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With all my children married and out of the house, Christmas gift giving tends to now be focused on grand children (this is not to say my children don't receive gifts they are still spoiled) but who doesn't love seeing kids at Christmas plus shopping for my kids has become boring
you know a pair of jeans, a sweater a jacket BORING !!! Grandpa has decided my 2 year old Grandson needs a Fire truck/Fire engine shopping for the perfect fire engine will be much more fun !!
This came to me while laying in bed this morning and thinking about Christmas and my childhood. Science claims that that average child starts to remember things at about 3.5 years old,
My first remembrance of a toy was a fire truck I received for Christmas when I was I think 4 years old (I'm a little slow) and it is a very vivid memory I swear for all the things i have forgotten over the years that fire truck sticks in my brain and I remember exactly what it looked like so I hit the internet and after some looking I found it !!! it was a Structo, the ladders worked and the hood opened ! this of course lead to me declaring to my wife Axel needs a fire truck !! I'm going to start shopping !! here is a pic of the fire truck I remember.
What is the first toy you remember ?
Tonka still making trucks,, they have a line called steel classics, while they have a lot of plastic in them I believe the bodies are steel. Shaq is the spokesman for them
urging kids to get out from behind the mind numbing computer games and go play with real toys !!!
I vividly remember two presents. One was a Davy Crockett or Daniel Boone outfit, you pick, that came with a shirt, pants, coonskin hat, and replica flintlock that shot corkballs via a spring. The other was a pedal car firetruck with mini ladders, reel hose, and a siren that worked via batteries. Sure wish I had that firetruck today!
Certainly not my first toy but, I have vivid memories of a Tonka truck like this. Mine was beige. Feet-sides were even rare back then.
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I, also, had one of these. Texaco Tanker. Held a number of batteries and you could manually turn the rudder to send it across the pond.
One trip to my buddy's parent's small ranch, we took it to one of their ponds. Fired Roman Candles at it. When that didn't sink it we chunked M-80s and Cherry Bombs at it. We swamped it twice but, it would go upright and kept churning water. A fun day for young punk *** kids that shouldn't have been allowed to have those fireworks in the first damned place.
My Marx Big Bruiser wrecker. I played with my toys but took care of them so Bruiser and its pickup still looked great when I outgrew them.
Then...
After I was out on my own, Mama decided she wanted to declutter and gave Bruiser and some of my Tonkas to my cousin's brat. That boy could tear the horns off a brass billy goat and after a few months Bruiser was pretty much destroyed. Sad but Mama knew I never fully forgave her for that.
Just picked up one of these JL car case Al Unser Indy cars. Being a child of the 60's, I think these came out around 1970. Had one stuffed with all my Hot Wheels. I think I sold it off at one of my toy sales. Found one in great shape, though not like this one in the factory box. At least I will have a place to store all my loose Oldsmobile's for now!
I also have fond memories of this toy !! Mattel Power shop !! received it when I was about 10 (probably to objections from my mother who was sure I would cut my fingers off) years old. it was a combination sander, scroll saw lathe, drill press and it worked very well it disappeared in a move, but about 10 years ago I found a complete one at a flea market and bought it, brought it home and it worked fine ! in fact list year I used it indoors to cut all the siding, shutters and roofing for the doll house I built my grand daughter,
when my grand son is old enough I will pass it down to him.
A stick, im not being funny as we all know a stick was anything a gun, a fishing pole, a poker, a sword,a sling shot a bow an arrow etc etc, I googled stick for a good image cuz no-one knows what a stick looks like and i LOLd when i saw a stick was inducted into the toy hall of fame in 2008.
i also had hand me down erector set, lincoln logs (fancy sticks lol) and my favorite a tonka dune buggy one of the few toys i got new.
My ultimate toy was a “Defender Dan” tripod machine gun, definitely one of the most un-pc toys ever. Shot belt fed plastic bullets, had an orange muzzle that reciprocated in & out. The topper was it was in the display box. As it was explained to me the store would display the toy in the special box that was like a “stage” with the assembled item that enticed people to order or the store might have them in stock but the one you bought was just a normal box that contained the disassembled toy. Don’t know if Dad strong armed them or just happened to get the last one.
There’s some lulu with one on eBay right now for $45k. Some years ago an acquaintance that collected toys asked me what my ultimate childhood toy was, when I told him he led me into a room and the one he had was missing some stuff. When I told him mine had the big box his eyes lit up and he said it was too bad I didn’t have it, would be worth a bunch, $1500-2000 he figured. Oh well, toys, cars that are valuable now, if only I had gotten that crystal ball!
