Toys or things you wanted as a kid that you were never allowed to have

inspired by:

i went to disney world a couple times as a little kid, all i really remember was the character 'figment' from epcot and a deep and unfulfilled yearning for these dog leashes wired to hold their position so you looked like you were walking an invisible dog

― :) Mrs Edward Cullen XD (max), Monday, December 1, 2008 9:38 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i asked for a rock tumbler like every christmas but my parents never got me one, which is probably good because why the fuck did i want a rock tumbler?

nintendo

http://www.csdm.qc.ca/pec/codes/atari2600.jpg

The Mousetrap game.

http://www.justdoughit.com/images/topBanner.jpg
http://www.justdoughit.com/images/middleBanner.jpg
http://www.justdoughit.com/images/bottomBanner.jpg

had nintendo never upgraded to the genesis :(

POW POW POWERWHEELS

http://www.tomfotherby.com/Images/Toys/crossbowsAndCatapults.jpg

i can't believe you can still buy this shit. one of my childhood scars is gonna get healed real soon.

Anything with little pieces that would invalidate the function of the toy or game if they were lost (Legos the exception)

A Lite-Brite (see above)

An Etch-a-Sketch

The Playmobil Victorian manor house

~~~~~@A BOYFRIEND@~~~~~

more than an hour of television per day

a yellow combine harvester.

i remember my mum telling me off because a friend of the family idly asked me what i would like for my birthday and i speeled off something like "YELLOW COMBINE HARVESTER UPSTAIRS IN RATIGANS PLEASE THANKS"

why the fuck did i want a rock tumbler?

Forward planning?

http://upload.moldova.org/movie/movies/s/shawshank_redemption/thumbnails/tn2_shawshank_redemption_2.jpg

the best chemistry set
steam-powered model railway

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005NK20.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

fuck yes! chemistry set! with one of those really really unsafe alcohol burners

Another one for a lite-brite here. Also really wanted a chemistry set, or maybe it was an electronics kit, when I was maybe 8 and made a lot of fuss, but when I got one aged 12 was totally "oh. well that's dull" about it. Sorry parents!

http://upload.current.com/uploads/Ic1BWo.jpg

http://bsalert.com/f-store/toysecuritycheckpoint.jpg

bugger

Oh god I wanted a Mr Frosty too. I wanted everything ever. I'm not sure if this thread is traumatic or just an embarrassing realisation of my greedy materialistic 8y/o self.

i mean i haven't seen a bottle of methylated spirits in literally years, all i can remember is how impossibly violet the stuff was, that and the invigorating "getting stuff done with grown-man chemicals" smell

My gfriend had a Mr Frosty - apparently they were shit. This hasn't cured me tho.

"oh. well that's dull"

They are. When I was ten I got the deluxe 300 in 1 huge version. Later I got hold of a breadboard and removed all the components. There really aren't a lot of parts in them at all. I mean, dismantle an old radio, there's more stuff there. Not that my parents were going to a soldering iron to a kid...

i wasn't allowed toy guns for a long time, until i started making guns out of legos and my parents gave in to the futility

i was feared to death of toy chemistry sets, i would have cried if someone bought me one of those.

Mr Frosty Yes!

had nintendo never upgraded to the genesis :(

― ice cr?m, Monday, December 1, 2008 11:10 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

NES pwned genesis WTF

http://www.dalsconetoys.co.uk/acatalog/b22.jpg

the finale of this tale? my parents bought me the RED combine harvester for the following christmas!

My gfriend had a Mr Frosty - apparently they were shit.

That's what my mother said, except not using the word "shit", but obviously that was all part of the conspiracy to deprive me of a bearable childhood.

I don't think I even opened my chemistry set or electronics kit. I didn't even pay it enough attention to remember which it was. I found it, severely faded but still shrinkwrapped, at the bottom of my wardrobe a few years back.

^^^ kind of hard to tell, as in the UK both would have come with a cassette narrated by Johnny Ball.

mr que otm

Games console and/or home computer FTW
Also for some reason, and totally out of charater, one year I wanted a "Biologie 2000" set (it was French) that included a whole (dead and pickled) frog to dissect.

sparkly high heeled shoes (okay, they would have been totally inappropriate, but wow I'm jealous of my 6 year old daughter's sparkly dress up shoes from Target)

Ah, I think my Invisible Dog from Disney World is in the attic waiting for my cousins to play with it...starting with the systematic freakout of all the real dogs they know.

I got all the things I wanted with x 1000000 pieces to them: Spirograph, Lego, Lite-Brite, etc.

i never got a scalextrix bridge piece
or a remote-controlled airplane

-pony
-trampoline
-swimming pool

Mr. Frostys were shit. I had more fun grinding up crayons in mine (then cooking the shavings in the EZBake oven).

