The Toys That Made You! What were your favourite growing up?

I've never seen the show but your thread provided unexpected parallels. My favorite toys were springboards for future professions or interests. It's a little uncanny.

I loved Barbie. Not the doll. I liked dressing her. I wasn't into make believe. I wanted a wardrobe, home, and all the niceties.
Future: Fashion and interior design

I loved my Easy Bake oven. I enjoyed making treats and purchased extra packs too. Sometimes I shared. *lol
Future: Culinary school

My favorite board game was Monopoly. I was really good. My aunt didn't oblige me! We played chess, checkers and Scrabble.
Future: Wealth management, real estate and writing

I enjoyed my Atari and Intellivision and the Commodore 64!
Future: Digital entrepreneur

Connecting the dots is neat. Great thread!

Yours in His Service,

~Bella

Years ago my father went on strike. We were all young and the strike went even into Christmas. Neighbors made sure we had enough to eat but gifts under the tree was not a option. So my dad, coming home from the day of carrying signs for fairer labor practices saw a broken wooden toy house on the side of the road.

He loaded into his car and brought it home and hid it in the attack. My mom on seeing him fix it went to the stores asking for swatches of flooring and wall paper and she got several books for free. These books and the fixed house sat under our tree that Christmas and it was the best gift ever.

We cold lay carpet and cover the walls and build rooms from things we found in the basement and outdoors, it was years and years of fun for all of us.

Joyous Song said:

Years ago my father went on strike. We were all young and the strike went even into Christmas. Neighbors made sure we had enough to eat but gifts under the tree was not a option. So my dad, coming home from the day of carrying signs for fairer labor practices saw a broken wooden toy house on the side of the road.

He loaded into his car and brought it home and hid it in the attack. My mom on seeing him fix it went to the stores asking for swatches of flooring and wall paper and she got several books for free. These books and the fixed house sat under our tree that Christmas and it was the best gift ever.

We cold lay carpet and cover the walls and build rooms from things we found in the basement and outdoors, it was years and years of fun for all of us.

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That's a lovely story. Thank you for sharing!

My childhood was back in the 50s and 60s and I can remember countless teddies and dolls, which often kept me company in bed - so many I couldn't turn in the bed. I remember one which I called Darthur, thinking it was a female version of Arthur. There was another doll, which my 3 younger sisters and I received as a Christmas present one year and which we called Loella - a progression from Noella.

Gillian

NIrelandGillian said:

That's a lovely story. Thank you for sharing!

My childhood was back in the 50s and 60s and I can remember countless teddies and dolls, which often kept me company in bed - so many I couldn't turn in the bed. I remember one which I called Darthur, thinking it was a female version of Arthur. There was another doll, which my 3 younger sisters and I received as a Christmas present one year and which we called Loella - a progression from Noella.

Gillian

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For another story, years ago my husband and I were going through extremely hard times. Our daughter wanted a doll house probably fueled by my story above. Yet unlike my father, no doll house showed up on any street.

Then she had a dream telling her toys were all around her. She saw in that dream shoe boxes and old rugs being made into a house. Come morning she told us and we said, "go do that".I got the shoe boxes from our loft and those rug and broken flooring pieces and she and the other children got to work.

In the end that shoe box house filled one end of her room growing alongside both our girls. Sometimes as I looked at it I think her doll house was even more special because in someways it came from above.

Joyous Song said:

For another story, years ago my husband and I were going through extremely hard times. Our daughter wanted a doll house probably fueled by my story above. Yet unlike my father, no doll house showed up on any street.

Then she had a dream telling her toys were all around her. She saw in that dream shoe boxes and old rugs being made into a house. Come morning she told us and we said, "go do that".I got the shoe boxes from our loft and those rug and broken flooring pieces and she and the other children got to work.

In the end that shoe box house filled one end of her room growing alongside both our girls. Sometimes as I looked at it I think her doll house was even more special because in someways it came from above.

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Another lovely story. It was great she and her sister followed up on the dream and on your encouragement. I can see that was a very special Christmas for your family.

Gillian

NIrelandGillian said:

Another lovely story. It was great she and her sister followed up on the dream and on your encouragement. I can see that was a very special Christmas for your family.

Gillian

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Thank you, it was. It helped us through those hard times and even helps years later to remember this when hard times come. I also find writing about my past helps me write fantasy. That and story prompts like "you did what?" that came from a writing group I'm part of.

Joyous Song said:

Thank you, it was. It helped us through those hard times and even helps years later to remember this when hard times come. I also find writing about my past helps me write fantasy. That and story prompts like "you did what?" that came from a writing group I'm part of.

