strangest, weirdist or just plain wrong toy from your youth

[Twitch]

52Styleline- The difference is back then it was an unspoken acknowledgement that an adult taught the kid and/or supervised. Even so burning got your attention didn't it? Bet you were a bit more careful in all aspects of the thing.

Today we have to have ludicrious warnings on everything such as "do not use while in shower" on a hair dryer to fulfill the stupid liability clauses. And every product has to have ages of target user on the box because parents are (too lame?) to figure it out.

If your Grandpa handed you the .22 after explaining and demonstrating firearms safety and said "let's go plinking," at the age of 8 or 10 he made a decision based on your intelligence and value to do the proper thing.

Today you are assumed to be a retard and that your parents are too dense to make decisions in your regard so we have all these happy, happy, feel-good laws complete with warning labels so you can go knuckle dragging blissfully about all the while protected by your guv'ment and those nice ladies groups that have nothing to do but think up weird crapola.lol

 

[J. M. Stovall]

This was a weird game that my brother and I played all the time, I'm sure it's still in my parents attic somewhere.

 

[staggerwing]

Although hardly "wrong" it must be wierd today...when I was a kid, I spent hours building and flying model airplanes with little 2 cycle engines. There were several hobby shops in the area where I grew up that sold the airplane kits, engines, fuel, etc. These weren't the expensive radio controlled models. I couldn't afford those. These flew in a circular pattern at the end of a 30' to 90' cable (depending on the size of the engine). Actually, there were two cables connected to a handle and you could control the planes elevators. Now, the hobby shops and the models seem to be gone. Is it the idea of hot little engines, buzz-saw like propellers, 20-odd pound projectiles that hit over 100 mph? I still have a couple from my misspent youth. It seems like all kids do today is play video games and soccer.

 

[dostacos]

Although hardly "wrong" it must be wierd today...when I was a kid, I spent hours building and flying model airplanes with little 2 cycle engines. There were several hobby shops in the area where I grew up that sold the airplane kits, engines, fuel, etc. These weren't the expensive radio controlled models. I couldn't afford those. These flew in a circular pattern at the end of a 30' to 90' cable (depending on the size of the engine). Actually, there were two cables connected to a handle and you could control the planes elevators. Now, the hobby shops and the models seem to be gone. Is it the idea of hot little engines, buzz-saw like propellers, 20-odd pound projectiles that hit over 100 mph? I still have a couple from my misspent youth. It seems like all kids do today is play video games and soccer.

I also flew control line planes, mainly .049 when I was real young my dad would build free flight planes, we flew them at the Sepulveda Dam rec area

 

[Diamondback]

Last I knew, Model Airplane News still published some control-line plans, including one of a dual-.049-powered version of the turboprop B-47D prototype--wish I could find that one, they said it could easily be converted to R/C...

 

[HadleyH]

Nothing strange or weird or anything just dolls.

 

[Samsa]

Have you seen the Denis Leary routine about how he had to go to the hospital after his brother shot him in the head with one of those? lol

Haha, I had forgotten about that bit!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

That's what irritated me about "A Christmas Story" when the Dad sent the kid out back with the BB gun with no supervision. Whadda putz!

 

[Story]

Nothing strange or weird or anything just dolls.

Yes, but when you had your Barbies form an all-girl gang to rob Ken's bank, that might count... [huh] That's ok, tho - some of us *might* have played Lawrence-of-Arabia-meets-the-Adams-Family, blowing up Ottoman trains with firecrackers and the assistance of tiny Bedouins.

Meanwhile, comments in this thread reminded me of those in
THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS
www.dangerousbookforboys.com/

This column also mirrors comments made here.
http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/2007/08/remembering-dangerous-old-days.html

 

[BegintheBeguine]

One day I picked up one of my GI Joes and his arms and legs simply fell off. After that, we'd dress him in his fatigues and set him in a mod chair at Barbie parties, calling him the Disabled Veteran.
That Which Witch game looks cool!!