I even got a Betty Crocker EZ-Bake oven but I could already do real cake from mix so that was stupid to buy me. My toys phase was replaced by clothes/culture when I was 10 and I am VERY glad for that. Otherwise my Farrah Fawcett styling head would never have got PUNKED.

skateboard

Crossfire, and I mean the proper full size 70's one, not the crappy 90's version

Yeah, I'm trying to think of what strongly wanted thing was denied me. I think i've probably blocked whatever, but my parents strongly encouraged my budding dorkling interests: rocketry kit, chemistry sets, 200-in-1 electronics board(blew out the transistors & the onboard speaker within two weeks, i think), legos, capsela, erector set, plastic fighter model kits, etc.

Also, I had a rock tumbler, and I can safely say it was as underwhelming as parents probably knew it would be. We put some rocks in, left the thing in the basement for a few weeks (ie long enough for me to lose interest), and then magically had shiny/soft/round rocks, which presumably went with the rest of my rock collection, which mostly only existed so I could feed my obsessive borderline-aspie interests in collecting and memorising utterly useless things.

lol - see also Airfix planes, rock "collection" (bits of quartz etc. picked up from neighbouring driveways), coin collection, blah-de-blah

also, "stuff that relatives wanted to buy you that your parents then vetoed" - in my case, an Estes (I think) rocket kit

http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/images/08-28-08-pistols.jpg

http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/6108-SpaceInvadersCabinet.jpg

We actually had one of them, which made us the most popular kids in the world! Well, in our street. Actually, it wasn't a Space Invaders, it was a multi-game thing with space invaders and pong and asteroids and some other shit on it. We had the keys to ping the credits button, but used to make the annoying kids that only came round to play with it rather than see us actually put their 10p in it.

http://www.wotever.co.uk/images/spudgun_300.jpg

"too violent"

and the results:

-rocket had a few successful launches in nearby test field(suburban golf course) before being lost with all hands on board in a tree

-chemistry set was bubbling away with some concoction with a too-well-sealed test tube that promptly blew out the plastic cap and brown/green liquid all over the kitchen ceiling

-chemistry set also helping to bring in later pyromaniac phase thanks to handy alcohol burner and frequent requests for gross boxes of matches from local pharmacy

-erector set battery pack teaching the value of conductive heat by sticking a paperclip between the leads and using to set scraps of paper alight

-plastic cement from model kits will dissolve styrofoam plates quite nicely and be easily lit by alcohol burner

Anyway, all I wanted was to be allowed to watch Grange Hill because everyone talked about it all the time and I had no idea what they were on about, because Grange Hill was SUBVERSIVE and if I caught a glimpse of it I would instantly start taking drugs and possibly other terrible things like hitching my skirt up to make it like a mini skirt and wearing blue eyeshadow and pixie boots, rather than the altogher different result of being the spoddy kid whose mum and dad didn't let her watch a KID'S TV SHOW. Still, I was a spoddy kid with a computer game in my room, so a winner was me.

erector set

i feel this may require some explanation

-chemistry set also teaching the value of rubbing alcohol on hand, arm, pant leg, etc, will burn and evaporate, (usually) without harming the flesh underneath.

-Found out later that Motley Crue used this same thing to good effect in live shows

(xxpost) the incongruencies of parental rules

example: no to a crappy guitar, yes to a crappy keyboard

oh yeah i wanted to play drums but my parents would never let me. i am still a frustrated drummer

erector set

Did you ever see _The Sandlot_?

something like this:

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/ErectorSetBox.jpg

http://www.prwauctions.com/erector%20set.JPG

Google search also results in erector sets and linux programming used to build various models of K9

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/02/diy_k9.html

oh man so like meccano technic

i'd have been all over that shit as a kid

http://bp0.blogger.com/_KHal4yREE3Q/RuzBVnL80OI/AAAAAAAABvg/FJ1cJronVWw/s400/Minibike.jpg

Dunno about Mr. Frosty, but I sure wanted one of these:

http://modculture.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/23/snoopy_snocone.jpg

For some reason, I also really wanted one of those devices which polishes small (presumably ordinary) rocks to make them look like gemstones. I was a strange kid.

i definitely wanted one of those snoopy things. we'll probably buy one now for our kid although I bet they're crap.

I wanted a bb gun for a long time.

Yeah, I was denied watching certain tv shows more than any toy that i could use to blow things up/burn shit down

shows denied(for a while):

-You Can't Do That On Television
-Married with Children
-whatever late 80's sitcom episode had a "special message" with a warning to parents beforehand

trip to disneyworld
nintendo/sega/whatever
