What obscure toys did you have as a child?

[Gothic Sponge]

Anyone remember Micronauts?

[Liberal Veteran]

1. My dad didn't like me playing with dolls...er...action figures.

:)

[7th_Sephiroth]

54. i had some rare ones (child of the 80's)

i had some of the motorized water guns that looked real, i had an original megatron (before it got pulled for looking too real) i had go-bots (the high quality ones were hard to come by) and i had the GLAZER glasses with a water gun on them on edit: i had the mail away Macross/SDF-1 from robotech, it was HUGE



mail awayitem only

[Left Is Write]

2. Does Suntan Tuesday Taylor count as obscure?

http://www.angelfire.com/art/dollmemories/tuesdaytaylor.html

[Philostopher]

9. That seems kind of like this one:

Dinah Mite:

http://www.alphalink.com.au/~jenjoy/DAJdolls.html

She's actually smaller than Barbie, but more flexible -- and the doll had flat feet, so she'd actually stand up.

I still have her somewhere, she used to sit on top of my monitor stark nekkid ... but the cats decided her hair was a fun toy, and I kept finding her on the floor. Had to put her away somewhere before the dog thought she was a chew toy. The sockets for her shoulders are all worn down, so her arms stick straight out right now.

I tried for a month to grab one in better condition on Ebay, but people kept bidding them up over $25. I refuse to pay more than that to indulge my nostalgia!

[Left Is Write]

48. Oh, I vaguely remember those.

Suntan Tuesday Taylor was the same size as Barbie, though.

[AlCzervik]

68. I had Tiffany Taylor and her penthouse

and now it sounds like a pornstar name to me. I bet someone at mattel was laughing when that doll was ok'd.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Log from Blammo!

What rolls down stairs
Alone or in pairs
Rolls over your neighbor's dog.

What's great for a snack
And fits on your back
It's log, log, log!

It's lo-og, lo-og,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's lo-og, lo-og,
It's better than bad, it's good.

Everyone wants a log,
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log,
Everyone needs a log...

[realisticphish]

5. it seems to be

R+S night in the lounge :)


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[ET Awful]

31. And now new High Fashion Log for Girls!!!! n/t

[realisticphish]

4. Playmobil

swedish toys, they were about 4 inches high, and had all kinds of sets of tools, and vehicles, and other shit.

also, Megaforce; basically, steel micromachines.


:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[name not needed]

49. Hey! I remember those!

They still sell them, I think.

[Goathead]

6. I had Stretch Monster

Stretch Armstrong's nemesis

[Cadence]

8. OMG. I remember that. Some kid in my neighborhood had one.

[ET Awful]

30. Wasn't that Stretch Armstrong's nemesis? n/t

[The Doctor.]

7. I remeber micronauts, capsela, lite-bright, but my favorite....

Were the giant robots...

they were 24 inches tall and shot projectiles 20+ feet!


http://www.robot-japan.com/Soul-of-Chogokin.htm

(I've tried to post images - how does one go about that?)

[ET Awful]

32. Yup, marketed in the US as Shogun Warriors, my friend had these

I was always too poor :(

http://www.wildtoys.com/Shogun/index.asp

[Longgrain]

62. Do you remember

The giant Godzilla Shogun Warrior. You press a button and his fist pops across the room--just like the real Godzilla!

I also seem to remember owning a motorized battery operated triceratops. I was sort of a game. The triceratops started walking across the room, you had to try to stop it by flashing a light, hitting a sensor underneath it's neck. Life of me if I can remember the name of the toy.

Does anyone else know? It was around the late 1970s...something like "Stop the Terrible Triceratops"

[nine23]

10. Mid-1960's: I had the entire line of James Bond action toys.

A real camera that turned into a gun; a briefcase with a (rubber) knife that popped out at the click of a button, etc...

We were doing Austin Powers long before Mike Myers even thought of it...

[Slippery_Hammer]

33. I had one of those

The 007 Attache Case!

[bettyellen]

84. Honey West and her pet ocealot was the female Bond..her bracelets were

really handcuffs and her lipstick ?>>?? a phone maybe? Anyway lotsa bond esque hagetry going on.
It was a TV show with Anee Francis whicjh I don't remember but she was a Marilyn Monroe clone who wore a black cat suit and a trench. Very cool!

