]

I have a bunch of Beyblades that I got for the kids and they are a really cool and tough toy....they play with them all the time and love battling with them. Let it rip!.
I kinda enjoy the idea of Battle Tops.

[Freehold DM]

TheWhiteknife wrote:

Matthew Morris wrote:

Urizen wrote:

I need my vision checked. I thought you had said Hentai toys.

<wipes brow> That was a close one.

Umm, ever heard of the Hello Kitty 'neck' massager?

Hahhahahaha I had to buy my girlfriend this. Its a piece of crap. Of course we werent using it for its intended purpose.

I live in Hello Kitty Hell.

Thanks for the site. It is AWESOME.

[Randomdays]

One of my old toys was the original Creepy Crawlers set. Take a metal mold, pour plastic goop in it and put it on the "Creepy Crawler Oven" and you got your very own soft plastic bug or monster.

Of course the "oven" was a just a small hot plate that got hot enough that if you put a piece of bread on it, you got toast (I know - I tried. In my bedroom, at night. Surprised I never burned down the house.)

Surprised nobody's mentioned the classic bag of green armymen. No one else blew their's up with firecrackers?

[TheWhiteknife]

Also, I was loved madballs.

And Garbage Pail Kids. (Not really a toy, but whatevah, it was my childhood.)

[Kajehase]

HarbinNick wrote:

nobody mentions playmobil? I'm shocked, shocked? What is this a casino?

Hear, hear! Damn, how I wanted that pirate ship - never got it, either. :(

[Kajehase]

But I had enough (25) "bluecoats" and horses to put them up in a scaled down "charging cavalry squadron" formation.

[gran rey de los mono]

Randomdays wrote:

Surprised nobody's mentioned the classic bag of green armymen. No one else blew their's up with firecrackers?

Firecrackers, no. My brother and I had a bucket with a mix of green and tan army men so we would each take a dozen or so, set them in the grass like they were attacking each other, and then take turns shooting the opposing force with our BB guns. If you knocked the army guy down he was removed from the game. First to take out the entire other side won.

We also built model rockets and would, on occasion, tape an engine to the back of a GI Joe (or whatever abandoned figures we found at the park) and launch them up the slide. Our record was when we strapped a C engine to the back of a Barbie we found and sent it about 150' through the air. That was a good day.

[Orthos]

Randomdays wrote:

One of my old toys was the original Creepy Crawlers set. Take a metal mold, pour plastic goop in it and put it on the "Creepy Crawler Oven" and you got your very own soft plastic bug or monster.

Of course the "oven" was a just a small hot plate that got hot enough that if you put a piece of bread on it, you got toast (I know - I tried. In my bedroom, at night. Surprised I never burned down the house.)

My brother and I had this. We never thought to actually cook food with it though.

[AdamWarnock]

Lego all the way. Check out some of the stuff on Flikr.

[HarbinNick]

I remember having a wall in the middle of the playmobil town, and shooting people who went over it. How strange 1989 must seem to a 5 year old today.

[Celestial Healer]

Not only did we build Lego castles, we then proceeded to roleplay D&D-like scenarios with the Lego men.

[Russ Taylor]

Celestial Healer wrote:

Not only did we build Lego castles, we then proceeded to roleplay D&D-like scenarios with the Lego men.

Now we've got LEGO sets just for that :)

[3ntf4k3d]

Legos are great. I still have a few boxes filled with them in the attic. Heck, I could even play with them today...

And I really miss the metal cars back from my childhood. I even had a few ones that changed their color when warmed up. That was neat. :)

Btw, speaking of Lego:
link

[lynora]

Bill Lumberg wrote:

Aberzombie wrote:

Urizen wrote:

Indestructible? You must've been hanging with the tamer children. :P

Hell no! My brothers and I helped push the expansion of the local hospital. Maybe indestructible was too strong a word, but no doubt that stuff was tough.

Are you old enough to remember the old Tonka trucks that were made entirely of metal? Those things laughed at most attempts to destroy them.

They still make them. They're still cheap. They're still nigh indestructible. People buy them for their kids and then when the kids get too old they abandon them in sandboxes at local playgrounds. Takes 2-3 years of being out in the weather and being abused my many children before they get too rusty to play with....not broken, mind you. Just rusty.