...that are probably a bit shit by today's standard.
1. Chutes Away.
Improved by standing toy soldiers on the disk and bombing them.
Ahh a bit shit, was very happily remembering Lego.
Well not Lego, but my matchbox car race game (metal spring coiled, with lubricant, thst pulled round track I think), that jammed a lot, didn’t work well with carpet fibres, animal hairs and household fluff
+1 for Lego in its most basic form which seems very different from the current themed kits which current kids might find boring. Also a 60’s child and it was the start of my interest in how things work. Endless opportunities and variations of outcomes.
Yeah, has to be Lego even more than Meccano.
Does a bike count as a toy? I think that having a bike and cycling took up a larger part of my childhood than even Lego did
Super flight deck - the number times that plane either got stuck or failed to turn around so you were trying to land it in reverse.
My competition winning peaked in the mid 70s, when I won this in a Spot The Difference comic competition.
Pink panther ripcord car!
Actually I reckon it might still be pretty awesome. Plus there's ample opportunity for damaged furniture and trapped tiny fingers
Lego beats everything. Our house is absolutely crammed with Lego as both kids love it and still play with it a few times a week at 16 and 13 but a few years back I noticed a cheap set of 80s Technic lego on FB marketplace. We were a few days away from going on holiday to Devon for a week so I bought it and we took it with us - damp October half term was spent walking on the beach, sitting and cafes and sprawled on the floor of the static caravan we were staying in playing with old skool technic. Brilliant. Since then this box has been kept seperate from the other Lego and still goes away with us each holiday.
Mentions for Micro Machines, Matchbox cars obviously get in there and I remember having a fair few fuzzy headed Action Men. Oh and obviously my Hornby train set. Still got a drawer full of model railway stuff now which I should really do something with and build a layout again.
Lego and mechano. I had a mechano crane creator kit which was just so good.
But it’s the improvised play that’s best.
i one made a flight deck from a dinky toy plane, paper clips, fishing line and hard board for the run way
Another good one was making playing card castles and then shooting them to bits with my breach loading Howitzer
I never got bored of my vertibird helicopter (basically a remote controlled helicopter on the end of a stick) but the windup and go Evel Knievel was one of the great disappointments of my life.
https://corporate.mattel.com/brand-portfolio/vertibird
This thread is a great way of seeing who actually read the first line of the first post
i had a very cheap plastic skateboard for xmas in 1977. bought from Leo's supermarket in wakefield. both the skateboard and the supermarket were utter shyte.
i bought my son a very good quality board for his xmas present in 2001. is was fantastic. proper good quality deck. trucks that moved with ease. good quality wheels and bearings.
he used it a few years. then bikes became his thing. last summer he brought it to our house for his nephew, my grandson. and he bloody loves it. and it is still quality.
Action Man was great. I had about half a dozen of them ranging from the original, fixed hand, plastic hair version through to the flexi grip, eagle eye, fuzzy felt hair version.
Endless hours spent making up scenarios and stories playing with them.
In reality I guess they were a bit shit as they didn't actually do anything and the elastic that held the arms and legs on on early models rotted if it got wet (deep sea diver's suit in the bath) and eventually all his limbs fell off.
I can't decide if Swingball was terrible, or just that I was (and still would be) terrible at it...
Manta Force - I was lucky enough to have both both of the big ships. Proper good toys when I was a wee lad
The (bogus) "isn't Lego shit these days, it was so much better when I was a kid" argument has been done several times over in the big Lego thread. If you hanker for those days, you can still buy a big box of bricks.
https://www.lego.com/en-gb/product/lego-large-creative-brick-box-10698
Cost-per-brick it's almost half the price of themed sets, before deals.