[tridim]

11. Hell yea!

The Battle Cruiser, best Xmas ever! The guns shot spring loaded sharp plastic spears and heavy rubber darts. Ahh the good old days.

[MnFats]

12. True story: My uncles thought I would be gay if I didn't play with guns...

My folks were ahead of their time in this respect: they didn't want me to play with guns and when I was a child, wouldn't allow me to have them.

A plastic sword like Zorro's (remember him? "Out of the night, when the full moon is bright, rides the horseman known as Zorro..." was as far as they'd go. After all, Zorro rarely used his sword to violent effect...he'd mostly slice Sgt. Garcia's suspenders and make his getaway as Garcia tumbled down the staircase.

My uncles - my mother's brothers -- were afraid i would be gay or somehow effeminate if I didn't get to play with guns. One Christmas they sent me a shitload of guns. I was set to have a tantrum if my folks took 'em away, and they relented.....

I turned out OK, sorta, anyway...

[LostInAnomie]

13. Battle Beasts

WATER! FIRE! WOOD!

[Fridays Child]

14. The Wibbler

[Fridays Child]

15. Sixfinger, Sixfinger, man alive! How did I ever get along with five?

http://members.aol.com:/oddtiques/Ebay/fing.jpg

[GingerSnaps]

16. A set of balls

They were on a sting that you played with that had a ring on it.

[norml]

21. You're talking about clackers,a very dangerous toy craze 1970 - 1971

You could either smash something with them or they could shatter sending pieces flying.

[nutsnberries]

23. yes, yes DANGEROUS TOYS! i remember them well!

clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clOUUUUCH!

[GingerSnaps]

24. They sell them on eBay

Ball breaking toy that was very addictive and you ended up with buses all over your body. I had several sets one in hot pink and the other one in a shade of purple :bounce:

[Phentex]

35. we had clackers!

ouch!

[BuddhaGirl]

46. my brother and I had clackers!!

one day we were playing with them in the dining room, and broke the glass dining room table! Man did we get in trouble LOLOL

[signmike]

17. Mud

early '50s in El Monte - my family never had much money for toys.

[faithnotgreed]

20. ah yes.... i remember mud well. i think my grandparents bought the

presents we got. but i had a great time because i had older brothers and sister and cousins, so there were always lots of things to play with. and since we lived in rural ny we played outside a lot. i didnt know how poor we were until much later when some of the family stories were explained then it made more sense but at the time i didnt notice

if i could i would send you a big hug! always more important than things anyway

[signmike]

47. Thanks.

Hug accepted. I was a happy kid as well. Miles of open land to explore, all the kitties I wanted and I enjoyed my mud. I didn't know we had no money until I grew up some and found out Dad was drinking away all the money. The Potters across the street had 8 kids. THEY were the poor folks in our 'hood.

[Tom Kitten]

18. I got King Zor one Christmas!

"What is King Zor?" you might ask? Only the coolest toy ever made!

I played with it until I broke it. And then I played with it more until it was all broken apart and it got thrown out...

Too bad...A couple years ago in Southern Cal I saw one, kinda beat up, in a collectables store and they wanted $500 dollars for it.
Also once I saw an auction on ebay for one, it was purported to be in excellent shape, box and everything, the bids were at like $1200 but the minum had not yet been reached...

I wish I took better care of mine! :(

[pamela]

19. Hedda Get Bedda

This was the strangest doll. She had a plastic bonnet on her head and you could turn the little pom-pom on the bonnet and it would make her head turn around inside the bonnet to a happy face, a sleepy face or a sick face. Her sick face had a little whole in the mouth where you could put a thermometer. It came with a toy thermometer but it was lost very quickly so we used a regular thermometer. We were allowed to play with glass and mercury back in those days.

There are some pictures of her on this link.
http://whimsiedolls.tripod.com/hedda_get_bedda.htm

[faithnotgreed]

22. did anyone have a flexible plastic camper that you could pull around

by a string? camper as in a winnebago type thing
this was early 70s. it was about the size of a bread box, had little round people in it/fisher price or playskool little people that everyone had at the time


you could unsnap/unfold the side down (i think it was the side but it definitely was a snap) so you could load and unload all the people and stuff

i cant find out the name of the thing and have thought of that thing off and on for some time. i know there are lots of campers but i can picture this specific one but cant find it,

[petronius]

25. Were the people wooden cylinders,

a little larger at the top for arms/shoulders, with heads like ping-pong balls?

