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Following on from the £400 iPad for a 10 yr old thread - what did you all get as children as your 'main presents'?
For me - a new bike every three years. If I outgrew it in between I had to scavenge from the tip and make one up myself.
One year I got a big train set to share with my brother (I think that might have been the year my gran died so dad had come into a little bit of money) and apart from that it was things like toy guns, Action Men, microscopes etc.
invariably something mountain bike related. a giro supermoto, spds, spd shoes, new forks, x-lite bar ends, xt rear mech all spring to mind for various pressies!
All on different years, but these are the memorable ones, I guess the Spectrum at £125 back in 1983 ish was the equivalent of an iPad.
Big Trak
ZX Spectrum (shared with brother)
Train Set
Bike (only remember getting one actually)
Sheath Knife
U2 Under a Blood Red Sky Video
Badly knitted itchy jumper from my aunt
Action Man stuff, in particular a battery powered machine gun, although I'm still a bit bitter I never got a Scorpion Tank
The good old days - toys without screens or batteries. Loved em all too!
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Plus scalextric stuff, model railway bits etc.
ThePurist - I got a Super Flight Deck as a main present one year too 🙂
Oranges, lots of them.
Bestest Christmas ever my parents organised all my grandparents etc & I went from no scalextrics to over 100 bits of track & 10 cars (all 2nd hand) in 1 day... I was in heaven.
I did have to get Mum to stop my Dad & Grandfather to stop playing it when I went to bed though
Usually a hand-me-down bike that my brother had grown out of.
And some records to play on my Dansette. I can remember most Christmases for the record I got and played over and over on Christmas day. (eg. 1979: Joy Division - Transmission; 1980: The Clash - London Calling b/w Armagiddeon Time)
Johnny 7 OMA:
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Kick ass as they say
I grew up in the States so most of my life was outdoors, it was very rare to get indoor prezzies, but those I did get were sent over from my dear old Grandpa..
This was my fave of all time
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He sent me this:
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He also sent me this (but I think my Mum wanted it really:
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I was in "little league" so had lots of Baseball stuff, as it all woreout during the season:
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My Dad, bless him, got this sent over from the UK, it was the best bike I ever owned, died a death when the frame broke and kept breaking around the rear stays.. (oh how the same things keep happening all these years later eh!)
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Rocketman - how could I forget that! There's home movies of me terrorising my great grannies with one of them on Xmas day.
a memorable one would have been our zx spectrum (with a plug in tape deck, remember them, and the noise they made when loading a game) and an atari. Forgot what came first, these were to be shared with my older brother!
got a manual typewriter one year too.
barbie bits and bobs, or possibly her cheaper cousin cindy.
and my fave red raleigh bike, with a dynamo light. Great when stopping at night and it went out 😀
Highlights would be..
A torch
A vice
Quite a few years of nothing :0(
We was poor........
I managed a £900 stumpjumper using christmas and birthday and about £400 of my own money (paper round and asking for money as presents etc) when i was about 13. best present ever 🙂
(This vintage)
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One of my most memorable Christmas pressies was a sledge. It snowed that year (1986, I think) and we spent 3 days sledging at Horsenden Hill.
Same year, I also got a r/c Lamborghini Countach in the days of cars that went forwards or turn in reverse and a massive articulated car thing with 16-wheels; a bit like a wheeled centipede.
Aaarrrghhh! Here it is....mad masher.
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http://scheisskerl.blogspot.com/2010/10/tomy-mad-masher-monster-machine.html
One Christmas I kept on & on about a radio controlled car from Tandy. It was a dune buggy called Turbo Fox. I got it and it was great, but very fragile. It was replaced by the shop about 3 times for just randomly breaking down & they eventually swapped it for a really slow 4x4 thing.
