Courtesy of the Monday Memory site, natch.
Share a memory about your favourite toy. What was it, why was it your favourite, do you still have it, where did you get it?
We were not a toy-rich family, for, I imagine, a variety of reasons. Toys were something we got (a) on birthdays (in limited number), and (b) at Christmas (the big bonanza).
I don’t know that I had a favorite toy. From an early age I spent a lot of time reading, instead of toy-playing. But I have memories of a few that are of note:
- My machine-gun. Somewhere in the late 60s my Mom decided that there would be no more toy guns in the house, a reaction to the escalating violence in Viet Nam and a visit to the VA Hospital to visit by cousin Leon. This was, of course, a quixotic stance, since we found various other implements in the garage to use as guns, or, failing that, pieces of wood. I think I still have, in some box, a piece of wood I found on a hike or a vacation that made a great blaster …
… but before that ban, I had a green plastic Thompson Submachinegun, military style (straight magazine, vs. a “Tommy Gun” round magazine). (The picture to the right is the real thing; the toy was a bit foreshortened, I believe). It had a knob on the side that you could pull back so that it would rat-a-tat when you pulled the trigger. Even after the end of the barrel snapped off, it was still fun.I have no idea what happened to it. Did it completely break and get thrown out? Did it get, um, tossed when the edict about guns came down? No idea.
- Major Matt Mason: When my friend Andrew (whose mother my folks played — and still play — chamber music with) outgrew his MMM toys (we’d call them “action figures” these days), I inherited them. A treasure trove! MMM was an astronaut, and I got him and a few others in his cadre and some alien types and more Space Gear than you can imagine, including an incredible moonbase.
There was also a keen turret-mounted laser platform, ostensibly for “Moon Mining” but, as all us kids knew, really designed for blasting the snot out of alien invaders. Ditto on the little anti-grav sleds, the little rifles, the probe-rocket launchers and other accoutrements.
Mattel, the manufacturer, was sensitive to mothers like mine, who didn’t want Junior playing violent games, but realized that what kids like me really wanted were toys to let MMM shout (as Spaceman Spiff would say) “Eat hot photons, Martian scum!”On weekends when my folks were not watching TV (or were out doing something), I can remember taking the white quilt (the one with various dog breeds printed on it), make a big mountain out of it in the middle of the family room, and then set up the MMM base. Great, great fun.
- Hot Birds: We had Hot Wheels, and various accessories, but, really, there was only so much interesting you could do with that orange track. The HW cars were fun, but more fragile than MatchBox (and more expensive, too, I suspect). But, for one Christmas, Mattel came out with Hot Birds, the same sort of die-cast critters, but as various cool jets, along with cool stickers you could place on them. My brother and I each got two of them, and I still have mine. Lots of imaginative play came out of that, I’ll tell you. Technically, you could put a little string guide in the center of them and run them along a string across the room. In reality, of course, you flew them throught the air in your hand, making whooshing noises, crashing into each other, and strafing hapless army men.
In the picture here, I had the one in the center (my favorite) and the one in the lower left corner. My brother had the upper left and lower right.
- TinkerToy: We weren’t a Lego family until pretty late in the game (though I had fun, up until high school, making Indestructable Lego Tanks, and then destroying them with Lego Meteors). TinkerToys, however, were way keen. I’m not sure why, now, but I remember having great fun playing with them. Our set was old enough that the little windmill blades were green cardboard, not green plastic.
Wow. Aside from the Tinkertoys, I was a violent little bugger as a kid. Hmmm.
Anyway, I’m sure there were more “favorites” than that, and my Mom will probably remind me of them when she reads this, but that’s all that comes to mind right now.
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… but before that ban, I had a green plastic Thompson Submachinegun, military style (straight magazine, vs. a “Tommy Gun” round magazine). (The picture to the right is the real thing; the toy was a bit foreshortened, I believe). It had a knob on the side that you could pull back so that it would rat-a-tat when you pulled the trigger. Even after the end of the barrel snapped off, it was still fun.
Mattel, the manufacturer, was sensitive to mothers like mine, who didn’t want Junior playing violent games, but realized that what kids like me really wanted were toys to let MMM shout (as Spaceman Spiff would say) “Eat hot photons, Martian scum!”
I remember Tinker Toys. I’m typing this with a cat helping – not an easy task. I should leave the typos in to show you. Her nose is on my fingers.
We never had lego either, and it was something I always seriously covetted when we went to my cousins house. They had a huge amount of lego, it was wonderful! They also had a shop. There was a shed in their garden that got filled with empty boxes and cans their mother must have collected for months, and they had a cash register, that made sounds just like the real thing. And play money that looked quite real too. We only had homemade play money. We didn’t get toys either, except for birthdays and christmas.
I wish I’d kept more of them. I only kept some books which my daughter now has, and my teddy bear. *She* had lego! No way I was going to miss out again!
I do believe that many toys these days are bought as much because the parents wanted them as kids (or think they would have) as by what the kids themselves want.
I always wanted a set of slot cars. I probably could have had them too, if I had asked, but I always had the feeling that I shouldn’t. So now I play with full sized cars (I’ve even been offered a ride in a stock eliminator drag racer, but I haven’t had time to accept. Yet.)
We had a couple of slot car sets over the years. Bo-ring. One car is always faster than the other, and that’s that.
Of course, it would have been more exciting riding inside the slot cars …
Way to steal bandwidth, asshat! Enjoy the new picture!
Hmmm. Sorry about that — didn’t realize the high volume of viewers of this four-month-old post were sucking so much bandwidth away from your site, “Mom.” I’ll “fix” it later …
Guess what? I Don’t fucking care that your lameass site gets only 4 visitors a month. Host your own images, fag.
I see. You’re just into it because the principle of the thing. How … principled. And you put the page I was linking to (tackdriver.com), and the causes the owner of that page supports (the NRA, the GOA, and Second Amendment Foundation), in such a good light, too. Bravo.
I have, at your request, moved the pictures to be hosted at my site — since, after all, in principle, you are correct. Apologies for any discomfort the previous situation caused you. Any other discomfort is, I hope, chronic.
How about I come over to your place and steal some of your stuff? Just
a few things though, not much at all. Where are your principles now?
Thanks for your concern about my comfort. The only chronic discomfort I feel is lame bloggers who think they have the right to force others to host images for their site.
Oh, and good play banning my IP address. Pure class act.
Well, you know, “Your,” if you had a lame-ass site with just four visitors per month, I probably wouldn’t notice if you linked through to a graphic. And if I did notice a significant bandwidth suck, I’d ask you to take it down.
Of course, I might ask politely, but, then, I’m a fag asshat, so what do I know about civil behavior?
As to the IP address ban, I figured it was a polite, civil, even subtle way to let you know you‘re sucking up excess bandwidth here. But, clearly, my communication attempts are too crude for a class act like yourself.
haha classic internet fighting, i love it… i like to post such things on more viewed mediums though… thanks for the laugh guys