This thread is a great way of seeing who actually read the first line of the first post
like any thread over 15 posts here. It’s a great reflection of the male psyche 🤣
Hornby trainsets. Locomotives that looked nothing like the real thing: I'm looking at you Class 08 & Class 37; carriages missing entire windows and scale metres in length over the prototype; that sodding ringfield piece of dung motor which required constant tinkering & only had 3 poles so slow running was nigh on impossible; curved track with radii that even a tram would wince at; zero1 (they could have at least put a connector in the loco chassis so my dad didn't have to solder every single connection); but worst of all their total failure to jump to HO and proper scaling, so now we have track that is completely the wrong size & everything looks like it's on Russian gauge. A prime example of British exceptionalism. Sort of but not quite fixed after they bought Lima and threw their own tooling in the skip.
Thomas Salter Chemistry Sets... The bigger the better... where are they in these H&S enlightened times?
Meccano was my thing. I'm not sure it's shit by today's standards, mebbies needs a bit too much input for too little instant gratification.
Thomas Salter Chemistry Sets... The bigger the better... where are they in these H&S enlightened times?
Meccano was my thing. I'm not sure it's shit by today's standards, mebbies needs a bit too much input for too little instant gratification.
Scalextric - borrowed a set recently and was reminded that it's actually rubbish. Spent longer assembling all the fiddly bits and getting it to work than actually playing it.
Manta Force on the other hand, I'd play with that now!
I thought Meccano was shit back in the day. It took too long to build, was fiddly and would fall apart when you played with it.
Lego was much better IMHO. Instant gratification. You could throw stuff together, and if it wasn't right you could pull it apart just as fast. Still got a house full of Lego 50 years later.
What he said.
I never got on with Meccano. I hated that it was imprecise, and it rusted in my sweaty little palms.
Matchbox Race & Chase.
Like a tiny Scalextric butwith cars that could do handbrake turns and go the opposite direction and fly over a see saw bridge. One cop car, one Corvette getaway car.
Brilliant at the time but rendered a bit shit the first time I played Driver on PS1.
Still got mine Tomy super cup football. Oh how I lusted over that game, eventually negotiated with my mum to get it (I had refused to go to the doc about a knob issue, she bribed me to go). It was bloody brilliant (the game, not the doc fiddling with my knob). As was that test match board game
Both kinda lost their appeal the first time I played fifa and brian lara cricket on the PlayStation however.
Im glad I'm not the only one who hated meccanno. To fiddly, to tricky. Once my dad made the little wilis jeep I never wanted to take it apart. Which kind of defeated the whole point of it.
Not technically a toy as such but I once got given some indoor fireworks for Christmas. I thought they were awesome but I'm guessing they were actually shite to anyone above 10 years old
This thread is a great way of seeing who actually read the first line of the first post
like any thread over 15 posts here. It’s a great reflection of the male psyche
Or indeed read anything after the first few words of the title. Anyway, cheese is great and gazelles, what are they like? Thomas Hardy FTW and approach every junction in prime position because Helen Mirren is best.
Most of my suggestions have already been posted, so I’ll offer any of the execrable (by modern standards) “Game and Watch” LCD handhelds of the early Eighties.
And thinking of toys from the early Eighties…
My bike, mud, string, a saw, twigs and branches, water, wellies, snow.
My toy machine gun. I now accept it cost as much as my brother's microscope set that he got for Christmas the same year and I played with it loads. Sorry mum and dad for saying what I said that day. It still haunts me some 50 years later 🙁
For those feeling nostalgic, you can access all the previous argos catalogues online..a great little trip down memory lane.
I almost forgot: fire !
My ActionMan truck was the fatsest down the hill and round the bend into the car park in our close. It had a great flat bed on the back I could kneel on and it used to steer round the bend pretty well. kids riding their Tonka trucks and Barbie/Cindy cars had no chance!
Now my kids just look at me like i'm a sad old man, when I tell how cool and fast I was and how I won all the races....They'll never get it!
Tomy super cup football. Oh how I lusted over that game, eventually negotiated with my mum to get it (I had refused to go to the doc about a knob issue, she bribed me to go). It was bloody brilliant (the game, not the doc fiddling with my knob). As was that test match board game
Came here to say both of those. My brother and I lost hours to both.
I also nominate Crossbows and Catapults (double loop the elastic bands for more powerful projectiles).