Found it:
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Best Christmas present in the world EVER!!! One of these frames
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Then built up by me with the proceeds from various paper rounds, holiday jobs. I wish I still had it 🙁
Most memorable ones:
Big Track
Spectrum +2
Countless Lego kits
Grifter (the bike not the choccy bar)
Chipper (like a chopper but not)
Most of the big presents were joint birthday ones.
when I was 6 or 7 my dad bought me a motorcycle helmet and a tiny plastic motor bike toy. I was upset and threw a tantrum as I thought I was getting a motorbike. I calmed down and I was taken outside to play in the 2ft of snow that had fallen and stumbled upon an unopened big present from Santa.
He'd sent me a brand new 50cc Suzuki Quadbike with a full tank of petrol!!
unfortunately I had to wait until the new year when the snow melted to actually ride it for the first time. I was very very happy ....
until I crashed for the first time
tangerines, coal, new thrupence, lou macari replica kit. 😀
my all-time best xmas present was one of these.. god i loved that thing!
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Reading these types of threads makes me really sad on two counts. Firstly what a materialistic git I am and secondly that my parents were tight fisted, lying barstewards.
Rocketman - how could I forget that! There's home movies of me terrorising my great grannies with one of them on Xmas day.
Fair play to you it was to be expected 🙂 I was particularly fond of the removable hand gun
I wish I could remember that far back!
Action man GI joe probably
We did have a ZX spectrum so that was probably a joint pressie with my brother
Oh and a KX80... That was a good year! 😆
Most expensive: scelectric and a huge trainset my dad built, looking back they may have been presents for him as much as me! :p
Cheepest (must have been a bad year) : two postcard sized hand drawn sketchs of Swallow/Amazon from Dad, out of all the presents I think it's probably the only one that I've still got/appreciate as it's on the bedroom wall.
Well you can harp back Don Simon, think that we (well I) was well catered for in the prezzie dept, but I never saw my Dad for 4mths at a time, then only for 2 weeks where he'd rant and rage at "just being at home doing nothing" Inevitably this would end up in angsty frustrations in the family and guess what?? I'd fek off outside and play on my toys..
Father substitute they were not.
can-uk - that is a lovely looking bike - so rideable 🙂
ever saw my Dad for 4mths at a time, then only for 2 weeks where he'd rant and rage at
6 weeks away, 3 weeks home and pissed as a fart when home. I think that would be called a double whammy. Don't worry I'm not envious of you.
Not very much at all, if anything worthy of a mention. My mum would make a small effort. More out of guilt than anything.
This year, my daughter is getting a laptop, a TV, new electric bass guitar and amp and some little extra items that she likes.
She's not getting the up dragging that I was subject to and hell, she LOVES me.
Blimey. My birthday is at Christmas so I tended to get combined presents.
The ones that I remember most are…
Computers 1981 & 1982
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Raleigh Tomahawk 1977
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from Cooksons, still my LBS 34 years later!
Action Man helicopter pilot 1978 – 10th birthday
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Lima locomotives and rolling stock 1978
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Airfix Sunderland flying boat 1980 (Airfix Christmas. I got 20+ models and all of the necessary paint. I was high until March.)
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This year I’m getting 😀
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And some bike clothing and some M&S vouchers.
Most memorable gifts:
Spectrum 48k
Commodore 64
Amiga 500
Space Crusade
Hero Quest
^ All shared with my brother. And just for me...
Cribsy the Popple. I was absolutely inseperable from her, she still lives on top of my drawers now! 😆
Trivial Pursuit
Scrabble
My Little Pony Baby Bonnet School of Dance
Jem Glitter and Gold
Spirograph
Fashion Wheel
Awesome lamb and squirrel cuddly toys. Only my brother (who is 4 years older than me) threw a tantrum. My parents thought he'd be too old for cuddly toys, so they hadn't got him any for that Christmas. He was really upset, so I gave him the squirrel.
A smack in the marf and sent to bed early for even daring to ask if I had any presents. 😥
If I was lucky....
Cribsy the Popple
😯
Like, WTF...?
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If we're doing pictures:
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shame its b+w, couldn't get a colour one to work
EDIT: Nostalgia alert!
God I loved that bike, Got it probably in 1982 (it was an 81 model). Big wheel conversion and 100cc block in '83. Raced it till 84 when unfortunately had to stop cos dad passed away.
