What were your favourite toys as a child?

At the risk of dating yourself, what where your favourite toys to play with when you were a kid?

And have any of you gone back and started to collect them now?

I was a big fan of Smurfs and Star Wars toys. But most of all I loved shooting my slingshot and air rifle. Now that's something kids can't do nowadays.

I can't play with air rifles here any more either (gun control), but a few years ago I got back into making and shooting slingshots. It is fun target shooting with a "weapon" that you have made entirely yourself. I have a high wall around my yard in the new house, so I am thinking I might make myself a new "target range" when the weather improves.

Any of you guys want to walk down memory lane today?

The bb gun was tops. I carried one all over town and no one said a word. Now I would be in a juvenile detention center for being armed and dangerous.

I was curious child and full of energy (ahem) so I was in my share of trouble, not with the bb gun, and was grounded a lot. After my parents decided sending a kid to a room full of toys wasn't really punishment they took out everything but a big box of legos and my books. I'd alternate between reading and playing with the legos. Some times I would try and recreate things in the books with the legos. I remember building a tree house like in the swiss family robinson.

My brother and I had a lot of Mash toys and I had a bunch of Transformers.
One of my favourites was a Dukes of Hazzard slot car set. I loved it.
When we grew a little older, it was D&D all the way.

If you go by what we played with the most it has to be our giant box of blocks. Some the "ABC" kind, but mostly scraps of lumber (lots of maple) of all shapes and sizes from who knows where. There were also many non-wooden blocks I never could identify (probably left-overs from some industrial process). My parents must have really been on the lookout for stuff like that -- perhaps some furniture factory. Combine that with wooden train tracks (with wooden-wheeled train cars), hamsters, miniature electric cars, plastic models, some precursor to Legos, etc. and there was never a dull moment. The blocks were our main construction material for whatever fantasy we came up with.

Going back to the '50's:
1. Toy guns of any kind, preferably cap guns or air rifles. TV had lots of cowboy shows in the 50's and most cowboys had fancy guns which became toys. One of my favorites was the Rifleman winchester cap gun. I could fire off a roll of caps in our basement in less time than my parents could get downstairs and rip it out of my hand. They really hated the smoke and smell of caps in the house.
2. Plastic army men.
3. Red & white plastic brick sets which I guess were the precursor to Legos.
4. Large appliance size cardboard boxes. A cardboard box and a hill to roll down inside it, was great fun.

And firecrackers! How much fun were they?? Nothing was safe near my house around the firecracker time of year.

Probably why they are now banned here too.

When I was around 5 years old, my parents got a new hot water heater installed in the house. My father salvaged the box that it came in, and we kept it in the living room.

With a child's imagination, It was transformed into a spaceship, a submarine, a castle, a frontier fort, a laboratory, and countless other applications.

So there you have it. My favorite toy was a cardboard box.

legion said:

And firecrackers! How much fun were they?? Nothing was safe near my house around the firecracker time of year.

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Cherry bombs were the best back in the old days when they packed a punch. I also liked building a motorized model car with a M-80 inside and the fuse sticking out. When I got tired of playing with the car, just light the fuse and let it go for it's last ride.

dpm802 said:

So there you have it. My favorite toy was a cardboard box.

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Those large cardboard boxes were not easy to come by when I was a kid, so they were special when you were able to get one.

This was my all time favorite toy when I was very young. I could hit this thing all day long.

The big boxes were great too. The refrigerator ones were the best.

When I got a little older my fav was the Erector set. I guess it was a step up from banging with a hammer.

My favorite toy was a Mattel Fanner 50. I loved it.

DavyRay said:

My favorite toy was a Mattel Fanner 50. I loved it.

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Wow! That's the best cap gun I've ever seen! That kid was pretty good with it too.

I wonder how many cops shot people with those over the years?

njpaddy said:

Those large cardboard boxes were not easy to come by when I was a kid, so they were special when you were able to get one.

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Nowadays, we so-called grown men take our delight in small cardboard boxes, especially when they bear return addresses from places like WCS, Bullgoose, Leesrazors, etc.

I ad an Evil Kinevl wind up motorcycle. that toy was indestructible

DavyRay said:

My favorite toy was a Mattel Fanner 50. I loved it.

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That thing is legit!

When I was 4-10 legos were king, then various BB guns and then basketball and now it's my car

More classic toys I had and loved:

Bat Masterson Derringer Belt Gun

Johnny Reb Cannon

I had these and they were great! Of course, some weepy wimps on the Net talk junk about those toys. Just look at the pictures (get them yourself). These were really fun toys.

Electric train, I can still smell that transformer heating up. Close second was an Erector set.

Girls

at 10 i got a Green Machine (a big wheel on steroids)

I was KING of the neighborhood that summer. Powerslides for days........

Let's see...

G.I. Joe

Lincoln Logs

Hot Wheels

Cap guns, any/all toy guns really. I wanted to be a cowboy. I wasnt allowed to have a BB gun till i was 12 and then I didnt care lol

Plastic Army Men

Also, I loved riding my bike!