Toys of Christmas past....

Hell yeah....totally!

 

Doc...

Yeah, I "crashed and burned" a bunch of them!! Had the P-40, a couple different stangs and a pusher that I gave to a friend...

Bill

 

Mullet-tastic!!!

 

i'm surprised nobody has mentioned rock'em sock'em robots.

 

I did, but it's cliche....it's the must have toy for every generation.

 

Kept thinking somebody would mention the model rockets that like my brother and I used to build/fly. Don't know if they are still around- solid fuel ignited by a twelve volt battery- probably need a police escort to buy one now... I don't have a clue of the brand.

My brother got a noise making tow behind on a string truck for christmas way back. Grandpa didn't dig it- when my brother went clanging past him (kicked back on his Davenport) he bent down and busted the noise maker off and my brother carried on silently without even realizing.
When I was part way into this thread I was thinking jarts. Never knew I had the knockoff brand...
Otherwise good ol Tonka. I had a big yellow dump truck and another with a crane on it. Too cool. Lots of slot cars and hotwheels like most I guess. Dad got me a train set when I was about 6 or so. Think I will have to get some for the twins.
It wasn't exactly for Christmas but I got a Honda z-50 when I was 4 1/2. Not sure why four years old with a real motorcycle and 6 years old before I got a toy train but I had fun!

 

This is what now-a-days people call "vintage"

 

We're the same age and grew up at the same time in SE Mass. Spent a lot of time with my folks at Sears and downtown Brockton. Great times. Wouldn't go there now unless I was packing!

 

This was one of my favorites, the Strombecker slot car set:



Probably explains why I'm half hot-rodder and half sports car guy. Also explains my Austin-Healey with a small block Ford.

 

My favourite.

 

christmas toys...what a great thread....i had a blasting mountain...pump the toy plunger and it would push air thru a line and blow a top off a mountain....a 2' tall skindiver that really went under and back up.....a ton of pill powered subs and other miltary ships.....cox stuka dive bomber....and the cox trainer that was held together by rubber bands to teach ya how to fly one...crash, ya just banded it back together....cox indy car too.....estes model rockets...we had 5 of us and we had a "model rocket club"....12 years old???...a bomerrang...ya a real one...was getting good at it when it damn near cut the old man's head off...gone after that day...my 3 speed shiwin (sp??) metalic purple bike..snow white metalic banna seat...had a shifter on the bar in front of the seat...crash deby cars...these was the 1959 models..don't remember them but i got a pic of them n me dated 59'......the old plastic electric organ...slot cars...man from .uncle spy kit with pistol....yo yo ...mini reel to reel tape recorder...this one was a big hit way back when...

and probably one of my favs from when i was a lil guy.....a complete knight suit...plastic king authur suit of armour....couldn't beleive it when i got too big to wear it....

there was alot more stuff, but these are the ones that stand out the most in my old brain...at least they do right now

 

Some of my favorites:

Garbage Pail kids, The Dukes of Hazzard barncrasher, Fischer Price movie viewer, and my all time favorite... Ker-Knockers which I affectionately called knuckle knockers.

 

Estes was the big brand. I think I have a bag full of them in my basement I've scored at the junk shops. I'm sure that rates me as a terrorist nowadays

This is probably my all time favourite toy as a kid my Triang CP rail set I wore the gears right outta that. Also a cool monorail I got in 1969. It got played to death too!

 

Estes rockets. What a let down that was!

Growing up watching everything from un-manned launches to....well, the moon landing...I was expecting the kind of lift-off they showed on our black and white television,...slow and beautiful.
Oh no!
Spent all weekend building a beautifully painted rocket with perfectly contured fins and flawless fillets, only to see nothing but a smoke trail and a micro-second "pfft"......never saw the damn thing take off. I stood there dumbfounded thinking;
"Shit, I could'a done that with a pop-bottle rocket!!"

 

Here is the Christmas Tree in my shop , kind of a tribute to a boys Christmas past......

 

I remember those Auburn rubber cars. I had two of the Rancheros they made. I remember parking one on the space heater to create flat tires. I was a naughty little boy.

