A List of My Favorite Toys.....

I open my Sunday Plain Dealer today and what falls out, a huge holiday toy catalog from Target and one from Toys R Us too. I guess nothing gets you in the mood for holiday shopping like eating leftover Halloween candy. But it got me thinking about toys. Since a reader challenged me to write about it, here it is. One problem I had with writing this is the definition of what is a toy. In the end, I decided if I had fun with it as a kid; it's a toy. Besides, it's my blog.

One thing you won't find on the list are video games. I guess I'm too old. Obviously, I have played them and enjoy them. Two of my older favorites include Leisure Suit Larry and Crazy Taxi. I found games where you try to improve your high score but loose in the end, sort of frustrating. I mean those Space Invaders can't be beat.

So here we go (in reverse order to build suspense).

Built with an Erector Set. Why it's a,a,,,,, you know.

10. Erector Sets: An old school version of Legos or Knex. They were 100% made of steel. They most definitely did not connect or snap together. You used real screws and nuts. They had different shapes and sizes and steel beams. You got to use your imagination and build whatever you wanted. But you learned how to build things and use a screwdriver. A youngster recently asked me, "Were those safe?" I replied, "Hell no. But they were fun!"

9. Electric Football: This was a game played on a beautiful green metal playing field with a loud vibrator underneath it. The players were tiny plastic pieces with little bits of cellophane under it to slide on. The actual football was usually a tiny piece of felt. You would line your players up against the defense and turn on the vibrator.
Then all hell would break loose. The players would go anywhere they wanted, including backwards. Even if your player had a clear field, sometimes it could take 3 minutes to go all the way. This game had no workable strategy, but it was good for tons of laughs.

8. The View Master: A little plastic viewer you would hold in your hands and insert a round story to look at. BUT IT WAS IN 3D! I could actually see Huckleberry Hound interact with Yogi Bear, and they looked REAL! Imagine how fascinating that is to a kid that lived in a world where color TV was cutting edge. I can still hear the click, click, click of advancing the story.

Look what I found in my basement!

7: Slot Cars: My Dad actually built me a complete train set. Table, village and all. He loved it. Me? Meh. Too slow. Slot cars on the other hand, showed our need for speed. I never had an elaborate track. The cars would fly off the track frequently. But they were tons of fun. Besides, it's still the only Ferrari I've ever owned.

Table hockey. Let's go Leafs, eh?

6. Table Hockey: Now this is cool game. Unlike electric football, it did require skill and strategy to play it well. The game set was the "ice rink" with metal players sliding up and down their slots. You controlled the players with long sticks in the back. The old game I had had players from the Maple Leafs and Canadiens. Beautiful. Their hair was perfect No helmets required. Some people are actually very good at this game But win or loose, it was fun.

5. The Frisbe: The original flying disc by Wham-O. Still popular today. Heck, even dogs can play. So simple, so controllable, so fun. No further explanation needed.

4.  Board Games: I'll mention 2 or 3. One of the earliest board games I remember playing was something called Chutes and Ladders. Roll the dice, land on a ladder and you move ahead. Land on a chute and you go down. I learned later that it's a lot like how real life goes. The Game of Life was like that, but with more details. Also had a cool spinner. Monopoly was, and is, lots of fun. It takes forever to play though. Also, when a player does have a monopoly, you can die a slow death. Trading properties can be the most fun.

3. Tonka Trucks: Nothing fancy here. Just a toy truck. Except for the fact that they're made from 100% STEEL. They did not break. Ever. You could play with them as hard as you wanted. No mother ever uttered the words, "Be careful with your Tonka Truck, son."

2. Model Cars/Planes: I've built tons of them. There's something empowering about opening a box of  small plastic parts, with nothing particularly recognizable at first, and building something cool out of it. (Attention English Teachers: Please let me know if that's a run-on sentence.) Whether it was a car or a plane, you had a story about it when you were done. I painted the cars with a little bottle of model paint. Painted with a brush, no spray can. Hard to keep the streaks out. I wish I knew where they went.

Gatting a All Star was rare. But every card had a story.

1. Baseball Cards: Are baseball cards toys? They are in my blog. You have to understand, baseball cards were sold for a nickel a pack. A kid could buy them with money they got from their Aunt for being a good boy. You got 5 cards and a lousy flat piece of gum too. The players were guys we knew of, or heard of. In those days, there was the NBC Saturday Game of the Week, and some Indians games on tv. That was it. No ESPN. Yet, here were pictures of the players in living color in my hands. Statistics were on the back, along with a valuable bit of trivia about them. You could collect them, memorize them, and trade them with your friends. They were usually handy when listening to the Indians on the radio.

So there you have it. That's my list. Some things just missed the cut. Like bikes, and a game called Bas-Ket, (a basketball game played with a ping pong ball).

 I'd love to hear about your favorites. Anyway, it's fun to remember a long time ago when you were a kid. Your hardest decision of the day was what to make with your erector set.