Kept it till I was 17 in (87) then whacked a front hub mounted speedo and 6v lights on- road legal! It died when the front wheel came off (due to the bodged on speedo) and I buried it in the front of a parked capri.
Life was simpler then.
Computers featured heavily for me too.
zx81
spectrum
amstrad something or other
This thread would make much more sense if folk gave their age before posting, as the general train of thought seems to be that kids get much more these days. But looking at the lists above, I'm not sure if that's true... (38 for the record).
My biggest presents were things like technical Lego sets. Most pressies were second hand - Action men, Scaelextric, Raleigh Pavemaster repainted the same colour as the outside of the house with leftover paint 🙂 ).
One year, with no prompting, I got a brand new Grifter XL - I genuinely couldn't believe it was for me, and wouldn't touch it for nearly a full half hour!
These threads cheer me up loads. (hugs)
Gosh I can remember loadsa that stuff, even Elf's "smack in da marf" one year.. hahahhaaa
Now I don't do prezzies. I'll buy stuff post Xmas when all the "hooo harr" has disipated, all the elbows and ankles have rounded off and folks have settled into January moda, it's then I'll/We'll tread the Sales Fantastic and miander at our own pace gathering stuff up that we actually want to buy each other, no need for supprises, no need for angsty "oooh what can I get her??!!??" just plain and simple "that looks nice, she'll like that"
Xmas is about Hugging and Luv'ing family, best prezzie eva.
This thread would make much more sense if folk gave their age before posting, as the general train of thought seems to be that kids get much more these days. But looking at the lists above, I'm not sure if that's true... (38 for the record).
I'm pretty sure all the computers mentioned (and everyone I knew had one) would have been more than the equivalent of £400 now.
Lego mostly. Still got it as well 🙂
Way too much.
My father has always thought spending is the answer to everything. He's generous, but not so much with his emotions.
I know I was spoilt, but I was always grateful for every gift and never expected anything.
My daughter is heading for her second Christmas. I'm undecided if I'll buy her anything - she'll be showered with gifts from everyone else, so doesn't need any more.
Pretty much bike, scalextric, lego on a 3 year cycle.
If I didn't have to pretend to be an adult I would probably still be asking my wife for the same thing 🙂
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Yay Cribsy! \o/
She doesn't have the booties or bib any more, they've been lost in the mists of time.
Most of the big presents were joint birthday ones.
My birthday is early the new year, so I always [benefited | suffered] from that too.
Lots and lots of Lego over the years, I was a boy obsessed. 90% of it was sold by my gran behind my back one day as I was "too old for it." I turn 40 next year and this still pisses me off.
Grandstand electronic games; Astro Wars, Scramble, Firefox F-7. Big Trak. I still have all these (though the Astro Wars is defunct).
ZX Spectrum, proper rubber-keyed version.
Joint Christmas and Birthday present from my parents and grandparents, an Atari 520STm with Cumana double-sided disk drive. I'm guessing Christmas '86? Elegant weapons from a more civilised age. My next Christmas present would be [url= http://svenart.deviantart.com/#/d3fm9na ]this[/url], except it doesn't exist.
33
A present shared between 3 of us
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On the whole small pressies. I remember a secondhand bike my dad rebuilt and repainted. The one new bike I got was from selling other toys and putting together money from everyone that bought me pressies.
I can remeber complainig to my parents tht my friends all of whom were less ell off than us got much bigger pressies to be told that my parents spent money on other things they did not have such as holidays. it was all about priorities for my mum and dad
Smash-up Derby.
To be watched at full volume...
A Supergoose with Araya 7X's
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Best present ever! Still remember opening it today
my sister spent all day building it for me, superb.
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Thunderbird one, and Two
A raleigh bike,
Meccano sets 4 and 6, over two christmases,
Lego Technic kits
Airfix models
Bikes
Scalextric
Hornby railway stuff
Marin Muirwoods (grey with dayglo forks and stem) first mountain bike. 😀
Some of mine were pretty big looking back and often bike related:
Meccano
Scalextric
6ft Snooker table
Raliegh Grifter
Raliegh Ultra Burner
Dawes Jaguar road bike
MRD Expert BMX
TV
They are the ones that come to mind. Thankfully my Dad was a pretty good bloke allround as well.
