Your favorite toy?

[John Connor]

When I was young I remember being sick in bed and seeing a commercial for the first time for a series of toys called Spy Tech. After I seen that commercial I said, "I want that!" From then on every birthday and Christmas I would get a few Spy Tech toys to complete the collection. I was a little sleuth back then. Sleuthing around the neighborhood, gathering evidence. Quite frankly I was a flipping peeping Tom. I also had my own desk in my room with a nice lamp and my own phone complete with a Red Ryder BB gun. I even had a detective kit which included an awesome pocket sized microscope. I remember one Christmas I used my detective kit to lift prints off all of the presents. It was then I knew Clause was a bunch of shit! I mean, these prints should have had a snowflake pattern. If that wasn't bad enough, when I sat on that fat bastard's lap I would notice his eye color change year after year. I remember this one particular Santa that had greasy ass hands as if he just pulled the transmission from his merry ass Buick.

Sure, Nintendo was awesome, and I did play my fair share of Mario, Duck Hunt , Street Fighter and Star Fox. But nothing beat the wonders of Spy Tech and my accompanying detective kit. Man, those were the days...

 

[Crono]

Legos. Mostly the Creator or Freestyle or whatever they call the regular, non-themed buckets rather than sets now.

Other than that (and not including consoles) I had a Lionel train set that I had a lot of fun with. Also had a bunch of cheap remote control cars, most of which ended up broken or I took them apart to play with the motors.

 

[Chaotic42]

Probably Lite Brite

or slot cars (I had this Super Duper Double Looper)

Edit: Oh, I forgot about Erector Set. I've got to say that was #1

 

[lxskllr]

Probably my atari2600 for indoor stuff, and my skateboard or bike for outside if they count as toys.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

A two wing delta kite I built in 7th grade that lifted me right off the hill I flew it from.

 

[John Connor]

or bike for outside if they count as toys.

Oh, I so loved my bike. My bike was always on my mind in school and I just couldn't wait to go home and ride it. Since then I have learned with the help of a good friend how to completely disassemble and put back together my mountain bike. During high school my friend and I would go on biking excursions. Colorado has an awful lot of places to ride a bike. Especially mountain biking. In fact, I think the whole damn state is into biking. Every time I go through Boulder there are countless bike riders along the side of the road.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Definitely your mom.


But aside from that as a kid all I played with were lego as far as physical toys. Outside of that I would say Super Nintendo trumped everything. Brought back such treasured memories I had to buy a USB SNES controller and play the games again via emulator.

 

[John Connor]

Definitely your mom.

Do you want me to command one of my reprogrammed terminators to bake cookies up your ass?

Besides, you wouldn't like my mom. She's old, just had quadruple heart surgery and has loads of other health problems.

 

[Paladin3]

http://www.retroland.com/vertibird/

http://www.viewmaster.co.uk/htm/talking.asp
I remember lots of Mighty Mouse and National Parks disks that came with mine.

http://www.retroland.com/star-wars-toys/
I remember having many of the original action figures, an X-Wing fighter, a Tauntaun, a kickass Stormtrooper blaster and a blue lightsaber. My little bro saved up all our proof-of-purchases from our action figure packages to get a Boba Fett figure that was mail-order only. I remember laughing because Boba Fett was barely in the movie and thought he was wasting his time. Now that toy would be work like $2k mint in the package, and he never let me live it down after we got older and figured out how cool Boba Fett actual is.

http://www.retroland.com/army-men/


[URL]http://www.retroland.com/merlin/[/URL]
When I got a little older I was big time into:

http://www.retroland.com/model-rockets/

http://www.retroland.com/dungeons-dragons/

Around 12-13 my father introduced me to big boy toys, mainly motorcycles and guns, but I still play D&D and shoot off model rockets. I also juggle a bit and have a few dual-line stunt kites.

 

[Kaido]

I remember laughing because Boba Fett was barely in the movie and thought he was wasting his time. Now that toy would be work like $2k mint in the package, and he never let me live it down after we got older and figured out how cool Boba Fett actual is.

