[Closed] Awesome toys of your childhood

Game Boy with Super Mario Land circa 1991. This was my introduction to gaming and it had me hooked. I was only 9 so it took me forever to finally get to the end. I don't know how I coped with not being able to save the game halfway through.

Matchbox Race'n'Chase

Bikes! 😃

These were two of my favourites

1981 - Astro Wars. Amusement arcade action in your own home.

Spudguns, stink bombs, catapults, pea shooters and devil bangers.

I was a menace.

If you grew up in Soviet-era Russia these would have been your only toys

https://www.puppiesandflowers.com/toys-of-potatoes/

Lol!

Polish tattooist in Glasgow I've used a couple of times lived right on the Russian border as a lad, has some incredibly interesting stories, and looks back on those days of no one having anything different with fondness.

I have to say bikes. I spent so much time on mine as a kid. Well, that or fishing kit.

I always found toys disappointing, I think bikes were also the one thing that actually did something for me, otherwise it was just playing / watching.

Snooker table was pretty good.

Lego obviously.

Trees... Specifically the climbing of and falling out, hours of fun.

fishing kit

Yup - my best presents were my fishing stuff - the centrepiece being an Abu Counterstrike match rod which cost about £65 back in 1980 (so that's £260 in today's money). I was gutted when I caught it in the spokes of my bike when riding to a fishing trip one day - fortunately I managed to get it repaired (at a large cost to myself - there was no way my mum & dad were going to pay for my stupidity).

@nbt, my first thought also, spent countless hours playing with the stunt bike. Also had the dragster and camper van with built in ramp. Took so much abuse and I never could get him to somersault!

massively into He-Man, Thundercats and the A-team... had playsets and figures for eaxh but the He-Man Evil Horde Slime Pit was the best!!

Had my first MX bike for Christmas when I was 5 in 1972
Home made affair with a 50cc Honda moped engine in it.
Was never interested in anything else and had a new bike every year as a combined Christmas and birthday present from then on.

Matchbox Steer n Go

loved it. I had loads of toy cars that I never played with other than for the first 30 seconds after getting them home. The steer n go gave them a lease of life!

Astro wars was another cool one I had. my mate had a bigtrak, which I thought I wanted, but I got bored after a few mins and wanted to ride my BMX.

Tomytronic 3D games were really good too, I think I had the tank attack one.

@mahalo do you have kids?

https://www.playmobil.co.uk/the-a-team-van/70750.html

Always wanted Tin Can Alley but no way were my parents forking out for that. Eventually got it from a jumble sale a few years later. Loved it.
Penny racers were fun too, but I spent most of my childhood up the woods or fishing, so didnt really have many toys.

Best xmas pressie ever though was a tiny rowboat my old man bought off the fella next door, the one whos garage I eventually knocked down, and I had to share it with my brother. We had hours of fun taking it onto the salt marsh at high tide and flicking cowpats at the marooned cattle with the paddles.

Ohh, and the train set too - my mum and dad spent hours and hours building it (we could hear tapping coming from downstairs night after night - that was my dad fixing the track to the base). It came complete with a model village in the middle and a huge paper mache tunnel.

And the Sony separates system.

(Both shared presents with my brother).

And the bikes:
Raleigh Tomahawk
Raleigh Arena (10 speed, nach)
Raleigh Bomber (a proper precursor to a mountain bike)

A "radio" controlled tank.

It had wire- boo.

It shot rubber tipped darts- Yay!

I loved it, not sure about my sister and cats thoughts on it.

Penny racers were also awesome.

We had some plastic track for a game that fitted toy cars. Great fun when pointed down the stairs.

AIrfix kits, Lego and Bikes. 40+ years later that is still pretty much the case.

I also had a couple of Action Men that I played with until my sister’s rabbit ate their hands and faces off.

The lads over the road had an Evel Knievel. Invariably it would disappoint as it would fall over or Evel would fall off. Much like the real thing. Spoilt Kid™ round the corner had the “Rocket Cycle” version which was even shitter. He did once manage to get enough revs on the crank for it to take off at a phenomenal speed, but sadly it strayed onto the road and got run over. I’m sure that his parent bought him another before the day was through though.

@scuttler - why is BA wearing a face mask but the others aren't?

Spoilt Kid™

Ours had all of the Star wars figures, and all the ships too. The bastard.

Action Man tank. Bloomin awesome. Big, green, mean. As opposed to the action man parachute. POS. Poor action man would have had a stiff neck from hurting into the ground at 140mph in real life as his chute repeatedly failed to open.

Lego first Space then City, then Transformers (I never got the really good ones, always the more obscure models that you'd never heard of), then Lego City again.

