View Full Version : Your Favorite Christmas or Kid Toy



Prunepicker
11-16-2013, 08:18 PM
I had so many I can't say only one. King Zor (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVP4fMCMuIE) was a fave as was Big
Loo (http://youtu.be/9hM9q8aQBRI). Robot Commando (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_awi5nS7w8) was probably my fave and Ho Ho was the Guest
of Honor at my birthday.

RadicalModerate
11-16-2013, 08:33 PM
Thank goodness eddie murphy wasn't around at the time.
(w/thx and a tip o the hat t' In Living Color =)
51-FcNSDGKw

Mel
11-16-2013, 10:16 PM
I would spend hours looking at the Holiday Sears catalog back then. Looking at rich kid toys and wishing.

Prunepicker
11-16-2013, 11:44 PM
I would spend hours looking at the Holiday Sears catalog back then.
Looking at rich kid toys and wishing.
Fantastic. Oy the age of modern mail order.

Mom was a fan of Spiegle and we'd have it all marked up with what we
wanted.

Prunepicker
11-16-2013, 11:49 PM
Thank goodness eddie murphy wasn't around at the time.
(w/thx and a tip o the hat t' In Living Color =)
I'll have you know that James was one of my childhood heroes.
Aretha was the other. Then came the Duke, McQueen, Davis, Al
Slobinski and most recently some chick named Anya that doesn't
speak Russian.

OKCisOK4me
11-17-2013, 12:47 AM
I'd say my favorite was anything that had to do with Transformers, Legos, Micro Machines, remote control cars, even classic Lincoln Log Cabin pieces! All kid Christmas' are just great memories for me. One of my favorite Christmas Eve trips was after an annual trip up to Tulsa at Grandma's, both my cousin and I received laser tag guns and reflective vests. Our parents were driving back in separate vehicles on the Turner Turnpike side by side and my cousin and I were shooting at each other through the windows and the guns actually worked off of each other! Great times...

oumartin
11-17-2013, 02:50 PM
A Stretch Armstrong or the Godzilla with flaming tongue that you activated with a red lever on on the back of his neck

ctchandler
11-18-2013, 09:25 AM
Well, I am having trouble deciding. On the one hand, the Erector set gave me many hours of pleasure when I was very young, but the one item that really sticks out was the black leather jacket that my mother gave me when I was 14. She knew a policeman that purchased it at a uniform shop where he bought his uniforms. My mother told me later that he got a very good discount on his purchases since he was a policeman. This jacket was real leather and it was the kind that motorcycle policemen wore. All my friends were jealous.
C. T.

kelroy55
11-18-2013, 09:52 AM
wow... tough decision. When I was around 8-9 I got a robot that fired missles through it's mouth and it's arm swung around and fired little balls. It had a wired remote control and it was the best, until I got a Stingray bike when I was 13 :) I also liked my erector set I got one year a lot too.

Richard at Remax
11-18-2013, 10:12 AM
Lego Pirate Ship

OKCisOK4me
11-18-2013, 12:17 PM
Lego Pirate Ship

...and all this time, I thought you were 50-60 years old.

Richard at Remax
11-18-2013, 12:28 PM
nope. 29 going on 30. Getting a super NES was a big deal too

Martin
11-18-2013, 12:35 PM
http://www.kcconfidential.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/irwinmainway.jpg

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 01:15 PM
http://www.kcconfidential.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/irwinmainway.jpg

Didn't the bag double as a space helmet?

Roger S
11-18-2013, 01:48 PM
I would have to say it's a tie between the Marx "O" Scale train (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Marx_and_Company) and the Ideal TCR Racetrack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Control_Racing)

I still have my train. The original transformer quit but I was able to find a replacement for it at the train show about 10 years ago.

SoonerDave
11-18-2013, 02:07 PM
I would spend hours looking at the Holiday Sears catalog back then. Looking at rich kid toys and wishing.

OHYEAH!!!

It was officially the start of the CHristmas season when the "Wish Book" arrived.

I basically took all the toy section and circled....everything.

Best toy? Wow, lots of choices...but my NFL electric football and its spinning players (lol) has to be up there. Lincoln logs and tinkertoys close behind. Loved those things....no HDMI connection or Internet required...just imagination...

Great times.

Pete
11-18-2013, 02:10 PM
I would spend hours looking at the Holiday Sears catalog back then. Looking at rich kid toys and wishing.