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I could well believe it. Some of the best stories are based on real life experiences.

Gillian

I part of a writing group at our local library out here though Covid made it email only. One woman there began to write her life story so I started to share stories of my life. Without knowing it I created a treasure for my children who can now read stories not only about how I met their dad, but also many about their grandparents, aunts and uncles and of course many many pets.

Joyous Song said:

I part of a writing group at our local library out here though Covid made it email only. One woman there began to write her life story so I started to share stories of my life. Without knowing it I created a treasure for my children who can now read stories not only about how I met their dad, but also many about their grandparents, aunts and uncles and of course many many pets.

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That's nice to have your story written down like that for your family. Several years ago I wrote about my school years and posted it to the school alumni site - I went to the same school, prep and senior, throughout my school career. Several people got in touch to say they had enjoyed reading my article, because it brought back happy memories.

Gillian

Azlan82 said:

Anyone who watches Netflix might have seen the documentary series "The Toys That Made Us". Goes through popular toys, generally those from the 80s, that people have nostalgia for.

So, what were your favourite toys, games, video games growing up?

As a boy, born in the UK in the early 80's, I grew up with He-Man toys, Transformers, and Thundercats.

My Dad was, and still is, a gamer, despite now being in his mid-70s. First computer I had was a British classic, the Amstrad CPC-464. Not sure how popular they were in the states. Then moved on to the Amiga 500 and NES.

Monopoly (UK edition) was always big in our house, but as a kid Mouse Trap was my absolute favorite.

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Action Man, Star Wars figures, Masters of the Universe and Transformers.

I also had a bunch of space ships that could be taken apart and rebuilt in different configurations. One side was yellow an one was green. Star Guardians or something like that.

Growing up in the 1940's it was all about playing war, and cowboys and indians, so weapons of all sorts were our main toys. My brother and I made most of our own in my dad's shop as the models we wanted weren't available, notably Winchester rifles and Thompson sub machine guns. "Army Surplus" stores provided helmets, web belts, canteens, and other stuff no longer needed by the military, very cheaply.

Bows and arrows were popular as well, especially after seeing "Robin Hood" movies (I still shoot, bowhunt).

On windy days the parks were filled with kids flying kites, most of which wound up in a tree somewhere.

Winter was the time for assembling WW2 model warplanes from kits (most of which were never finished). My brother and I got into puzzles for awhile as well. We got so good at it that it became boring.

And marbles...everyone played marbles.

One favorite of mine in the early 1960s was the Tick Toy Clock. It was a plastic clock which could be dismantled and re-assembled easily without tools. It was driven by winding a steel spring (safely enclosed within a canister), and the spring gear turned a series of colored gears, each on colored posts, until the motion reached the hour hand and minute hand. It kept time pretty well, considering the lack of precision of the gears. Each gear was color-coded, and the ads for it featured a song which told how to assemble it.

I don't know whether I had mechanical talent which made the clock fun, or if playing with the clock helped develop a mechanical aptitude I had (maybe both), but that ability has served me well.

Darkhorse said:

One favorite of mine in the early 1960s was the Tick Toy Clock. It was a plastic clock which could be dismantled and re-assembled easily without tools. It was driven by winding a steel spring (safely enclosed within a canister), and the spring gear turned a series of colored gears, each on colored posts, until the motion reached the hour hand and minute hand. It kept time pretty well, considering the lack of precision of the gears. Each gear was color-coded, and the ads for it featured a song which told how to assemble it.

I don't know whether I had mechanical talent which made the clock fun, or if playing with the clock helped develop a mechanical aptitude I had (maybe both), but that ability has served me well.

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As kids my cousins would take the spring-driven motors out of toys and use them to drive a variety of 'functions' that they would design and add to elaborate "Erector Set" contraptions that often literally filled a room. Both were geniuses in electronics and mechanical engineering, one going on to a career at Northrup Grumman designing guidance systems for the aerospace industry.

That was a great TV series. I have a collection of Kenner Star Wars, GIJoe ARAH (the most), Star Trek TOS, and G1 Transformers.

Action figures
Hot Wheels cars
Toy trains
Legos

I was actually a hardcore gamer when I was a kid and a teenager in the 1990s and the 2010s, I got so good at it I may have actually turned pro back then. I grew up with a Nintendo 64 and a Nintendo GameCube, and also a Nintendo 3DS and I played all three of those systems for years. I played the Nintendo 64 for about 20 years, the gamecube for about 10, and the 3DS for a few years.

But now as an adult I have lost interest in video games and I have gone on to other interests, such as decorating...