I had a string-pulled jetliner with people like that....

Check out this page for all the Little People possibilities...

[TheMightyFavog]

27. Had a boat on top that you could take off for acess to the camper?

I had one of those! Fisher Price Little people, IIRC. It was a hand me down from my older sister! I had the farm, the schoolhouse, (another hand me down) and the parking garage. Those things were awesome!

[faithnotgreed]

87. thats pretty cool but no thats not it.. i appreciate the photo

i dont recall my camper having anything cool like a boat on top!

[Left Is Write]

92. I had one of those! In fact, I still have it.

I received it for my 7th birthday in the summer of 1973.

[faithnotgreed]

97. hey - were the same age. i dont know how people remember

what presents they got at what age. ive noticed that some people can do that but for me, its always an age range thing.

[donheld]

26. Chuck Berry called it a Ding-a-ling

:evilgrin:


Now explain to me why? i went to Google, clicked on images, typed in "ding-a-ling" and this is what i saw

[Brumbi23]

28. Those darned,

action figures that "transformed" into rocks. I guess an extrememly cheap rip off of transformers. But I did hear that transformers are just a knockoff of the go bots.

[ET Awful]

29. I had a nice stick.

It was very versatile. It could become a sword, or a gun, or a bow and arrow.

I miss my stick.

[Throckmorton]

34. I stole it when you went home for lunch

I hid it under the front porch.

[Sabriel]

36. My uncle was a WWII pilot

so we played with his silhouette models. They were heavy black rubber airplanes with no markings, used to train spotters to recognize enemy aircraft. Fun, fun!

[gollygee]

37. Space 1999

I had that, and all the little action figures.

[CanuckAmok]

96. DUDE! Me too...

You don't want to KNOW what one of those is worth now, NIB.

[Cerridwen]

38. Chatty Cathy, who was bigger than I was at the time and Lincoln Logs

I also had a pedal car for a while.

I'm not sure any of them are obscure, but they came to mind.

[MotorCityMan]

50. My sister had this doll, Baby Laugh a Lot

She sat in a little rocking chair and laughed hysterically for about 10 minutes when you pulled her string. Unbelievably annoying!

When I was in grade school, one must-have toy was Slime. Came in a plastic garbage can, and was just a wad of this disgusting, oozing, green slime. Felt pretty gross slipping thru your fingers. Couldn't really do anything with it other than gross people out.

I think the most bizarre toy I remember, though, is one called My Puppy Puddles. Never had one, just remember the commercials. It was a little plastic dog that drank water and then peed on a mat.

[intheflow]

56. My sister had a Chatty Cathy doll.

My sister is 10 years older than me, so really, it was my doll for a intents and purposes. I liked her quite a bit, but early on in my tenure with her, her string got knotted up so badly she became Mute Cathy.

[AngryOldDem]

39. Jarts

Anybody remember that?

[intheflow]

57. Take your life in your hands!

Yeah, I loved Jarts! They were heavy and deadly! Definitely a "big kid" or "grown-up" game.

They still have Jarts, BTW. But gone are the long dagger ends, replaced instead with wimpy beanbags weighted with sand. More like bloody Toss Across now. :eyes:

[AngryOldDem]

75. Jarts and other dangerous toys...

Picture, if you will, a bunch of 7-, 8-, and 9-year-olds, throwing these deadly weapons around in the yard at dusk. Welcome to some of my best summer memories.

I also had the hot plastic mold machines that made the "goovy" 60's- type flowers as well as creepy crawlers. I forget who manufactured those, but it had a machine that looked like a hotplate (the mold), different colored stuff in squirt bottles that you'd pour into the mold, and then after a few minutes you'd have these plastic flowers and bugs. I remember the machine got extremely hot...I once had an accident and spilled the hot goo all over the carpet.

Then there was the wood burning machine that shorted out and pitched a spark that put a hole in the lens of my glasses...