cabbage patch kid
lunchables

Also, I get a kick out of the fact that there's now a full blown industry of folks who'll happily remanufacture and sell the shit to you that you always wanted growing up, only at about 150-200% the cost.

Either that or it's a sad sign that we're at the end of history and we can only consume the pop detritus originally shat out two or more decades ago.

Your choice.

Then, of course, this was always this thing:

http://www.mvsws.co.uk/Ships%20etc/Boxed%20Ships/AT-AT/AT-AT%20Box.jpg

which was cool but never at the top of my list.

Another related subject: the vast difference between how cool the star wars box photo dioramas were from whatever you could set up yourself

http://www.latoys.com/playmobil/images/3666l.jpg

...and its brethren. Got the pirate ship, though!

http://www.maxtraxracing.com/images2/Avis_Track1.jpg

xp Yes! I wanted this house v much:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/48/134974603_c2875fd7ca.jpg

I was never allowed to have an ELECTRIC lego train set! I was allowed the battery operated one, and of course the battery compartment corroded, and my parents said "see, this is why you weren't allowed the electric train". I blame cheap batteries.

I was once tempted to ask for 20 Stormtroopers so that I would have a proper squad, rather than just having one. I always felt sorry for my one Stormtrooper, like where were his brothers-in-arms? You couldn't rely on a Biker Scout or a Snow Trooper, or heaven forbid an Imperial Guard for moral support.

i had some cool toys and board games, but my parents wouldn't let me have a video game system. not that i begged them for one -- i asked a few times, they said "you don't need it," and life went on. as an adult, i think "it'd be nice to have a wii," but then i hear my dad's voice echoing "you don't need it."

Yeah, loved the Victorian Playmobil - maybe didn't want it as much b/c I was into fantasy, and all the other miscellaneous garage-sale toys that coexisted with the Playmobil were dragons and monsters and so on... but I was still fascinated by all the little details you could see in the Playmobil catalog.

Nowadays you can buy a Playmobil Hazmat Team

Megatron, cos he turned into a gun.

a pony.

i didn't have a mr. frosty, but i had a snoopy sno-cone machine. it was excellent. my father would make shaved ice in it and pour coke syrup over it when i was home sick.

I wanted a small b&w pocket telly that was relatively cheap but still sort of pricey (~$100). What I got was a fucking ghetto blaster with a full CRT telly embedded into it AND a cassette deck and radio that cost about three times as much. Not only did the thing charge through D cell batteries like nobody's business, it were not even close to being pocket-sized and therefore useless to me.

That is the story of my childhood, and why attempts to turn this only child into a spoilt brat failed with aplomb.

I wasn't "disallowed" from having any particular toys. But many were cost prohibitive. Here's one I always wanted but never got...

http://www.toyzine.com/magazine/articles/alien/alien+box_lg.jpg

BTW, this is the best Playmobil set out there and you can still order it--cheap.

http://thedailydish.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/playmobil6.jpg

Giant GI Joe Space Shuttle
those battery-powered Jeep things for kids

My brother and I wanted a pool, and whenever we begged our parents would say, "Sure." Pause. "Pay for it yourself."

I also wanted an American Girl doll (Samantha was my favorite). I never actually asked for one because I remember my mother expressing shock that one of my friends had one when "they're so expensive! and for a toy! i can't believe it!"

Ah yes. My parents said "Save your pennies!" so, basically the same thing.

wow i feel dirty posting to this thread. not complaining, i swear! i had a good childhood, my parents did their best, i don't need a stupid american girl doll! (xpost)

http://rinovelty.com/imagedb/products/_Detail/CASNAPS.jpg

i think these are banned now. also those little sealed pouches of bicarb and vinegar that you'd twist, put in somebody's blazer pocket and wait for it to explode.

i mean, i wasn't allowed to have these, but i bought them anyway.

my parents said the same thing about a pool so i actually did think really hard about how i could save up tens of thousands of dollars to pay for it myself, and then not let them use it

ooooh that reminds me, there is some videogame my mother banned my brother from getting...for his 21st birthday in September. He plays the games in the living room and she said, "That's violent and offensive and I don't want to have to see it." It was kind of hilarious to me that they were having that argument, when he could've just bought it and not played it while she was home, but that's probably indicative of why he's still living there and I'm not. No idea whether he got it in the end.

xpost that's brilliant and evil, I guess it didn't work out though?

Wow, that AT-AT brings back memories of WANTING!

Also...
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/transformersset.jpg
http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/transformersset.jpg

