Old School Toys

[328dude]

Someone mentioned the "Big Wheel" on another thread that got me thinking about all the great toys we had growing up. There was only two types of kids in my neighborhood, Big Wheel kids or Green Machine kids. The Big Wheels always won.

What was yours.

 

[TonyC]

I only recall having one type of kids in my neighborhood, and we all had fun together. Older kids had bikes, all pretty much the same with fat tires and one speed, and the younger kids had wagons and trikes. I've seen every combination of the three tied together with twine, clothesline, and dog leashes. I don't recall there being too much difference between us and "the Jones'es" until they got one of those self-propelled lawnmowers and a new kind of grass trimmer. I was still trimming grass along the chainlink fence with hand clippers, and the nextdoor neighbor was whizzin' by with some new-fangled thing called a WeedEater. Boy, was I jealous.




.

 

[Regul8r]

Sorry, my bigwheel had a squirtgun on it and it was electrically operated. Eat it!

 

[cforst513]

i had a big wheel that had a place for this big, battery-powered squirt gun right up front between the handlebars. it even had a firing button on the handlebars so i could still hold on and squirt people. it was off the hizzy, fo sheezy.

 

[cforst513]

whoa. regul8r. was your bigwheel mostly gray w/ red handlebars? and the gun was black?

 

[Regul8r]

Damn straight cforst513 ! Our folks must have shopped at the same Toys'R'Us !

 

[cforst513]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

 

[HMR]

The Green Machine kids were definately cooler. Those things were bada$$ with their lever-operated steering and all. I never had one. It didn't matter because I was the first one to get a SantaCruz skateboard with GullWing trucks. That was soon followed by a Jeff Bushman 5'7" thruster and my life was forever changed.

BTW- I still have a 2-inch scar on my face from when the paperboy ran over me and my big wheel on his bike.:smash:

 

[Stifler's Mom]

OK, I'm trying to think of some of the toys I had....here is what I can come up with so far.

Sit-N-Spin
Hackey Sacks
Rubiks Cube
Slip N Slide (Dad was pissed when he saw how torn up the lawn was)
Weeble Wobbles
ATARI
Chinese Jump Rope
Evil Kneivel Stunt Bike
Play Doh

 

[MauleSkinner]

We used to make 5-6 foot tall kites out of lath and grocery bags, and use baling twine for string...had to use the Honda three-wheeler (am I dating myself with that one?) to get it airborne, but in a strong wind, it would just about lift one of us off the ground

David

 

[Flying Illini]

SIT-N-SPIN!!!!!!!uke:
Dukes of Hazard Big Wheel!
Pitch Back
Atari 2600
Atari 7200? or 7600? Still have it, still play it!
Super-Soaker (one of my first purchases with my own chore money)
Nerf Boomerang (split my chin wide open chasing it down...no, it didn't come back!...this was only about a year after I split my chin open in the same place, entire bottom of my chin, from my brother and I running in the grocery store. LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER!!!!)
I know there were more cool toys.

 

[flyinlow67]

I remember when the original Pong game came out. A friend of mine had one. We used to sit for hours and watch that stupid ball go across the screen. How far we have come......
I also remember the original Flight Simulator. That sucked.

 

[Ill Mitch]

Someone mentioned the "Big Wheel" on another thread that got me thinking about all the great toys we had growing up. There was only two types of kids in my neighborhood, Big Wheel kids or Green Machine kids. The Big Wheels always won.

What was yours.

I had a green machine. Our Green Gang chased down and teased the Big Wheel crowd for being uncool because they were driving something with handlebars as opposed to levers.

Ah, those were the days. Everytime I see a Green Machine I get all teary eyed.

 

[moonlight]

I remember I had a Tonka airplane that looked sort of like a Duke, with a handle and a trigger to make the props spin. Between that and my Millenium Falcon, I was fat, dumb and happy. Now I'm just fat and dumb...

 

[BushwickBill]

The Green Machine kids were definately cooler. Those things were bada$$ with their lever-operated steering and all. I never had one. It didn't matter because I was the first one to get a SantaCruz skateboard with GullWing trucks. That was soon followed by a Jeff Bushman 5'7" thruster and my life was forever changed.

BTW- I still have a 2-inch scar on my face from when the paperboy ran over me and my big wheel on his bike.:smash:

Nice my life changed when neighbor gave me his 6'2" Arrow. Its cold and big up this way so I didn't get started until I was 14.

 

[HMR]

Nice my life changed when neighbor gave me his 6'2" Arrow. Its cold and big up this way so I didn't get started until I was 14.

Arrow? I used to see those boards all over the place. That's a NorCal brand, right? When I was 14 I used to surf that beachbreak in Carmel underneath Pebble Beach Golf Course. Oh man, was that cold! Ice Cream headaches suck! :crying:

 

[Way2Broke]

Dude, I use to ride my big wheel down the biggest hills I could find. I took some pretty nasty spills and hit my head a couple of times (that explains alot!). But, the only important thing was that the chicks digged it. I also had the coolest sand box in the town with the big TONKA TRUCKS, so you and your green machine crowd can EAT IT! :uzi:

 

[328dude]

I remember I had a Tonka airplane that looked sort of like a Duke, with a handle and a trigger to make the props spin. Between that and my Millenium Falcon, I was fat, dumb and happy. Now I'm just fat and dumb...

Was it Yellow with working landing gear?

What about transformers? Optimus Prime? What was the guns name?

 

[Flying Illini]

I had every transformer...every single one of them. My mom sold them all...I could be rich right now!
We had a descent sized sandbox and I also had the big metal tonka trucks, front end loader, etc. Those rocked!
I remember my first speedometer. A big round dial, it went up to 55mph. My bike didn't have gears but we had a few big hills around that we would all go to and see who could go the fastest. That was scary stuff. I got it into the red arc at 35mph a few times. Who knows exactly how accurate it was, all I know is that it was wicked scary at that speed! I also loved doing the huge skid with the bike wheb you slammed on the brake. My dad and I changed a lot of bike tires!

 

[Swede]

Too funny! You BW and GM guys will always be little kids in my mind. In my day, the only cool toy worth having was a Schwinn Stingray bike. The Big Wheel was, well, a tricycle, and only fit for toddlers and below.

They did seem to cause carnage, though. Hardly a day went by when some kid on one of those didn't go screaming down a hill and into a curb, flipping a$$ over teakettle and usually landing on his head.

No one wore helmets... that would have been totally dorky. I paid for it when I wiped out, got a concussion, and was puking sick for 3 days after. uke: