Top Ten Vintage Toys
Christmas time is full of memories. And, I usually recall Christmas when I was a child. Especially the gifts I received and loved. They are certainly different than the gifts of today. Here are the top ten vintage toys that I received.
10 – Hands Up Harry
Hands Up Harry was one of the first toys that I remember receiving. You stood up a heavy cardboard silly man named Harry. Then, you stood away from the standup and shot a dart gun at the figure. If you hit the standup in a certain place, Harry’s hands would raise and his pants would fall. Don’t worry. He had underwear. I wonder if this was the inspiration for the “Dirty Harry” movies.
9 – Colorforms
When you open the box, there is a shiny scene. Then you peel rubbery characters and objects and place them on the scene. They stick to the scene, so you can place them and peel them to create different scenes. It sounds simple, but it kept me entertained for hours at a time. Of course, mine was a Batman scene.
8 – Electric Train
I’m not sure what happened to electric trains. I barely see them at Christmas. This was one of my favorite toys. It was as much fun to set it up as it was to run the train. I had foam mountains, a gas station, a log loader (that loaded logs onto a train car) and a train station. And, I changed the track path all the time. I even put things under the track to create inclined hills.
7 – Slot Cars
The slot car racing kit included slotted track pieces, two cars, and hand controllers to propel the cars. You could creatively build the track in a variety of different ways. The cars had pins that went in the track slots. When you pressed the hand controller, the cars would race around the track. It was a blast. I did time trials, raced friends, and made jumps to see how far the car would go in the air. I don’t see many of these anymore either. It’s probably because of video games.
6 – View-Master
This is an interesting one. You inserted a round slide into a hand-held viewer, then pushed a slider to view a picture one at a time. For example, the round slide might be a Batman story. So, you would see the first page of the story by looking into the viewer. Then you push the slider to see the next page of the story. And, so on until the end. The problem was that you had to buy additional stories. And, they were expensive.
5 – Sea Monkeys
This was pure marketing genius. You received a kit to hatch sea monkeys in a fish bowl. Something floated in the water, but they didn’t look anything like the little monkeys on the packaging. They looked like little specks. Oddly, I kept asking for them even after I knew they didn’t work. I guess I’m not very smart.
4 – Magic Rocks
The Sea Monkeys didn’t work, but the Magic Rocks did work. You dropped little squares in a fish bowl, and they would grow into colorful rock mountains. They were actually very pretty. And, it was fun to watch them grow.
3 – Creepy Crawlers
These were so much fun! It had edible goo, bug molds and an oven. You squeezed the goo into a mold, then baked the mold. When it was done, you had a rubbery bug to play with. And then, you could eat the bug. Maybe if we had more of this kind of toy, we would have world peace.
2 – Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots
Two plastic robots in a boxing ring, and you control their arms from the side of the ring. Then, when you hit the other robot right under his chin, his head pops up. Wow! I was unbeaten. And, this is where I learned to fight. I played for hours upon hours.
1 – Hot Wheels
The cars were super fast. You could lay the track a million different ways. I had loops the cars would go on. This was engineering genius. I don’t remember many times that the cars jumped the track. I could easily play with Hot Wheels for an entire day.