I have to admit I keep the presents lower key for my daughter but she is only four, she will be asking for an Ipod touch soon enough.
[img] http://theswca.com/images-toys/figuretoys/ewokvillage-front.jp g" target="_blank">
http://theswca.com/images-toys/figuretoys/ewokvillage-front.jp g"/> [/img]
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My biggest present was a ZX Spectrum +2A, which was £150, and I now realise quite a lot for the time!
I loved it though, many hours spent writing programs out of magazines just for the electricity to cut off and lose it all, haha!
Can't remember half of it tbh.
Generally shared pressies with my wee brother 2 years younger than me. Some of the bigger stuff, speccy 128+2 was shared, as was the amiga, and an early dx266 pc. Other things when we got bikes we got one each, bmxs, and later a mountain bike each. In the 80s early 90s, I had loads spent on me looking at the above. me and my wee brother were pretty much treated like twins mind, always refered to as the weans!
Tbh at 33 I still can't stop my ma buying me stuff, I tell her every year to stop it and have done for atleast 10years, every year. but she'll just buy something, think she's gonny get me a table and chairs this year.
think I'll need to give her some grandweans before she'll stop.
it was all about priorities for my mum and dad
As it is for most people.
I had a ZX81 followed by a Commodore 64 in hindsight probably two of the most influential presents I ever had. The stuff I learn't on those computers has paid for its self many times over. I am so pleased my parents bought them for me as I am not sure I would be where I am now if they had not.
I am 41 by the way 🙂
Yeah my two biggest presents were my Spectrum +2A and my Amiga 600.
I think the 600 was £300 quid or something in 1992. But really well worth it considering Im a Computational Chemist now.
OOOH OOH!
Ref this...
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there was a game i had which was very similar, instead of the two hand gunthings they were biplanes? when a ball beairng hit the other one bits of the plane fell off?
anybody remember that or did i dream it as a kid?
i had a spectrum 48k
then the 128k with builtin tape deck.
it was all about priorities for my mum and dad
Did they give you love and attention though? Sometimes better than toys thrown at you to keep you quiet and in place of time and patience.
Let's see.
Scalextric
Race'n'Chase
Crossfire
A Grifter XL
A Space Invaders hand-held LED game thing
A Bontempi organ
A Commodore 64
A 14" colour portable
An Amstrad stereo
A Commodore Amiga (joint pressie with my wee brother)
These were the big-ticket items through my formative years.
Lots of socks and garishly patterned jumpers, too. And Broons books.
A bike or 2, they used to last about 3 years before either being nicked or replaced
Lego Techniks, I can remeber the JCB specifically, in fact Lego in general was good
Scalectrix always went down well, I had racing Metro's first and upgraded to an F40
Subbuteo
Never had computers or consoles which is odd given my dad did (and still does) work in IT.
Lunge, 32
presents as a child..
pretty much anything that my Dad wanted when [i]he[/i] was a boy but didn't get.... whether I wanted it or not...
apart from Lego that is - I was really into technic lego and did get quite a bit of it!
love the pic of the big lego car above - that was proper lego
Never had computers or consoles which is odd given my dad did (and still does) work in IT.
That's where we [b]were[/b] lucky -but never as Christmas presents - my dad would come home with loan machines and demonstrators of early machines (so never ours, but often had them in the house) because he was the manager of the local television sales and repair shop.
I *think* we had one of these...
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Which I think was marketed briefly in the UK by a company called Adam Technologies but I can't find any reference to the UK version anywhere.
EDIT: Yes it was this one.. [i]Adman Grandstand in the UK[/i] (But I think that is a Wiki spelling error, I am sure it was Adam, not Adman.
He also used to get digital watches and calculators which were, back in 1976 (when I was 9) soooo cool.
Lego mainly as my dad worked for them...