I always yearned for, but never got, an Airfix Flight Deck. By all accounts they were actually pretty rubbish, so in a way I’m glad I didn’t get one, and I’m not going to spoil it by getting one now.

I have fond memories of the following from my childhood...

Lego
Micro Machines
Playmobil
Action Force (then called GI Joe)
Bikes (obvs)
Scaletrix

Then the game changer was.... the Sega Megadrive! Mind blown!

Micro Machines

yes, the foldy squares to put together a road layout with all the buildings for it inside was ace too. I had the carwash a hoose with a swimming pool a police station. I'm sure there were a few others.

Lego, bikes and tree-houses.

Spoilt Kid™

Ours got a ski sledge toboggan thing (a bit like this but much better built)

All us plebs had were fertiliser bags (nicked from the local garden centre) filled with snow.

TBF though, I saw a picture on Facebook of his niece playing on it last winter - some 40+ years later so it has been value for the extortionate amount of money his dad spent on it.

I had all the Lego. Space and Technic mostly.

A couple of mentioned Astro Wars. I loved those Grandstand hand-helds, I had that plus Scramble and Firefox. Firefox was -ace-.

WWF (always F in my heart...) figures...

Played for hours with them with a mate.

I think we were probably too old for them TBH, but loved them!!

OOOH...teh wrestling ring was ore-sum!

DrP

Still in mum and dad's loft I believe

I can’t remember. What was around in 1960-70? (apart from not many of you lot)

Hornby Dublo train set, Corgy & Dinky stuff, cowboy outfits, a quiz game called The Magic Robot, bikes, Airfix, Lego, Meccano. No video/computer games then.

I always loved this (it was inevitably Spoilt Kid™ that had it so I had to go to his to play it).

What was around in 1960-70

For me (born in 1967 so grew up in the 70s) it was:
Microscopes
Toy guns
Action Men and accessories
Airfix
All the comic book annuals (Beano, Dandy, Whizzer and Chips)
Dart boards and darts

I had all the Lego. Space and Technic mostly

We've found spoilt kid!

The song "All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit" pretty much sums up my two favourite childhood toys. And some 45 years later I still have them.

Raving Bonkers - the boxing robots

Airfix models - Spitfires, Hurricanes, Stukas etc. All hung from my bedroom ceiling with thread/drawing pins to replicate a dog fight 😄

Bright orange Mk1 Raleigh Chopper - the one with wider bars and a T-bar shifter

Hornby train set
Playmobil
Toy cars - my grandma had an old bag with loads of really old ones missing wheels/tyres etc - I loved that bag of cars
Action Man - eagle eye and scuba diving one were my personal faves.

Must confess I probably spent as much time just kicking a ball against the house wall as anything else, or playing cricket on my own in the back lane - I tell you that wall opposite was quicker than Malcom Marshall.

Aye, a new football was just the best, loved it!.

There's lots up here that bring back great memories for me. Honourable mention to the OP for Rough Riders, I think I'd still enjoy them grinding over improbable obstacles, and Astrowars as my dad still has ours, in it's box which will undoubtedly get rolled out again this Christmas.

Here's one that's not been mentioned yet. Tonka Clutch Poppers. Absolutely the fastest and most skirting board damaging toy cars that were ever built!

Bikes and radio control cars for me, in fact it seems I haven't changed very much in the last 45 years 🙂

Lego, most of it bought second hand in the mid 1960’s pre all the ‘special’ kits to make cars etc. so just the blocks of various sizes. Many, many hours over the years between about4 and 10 working on projects. Absolutely fantastic for developing spacial awareness and basic concepts of construction. After that it was working on ‘making’ projects with my dad in his workshop, skills I still use every day. Not all the projects were successful -see boomerang thread

I had a Johnny 7 gun, nearly as big as I was and loved it. Moved on to Airfix kits and then found you could tie string to a wing, set fire to it and whirl it round you head. Dodging molten plastic was all part of the fun 😉

Moved onto Scalextric and slot car racing after that.

This was ace. I want another!

Me and my brother loved our Action Men (pre-eagle eyes or moving hands nonsense): "Mike" and "Steve".
I seem to remember our Gran made clothes for them. I definitely dressed Mike in purple cords and and puffy sleeved silk shirt. Thinking back, I doubt Mike appreciated it.

Matchbox Steer n Go

I had one of those !!!

I had a big micronauts play kit which was ace.

Not forgetting the Star Wars figures,had the cardboard Death Star.

Was great being a spoiled single child in the 70/80’s

Subbuteo! Huge box (when you’re little) to carry into primary school before Christmas when we were allowed to bring games in.