Mine was, you guessed it, a Red Rider BB gun at age 4. I was a big kid at 4 but couldn't **** it my self (good thing) so my dad followed me miles around the house while I tried to make the local birds a endangered species. Somethings stay with you for years and years....... Tedd
Mr. Machine was advertised as a toy you can take apart.
So, I did take him apart.
My mother was very mad.
I blame him for my curiosity in taking apart my Cutlasses.
I am now in the middle of dissembling my 1971 CS for the second time in 10 years.
Thank you, Mr. Machine.
first toy i remember was a black tonka vw bug.i still have it.also a 67 camaro i believe its a tonka but i have never seen another one.i still have it too.
Mr. Machine was advertised as a toy you can take apart.
So, I did take him apart.
My mother was very mad.
I blame him for my curiosity in taking apart my Cutlasses.
I am now in the middle of dissembling my 1971 CS for the second time in 10 years.
Thank you, Mr. Machine.
Yeah, my Dad got mad at me a lot. He said I would play with a toy for 5 minutes then take it apart to see how it worked. I guess they didn't always go back together afterwards. But I eventually got better at it.
Taking my toys apart was one thing since I was usually able to put them back together good as new.
It was when I graduated to taking my dad's stuff apart things got complicated! Took his steel tape measure apart and couldn't put it back. Toted a belt beating over that one. A young friend took his dad's electric drill apart at age 13 and toted a beating over that.
This is not actually toy but related kind of,
I was not a spoiled kid but I was a lucky kid !! we lived in a lower middle class suburb of Chicago and my mom and dad both worked (early 1960's) about 75% of my friends had 2 working parents, so 2 incomes required to keep the families going so money was tight and we all seamed to have a lot of hand-me downs clothes etc... except for me at least when it came to sporting goods !! you see my old man ran a sporting goods store and I always had A-1 sporting goods, I was the envy of most my buddies, not bragging just explaining,
Being in retail management even back then required putting a lot of hours, my old man used to work at least 2-3 12 hour days a week and seemed to work every weekend he did manage to get some Sundays off (we'd go fishing) I think he was upset about the lack of quality time with the family so he compensated by providing us with quality sports gear ( my sisters too) I mean after all it was his business and he knew it well !! my sisters all had good figure skates, I had hockey skates, foot *****, basket *****, tether ball and base ball equipment, my favorite though was, when I stepped up from little league to pony league he brought me home a new ball glove made from Kangaroo leather ( I think it was a MacGregor, I think I also had the first skate board in the neighborhood a far cry from todays boards it was flat rigid and made from oak.
And to go to work to provide that stuff the old man used to drive a old 1952 Dodge with rusted out floor boards that were so bad when it rained or snowed he would drag his butt in after a 12 hour day with the cuffs of his pants wet !! what a pop !!
I remember the old man saying a lot of the stuff was vendor samples, you see even then the vendor sales people would come in and request premium shelf space or the grand daddy of them all a window display !! so I guess to get it one hand washes the other !!
With and older brother and 2 sisters seems Christmas Toys were communal, (except girls toys and dolls). As we got older a bit of "thats mine would take over but I do remember seeing the Remco Pom-Pom gun on TV and I asked for one for Xmas. When I got it and batteries were installed it worked but not to my knowledge only partially. The barrels retracted in and out and I was somewhat enthused. A few days later a friend also showed off his Remco and the loud Pom-Pom, Pom-pom, pom-pom, sounds could be heard. I would say the thrill factor doubled with the sound! Now I don't remember if the toy was taken back for a replacement, or just put aside, or perhaps repaired by my dad but that toy is still remembered!
I still have this Tonka Mighty Shovel from Christmas 1970 on a shelf in my garage, a little worse for wear. My sister still has the Fisher Price Garage.
Tonka trucks were really well made and lasted me for generations. So were Lionel Trains, I wish I had a nickle for every time I picked up a derail Train off the concrete basement floor after crashing off the train table 4" higher
I think the first toy I can remember receiving was a battery-powered helicopter on a stiff wire connected to a controller that also held the batteries.. The motor would provide the lift, and you'd twist the controller (which in turn tilted the copter) for fore/aft motion. I was a little over 3 y/o when I received that for xmas '64. My most memorable toys though were my Strombecker slot car set (still have it in a box in the attic) I received when 6 y/o, and my older brother's Erector set and American Flyer train set that I inherited when he went off to college. Oh, and also a pedal race car that I'd drive around outside in the summer and in the basement in the winter (and skinned up quite a bit of drywall cutting the apex of the corners a bit too tight).
