Yesterday we went to ToysRUs to finish up some Christmas shopping for the boys. Since Ben is 3 1/2 and Zack is 1 we still have the luxury of being able to take them with us. If Ben asked who the things were for, we just told him they were for one of his cousins. ;-)
While looking through slot car tracks (I was thinking Ben might be old enough for one, but I don’t think he is yet…) I got to thinking about the toys I remember having as a kid. The good ole’ days – when toys were cool and they could probably hurt you but no one seemed to mind that you played with them. Remember Yard Darts? There was no warning that you shouldn’t throw them *at* other people. Who would have thought?
“Yard Darts and” A List of Other Deadly Toys – http://www.retrocrush.com/archive/deadly/
A few that come to mind almost immediately – there are probably others which Skippy will undoubtedly remind me of. He’ll probably also remind me that I shouldn’t end my sentences with a preposition.
Like Hot Wheels. And I don’t mean the Hot Wheels you buy today. You know, the ones that are half plastic and are of cars I have never seen or heard of and that have never existed. Try finding a regular fire truck or police car or ambulance at your local Wal-Mart. You’ll be hard pressed to do it. But you will find Hot Wheels without wheels – that’s right – Ben once got a helicopter Hot Wheel as a gift. Can it really be called a Hot Wheel if it doesn’t have wheels?
And what self-respecting boy didn’t have G.I. Joes? And, as you can tell by the sample photo above, I grew up the mini-GIJoe era. The pendulum has now swung the other way, I believe. Amazingly, I have a trash bag full of these in the attic. It’s the one thing (besides my baseball cards) that parents actually saved.
Stompers! Anyone remember these? They were great fun. 4x4 miniatures that ran on a single AA battery and had soft foam tires and working lights? I had several of these and stowed them neatly in my official Stomper’s collector case. Alas, they have disappeared with the passing of time. But I checked on Ebay – reclaiming a piece of my past is all too easy with over ~150 different auctions related to Stomper collectables. There’s a great Stomper historical site at http://www.route21.com/stompers/.
Ahh, Voltron Action Figures. This cartoon used to be around and I’d run home from school every day to make sure I didn’t miss it. It was (in retrospect) a pretty lame Japanese animated cartoon with these 5 robot lions that were piloted by these teenage “hero” types. The toy, however, was spectacular as far as I can remember. The individual lions came together to form the Lion Force Voltron Warrior. The way I remember it, the thing was made out of die-cast metal, too. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking… From what I can tell, the cartoon is no longer around but there’s some details on its upcoming resurrection (and associated merchandising line, I’m sure…) at http://www.voltronforce.com/.
And last - but certainly not least, as it was the entire reason for this post and my trip down toy nostalgia lane – is the original Dukes of Hazzard electric slot car racing set. Complete with a HO scale replica of the General Lee and the Hazzard Sherriff’s police car. I wasted hours of my childhood (when I really should have been outside playing) running these things around and around the track. This, too, probably ended up in a yard sale years ago.
The way I look at it, I can replace the major sources of joy and satisfaction from my childhood for around $300 on Ebay…if I wanted to do such a thing. It’s the closest thing to a time machine we have right now. And if you have any of these stuffed in a box somewhere in your attic, you might be sitting on a small fortune. ;-)