Toys that you wanted but didn’t get

wanted

got

wanted

got

A friend of mine had Race n’ Chase. It was excellent but I do remember the cars being broken most of the time.

The spoiled kid in our class had TCR. A nice bit of kit until one of the race cars got slower relative to the other, at which point all entertainment value* was lost until you introduced meths and matches to the mix. I also remember him throwing a massive “benny” on the toy aisle in Presto in order to get an Airfix Starcruiser. I stood there and watched in horror with my parents as he did the complete thrashing about on the floor routine. Once the display had finished and he’d got his toy my dad told me to go and pick a kit. I selected a Mitchell Bomber that hung from my bedroom ceiling for many years. The half built Starcruiser was destroyed in a blaze of meths and air gun pellets about a week later.

Another spoiled mate had Chutes Away. It looked ace on the TV adverts but was in fact a massively crap one trick pony of a toy. I’m glad his birthday was before mine as it enabled me to test the latest kit and give feedback to my mum, dad and Father Christmas.

*Scalextric, analogue not the new fangled digital nonsense, requires a good deal of skill and guile along with a lot of track. Me and the boy will happily spend an entire wet Sunday racing. You do however need more than 50 cars for the sake of variety and at least 80ft of track so you can get some complex bends built 😉

I still have mine, built it up again last year to make sure I had all the bits. I’m sad to report that it’s still tremendous.

I’ve got its predecessor too,

… though I expect that’s going to take some digging to make whole again.

Bigtrak.

A drum kit.

Can’t believe that nobody’s brought up this yet?
The granddaddy of the Xbox and Playstation world

All you people with the 8860 Lego Technics car aren’t making any friends you know!

I received this one instead, which while “quite” good, is a very poor substitute </Ungrateful_sod>

Most of my toys as a kid were either video game / computer related or Lego. I don’t remember ever playing with much else, but I had a metric shitload of Lego. Technic and Space mostly, of a certain era there weren’t many sets I didn’t have.

My gran sold it all out from under me one day (bar a couple of sets) when she decided I was “too old for that now.” I’m still cross about that, 20+ years later.

I’m still cross about that, 20+ years later.

Find her slippers. You know what to do next.

Most of my toys as a kid were either video game / computer related or Lego.

I bet you had one of these…..

instead of one of these, like the rest of us….

World peace.

To be fair I did get a Raleigh Burner, only because I nearly died from a burst appendix. In my delirious pre op state I made my dad promise to get me one if I survived! Well he made good on his promise(2nd hand) and that’s where it all started!

I bet you had one of these…..

In the 8-bit days I neither had nor wanted a joystick, always preferred keys. But if I had got one, it sure as hell wouldn’t have been a Quickshit II. I repaired plenty though.

I had several Quickshot IIs for my C64. Most of them died whilst sprinting on Summer Games II.

In the 8-bit days I neither had nor wanted a joystick, always preferred keys

Not these ones though. 🙂 Unless you are a necrophiliac. 😯

I had several Quickshot IIs for my C64. Most of them died whilst sprinting on Summer Games II.

Daley Thompson’s Decathlon and QS2s were a particularly mortal combination. The leaf switches are made of cheese and just snap off. I used to make replacements from the tops of baked bean cans.

Not these ones though. Unless you are a necrophiliac.

Exactly that. (I have one on my desk here right now, as it happens.)

Was soooo envious of a mate who had this. His family were skint and I couldn’t understand how he had that and loads of other cool toys.

Always wanted:

This was on my hit list when we got into RC cars. A mate got the original Hornet for Christmas and then a couple of older mates starting building RC petrol cars that were shit quick. For some reason I fancied something different, namely this:

I also remember being being desperate to get a:

… just so I could play 🙂

I got a Raleigh Winner ‘racing’ bike the Christmas before the BMX craze hit the uk. My pleas for a Raleigh Burner fell on deaf ears.

Not these ones though. Unless you are a necrophiliac.
Exactly that. (I have one on my desk here right now, as it happens.)

Go on…..
Caress Sir Clives’ cold, dead flesh……….
You know you want to……
Do it…… Do it NOW! 😈

spacemonkey – I had, and should still have most of that 497 space system. one of the first ones I had.

Still got my Quickshot ii
repaired multiple times with more robust wire due to playing Daley Thompson’s Decathlon (or something similar)

Also wanted a Raleigh Burner or a Diamondback.
Also got a Raleigh Winner 5sp with foam handlebars and Ever Ready front/rear lights that took those huge 4.5V batteries.