Well, that wasn't meant to be the same picture twice.
http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/2/5/7/2/8/7/webimg/200436240_o.jpg

Giant GI Joe Space Shuttle

We got this from a yard sale and I can confidently say that it was FUCKING AWESOME. I mean seriously so many moving parts and compartments and stuff! The shuttle dock, the big shuttle (that folded out as a sort of multi-story building) and the LITTLE shuttle that docks on the back of that. For a couple of years this was almost as useful to me as the extra slab of leftover countertop that I would use as a floor plate in various block castles/cities.

I got that GI Joe shuttle for X-mas!

I never got an NES. ;_;

There was a kid in my neighborhood that had the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier. But he was a spoiled prick and none of us wanted to hang out with him, even if he did have the coolest stuff.

The kid I knew who had loads of Star Wars stuff was a total jerk as well

(xpost) win some, lose some
although a lot of these giant pieces of plastic seem to be (advertising jingle) "almost as much fun as the cardboard box it comes in!"

My parents threw out everything they thought was toxic but wasn't, e.g. Magic Sand, Slime. Trumatised me.

Also, was madly keen on this:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/297557060_2865489b8e.jpg

I associate that with Weebles - am I thinking of a different treehouse toy? Those people look insufficiently round-bottomed.

My parents would pretty much buy me whatever - toy guns, skateboard, Atari, BB gun, so nothing was really off-limits except for money. The GI Joe aircraft carrier was always the ultimate desire but I knew it was way out of touch. I've never even seen one live, sadly.

But I never got an AT-AT, which was at least more attainable, money-wise. A friend had one and it was awesome.

http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/tokyobike/bike_images/chop/02.jpg

http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/tokyobike/bike_images/chop/02.jpg

--Skateboard
--GI Joe Aircraft carrier
--the Hot Wheels "city streets" playset (dunno if that was the name, it was a bunch of connected streets w/signs & shops. They had one at daycare and I wanted it sooooo bad)
--the big playmobil sets (the victorian house, all the castles and forts)
--some of the big TMNT playsets (had most of the figures, but aside from the "party wagon", never had any accessories.)

I too got a GI Joe space shuttle at a garage sale. It was cool, but by then I was outgrowing that stuff.

Neighbor kids had all the TMNT shit. The Technodrome and the Mutant Module were kind of a waste of time since they were SO far off from anything like what it was on the show - but the Turtles' sewer was actually pretty cool.

I also had the Party Wagon, which I remember as having a pretty good "feel" to it - substantial enough that you could really crash it into other toys.

Yeah, alot of the TMNT stuff suffered from scale issues. (I mean, the party wagon was almost bigger than the technodrome!) I had the same problem with the 90s Star Wars toys.

Now that I think of it, another playset I never had:

http://www.empireislanduk.com/Pictures/ghostbusters/playsets/hq%20box%20front.jpg

I did get (and still have somewhere) Ecto-1.

Barbie dream house
Christmas tree 'cuz we're Jewish
a cat

Now I have an awesome and get a super deluxe Christmas tree every year because I married a shiksa. Take that, mom.

an awesome CAT, that should say.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/wishbook/ussflagg.jpg

0_0

lol "one figure included"

Those same neighborhood kids had the Ghostbusters headquarters - there's not really so much you can do with it though, aside from play with the elevator and pour slime through the roof. Turtles sewer was way way better, but maybe that's just because I loved the Turtles and couldn't give two shits about the Ghostbusters.

http://rerevealed.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/farrah-fawcett.jpg

My mom took one look at that poster and forbade me from getting it.

haha, so much of this thread consists of stuff produced between 1977 and 1987

The children of the 90s were either spoiled rotten or conducted all of their playing within virtual Cybernetic Space.

I think I was never totally sad that I didn't get the GI Joe aircraft carrier because I knew that despite being 7 1/2 feet long, it wasn't anywhere near to scale. I mean, real aircraft carriers hold hundreds of planes, not just one. I had problems with the AT-AT, the Millenium Falcon, and a couple of things for the same reason. I was a pedantic nerd.

Also, Crossbows and Catapults is the best thing ever, I totally forgot about it.

Never wanted any toys for Christmas, never got any toys for Christmas. And that was perfectly fine by me. My friends had all those Hot Wheels/TMNT/GI Joe toys and I absolutely fucking HATED them. Weird child I was.

I was completely sold by this ad for Super Van City ("Working bridges!" "A car wash!"), but Santa brought me a more reasonably priced racecar set instead. He left me a note saying something like, "Oops, it looks like my elves ran out of Super Van City wheels. But don't worry, here's a toy that's as special as you xoxoxoxoxo."