Wow, did this spark some nice memories.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Vintage-1971-Sears-Christmas-Catalog-/00/s/MTYwMFgxNDI5/z/isIAAOxy3NBSh~F4/$_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1968-Sears-Christmas-Wish-Book-Vintage-Catalog-Barbie-Liddle-Kiddles-GI-Joe-/00/s/MTI4MFgxNjAw/z/gQYAAMXQUmFShUpY/$_57.JPG

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1968-Sears-Christmas-Wish-Book-Vintage-Catalog-Barbie-Liddle-Kiddles-GI-Joe-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/yewAAOxyRNJShUqG/$_57.JPG

SoonerDave
11-18-2013, 02:11 PM
Ward's had a decent Christmas catalog, too - I think at one point they aspired to be what Sears was in those days.

They had what I'd call a "Toy That Never Was," only it really wasn't a toy at all. Years before gaming systems and PC's hit the world, Ward's Christmas catalog (circa 1974-1976 I'd guess) offered an *awesome* video game called a "Bally Console." It had a ten-key pad on the front, accepted cartridges through a front game slot, had two controllers, full color, and looked *miles* ahead of just about everything else that was really just variations of black-and-white bouncy Pong games.

Sad thing is that it was never available. You could order it, but it just never came in. Back ordered, unavailable, unstocked, and as I recall someone at Ward's actually telling me that Bally never really made the thing work and never actually delivered it. They never even had a demo one in the store.

But man it looked cool. For its day, it aspired to be a cutting edge game system. Wonder if any were ever actually sold?

LuccaBrasi
11-18-2013, 02:23 PM
Almost brings tears to my eyes. I guarantee I spent hours looking through that very same catalog after my mom put it down. I bet I marked that very page for the race set, which I think finally came a couple of years later.

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 02:30 PM
Christmas Catalogs (http://gijoe.ebcutler.com/christmas/1960s.html)

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 02:32 PM
...but my NFL electric football and its spinning players (lol) has to be up there.
With a fumble on every play! Did you ever complete a pass?

Pete
11-18-2013, 02:34 PM
What's amazing is how expensive things were back then when you adjust for inflation.

That $70 bike in 1968 would be $470 in today's dollars.

Of course, we tended to get far less back then; as in one big gift and maybe a few smaller ones.

SoonerDave
11-18-2013, 02:35 PM
With a fumble on every play! Did you ever complete a pass?

LOL heavens no. There was just something about those great old electric FB games. In fact, there was kind of a renaissance of sorts for them a couple of years ago - they were available for at least a while during Christmas at Hallmark stores if I recall correctly. Some guy opened up a novelty toy company, licensed the rights to them from Tudor electrics (I think that was the name) and reissued them.

Wish I'd picked one up! :)

Pete
11-18-2013, 02:39 PM
This is a very nice version of that old table-top hockey game that I really loved:

http://img3.wfrcdn.com/lf/49/hash/6011/2043302/1/Youth+Sports+Rod+Hockey+Pro+Game.jpg

Mel
11-18-2013, 02:41 PM
Christmas Catalogs (http://gijoe.ebcutler.com/christmas/1960s.html)

Great link Mr. Picker.

SoonerDave
11-18-2013, 02:43 PM
What's amazing is how expensive things were back then when you adjust for inflation.

That $70 bike in 1968 would be $470 in today's dollars.

Of course, we tended to get far less back then; as in one big gift and maybe a few smaller ones.

I was thinking the same thing!!! No doubt this is one issue where the contemporary trumps the past :)

Some of those prices were pretty startling for FORTY years ago!

As I look back, I realize now that my mom was pretty creative in making it seem like several smaller things were LOTS of things; blocks, tinkertoys, matchbox cars, ...

Man, I'm having serious nostalgia phase here.....(sniff)...

Christmas is a special time for a kid. I mean, I was about a generation off "A Christmas Story," but the way "Ralphie" lived through the season as a kid rang awfully authentic for me. Loved it, and still do.

Pete
11-18-2013, 03:02 PM
(Hate to tell you that was forty FIVE years ago. :) )


I have very strong sentiments about Christmas too, and still put a lot of effort into the holidays.

As kids, we received very little except for at Christmas, so that made it even a bigger deal. I had four other siblings and my parents would make the whole thing into a big production.


And even though I frequently bring up over-romanticizing the past, the one thing that was better then was that kids had a tremendous capacity for appreciation (simply due to scarcity) and that now they all get so much all the time that Christmas often isn't such a big deal.

Roger S
11-18-2013, 03:35 PM
With a fumble on every play! Did you ever complete a pass?

No, my team always ran the QB option.... He had the option to vibrate right, vibrate left, or vibrate straight up the middle.

And on 4th down I was freaking deadly at about a 90 yard field goal!

LuccaBrasi
11-18-2013, 03:37 PM
Christmas Catalogs (http://gijoe.ebcutler.com/christmas/1960s.html)

Thanks Prunepicker! Great link, opened it up and see several toys Santa brought me after I saw them on these pages. Nice memories. I've told my son in years past about this cool motorized parking garage I had as a kid, and there it is in 1968. I can't wait to now show him........