There has been much talk of Action Man (myself included) but who had this bad boy?

Bikes
Lego
Train set
Scalextric
Flight Deck

Spoilt Kid™ round the corner had the “Rocket Cycle” version which was even shitter.

I had a rocket cycle. We used to have loads of fun winding it up as fast as you can, then holding it up so the wheel rubbed your ear. Great fun that is until my ear got caught in the cog and stopped the wheel dead. Much blood and screaming!

Also had Action Man, we had a rockery in the garden don't you know, which was excellent for bases and driving Action Mans tank over. Had 6 million dollar man too!

Bike of course, but it was really just a means of transport to get us to the woods for climbing/falling out of trees, the beach for falling off of cliffs and throwing jelly fish at each other, or the arcades for kicking the tuppeny shovers and running off with the proceeds.

I had one of those Tonka Clutch Poppers, loved it. Used to see just how quickly I could get the flywheel spinning.

Mostly Lego for me and I loved the He-Man sets. Had the slime one which was great but sourcing slime in pre-internet days was always a problem.

Had a mate who had all of the A-Team set and another that had all of the Star Wars sets, Millennium Flacon AT-AT. AT-ST etc. Both only children.

No love for Top Trumps?

Every year in the stocking at the end of your bed to stop you from waking the house at 6.00 am, along with those "Observer book of...." that everyone seemed to get at Xmas.

Also the advent of Lego figures (I got a spaceman set with a couple of figures in it) were a turning point for me in Lego building

Pocketeers anyone?

This was my favourite.

Clicky

Roller boots, exactly like these-

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^^ That reminds me....

I also upgraded mine with Avon wheels (or was it Ulon made by a company called Avon)? and wider trucks.

I remember asking Santa in his Grotto in Birmingham for a Big Track, sadly it never materialised 🙁

^ I remember the ad for the Big Trak - it had a trailer with it too and the kid 'delivers' something to his lazy dad. Was it a beer?

Lego, scale models, RC car are the standouts for me. Who remember Super Cup football and Torpedo Run? Thought they were amazing at the time, probably pants nowadays though!

Before the days of Health and Safety...

Big Trak! My mate had one, with the trailer, and lived in a bungalow. We would literally spend hours going from his bedroom to the kitchen to the lounge - 4 forward, turn right, 2 forward, turn left, ... and on. Sometimes the batteries would run out before it got past the bathroom.

My old man regretted it as the sound of it used to drive him nuts.

Also my Train set.

Bikes (obviously), starting with a Raleigh Commando
Preferred Meccano to Lego
A RC model boat kit based on a Thames Police launch that I kept pushing my luck with battery life and had to wait for it to be blown to the edge of the pond to retrieve.
Pogo stick found during a trip to the local tip when you were allowed to wander around.

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got one of these when I was 13, it a blast when it ran getting it started was a total ball ache. (got a build yer own balsa aerobatic model the following year with a fox motor which was so loud!!!)

@10 I just found a box of Starcom stuff in the attic, only little ones but most of the clockwork or whatever it was still works. Oddball toys but pretty awesome.

Used to have a lot of action force and action man but it was definitely the lego that got the most use. And it's now been 16 hours since I last built a lego model so apparently it still is

Best of allow time for me; a Raleigh Grifter one year, and a Big Trak another.

Haha! Just seen the big Trak above. As a trainee primary teacher I was over the moon to find one in my classroom!

I just found a box of Starcom stuff in the attic, only little ones but most of the clockwork or whatever it was still works. Oddball toys but pretty awesome.

I think my mum still has some of it somewhere. I had loads of it. The figures had some tiny little visors that I was meticulous in keeping. My brother's just destroyed their toys, but I always kept mine nice.

There has been much talk of Action Man (myself included) but who had this bad boy

Me..me .me, I had the repair centre and the Android bloke with the faces and head and arms which popped off,also had the bionic women as well…

Course my most awesome was the ZX Spectrum 🙂

Armies of toy soldiers - WW2. Me and my friends developed extensive rules for turned based combat and battles raged in the killing Fields of the flower beds.

Any sort of gun for playing war. Especially cap guns - especially those with the really loud plastic ring caps none of your paper rubbish

Spectrum is disqualified- not a toy, it's educational. Tell your parents

It took asking three Christmases in a row before Father Christmas finally relented.

Well done Big Track
I vaguely remember we had the same advert but not voiced by a yank.
And it delivered a French golden delicious apple.

Lego Space and Action Man when I was little. The Lego is still at my parent's place for the grandkids and eventually great grandkids. Then 1/35th scale modelling, mostly Tamiya WW2 era German armour. I got a Grifter when I was 10, I think it weighed more than my Rail!