I was only disappointed for about 10 seconds.

^^^ OH GOD: I remember Super Van City like it was yesterday.

I also wanted an American Girl doll (Samantha was my favorite). I never actually asked for one because I remember my mother expressing shock that one of my friends had one when "they're so expensive! and for a toy! i can't believe it!"

― Maria, Monday, December 1, 2008 10:37 PM (Yesterday)

My grandma (accidentally?) sat on my sister's Samantha doll, crushing her little porcelain nose and promting emergency superglue surgery. It was already a few year old at that point, so my sister was well past her American Girl phase. Didn't those dolls sell for something like $80?

for me, it was POW POW POWER WHEELS

http://www.mrtoys.com/fisher-price/pics/Fisher-PricePower-Wheels-Fire-Rescue-Jeep.jpg

Apparently I had one when I was about 1-1/2 years old - my dad made an impulse buy at the Toys R Us. My mom banned him from letting me play with it (I was too young too be really conscious or thoughtful, which is why she didn't ban me specifically) and it rotted in the garage. It was a red jeep-ish looking thing.

Apparently now you can get Hummers, Vipers, Batmobiles, Escalades, ALfa Romeos (!?), choppers, and the main character from Cars. Goddamn new millennium kids.

Wandering around in the local Fred Meyers tonight, someone had set the new Millennium Falcon out of its box and atop several other boxes of SW bric-a-brak. The thing is like 2x the size of the old one, with a cockpit large enough to actually fit four dudes in!

Of course, the fact that it was $120 and that modern SW lego sets run for $40-50 a pop doesn't make me envy these meddling kids.

Never allowed this, as was too expensive:
http://www.fabuland.net/pages/setlist/pics/350.jpg

In finding that image, discovered Lego hasn't made Fabuland since the late 1980s. Fuck Lego, with their stupid Star Wars and Indiana Jones sets. Bring back the animals!

I dont remember being massively disapointed by not getting things: the no no things were the expensive ones and somehow I understood that and didnt tanty over it. No cabbage patch dolls, no Big M hulahoops, and a big no to those wooden clogs with rollerskate wheels built in that you flipped out with a switch (too dangerous).

We got a tramapoline though so hey :)

I think I wanted a Barbie Dream House and RV at one point and didnt get it mind you. But the way I treated my dolls its no wonder.

http://www.newkicksontheblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/nike-air-max-light-jd.jpg

i had to wear decent shoes, which i still do.. (+ mom thought those were way too expensive)

She was right.

scalectrix
big track

generally i asked for lego every birthday and christmas, and that was what i got. so i generally had no complaints.

one christmas they decided to get me a meccano formula one car instead, which was okay until i made it and then after five minutes it fell apart because i hadn't tightened the nuts and bolts properly. I never had any more meccano.

'generally'

I was completely sold by this ad for Super Van City ("Working bridges!" "A car wash!"), but Santa brought me a more reasonably priced racecar set instead. He left me a note saying something like, "Oops, it looks like my elves ran out of Super Van City wheels. But don't worry, here's a toy that's as special as you xoxoxoxoxo."

awwww . . . that's so sweeet!

"I learned to speak bullshit from an early age..."

generally i asked for lego every birthday and christmas, and that was what i got. so i generally had no complaints.

Yeah, there was a whole lot less coveting of other people's toys once I got heavily into Lego, and then later computer games. There were probably some horrifyingly expensive Lego sets I made a fuss about wanting, but I got a couple of the big sets and had enough Lego to coat my bedroom floor several times over, so...

(Though a friend of mine had an older brother whose room was FULL of proper toolset-style fold-out compartmentalised drawers of Lego organised by size and colour, plus all the Lego Technics stuff which I wasn't old enough for so I only had one of the very simplest sets. I was... sort of jealous, but more in a "that guy is TOTALLY AWESOME, why does he not want his kid brother's dumb little friends touching all his carefully-filed Lego?" way than expecting my parents to buy it.)

on the Lego Technic front, I'm pretty sure most people hankered after this...
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1381/930911698_d2ed7ec690.jpg
I never got one either. I knew someone who did, but he never bothered to finish building it, the cock. Myself, I tried to roll my own using the Lego that I had, but I never had enough bits, particularly the unusual bits like the bevel gears.

I don't even know what this is but I want it now:

http://theswca.com/images-speci/womansday/full1.jpg

WTF? This was produce by Woman's Day Magazine and not endorsed by Kenner. How crazy.

http://theswca.com/images-speci/womansday/full2.jpg