Wanted

Got

Wanted

Got

The added kicker is that the moment of disappointment of me opening the thundertank sized box to reveal scrabble was captured on camcorder and is frequently shown at family occasions.

@brakes:

Wanted scalextric
Got TCR

Total Control Racing my a**e. Totally out of Control Racing.

Never did work out why they put track on the inside of curves. The only way to go round corners was like a grandma on the outside, or flat out and launch the car half way across the room and scare the cat.

I asked for (and got none of) pretty much everything on this thread – BMX, skateboard, rc car, scalextrix and tin can alley being top of the list as well as Bigtrack and Evil.

One famous Xmas I got a green duffel coat instead. I was often round mates houses, playing with all of their stuff!

I feel vindicated now though as finally one year, aged about 12, I did get the 8860 car chassis. Some, if not all, of it is in a box in our back room. One day I’ll rebuild it “just to check it’s all there”. Can I get spares? Just bookmarked this in preparation:
http://lego.brickinstructions.com/lego_instructions/set/8860/Car_Chassis

Can I get spares?

I don’t think there’s anything particularly unusual in the set. The suspension coils maybe, or the wheels. There’s a site called “bricklink” which sells individual bricks if you need anything.

Speaking of Lego, look at this bad boy.

75102 Poe's X-Wing Fighter by Brickset[/url], on Flickr

^ That is the cat’s ass!

I’ve just wasted my lunch break on here.

Speaking of Lego, look at this bad boy.

Yep, I clocked the TV ad earlier this week and initially wondered if it was a Special Edition X-Wing to celebrate the new film etc. Then saw it in a toy shop yesterday and soooo wanted that and the:

It was always RC related for me….

I REALLY wanted a Tamiya Avante:

but knew I’d never get one, so would have settled for one of these:

Ended up getting one of these (a Tandy Turbo Fox):

which kept breaking, so got replaced with one of these, which was slow & rubbish:

Currently have a £100 voucher for a hobby website that I won & debating what to buy with it. Am currently erring towards the Tamiya Neo Fighter buggy.

One year, I wanted this

Opened my bedroom door to find a package on the landing… reading my Dad’s handwriting I thought it said “Mouse Trapper”.. thought Hmm, as usual the folks have got me a cheap version of the actual thing (we were poor, you know).
Opened it to find some electronic gubbins and a instructions leaflet. To construct your own… Morse Tapper!! What?! Such fun 🙁

I did alright for toys, had wealthy mates who shared but I really really coveted this one.

I wanted this but it hadn’t been invented yet….

The Death Star did exist. Spoiled Kid had it. It was £50 and made out of cardboard. I remember my little 10 year old brain thinking “Wow, what a massive, massive rip off that is!”.

I didn’t have Star Wars figures as they were relatively expensive at a pound each in 1977. My lad has got loads of them, but we get them from the discount shops when the latest ones come out. I’d recommend Quality Save for any action figure purchases. I’m looking forward to the new Star Wars merch’ hitting the toy stores as they will be dumping all their old stock so me and the boy can hoover them up for £1.99 each.

The Death Star did exist

The quality plastic one with working elevator and trash compactor….

or the shit cardboard one…..

pictonroad – Member

….but I really really coveted this one.

I was obsessed with monster trucks and my Nan got me one of those Bigfoot trucks for Christmas one year. It was great – I think one of the sticks on top was to change the gear ratio & one was forward & backwards. It could drive over some really rough terrain in low ratio. Used to spend ages playing with it on my Dad’s veg patch.

It’s been mentioned by a few others – the Evel Kneivel stunt cycle. Must have asked for that every year that it appeared in the Kays Catalogue – I’m guessing probably 1976 – 1982-ish.

I did get the slinky spring I really, really wanted though, that lasted about 20 minutes one Christmas morning before irrevocably tangling itself…

Harry_the_Spider – Member
The Death Star did exist. Spoiled Kid had it. It was £50 and made out of cardboard. I remember my little 10 year old brain thinking “Wow, what a massive, massive rip off that is!”.

I had a leaflet with all the Star Wars toys on it and I used to gaze longingly at the Death Star. Had a spoiled kid mate who had the Millennium Falcon, At-At, Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter, Scout Walker, Speeder Bike and all sorts of figures. Spent a fair while playing with his stuff.