It's a wonder I survived my childhood with all the toys I had. (On second thought...maybe my folks were trying to get rid of me...)

[intheflow]

77. OMG, you didn't grow up in Massachusetts, did you?

My friends and I used to play Jarts at dusk as well when I was about 8 or 9.

I ALSO had the hot mold/Creepy Crawlers stuff. Never spilled that goo, but I did have a fire in my Susie Homebaker oven which freaked my mom out. Suddenly all toys that got hot disappeared from my toy chest. Probably just as well.

[AngryOldDem]

88. No...this was Ohio

I think I also had an Easy Bake Oven, but it never worked right. My sister-in-law got my daughter one years ago, and it never came out of the box. Just the thought of eating something that comes out of a toy just makes me want to puke.

Looking back on the Jarts thing...it's a wonder some of us didn't get killed. We weren't much on common sense those days, and I can remember we would stand behind the plastic circle while the other team was chucking the things at us.

Ah, the memories...

[pintobean]

59. I bought a set at a garage sale

a few years ago. We use them once in a while.

[flamingyouth]

79. Jarts ruled!

Still miss my right eye, but they were great fun! ;)

[AngryOldDem]

89. LOL!

:D

[JimmyJazz]

40. I had Little Kiddles! God, I loved those dolls!

[Padraig18]

41. A Slinky.

:)

[tjdee]

42. Voltron baby....

It wasn't obscure, but it was hot!



Except those friggin lions didn't stay together when I formed them into Voltron...they'd take a step and then the arm (or red lion)would fall off...

I loved Voltron....more specifically, I loved Keith from Voltron...

[DemWitch]

43. Don't remember the actual name...

But I had a pair of of these demolition derby cars made out of plastic, there was a plastic toothed pull that turned a big drive wheel on them, and you would plow into the other car and doors and hoods would fly off. One was a blue 57 Chevy and the other was a red 57 Ford.

Also had a Haunted house game that you played in the dark. The board glowed in the dark and the spaces were black. There were three levels, and some spaces were holes and you would lose your man to the lower level. Was way cool.

[meow2u3]

44. I had Baby Catch-a-Ball when I was about 10!

The only doll I ever liked! I got it for Christmas in 1970


The doll was even handcuffed!

[lumberingbear]

45. I had a Davy Crocket Hat and Wallet

Yes I'm old lol

Also I loved lincoln logs!

A bunch of kid around neighborhood put there erector sets together and made great robots!

[CrownPrinceBandar]

51. Lessee, I had.......................

Mazinga - Shogun Warrior (first release w/ detachable brain/spaceship).


Micronauts - Baron Karza


Big Trak - A programmable vehicle that was pure hell for parents on an early Xmas morning.


ROM Spaceknight

[Gothic Sponge]

99. I remember Big Trak!

I wanted it for Xmas, but i never got it.

[Maine-ah]

52. childhood toys

I had a very strange doll, which I can't remember her name. She looked like Barbie, but much bigger. Her scalp rotated, so that she could have black hair, or when you turned it she could have blond hair, though for the life of me I can't remember her name. :-( We also had an extremely large inchworm with a saddle on it's back, that was pretty cool.

[scarlet_owl]

53. Popoids. Nobody seems to remember these.

http://www.beyondplay.com/ITEMS/F779.HTM

[intheflow]

55. Shopping Cheryl doll (Mattel, 1970)

She came with a shopping cart and various famous brand food items. Had magnets in her hands to pick up the magnetized food.

I begged and pleaded for this doll for Christmas, was very disappointed when I didn't get it. Got it for my 6th birthday the next year. Ended up playing more with the food items and shopping cart than I did with Cheryl herself. (Cart was particular good for giving my hamster rides.)

I was a childhood victim of commericalism/consumerism!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=...

[Bertha Venation]

58. Bizzy Buzz Buzz!

I loved my Bizzy Buzz Buzz. I slept with it. I cried when it stopped working. :cry:

[skygazer]

60. All my toys were obscure

I was the youngest of six - I got all the hand me downs. By the time they got to me, they were unrecognizable.