Why was it only the kids who didn't deserve stuff got it? As an example why did the kid who shot me on the leg with an airgun get an air rifle while I wasn't allowed one because they were dangerous? HOW WAS THAT FAIR!

That looks like the set of Logan's Run. Actually it looks like the end result of carefully following instructions to make one out of sheets of plywood. (which obviously you've just said!)

(xxxpost) But then it didn't matter, because around age ten I discovered that it was possible to dismantle things and the bits inside looked like Lego Technic. Except better, because people were throwing things away and so I could make stuff from junk.

that lego technic car, i remember finally getting that one and building it sooooo fast. my dad was fascinated by the gears which i didn't really understand.

I got a Scalectrix set, but my dad (yet again missing what makes fun things fun) NAILED ALL THE TRACKS TO A GIANT BOARD and adorned it with fake grass and mountains and silly trees. So I got to make my car go round in the same circle until I got sick of it, which from memory was two hours later.

re Nike Air Max shoes She was right.

oh yes! but those were the Gabber/Hardcore days, everbody cool or so it seemed, was walking in Nike's and Aussies. (and listening to the Party Animals/Paul Elstak)

I got a Scalectrix set, but my dad (yet again missing what makes fun things fun) NAILED ALL THE TRACKS TO A GIANT BOARD and adorned it with fake grass and mountains and silly trees. So I got to make my car go round in the same circle until I got sick of it, which from memory was two hours later.

okay thats pretty funny

Also in the Scalectrix disappointment canon:
1) dad gets inferior brand of track (often second hand from free ads section of paper)
2) track is powered using frankly dangerous re-appropriation of car battery charger, resulting in that familiar burning smell
3) actual Scalectrix cars are used, which owing to the difference in scale between the cars and the track, looks ridiculous
4) "competitive dad" mania cuts in

haha, so much of this thread consists of stuff produced between 1977 and 1987

― Brotherhood of Stealing Shit to Sell to Trader Caravans (kingfish), Monday, December 1, 2008 8:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not sure why this is weird given the age demographics of this board

I also wanted a Baby Alive doll when I was very small. My mother said no as it would surely attract roaches. My friend had one and it was very unfair.

(xpost) I think that people who were kids after 1987 aren't old enough yet to be nostalgic about the stuff they weren't allowed to have.

They're still wanting them.

nah they just don't post on ilx for the most part

nah, it's because they GOTTEM!!

I wanted a puppy.

(xxxpost) And they can also want all the stuff that we wanted that's being reproduced. Speaking of which, surprised no-one has mentioned this...
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41vsbP5wk1L._SL500_AA280_.jpg
...another in the series of "things that the unpopular jerk kid's parents bought him so that the other neighbourhood kids would hang out with him but it didn't work out that way". As well as the aforementioned Star Wars stuff (Falcon / both types of walkers / shit-tonne of action figures), the local jerk kid also had the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. Which would nearly always flip out and crash before getting anywhere near the two-brick-and-a-plank-of-wood jump. So I suppose that at least it was realistic. Jerk kid also had the jet bike with the red jet engines on the side, and the "rocket cycle", which, again, worked about as well as the real thing, ie, not at all. None of this encouraged any of us to hang out with the jerk kid, however.

i remember my mates dad threatening to give me his sons scaletrix set after he'd been naughty. He kept it up for a while and I just stood in awe because I really believed I was about to get a free scaletrix set all for myself, while my mate ran around the garden crying his eyes out.

I swear this is the last time I'll mention the Lego Technic Car Chassis, but I used to study the commercial every time it came on the TV. I can't find it on YouTube, but the "duh duhduh duh duhduh... duh duh duhduh duh duh duh..." techno music they used haunts me to this day.

Too get all anal: people, it's SCALEXTRIC.

http://www.theoldtoyguide.com/Images/scalextric-aston-martin-c68-green-detail.jpg

soz

haha i actually knew it was but i thought i'd keep up my typo

Everyone I knew pronounced it "scal-ec-tricks".

When I was six or seven, I would have long involved conversations at school with another boy (whom I hardly knew) about how enormous our respective Scalextric sets were. We were both lying through our teeth, hoping that the other wouldn't call BS.

I had a babyalive doll and it all got clagged up on the indside with the weird food paste.

We've experienced that with real babies, too.

food, shelter

Never had the "Super Van City", but I did get the "Toolbox Town"

Those same neighborhood kids had the Ghostbusters headquarters - there's not really so much you can do with it though, aside from play with the elevator and pour slime through the roof.