 

[BegintheBeguine]

One day I picked up one of my GI Joes and his arms and legs simply fell off. After that, we'd dress him in his fatigues and set him in a mod chair at Barbie parties, calling him The Disabled Veteran. We also had a fried Barbie wig we would perch in a corner shelf of the doll house, calling it The Late Agnes Moorehead.
That Which Witch game looks cool!!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

We could, and did, do all sorts of weird things with toys and playtime activities. I combined western action figures with some biblical characters and had a good old time. Imagine Noah's Ark on the western frontier, or The Lone Ranger being brought back from the dead by Jesus. Or Roy Rogers being swallowed by a whale.

My father meticulously taught my brother and I how to handle guns, but that did not stop brother from aiming and shooting a b-b gun at me when he got mad at me one day. It was not loaded, but, still.... Brother had the gun taken away from him for several months after that incident. Father did not allow us to even point toy guns at each other.

Those who did not have weapons made them. Anyone from my era remember sling shots? -- just as deadly, if not more so, than b-b guns. We also fashioned spears from tall weed stalks that dried out and died in the autumn. I had a special spear I named "Wawona" after a giant sequoia I read about, and it was sharpened to a such a point that it would stick in a tree. At least I didn't throw it at anyone.

karol

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Who can forget the classic broken model airplane and lighter fluid combo, at the finale of a model air battle.

 

[Story]

Who can forget the classic broken model airplane and lighter fluid combo, at the finale of a model air battle.

Or abandoned reservoir + electric-motored HMS Hood + model glue/firecrackers. Go Bismarck!

This thread is gonna provide some Grad student alot of material for their thesis in Abnormal Pyschology.

 

[HamletJSD]

Something just reminded me that my dad had an old handgun that we used to play with. We have no idea even what era to place it in (was stolen from our house before appraised) and we knew nothing of guns at all.
The scary part is that a friend of ours (who knows guns) one day noticed something down in it and pulled out a ball, wad of paper, and black powder. The gun was loaded the whole time! I know they needed some sort of firing cap to set off the powder, but it is still pretty wild knowing that my sister and I used to point the thing and "shoot" at each other during play time.

 

[Senator Jack]

The scary part is that a friend of ours (who knows guns) one day noticed something down in it and pulled out a ball, wad of paper, and black powder. The gun was loaded the whole time! I know they needed some sort of firing cap to set off the powder, but it is still pretty wild knowing that my sister and I used to point the thing and "shoot" at each other during play time.

I knew a ten-year old kid who took an antique gun down from the shelf, stuffed it with a rock and gunpower, and used a cap to set it off. Shot his little brother dead. Yay guns!

 

[Dr Doran]

I had Pulsar. White hair. Freaky. And we had Creepy Crawlers too. Those were very cool. But wasn't Creepy Crawl a Charles Manson reference?

I also had SLIME. It came in a plastic garbage can and was very disgusting and took the varnish right off antiques. One kind came with eyeballs in it. Another with plastic worms. Smelled horrible, like industrial plastic but worse. We loved it. What a gross toy.

You know those small green army men about 2 inches high? My brother and I used to mutate/mutilate them with soldering irons. We'd combine them, add extra arms, a horse head, all kinds of hideous things, and play adventures with them. Usually the idea was it was WW3 and fast-acting mutation bombs had gone off; instead of mutating your offspring, they mutated YOU. So the army men had gone through painful processes of seeing extra arms, etc. sprout from their backs. That was the story we came up with, I think. After a plastic soldering session, we'd always get sore throats. That was "just plain wrong."

There were other toys that were just wrong, but that's all I can think of now.

 

[Warden]

I know this is fftopic: but my daughter wants the Sindy / Barbie dog which is being advertised on TV and does toy poo's!

Now that is just weird

Harry

 

[dostacos]

Who can forget the classic broken model airplane and lighter fluid combo, at the finale of a model air battle.

OR using the plastic model glue and light that stuff offlol

 

[cassylynn]

I may only be 29 but we still were not "pampered" like the little ones are today. Does anyone remember the home chemistry sets? What were they thinking [huh] Selling complete, working chemistry sets to children for play??? Adult supervision required lol Also, playing cowboys and Indians was fun, especially when the arrows were equipped with real tips. "It's all fun and games until someone gets an arrow stuck in their bum" (Happened to one of my husbands buddies when they were children) :eusa_clap