£50 limit never got us a lot.
Anything starwars related!
Pressies I loved though were second hand grifter,second hand scalextric, second hand Spectrum when everyone else had the floppy version, second hand master system when the mega drive came out.... you get the idea.
love the pic of the big lego car above
Would it be sad that I can still remember that's the 8860?
Remember a cowboy outfit which was probably 1966. Satsuma's, a watch one year, lego, Monopoly and Cluedo, Subbuteo and Subbuteo related gifts (teams, fancy goalies etc.) Was made up when I got the 'Brazil' Subbuteo team one year. And jumpers for goalposts.
Lego trainset, shared between three
Got it out last Christmas [url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/ebygomm/5297752652/ ]Video[/url]
Over the years , and not in chronological order .-
airfix kits
Battleground toy soldier thing
Sledge
Action man + Tank ( wicked )
Action man + Parachute kit ( crashed and burned every time)
Scalextric 400 set
Hornby model railway OO guage plus miles of track
Monoply: Twice ( mum left it on car roof and drove off . . )
Cricket bat , Outgrew it before cricket season started.
Penknife at 14 ,Swiss Army copy in bright orange
I never used to get christmas or birthday presents. 😐
But i did get a new MX bike every year. 😀
Who want's lego/actionman/computers when you've got an MX bike and get taken racing every weekend. 😀
mostly lego.. or clothes.. or LPs and art materials..
I also got action man stuff one year after mum had a lucky day at the jumble sale.. and some surfwear arrived in a binliner one year from my godfather but I wasn't allowed to tell anyone where it came from.. 😯
Raleigh Burner
Texas console cant remember proper name (shared)
Yamaha YZ80H when I was 8
next 2 years anything MX related
Then went onto BMX racing so mongooses etc
then road cycling so handbuilt Poyner 531c Shimano Ultegra groupset
Then left school so went downhill from there literally
Not bad for a lad whose mom n dad didnt have a lot but great memories away in caravan every weekend scrambling,campfires & bbq's
I'm struggling to remember my prezzies - it was a little while ago.
I do remember getting roller skates [b]and[/b] a watch one year - I was surprised to get two "big" prezzies! I still have the watch, and being a proper wind up watch, it still works. I have a feeling the roller skates may still be in my parent's garage - my kids used them when they were younger.
I also remember having a Sindy doll and being disappointed 'cos I wanted a Tressy - y'know, the one who's hair grew when you turned a button in her back.
Looking back i had a few of the items mentioned above.
The smash up derby set
that battling tops game
Action Man Scorpion Tank
" " Artillery Piece
" " Airplane/boat/car thing
" " Zodiac boat
" " submarine
" " training tower
" " six-wheeled battlefield recovery vehicle
" " some sort of jeep thing, not the land rover
(I think i had enough to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea!)
Had a Raliegh Tomohawk one yr, but i was way too big for me and my dad sold it (broke his heart that, must have cost a small fortune)
All the usual games like Buccaroo etc.
The thing i remember most about Christmas though is how long it went on for (or seemed to).
Me and my sister would have a pillowcase (later a plastic sack) that would be filled with the smaller presents by 'Father Christmas' around midnight, usually giggling and smelling of beer 🙂
Then there were the main presents under the tree 🙂
Later that day we'd go round to my Grandparents on my Mum's side where i had 4 sets of Aunts and Uncles and lots more pressies.
THEN, on Boxing day we'd be at my Dad's parents with even more pressies - it was ace!!
I look back now and realise we were spoilt rotten, i don't know if many of the pressies were grossly expensive but the sums must have added up. I was a bit of a strange kid i think, always felt guilty about asking for a big (to my mind) pressie and i the only thing i can remember asking for was a tape recorder around 1979/80.
Ah, nostalgia...
+1 to bikebuoy
A Farrah Fawcett Majors head for styling and fashioning hair. It's the reason why I knew I just wasn't cut out to be a hairdresser.
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£359 27 years ago but I was 11 not 10.
Edit: As I was a muppet and gave my DOB away. 😳