[haunce]

61. Toys

I mainly got Tonka toys. Broke them all though:mad: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[johnnie]

63. Sizzlers

Early 70's. I think they made them until 1978 or so, but I wasn't playing with cars by that time.

[Longgrain]

64. Weird Boy's toys from the seventies...

God, I remember nearly all of these toy, Stretch Armstrong, Micronauts.

Anyone remember Sucker-man. Kind of a spidery rubber monster with suction cups all over his body, you throw him against the wall and he sticks to it.

I also remember owning a giant rubber bat, Greg-gory I think was his name. He had a transparent panel on his chest. You'd squeeze his back and you could see the blood flowing though his viens...how they ever marketed that one I'll never know.

Still the weirdest, yet coolest toy I ever had was the huge plastic rifle with a film projector inside. You'd go into a dark room, point it at the wall, and a scroll of flying ghosts would be projected which you had to shoot. The gun literally poked holes into the film strip so you could see how good of an aim you were. I don't know the name of the toy, probably something like "haunted house hunter" but I want to say it was made by IDEAL.

As for girls toys, anyone remember Crissy, the doll with hair that grows. You turned a crank on her back and her hair got longer or shorter. I actually own one of these with the original box.

[Lady Sonelle]

65. Most Obscure of All! Lil Orbee!

I have hunted and hunted and can find NO imformation! Lil Orbee (or Little Orbie, or Lil Orby Or....) was a cute little plastic space craft with a bubble on top. Inside the clear plastic bubble was a little reel with spokes, Each spoke weas tipped with a suction cup and you could pull a cord and Little Orbie would briskly climb up the wall!

Or so it was promised! That toy was my first introduction to pain!
You see, what would usually happen was that the toy would either climb five to six feet up and then dislodge, falling back, tail fin first into the child's head (one could induce playmates to stand *just so* and WHACK!) or it would *not* malfunction, meaning it would climb cheerily to the ceiling... and stay there! Meaning one had to call Papa and have him come with the ladder and retrieve the wretched thing!

Invariably, when Papa came with the ladder and began to set it up, Lil Orby would promptly sense the vibrations and fall, wasting Papa's time and usually braining George, the family cat... who was utterly fascinated with Orbee! Our cat soon learnt to fear Orbie! My governess loathed the thing cordially and Papa finally vowed he was NOT going to chase that vile object EVER AGAIN! Mother thought it a great treat... until it fell off the wall into her cake mix! I went about with perprtual bruises on my face, arms and shoulders. My playmates soon stopped coming over at all.

All in all a splendid little plaything!

Lady Sonelle

[bettyellen]

86. DO A FEW SEARCHES ON E BAY .. YOU CAN GET THEM TO EMAIL YOU WHEN SOMETHING

WITH THAT NAME SHOWS UP. YOU CAN USE * AS A WILD CARD AND NARROW YOUR SEARCHES SO THAT YOU FILTER OUT THE CLUTTER OF INEVITABLY SIMILAR NAMED ITEMS-- USUALLY A SINGER OR THINGEY YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF. USING THE ADVANCED SEARCH WITH THE EMAIL OPTION OR JUST SAVING THE SEARCH AND CHECKING IN OCCASIONALLY IS A REALLY POWERFUL COMBINATION. IT'S LIKE HAVING THE FLEA MARKET ITEMS OF YOUR DREAMS BEING EMAILED TO YOU. AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY ANYTHING!
I FOUND THE BEST X MAS STAR I HAD AS A KID THAT WAY, ONE OF THOSE WEIRD THINGS THAT MEANT A LOTFOR WHATEVER REASON. IT LIGHTS THE ROOM BEAUTIFULLY LIKE A CALM RAINBOWED BALLROOM, AND IT WAS THERE FOR EVERY X MAS I REMEMBER TILL WE BROKE IT! I PUT IN SOME VARIOUS TYPES OF DESCRIPTIONS UNTIL I NARROWED IT DOWN AND THEN I FOUND THE NAME. AND THAT MADE EASIER TO FIND ONE I COULD AFFORD EVENTUALLY. . IT MADE MY BROTHER CRY WHEN HE OPENED THE BOX!!
YOUR THNG SOUNDS REALLY COOL, TOO!

