Just been at 'softplay' with my girls - ohh how I wish we had ball pools and stuff when I was a kid. I remember the first few appearing just as I got too old for them.
Wish I'd had Scalextric. Got it now, but it's not the same. 🙁
to have started to have learned the guitar from a young age (i'm 36 and crap after trying to play for last 6 years 🙁
Mariocart on the Wii. I'm presently trying to make up for the time i didn't play it as a child
Mariokart on the Wii +1
Any of the video games. Although, I'd have been a pasty little nerd what might have liked star wars...
To be fair...all of them.
And that's probably what most generations would say. 🙂
Internet pr0n
PS3
Internet pr0n
but what about Hedgerow Razzle? Surely more rewarding?
+1 For Scalextric. Asked for one every christmas, never got one, dad pulled a really old one out of the loft one year, transformer blew and nearly set fire to the house, think that put paid to that.
On the flip side, wish they would bring back Subbuteo, my mrs' younger siblings don't know what they're missing!
A black widow catapuilt
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As a kid, my neighbour used to have one and he inflicted so much pain on me with one, I could never get anywhere near close enough to him with my home made catty, that is, until I bought a crossbow 😉
All those saying computer games - you do realise that the zx spectrum in the 80s was the pinnacle of the genre and it's been downhill ever since? Half life 2 or whatever is like the Nickleback to Jet Set Willy's Led Zepellin.
Soft play? we had building sites and derelict buildings to play in/on/vandalise. infinitely more fun 😉
I wish we'd had a good concrete skate park and BMX track, still aren't any in the county I grew up in
you do realise that the zx spectrum in the 80s was the pinnacle of the genre and it's been downhill ever since?
Disagree 🙂
Happy slapping.
Underage drinking.
N-Dubz.
My MTB.
Soft play? we had building sites and derelict buildings to play in/on/vandalise. infinitely more fun
Agreed. From memory we had a derelict house complete with piano (where I learnt to play 'batman', an old air raid shelter and a whole 'crag' full of boy-made mud slides, caves (always with bonus Playboys hidden away somewhere) etc....
The Internet?
Though on second thoughts:
Nerf Guns.
A black widow catapuilt
Thinking about it, I am 42 & still want one 😯
Trail centres. Especially considering as I kid I lived just over the hill from Afan!
I remember when a mate's big bro got an Atari. I thought that would be all you would need for a complete and meaningful life. This was late 80s(? when did they come out) I think I was about 8. Never got into them much though and lost touch circa sega mega drive being good.
+ 1 for Hedgerow razzale. You don’t get that any more. Who buys off the shelf p0rn any more?
Like others said: my MTB would have been good. But if i turned this around and asked what pastimes i'd like now, it would still be a football and my mates i kicked around with when i was a kid.
Just been at 'softplay' with my girls
In a past life, I used to build those.
(Softplay units, not girls) (unfortunately)
Methamphetamine 🙁
You must have coined it Cougar- getting in early to the soft play game. They're everywhere.
if you mean the Atari 2600 with wood effect front around 1977/8I remember when a mate's big bro got an Atari. I thought that would be all you would need for a complete and meaningful life. This was late 80s(? when did they come out)
You must have coined it Cougar- getting in early to the soft play game. They're everywhere.
I'm sure someone somewhere coined it in but unfortunately it wasn't me. Only time I ever made any money was when we were working away; the boss waned it done ASAP to reduce hotel bills, so we worked 12 hour shifts seven days a week till the job was finished. It was back-breaking, but almost worth it when your normal monthly wage briefly doubled. It's a shame I was being paid in chocolate buttons cos, sadly, twice nowt's nothing.
if you mean the Atari 2600 with wood effect front around 1977/8
Late 80s would have been ST days.
Nothing. There are bits of my life that could be improved (I wish I took mountain biking more seriously in my twenties) but my childhood was not one of them. I didn't have every toy I ever wanted, but I had more than I could play with. I was also lucky enough to live at White Hall Centre near Buxton so had acres of land to run around in, build dens, play on assault courses (pre health and safety), climb on the climbing wall, ride my bike, kick a football, play rounders, shoot hoops, crawl through tunnels...
...it brings a tear to my eye thinking back to how lucky I was 😀
A Kona Stinky 2-4
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Ah, of course, bikes.
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my little pony
As a kid I was into Lego, Radio Controlled Cars, Playing Sport and Riding bikes.
I don't look back at all and think I wish I had anything else, I actually look at my life now and wish it was simpler!
A mountain bike, when I was too big for my BMX I was bought a 5 speed road bike. I wasn't allowed to ride on the road on my own, so guess how much use the road bike got.
