we be toys 'n shit - revisited

[ChairmanAgnostic]

I dont' recall when it happened. maybe 20 years ago. Soccer mommys, SUVs, and toys. thousands of toys. plastic, (almost never expanded metal), yard and den mini-rec rooms, and all in loud gawdy colors. Kids in my yute did not have rooms full of toys. They had a few. They had stuff that was a joy to take out and play with. No longer.

As quantity went up, quality went down. Instead of puzzles, mind games, and things that made you think while you had fun, preprogramming began to take place. The toy and game designers took control over the "creative process" and forced the kid to use their toy in one way, and one way only.

At the most basic, building blocks were always a favorite. then Legos and lego result specific stuff came out. Pretty soon, you HAD to put them together one way, and these days, it is hard to find a kit that can be used anyway but how they want it used.

Games are another example. The older games, Monopoly, risk, and others are still more fun than any new game (wordsmith excepted, but that is for older kids of all ages) and more difficult and involve more strategy.

most of all, it is the excess that bothers me. So many useless, boring, unused toys, all of which are used once, then set on the floor.

As toys became more numerous, cheaper and far more boring, they also became outsourced. Now, we find that our own excess leads to lead poisoning. Cheaper, more, more and cheaper, and very few chances for self-improvement and poisonous. with the recall of over 9 MILLIONS toys, perhaps it is time to revisit just how we treat our kids and what they get as they grow.

[eleny]

1. Same here

I was a kid in the late 40s and through the 50s. Couple of beloved dolls and <gasp> a doll carriage. Some games, a toy sewing machine, typewriter (that I still have) and a <gasp again> doll house.

I'm sure I had more along the way. Games and such. But nothing like the avalanche of stuff many kids have these days. Don't people know that kids have imaginations?

[mr_hat]

2. All I had was a beloved clod of dirt.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. You were lucky, we just had some of that really hot stuff that appeared

just after the big bang, there I go dating myself again.

[eleny]

10. Braggart

:rofl:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. No really, I'm series. n/t

[eleny]

15. !!!!!!!!!!!111

[bobbolink]

18. Dating yourself?

Dinner?

Movie?

Dancing?

DANCING???

[lonestarnot]

6. Tin cans for kick the can.

[eleny]

9. Oh yeah, I forgot how we made a phone from cans and string

And a camping tent from an old army blanket hung over the clothesline - in the cellar.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. I still recall the joy and wonder when

those two cans actually worked. Made you think. made you imagine. made you create.
the idea that sound could travel better through a simple string, instead of the air, wow.

I'll bet that if we ever find out a way to decipher ein junger's thoughts, and study them when they get a new
"Musical Play Box, with synthesized sounds - so easy, that everyone sounds like an expert"
the kids will be thinking, "OK, I figured this out. BORING. REAL BORING!"

[bobbolink]

19. Ain't no profits in old cans.

You must be one of them anti-'Murkin hippies or sumfin.

[eleny]

8. I bet the neighborhood kids were jealous

[lonestarnot]

13. Of the tent or the cans?

[eleny]

16. Why, your cans of course!

[lonestarnot]

21. Welp,

we only used one, and in kick the can, the whole neighborhood plays! Too much fun.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Who in the hell is still making lead based paints in 2007 for gawd's

sake, I cannot believe the crap that is going down regarding all of these freaking products from overseas. Now the question comes, HOW WILL THEY BE DISPOSED OF??? Incinerated?? Air pollution. Buried?? Ground water pollution. Send them to the moon?? Lunar pollution. I know, I know... peel all the paint off the nine million toys and repaint them with a safer alternative. Greed increases mankind's stupidity exponentially, and that's a fact.

[Wiley50]

29. Are you Kidding? They'll just market them in Africa or, internally, in China

they never, ever, lose any more money than they absolutely have to.

Where do you think all of the DDT and stuff went when they outlawed it here?