[Bossy Monkey]

66. Grippidee gravidee!

Our aunt got it for us; we loved it to death, unfortunately literally. You can find them on eBay, but alas, all the links Google turns up have expired. Iiiiiit was an Apollo capsule on a track that would hang upside down at some points. Sounds silly but it was really neat.

[Donkeyboy75]

67. Star Trek figurines

I shot them with BB guns.

[CanuckAmok]

94. Micronauts.

I swear to god, at that point, they gave up even attempting to make toys that didn't fall apart withing five minutes of purchase.

What kind of heavy-water infused crap translucent plastic were Micronauts made from? Just look at them harshly and they'd break.

Totaql garbage.

[gollygee]

69. Did anyone else have the Barbie doll that grew breasts?

Growing Up Skipper



Controversial toy manufacturer Mattel, and the infamous Barbie doll, continued to insult feminists everywhere with their version of adolescence. Growing Up Skipper, a doll designed to grow taller and bustier with the rotation of the left arm, sent angered mothers into a fit of pique.

http://www.bearchive.com/~shasta/odds2.html

[Longgrain]

70. Puzzle Town

Does anyone else remember the Puzzle Town line of play sets based on the Richard Scary books. They were flat pieces of board that you stuck inside grids to build houses. I must have had about five sets at one point including the train.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2576&item=5935055510&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

They were my favorite as a tyke. I would stack the different houses one on top of another and make skyscrapers.

[Kat45]

71. I had a 'Big Brother' Bob Emery jigsaw puzzle.

Anbody remember his children's show? He'd always sing "The Grass Is Always Greener." The puzzle had his picture on it, and a few other smaller pictures (in circles, I think). If I recall, one was a pic of President Eisenhower. I forget the others, but they may have included a rocket ship, a flag--patriotic stuff.

[Eugene]

72. Billy Blastoff, King Ding, Action Jackson

Early 1970's.

I remember the Micronauts and the associated
comic book but never had any of the toys.

:dem:

[CanuckAmok]

98. Billy Blastoff was great!

I remember that. Didn't he have a backpack for his batteries, and he 'ran' whatever he was put into?

[ScreamingMeemie]

73. We played with rocks.

:(

[intheflow]

78. Some of the best toys!

Forced you to use your imagination, I bet.

Other favorite nature toys from my youth: toads, dense bushes with child-size space under them (prefect for spying on the neighbors), and pine trees (also very good for spying on people).

Harriet the Spy was one of my favorite childhood books. B-)

[Nicole]

74. Chatty Cathy

[Fleurs du Mal]

76. Suckerman

http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0776/

[flamingyouth]

80. Did anyone else have the Sunshine Family?

They were a lovely hippie family. Dad wore a burgundy turtleneck, Mom had a long dress and baby was all happy and gender non-specific. I think it was part of the '70s backlash against Barbie and her materialistic trappings.

My Sunshine Family mom made her own peanut butter in the blender. :D

[faithnotgreed]

90. right on! wish i had a family like them. i had dapper dan

like so many did. and my sister had some cool dolls but i dont recall the sunshine family

[Slippery_Hammer]

81. Plastic Army Men

Every kid in the hood had these all over their lawns. Caused a lot of problems when it was time to mow.



Does anyone let their kids play with real hammers now days? If so make sure it has good handle traction!

[sans qualia]

82. Whoa, there's a song by Autechre called Acroyear2

I always wondered where they came up with their song titles.

[alphafemale]

83. It went zip when it moved, Bop when it stopped, Whirr when it stood still

I never knew just what it was, And I guess I never will.

Marvelous Toy - Tom Paxton

[ThoughtCriminal]

85. This battery operated train

Made in Japan, it wandered all over the house.


Mom gave it away, but I picked up a replacemant a few years ago.

[sakabatou]

91. I had He-man and his green tiger. I beleive I also had skeletor.

I think they're in a toy chest someowhere in my old orthdox synagogue...

[hahahey]

93. Teddy Ruxbin!! creepy toy.. *shudder*

[Dogmudgeon]

95. Astrolite

Circa 1969.

A bunch of clear plastic tubes that you could hook together to make abstract objects -- supposedly futuristic cities.

Very psychedelic.

Sorry, I don't have a picture; but I still have almost the entire set.

--bkl