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 05:24 PM
... And on 4th down I was freaking deadly at about a 90 yard field goal!
Come to think of it, we spent more time trying to make field goals than
playing the game.

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 05:27 PM
Does anyone remember Vac-U-Form?

LuccaBrasi
11-18-2013, 05:45 PM
You can find almost all the vintage Christmas catalogs on Flickr. I'm mesmerized scrolling down memory lane......

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 06:42 PM
How about Incredible Edibles? Pete? mmm? My youngest brother got
that gift in the early 70's. Sis got the Easy Bake Oven in the 60's.

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 06:47 PM
Goodness. I just remembered my most favorite Christmas gift of all time.
It was a replica Colt .45 Peacemaker with genuine artificial pearl handles.
This was about 1958. There's some family film footage of me doing some
fancy pistol twirling. I wore that gift in a holster everyday for several
years.

Mel
11-18-2013, 07:13 PM
I remember getting that G.I. Joe Mercury capsule. Except mine, of course, was capable of interplanetary and interstellar flight. Where ever I took it was a new planet.

Just the facts
11-18-2013, 07:38 PM
Christmas 1979 (Age 10): Super Bowl XII Electronic Football Games. I accidentally found it a few days before Christmas and started to open it when my older sister stopped me and told me to put it back. After I said no she told it was for Christmas so I had to wait 3 day before I could play it. Talk about not being able to sleep.

http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m31LlbXly0V_gay77fyhq5Q.jpg

jmpokc1957
11-18-2013, 07:54 PM
I remember getting that G.I. Joe Mercury capsule. Except mine, of course, was capable of interplanetary and interstellar flight. Where ever I took it was a new planet.

Ha! I had a G.I. Joe Mercury capsule! Pretty detailed, as I recall. G.I. Joe was dressed in his space suit and made many orbits around the house!
Every time there was a space launch I would follow it on TV and the capsule would make another orbit around the house. I would also set a globe in the middle of the living room encircled with model railroad track. I would put a model of a space capsule on a railroad car and it would circle the globe as it followed the animation on TV.

The Sears Christmas catalog was the most anticipated event of the season! My mother says I learned to read from the Sears catalog! Kids today don't know what they're missing.

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 08:31 PM
Christmas 1979 (Age 10):
http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/2/2/0/193220.jpg?v=1

Dang! You're young!

mugofbeer
11-18-2013, 08:33 PM
HO scale electric slot cars by Aurora. Used to buy separate slot cars at Gibsons Factory Distributed store downtown

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 08:34 PM
Ha! I had a G.I. Joe Mercury capsule!
My youngest brother, who is considerably older than jtf, had a collection
of astronauts. One was names Mike. Does this ring a bell?

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 08:41 PM
HO scale electric slot cars by Aurora. Used to buy separate slot cars at
Gibsons Factory Distributed store downtown
On Hudson! Yeah, Aurora was the watershed of slot cars. You don't know
how much I wanted an Aurora slot car set. I had a Tyco HO train.

One year I got a Stromberg slot card set. 1966? I swear it was a million
feet of track and took up the entire and extremely small one car garage
because the track was on an 8x4 sheet of plywood.

kswright29
11-18-2013, 08:44 PM
My youngest brother, who is considerably older than jtf, had a collection
of astronauts. One was names Mike. Does this ring a bell?

Are you talking about the Major Matt Mason line of astronaut toys, would have been early 70's maybe?

My favorite Christmas toy ever was the Evel Knievel stunt cycle and scramble van. I played with that forever. My parents still have it and it works like a charm. Evel is a little worn, but he still hangs onto the bike. My kids love playing with this too and think it's super cool.

Prunepicker
11-18-2013, 08:53 PM
Are you talking about the Major Matt Mason line of astronaut toys, would
have been early 70's maybe?
I believe you're right and the early 70's is the era.

Hmmm, Major Matt Mason... mmm... Is he a moderator on OKC Talk?

Roger S
11-19-2013, 06:30 AM
I bought one of these (http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Mattel/FB.htm) with my birthday money. I still have it somewhere at my mom's house but unfortunately it no longer works.

Dubya61
11-19-2013, 07:56 AM
I really liked the hot-wheels-type cars that you could power up. I think they were called Sizzlers. They ran on the Hot Wheels tracks (which I would also get beat with by my brothers).

Roger S
11-19-2013, 08:26 AM
I really liked the hot-wheels-type cars that you could power up. I think they were called Sizzlers. They ran on the Hot Wheels tracks (which I would also get beat with by my brothers).

I had some of those. If I remember right you charged them up with a charger that looked like a gas pump.

I had more hotwheels track than I knew what to do with. After my cars quit working we would build tracks and race marbles on them.