Another vote for flightdeck. We'd use old airfix planes, stuffed with French bangers and cotton wool. Catch it on fire, launch from bedroom window, have to land it before it blew up!!!
Tank Command - the tanks were played with independently rather than as part of the game.
The worst one and I didn’t have it, was probably Stretch Armstrong 🙂
My bike, mud, string, a saw, twigs and branches, water, wellies, snow.
Why do you consider those things to be shit by modern standards?
Your bike may have changed but surely the other things are pretty much the same as they were.
Test Match
Subbuteo
Slime! (What would your children think if they asked for a new phone and you gave them Slime? I can imagine the deeply puzzled look on their faces. It came in a plastic dustbin IIRC.)
Most of the things I used to get as presents as a kid tended to reflect the fact my folks didn’t have a huge amount of money to spend, so books and Matchbox, Corgi and Dinky toys, I still have quite a few of the books I was given, the very battered cars disappeared years ago, although they wouldn’t be worth much now, they really took a hammering!
The books, though, were very important, I learned to read at an early age, so a mixture of junior encyclopaedia, nature, and history, along with various story books meant I developed a pretty good vocabulary and deep love of nature and science.
Why do you consider those things to be shit by modern standards?
I didn't say anything about considering anything to be shit, on the contrary I just answered the thread title question honestly about the great toys of my childhood.
I'll add magnifying glass for looking at tiny things and engraving/setting fire to things on sunny days.
Airguns and spud guns! Everyone had guns 🙃
Yeah - we had a few air guns, sheath knives, Barnet Diablo catapults etc.
The worst one and I didn’t have it, was probably Stretch Armstrong 🙂
i begged my parents for a stretch Armstrong. They refused. 10 seconds after holding one in the school play ground i knew why
The power of advertising
Barnet Diablos and Gats are definitely on the 'not shit' list.
A bath toy. JoJo La Plongeur
A little fella on a high dive board. When you filled up the bottom he dived off the top with a pop. Loved that little guy
Britains Deetail.
Still collecting even now 🙂
The wikipedia pages Waterloo Officer with flag is a photograph of my orginal. He is a bit faded as I kept him in the window for to long :-(.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britains_Deetail
PS If any of you guys still have any in the loft, I'm interested. 🙂
My personal favourites include a hoop, a tangerine and a piece of coal. I'd still be happy with any of them but I doubt theyd go down well with the niece.
Lego, my boys are playing with stuff my mum and uncle had, stuff my sister and I had and stuff my niece and nephew had.
Empty boxes still go down a treat
Super Flight Deck.
Even in the hallway, the lowest setting sent the plane straight into the end wall.
When summer came I could run it outside, the full length of the garden, but that's not important.
This was the first big craze that I lived through. It was a global phenomenon.
I remember how hard they were to get. It was one item per customer in Toys R Us so people were doing laps trying to get the full set.
We completely missed out on the first wave and I didn't get any at all until well after Christmas.
There was a similar thread on my old school Facebook page. which reminded me of the those two balls on a piece of string that bounced off each other when you waved your arm up and down at the right speed then eventually shattered sending fragments everywhere.
That's them, I couldn't remember the name. Quickly banned in school after which there didn't seem much point.
How 'bout the length of corrugated hoover pipe we used to wirl round our heads to make a whooshing noise...?
Loved loads of the old boardgames. Risk, Formula One, Totopoly etc.
I used to pick up some old stuff from jumble sales and the like.
This affliction has followed me into adult life and have quite a collection of board games.
Swingball- wore the lawn out playing it with my sister.
The maddest toy as a kid was the set of 3 throwing knives my gran gave me. They had been my dad's or uncles.
Who gives their kids throwing knives!!!
Who gives their 12 year old grand son throwing knives!!!!
I've still got all my fingers and only had a couple of gashes.
The thing was they were rubbish throwing knives. I spent hours lobbing them at posts and might actually get them in point first one in a hundred times.
Toys my kids will not be getting- throwing knives!