I recently re-watched the original SW trilogy (as an adult) & had no idea how little Boba Fett was actually in the movies. I remember him having a waaaaaaaaay bigger role as a kid. Imagination, I guess!

 

[XavierMace]

Lego's. Still have mine and the collection is still growing.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

 

[John Connor]

That helicopter toy reminds me of Air Hogs.

I remember the classic Estes Rocket. I had one that was a camera that used 110 film. This was IMO the first drone with a camera. Except you had to develop the film. LOL


Now I live in a town where Estes Park is right down the road.

 

[purbeast0]

Aside from some of the obvious like legos and video games...

Electronic Survivor Shot

Record Breakers

Fast Traxx

Domino Rally

 

[John Connor]

HAHAHAHA This was the commercial that started it all.

Blast from the past!

 

[RossMAN]

Something like this, it seemed bigger, slower and cheaper though. Circa 1980-ish

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CYE2NYK/

 

[John Connor]

I don't know who in Tyco came up with those toys but they were brilliant.

 

[Kaido]

Fast Traxx

Ahhhhh man, Fast Traxx was my JAM! Love at first sight!

I was just at Costco the other day and they had something really similar in their toy area...alllllllmost bought one, just for nostalgia's sake.

 

[Kaido]

I think my favorite toy as a kid was the Turbo F.I.S.T. (also sold as the Turbo Bionic). It was an R/C car with a unique controller: the glove had a Nintendo Wii-style wireless control system (long before that tech really got popular) that worked by tilting your hand to control the car's motion.

Funny story on finding it actually. I originally posted a thread way back in 2006 trying to find the name of it:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ar-with-the-transmitter-in-the-glove.1961867/

2 years ago I ended up finding it & updating that thread. And thanks to the power of the Internet, I ended up getting in contact with the super-cool lady who originally designed it (20+ years after the fact!). She actually designed a lot of our childhood stuff, from games to R/C toys. Has like 200+ patents to her name, pretty incredible! Anyway, super cool toy at the time (still cool in my book!).

 

[Kaido]

Oh man, was that the metal one? That was such a quality toy. I ended up getting the plastic version some years later & it was total garbage in comparison. Just cheap, shoddy junk. But that diecast version...they used to make awesome toys back in the day...

 

[John Connor]

I think my favorite toy as a kid was the Turbo F.I.S.T. (also sold as the Turbo Bionic). It was an R/C car with a unique controller: the glove had a Nintendo Wii-style wireless control system (long before that tech really got popular) that worked by tilting your hand to control the car's motion.

Funny story on finding it actually. I originally posted a thread way back in 2006 trying to find the name of it:

https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...ar-with-the-transmitter-in-the-glove.1961867/

2 years ago I ended up finding it & updating that thread. And thanks to the power of the Internet, I ended up getting in contact with the super-cool lady who originally designed it (20+ years after the fact!). She actually designed a lot of our childhood stuff, from games to R/C toys. Has like 200+ patents to her name, pretty incredible! Anyway, super cool toy at the time (still cool in my book!).

That's pretty crazy a woman designed that. You'd think she'd design Barbie dolls or something. Props to her.

 

[Sonikku]

...never did get "prostitute April".

Oh and this contraption tops them all, if you can call it a toy;

 

[John Connor]

I had a Ghostbusters proton pack, the ghost trap and some other weird Ghostbusters gun that I don't ever recall seeing in the movie or cartoons. I used to pretend nabbing ghosts and inserting my ghost trap in the utility room where the hot water heater was as the containment unit.

This was when I was in the 1st grade. I brought all my crap to school for show and tell and it was like no one gave a damn. LOL!

 

[AdamK47]

Gen 1 Transformers, Voltron, and a talking KITT car.

 

[chitwood]

GI Joes
Starcom
He-Man
Battle beasts
Hot Wheels
Micro Machines

As well as all the vehicles, fortresses, playsets that were available.
I remember having epic 3-faction wars between the Joes, He-Men, and battlebeasts. (the beasts usually won)