Yes, but it would have been a cooler place for my figures to hub out of compared to the cardboard box I made due with.

http://www.millionaireplayboy.com/images/dissect/alienbox1.jpg

Never allowed this, as was too expensive:

In finding that image, discovered Lego hasn't made Fabuland since the late 1980s. Fuck Lego, with their stupid Star Wars and Indiana Jones sets. Bring back the animals!

I had a bunch of Fabuland sets & they were totally awesome.

They've done a Lego SW/Batman/etc., etc.. They should do a Lego Animal Crossing.

Lego changed ownership in the mid-80s and all of a sudden entire castle walls were one large lego with bricks painted on the side. It was a bummer and we were kids and we still knew it was fucked up.

As for why all the toys mentioned are from a certain era--it's sorta the same story. Toys actually got lamer in the mid-80s through the mid-90s (thanks in part to a Battlestar Galactica toy that some kid used to choke or blind himself).

It's only when the kids of the 70s started having kids of their own, that this reissue madness set in. I used to frequent Toys R Us out of curiosity and just felt horrible for people younger than me...

Toys have definitely gotten better again, especially thanks to Todd McFarlane and all that he has (sorry) spawned....

the best chemistry set

unfortunately, once your older brother has had one of these, your parents will never be so foolish again :(

I remember really wanting a Cabbage Patch Doll but that year they were all sold out and my parents couldn't get one so they had a friend get me a soft one which were a lot more $$ and limited edition or something but when I got good ole Trixie Alice I hated her because she wasn't like the "normal" ones my friends had. /spoiled brat.

(xxpost)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/209/469563364_a753aa3aed.jpg
I used to have one of these. Actually mine was in better shape than this example - might be worth something if I'd kept the flipping box and hadn't snapped Buck's legs off. Anyway, it's a Buck Rogers Starfighter for anyone who isn't an old fart. It's one concession to safety compared to the TV version is the bar joining the two points at the front. It still fires tiny missiles that might not be a real choking hazard, but certainly hurt when they went in your eye.

1. shoes with flashy lights in the heels YES
2. meccano

I wanted some lego light-and-sound or whatever it was called, as well, which I didn't get but my brother did. Except he was pretty uninterested in the whole Lego phenom so it was mine mine mine finders keepers etc.

I think there's a technology aspect to toys getting better. Now it's very cheap to make a toy with a button that you push and it says one of a hundred different phrases. But up until the last decade, electronics like that were very expensive and fairly rubbish.

A fucking Atari. My parents got me a Bally Astrocade instead.

omg just rememberd, i always wanted either Scramble/Firefox (forget name) or Astowars. Instead I got Frogger!

Astrowars, sorry my typing got a bit frantic due to a huge surge of memory comeback

I wanted Astrowars as well, but after seeing a friend's version - basically the same but in a flat case instead of a wedge shape - I decided otherwise.

http://www.marxtoymuseum.com/_borders/greenmachine.jpg

http://www.23mag.com/mags/bab/bab8210.jpg

http://www.acclaimimages.com/_gallery/_images_n300/0174-0601-2415-5119_young_woman_and_her_palamino_horse.jpg

^^^
i insisted it had to be a palimino. like i had a chance of getting any kind of horse.

Why are Mr. Frosty and Snoopy Sno-Cone so commonly desired by us and denied by our parents? Seems like such a random choice, and yet I really wanted that dang Snoopy Sno-Cone maker too, but never got it. Could the strong desire for Snoopy Sno-Cone have anything to do with the fact that the TV commercial for it aired for years on end?

I believe my wife actually had one of these and that it caused a worrisome amount of finger scrapes.

I also wished for and never received a video game system. One of the first things I did when I left for college was buy a Sony Playstation - ha, take that mean oppressive parents!

On the other hand, I did have some pretty sweet Star Wars toys including that AT-AT. It still lives at my parent's - my son got to play with it recently and my heart was filled with fatherly pride!

I think my brother may have had that Ghostbusters playset.

RADNESS UNLIMITED!

Hate to break it to you upthread but we had Crossbows and Catapults and it was awesome.

I also had a secret and shameful desire to smell the hair of a Strawberry Shortcake doll. I knew it was wrong because it was obviously a toy for girls, but there was something intensely fascinating about the idea of hair that smelled like fruit.

also: chemistry set, atari, http://lisadickerson.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/barbietownhouse.jpg + the car and i spent a few years in the 80s begging for a marantz gold hi-fi. i mean look at this fucking turntable. its beautiful:

http://www.oaktreeent.com/web_photos/Stereo_Turntables_CD/Marantz_TT-1060_Gold_Stereo_Turntable_web.jpg

i remember some store at the mall having thwm on sale for $1986.00 because it was 1986.