Someone said it earlier - subbuteo honestly the worst toy ever ever invented. Expensive, fragile, those stupid pitches that kept rucking up, having to paint them, didn't work properly....just utter crap
But as its a 70's 80's toy thread - can anyone remember a set of plastic 'robots' or androids which were about the same size as play people (again crap) but semi translucent with loads of accesories and really expensive so i didn't have any but my rich mate had literally all of them. they were ace they were but unlike say star wars figures which crop up everywhere I've never seen or heard of them again
EDIT having just done a bit of googlefoo, it appears they were called Micronauts and if my mate Toby from 1979 has any left then he is sitting on a fortune!
I had Micronauts. They were ok at the time, but in retrospect... bobbins.
Wanted a chopper but got a space hopper instead. Helped build the thunder thighs I have today.
Evel Knievel stunt cycle.
I had the usual stuff (Lego, Action Man etc), but there was something special about the sound, the speed, the ability to make ramps out of books, rider under the sofa. this thread got me searching for one now at the age of 52!
Someone said it earlier - subbuteo honestly the worst toy ever ever invented. Expensive, fragile, those stupid pitches that kept rucking up, having to paint them, didn't work properly....just utter crap
But as its a 70's 80's toy thread - can anyone remember a set of plastic 'robots' or androids which were about the same size as play people (again crap) but semi translucent with loads of accesories and really expensive so i didn't have any but my rich mate had literally all of them. they were ace they were but unlike say star wars figures which crop up everywhere I've never seen or heard of them again
EDIT having just done a bit of googlefoo, it appears they were called Micronauts and if my mate Toby from 1979 has any left then he is sitting on a fortune!
I had the mobile exploration lab it was ‘ace’ , I played with it until every moving part had pretty much broke.
This was the time the Star Wars figures were around, oddly after Return of the Jedi the Star Wars figures lost popularity and were bargain bin sell offs until the next lot of films started then boom.
Most afternoons were spent playing with Action Men.
Wanted a chopper but got a space hopper instead. Helped build the thunder thighs I have today.
TBH you didn’t’ t miss much, as a cultural icon great but as a bike, heavy and not that great to ride.
I’m not sure my plums ever recovered from the design flaw inherent in that bike either 🙂
This thread is a great way of seeing who actually read the first line of the first post
like any thread over 15 posts here. It’s a great reflection of the male psyche
Or indeed read anything after the first few words of the title. Anyway, cheese is great and gazelles, what are they like? Thomas Hardy FTW and approach every junction in prime position because Helen Mirren is best.
Best that you grate the cheese on the gazelles then grill for a couple of minutes.
Johnny 7 - was nearly as big as me when I was a nipper and fired all manner of projectiles 🙂
Consider that people did read the first line but might not have exactly the same idea of what might be considered (in general by kids of today) a bit shit. A generation that gets a screen before they can read. Anyhow, once again any excuse to slag off other users.
Action man eh! I still have mine, and apart from shooting people, moon missions and scuba diving I think I done everything for real my action man did.
Most afternoons were spent playing with Action Men.
Oh, that brings back so many memories!
I used to load up my action man with so many accessories I doubt he could have stood up in real life.
Tracy Island. Yes, the Blue Peter Tracy Island, made from bog rolls and newspaper. Not the plastic one from the Toys R Us.
Lost too many hours to Subbuteo, but by modern standards it's a bit naff, only ever got Super Flight Deck working properly once, by commandeering the upstairs landing and banning our parents from accessing their bedroom as the control wires were strung from the bedroom door.
Subbuteo was an odd one. It looked great in the box but was pretty awful as a toy.
Tank Command too.
I'm sorry but subbutteo was ace then and still ace now!
About 15 years ago me and 15 other lads held a subbuteo world cup over a weekend, host city of Edinburgh. Everyone chose a country and sourced their team from Ebay.
4 venues for the group games, then the knock out stages held over an evening in my mates flat. Great laugh, everyone smashed out their mind.
I was England, we got put out on penalties in the semi finals so fairly true to life as well