They sent it down to Juan Valdez to keep the critters off of his coffee plants.

Then Juan sold his beans to Folger's who marketed them up here.

It's been happening for decades. If it is proven dangerous here.

Just sell it somewhere where they don't have such laws

Then import it back on products from those countries.

Hell, China probably bought all of the lead based paint sitting in warehouses here when it was outlawed

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. It's all so crappy and cheap-looking and garish.

All that ugly plastic, piles of it everywhere kids live. Sad. I suppose if you could even find an Erector Set any more, the kids wouldn't want to play with it because it's not brightly-colored and it doesn't operate electronically.

I sure sound like an old fogy.

[eleny]

14. A friend of mine got her grand nieces a microscope

They love to play "CSI" and went nuts over the scope. It's not a terribly advanced scope but perfect for their age. They collect all sorts of stuff to observe on the slides. These girls are too old for all the plastic crap. One is 8 and one is 10. But I heard that they always got things that tickled their imaginations.

My older brother had an erector set and would never let me near it. I was so jealous! :D

[SeattleVet]

30. You haven't seen a modern Erector Set lately, have you?

They *are* brightly-colored, and some are even made of plastic and operate electronically!

http://www.erectorworld.com/

I probably still have a few scars from the sharp metal edges on the one I had in the early 60s!

[porphyrian]

7. Marketing has systematically destroyed creativity and imagination. - n/t

[ChairmanAgnostic]

23. no kidding. You put simply, what I spent too many words on.

wanna trade words?

[porphyrian]

26. Once I put them out there, you can use them however you like.

Unless that's against me, I mean. ;)

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

12. I don't know......GI Joe and He-Man had some pretty cool toys

....and I was never a fan of Transformers....but I did like a lot of the Anime robot shows of the early 80's that had some pretty sweet toys (some made of metal moving parts) that I'd love to be able to find now.

I think the toys went downhill with Power Rangers.

[Katherine Brengle]

20. Physical AND mental poison.

My husband doesn't understand why I want to majorly downsize our daughter's cheap toy collection.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. I found a chemistry set online, (before 9/11)

and still enjoy making things with it. They don't sell them anymore, not with all the stuff I have. The joy of learning is the key, not the acquisition of more garish (great wod) and silly, boring stuff.

then again, I cannot think of a better gift than a good book. When I had my 8th birthday, mom's best friend came by with a book. It had all the presidents and VPs up to Kennedy in it. I sat and read it all. Loved it. Changed my ideas about what was important. (I was a baby activist)

I handed the book back and thanked her. She was breast feeding her baby (who I later stood up for at her wedding, many years later) and said, what, was it too hard? I answered, no, I finished it. Thank you. It was very interesting.

She turned to Van Buren, and asked me about him. I answered. She turned to Roosevelt. I asked which one. She asked about Adams, and I asked the same question.

A good book is worth its weight in Au.

at the moment, I think that Rowling has added something magnificent and entertaining to our collective libraries. The idea that some people are planning a new book burning (Kentucky,m Georgia and Alabama) before the start of the next school term, burns me up something royal.

[angrycarpenter]

24. give an old time erector set

to A modern kid and they will be dead in 15 minutes.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. heh. and forget an electricity experiment kit

although I finally got one of those. (only 40 AFTER I saw one)
When I got a strong AM station to play on my hand made radio, I cannot tell you the joy, even in my late 40s.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

25. this from cnn

• Make the toy "disappear" while your child is sleeping. If he is distressed about losing his favorite object, you may have to tell a white lie and feign ignorance about the toy's whereabouts. And, if the toy is truly beloved, endure the screaming until you can find a suitable replacement.

cannot risk having a kid without that toy, can we?

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Even Role Playing Games are changing

with many a tittle connected to the movie and series of the moment, can you say Stargate the RPG?

Imagination, it is not encouraged

And yep like many of you I LOVED kicked the can... amazing, a game we all shared across borders and languages