The best toys were, are, and always will be:
Cap guns. Proper metal ones. (i had a cowboy style one)
Lego Technic
Lego has gone all crappy with big pre-molded bits, and i bet you can't get metal cap guns anymore. So those of us that were kids in the 1980s had it way better than today.
Lego has gone all crappy with big pre-molded bits
Couldn't agree more.
Technic Lego was very definitely the easiest way to keep me occupied as a child, which made it pretty easy for my parents come Christmas time as they didn't really have to use their imagination much!
I had a terrific amount of LEGO.
My gran sold it all one day without telling me because I was "too old for it." Must've been thousands of pounds' worth, I think she let it all go for about 30 quid.
Twenty+ years on, I'm still cross about that.
an old air raid shelter
Juast the one? where we lived you could travel from one street to the next across the top of air raid shelters in the backies. Such jackanaperie had it's own language. You could go for a half spammie, where you would fall forward with your hands around face level hoping to bridge the gap to the next one (closing your eyes in fear could be a bit of a mistake), a phul spammie witht he hands stretched out and a jumpin spammie where you would jump as you fell to clear an extra foot or so.
Ammulance - an exciting form of transport often encountered post spammyinn'
Skelp - what you got from your mum when she found out why she had to come and get you from the hospital (again)
Anyway, kids today and video games, I can't say I envy them. We had Johny 7 OMA [img] 
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Johnny Astro
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Never before seen on this planet - it was a fan and a balloon.
Raleigh Chopper - proper dangerous one with the ball catcher gear lever, lovingly customised with spokeys and streamers tied on to the handlebars (couldn't find a pic of a fully pimped one)
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BTW - the 12 bullets from the Johnny 7 really hurt, judging by the noise my wee brother made when they hit him
Lego has gone all crappy with big pre-molded bits
Agreed - I was saying the same to my wife a couple of weeks ago in a toy shop. It almost seems kids have lost the ability to create things and need to be directed. Who needs a pre-moulded Lego starship when you can make a Lego starship from a load of 'four-ers' and two-ers'.
Now...[img]
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Then...
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My SS has spokeys!
If I had a £ for each person who heard me coming and proclaimd that I'd broken a spoke I'd be able to buy more spokeys!
Other than Cubase the ST was shite, the Amiga kicked it's arse for games in both quality and quantity.Late 80s would have been ST days.
ST was better for developing and working on.
Name a game that wasn't released on the ST?
molgrips - Member
ST was better for developing and working on.Name a game that wasn't released on the ST?
MOONSTONE 🙂
Plus all the Team 17 stuff I think?
There were loads actually. Not all of it top notch, admittedly.
Hookers.
What, when you were 7, Bullheart? 😯
Think I might've had me first puff on a ciggie by that age. And bin quite sick. 😳
And then got skelped by me mum. 😥
Other than Cubase the ST was shite, the Amiga kicked it's arse for games in both quality and quantity.
Saying the ST was "shite" is a bit unfair given that there wasn't a huge amount to tell them apart, and less so with the advent of the STe. It came out earlier than the Miggy; when I bought one, the Amiga hadn't been released.
A Kettler go-kart, one like this
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A microscooter and inline skates. Genuine advances in outdoor fun (we had video games when I was a kid, and I'm less than convinced that all the developments mean modern ones are actually more fun). Oh, and a trampoline. Does nobody on this thread have kids, as those are the things mine and the local kids play on which seem lots of fun and we never had?
I'd have also really loved to have the cheap rc helis and planes I now own - real boys toys.
A black widow catapult
+1
We used to use dried chickpeas (probably about 10p/kilo back in the day) and kick up some carnage in the woods. Lost mine in a swampy river thing - was gutted 🙁
I had a terrific amount of LEGO.My gran sold it all one day without telling me because I was "too old for it." Must've been thousands of pounds' worth, I think she let it all go for about 30 quid.
Twenty+ years on, I'm still cross about that.
I'm with you on that one. I remember my mum advertising my collection in the local rag for £50 (after convincing me I'd outgrown it 😈 ). Sure enough it went that weekend. T'was a sad day.
can't think of any toy that'd be better than lego or meccano. Apart from a huge piece of paper and some felt tips. I am with you all the way OP!Best thing about being a kid is all about freedom, imagination and creativity. No need for parameters or boundaries of a limiting toy. All that stuff you wished for, you could draw or build that, for yourself, and make your own world.
I have no kids 😉
Not interested in modern toys, just give me a hoop and a stick or an empty cardboard box or an orange any day. 😆
but you can turn a hoop a stick and a carboard box into an apollo moon lander. Guess I was just a bit of a mental kid 😀
on the other hand. Pump action supersoaker better than BB gun? figght!