i had a mr frosty and to those of you who were denied - yes, it was as great as you imagined.

Yep, I had Crossbows and Catapults too and it was pretty great.

Also, Dark Tower! Kill those Brigands!

(xxpost) You could probably find that in a thrift store/charity shop now. There seems to be a turntable in every one I go into.

And... Dark Tower ad voiced by Orson Welles

fudgesticks...

"Last night, I was pissed out of my mind on that sherry that I also advertise. I can't believe that I'm doing this for money! Did you ever The War Of The Worlds? That was me! I scared the living shit out of millions of Americans! Now I look like the Santa from that rip-off UK Lapland theme park!"

ever hear The...

...because I too am pissed on the sherry that OW used to advertise...

I also really wanted to get Picture Pages as advertised on Captain Kangaroo, mainly because I imagined it came with a pen that made a cool noise when you used it just like the one that Bill Cosby had.

To my knowledge no kids ever actually owned Picture Pages.

WTF? that video won't play when it's embedded. Never mind...

Ooh, Fireball Island

I have a vague memory of really REALLY wanting 'Hungry Hungry Hippoes' for a while, until I actually played it at a friend's place, and it seemed to have baby poo smeared on some of the buttons, which made it less appealing. Not that I imagine it came with baby poo, but even so.

Yeah, Fabuland was the best. Radness unlimited!

the criss-cross-crash race car set

fuck me, they still make it -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hot-Wheels-Criss-Cross-Crash/dp/B000FVTPTQ

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Hot wheels Hot moves, 11 Sep 2007
By Alexandra Welch (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars

This is a review from my twelve year old son (I don't play with cars anymore honest).

When I first got my hot wheels criss cross crash set I was really excited and I couldn't wait to open it. after I got it set up I realised I couldn't use it because I needed 4 size D batteries which was a little disappointing. next day my Dad brought home batteries and we began to play, and it was amazing. The batteries turn cogs which when the cars go past them make them speed up really fast. The cars speeded round and round the track you could put on about 5 at once and then they would catch up to each other and start smashing and throwing each other of the track, sometimes they just fell off by themselves cos of the speed. Some cars seemed to stay on the track better than others the hummer (my favourite) wouldn't fit the track at all. The first night my brother and I played non stop for about 2 hours.

The next night I set up the v-drop another Hot wheels track, this is like a vertical drop you can hang over a door or something and the cars do a death defying fall before flying off really high. Cos you can connect different tracks we added the criss cross and v drop together to get really big stunts, most of which didn't work but that was half the fun, the problem was cos we had the track really big and high the track kept falling apart and the cars kept going over the side but when it worked it was class the cars went flying. I like that you can attach the sets to other hot wheels sets. so overall I thought they were really good. The fact that you can add tracks and change the shapes and cars means this toy will keep you playing for a really long time. I think having at least two tracks which interchange means the fun will last for a lot longer.

"but when it worked it was class"

i think thats british for 'RADNESS UNLIMITED!'

Aw, he doesn't mention if his dad was drinking beer while playing it with him, before a coupla hours pass and the dad is just trying to get the cars to launch over empty beer bottles.

Hate to break it to you upthread but we had Crossbows and Catapults and it was awesome.

Yes! I had it and I found it again at a thrift shop which means I HAVE IT NOW... (but all the rubber bands are dried, decayed, and broken. Must fix some rainy day...)

Wish I still had my Dark Tower game! That was so fun.

I don't think i had all the side sets, but I did have the main ones, and yeah, crossbows and catapults was great.

teddy ruxpin ;_;

once at my cranky grandmother's me and my sisters and cousins all got this excited notion that she was going to get us a walkie-talkie doll from america, which may not even have been a thing, but instead we all got a smack and some cold meat for dinner.

a tv set in my room
speak & spell
some relatively fancy Casio keyboard
drum set (never dared to even ask)

sugar
television

I was a deprived child

flamethrower

Around age 10, I was visiting my dad's boss's house for thanksgiving or something. His son had just acquired an Ibanez bass guitar. He played lots of cool stuff on it, including the breakdown from Metallica's Orion. I asked my parents for a bass guitar probably everyday. They finally broke down and decided to ...

... let me take guitar lessons on my mom's acoustic guitar.

Man, it wasn't the same. I eventually "moved up" to electric guitar, but never switched over to bass, as had been "the plan."