 

yeah they really did some drifting.....came home from scholl one day and swa one hanging on the main electrical pole feeding up to the neighbors house...my dad had a fit 3 hours lateeer when the Cincinnati gas and electric truck rumbled up to fetch it down for me...my mom told him to chill out...that i paid good money for it and worked hard building it.... i learned that nite about when to keep my mouth shut when i said "mom, it ain't mine....but it's a reallly cool one i don't have".....mom damn near beat me to death right there on the spot...seems there was a $200 fee for them coming out and getting it down....which was alot of cash way back in 1969

 

Lionel Train Set when I was 6. Long gone to who knows where.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

 

Born in 65, I had the usual GI Joes{with kung foo grip too}as well as the command station rig, the helicopter, a jeep and trailer and a 6 wheeler, a dresser drawer full of legos, matchbox and hot wheels, lionel trains{one marx set with the stupid different couplers} and of course, tonka trucks and cars. My parents liked me quiet and out of their way I guess....worked for me! I had a blue crate type bike with the bananna seat, the fat rear tire and a frame shifter, but I think it was a sears copy of a schwinn and not an official krate bike. Stuck alot of close pinned on playing cards to make the cool engine sound...all the kids did that then..I don't know why{lol}.

For the last two years I've bought and rehabbed old tonka trucks for my now 6yr old son and my 9yr old daughter even gets into it too....ok, and me!
My plan is to save all my son's hotwheels and legos..and the tonkas of course..for when he grows up and has his own son..if that fails I'll have some cool old toys {to play with} as an old man.

 

I have the estate wagon version of that car...modded with a color changing flame job.

 

Pardon me while I drift alittle left field here with this, but while the old toys are/were cool...I really miss the cool old movies we saw on TV back then....man I wish they made box sets of those just to see again and/or show the kids. The "origonal" flash gordon with the flames off the back of the ships, all the saturday B movies that used to be on TV, a regional channel here had what was called "family classics" on channel 9...lots of cool old shows like journey to the center of the earth, 20,000 leages under the see, crack in the center of the earth...man I loved those....and of course, speed racer!
Sorry for drifting off subject...now for another coat of paint on my son's pinewood derby car and alittle more wood working on mine.
Great thread - Happy holidays, whith whatever your persuation is-

 

How about these 2 model kits????...

 

I found remnants of my smash up derby cars while cleaning out my Mother's estate.
Brought back some memories for sure!

I know this is an old post I am quoting, but I got this same set for Christmas in '68 or '69.

 

I believe they were testors rockets, i used to build and launch them behind my school with my dad. i remember walking over a mile to retrieve one, was dumb luck that we even found that one, never did find a couple.

 

I can't tell you how many times my grandmother bought us cool stuff. Anything that broke before the stores opened after the holidays went back to the store. We had the demo derby SSP set, but it went back right away because it was not how toys were supposed to be treated. We had to make what we had last. Tonkas and hotwheels filled the blanks after the breakable stuff got destroyed and returned. I guess the idea was to create not destroy. Got hundreds of models, AMT, MPC, Revell etc.

No one has mentioned Big Jim with the breakable muscle band. Remember that comercial on TV. GI Joe was one I always wanted but never got.

Any one else remember the Matchbox and Corgi display cases. There was one in a store we went to that had rotating shelves chocked full of cars trucks tractors, you name it. The cars you bought were kept in the cupboard underneath.

Oh' I had plenty of those rubber cars too, we used a match to make just one or two tires flat. I still have that motorcycle somewhere too.

Oh the memories.

 

When Lawn Darts are outlawed, only outlaws will have Lawn Darts. Got a set stashed. And yes they are dangerous!

 

I also had the cox Vega funny car & Cox Jeep

 

My sister in-law still has one of the dolls next to the front tire. And I have the original mold from the factory that made the car.

This is a rare gas powered version, you can tell by the trunk hinges. The electric powered versions did not have an opening trunk.

 

I also had the Cox Vega wagon... Not sure if it was green and orange or purple and orange.. This was back in '73 er '74...

 

My all time favorite was my Eldon Top Eliminator Dragstrip set. A working tree ,two slingshot diggers that would wheelir and a win indicator at the finish line....Sigh!