Hey Baby Boomers, Coolest toy from the 50s, 60s or 70's.

[maveric]

My era was the late 50s early 60s and my favs were:

The Great Galoo - A cool looking scaly walking mecahnicalmonster

Johnny 7 OMA - Sure its a gun but back then toy guns were chic. J7oma was huge gun with several different weapons on it. It was bulky but cool. BTW OMA=One Man Army

Thingmaker - A mini hotplate that would heat up to dangerous temps to bake creepy crawlers made of plati-goop. I had many different molds and bake thousands of spiders, scorpions and shrunken heads.

What are your favorite "Cool" toys from those eras?

[CO Liberal]

1. Slinky

We'd get them every year for Christmas, although we lived in a ranch house. So we'd bring them down to my grandparent's farmhouse in South jersey, which had a staircase.

[trof]

5. You betcha'.

Hours on the stairs.
I can still hear that sprongy sound.

[CO Liberal]

24. What Goes Down Stairs, Alone or in Pairs...

...and makes a slinkety sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing
Everyone knows it's Slinky.

It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
For fun it a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky,
It's fun for a girl or a boy.

Everyone knows it's Slinky.
Everyone knows it's Slinky.
Everyone knows it's Slinky.



Photo Source: http://www.dowahdiddy.com/

[southpaw]

2. Shogun Warriors...

I had Great Mazinga! He was my friend!

[Bertha Venation]

3. Bizzy Buzz Buzz

The wings on mine were yellow, not green. I'd love to get my hands on one of these things, working or not.

[maveric]

6. Cool toy but had an ultra dorky kid on the commercial.

Remember him with the buzz cut?

[Bertha Venation]

11. nope... I only remember the toy

I loved it. I slept with it as if it were a stuffed animal.

[kmla]

17. Wow. I had completely forgotten those things even existed!

Remember the "Wheel-O"?

[Bertha Venation]

29. ooh, LOVED Wheel-O. How about Click-Clacks?

I killed myself with these things and loved it.

Couldn't find a picture of Click-Clacks but this gives you the idea

[meatloaf]

4. Big Wheels and everyone had one except me = (

Seriously, everyone but me.

[Az_lefty]

7. steel wheeled skateboards

I still have scars from these things

[TX-RAT]

21. A brutal piece of equipment.

[Jeebo]

8. I liked Lincoln Logs and American Bricks...

No, I'm not an architect, but perhaps I should have looked into that as a potential career. I used to just love to build houses and other structures. I liked American Bricks a lot more than Lincoln Logs, because the bricks made structures that were more relevant to modern times. They still make Lincoln Logs, but not American Bricks (I've tried to find them).

Ron

[arwalden]

9. Wheelo, Whizzers, Etch-A-Sketch, Mousetrap, Superball

[arwalden]

10. Thing Maker... definitely a hot toy!

HOT! Get it?? Hot!

I slay me.

-- Allen

[TXlib]

28. I had one, too.

I think they must have redesigned it, because I don't remember it getting hot; I think the goop cured chemically.

[RobinA]

57. Fun Flowers

We had the girl version of Creepy Crawlers, Fun Flowers. We spent hours playing with that thing. I used to love the hissss when you took the hot plate out of the Thingmaker and put it in the pan of water. That was back when toys were allowed to be fun and we were taught to be careful of things that could hurt us.

[maveric]

35. One of the many Thingmaker sites.

http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/Thingmaker.html

I had one and during the cold snowy Boston winters I would hole up in my parents basement with my thingmaker and plati-goop and would burn my hands and fingertips.

[arwalden]

48. Yep... I've Still Got Burn Scars (Surely) From All The Times...

... I tried to make the shrunken head WITHOUT the hollow piece. Dammit... I wanted a SOLID PLASTIC shrunken head. It never worked. I always scorched the thing trying to let it cook solid with all that goop filling the mold.

I still remember how it smells. Ocasionally I'll get a whiff of some new plastic or latex or vinyl product that reminds me EXACTLY of what the thingmaker used to smell like.

-- Allen

[Tom_Foolery]

55. I had a toy called THE TIME MACHINE...

I think it was made by Mattel. It came with several little plastic squares that you placed inside a chamber that had a heating element under it. When it was turned on and the plastic square got hot, a dinosaur would rise from the square. It had a square chamber that you shoved the dinosaur into to squeeze it back into the original square. It never went back right; and it always had dirt, hair, and other crap in it.

[arwalden]

58. Wow... I Remember That!

Never had one... but I remember the commercials for it.

-- Allen

[tekriter]

12. Mattel Vac-U -form for one...

Sixfinger - a toy gun molded to look like a finger

[maveric]

36. "Sixfinger" OMG!! I forgot about that one!

Had one and loved it.

[Misunderestimator]

13. Hippity-Hop

I really liked that thing.

[stinkeefresh]

14. it's all about the legos

taught me to imagine

taught me to problem solve

taught me to think

greatest toy ever, IMHO

[TX-RAT]

15. Whamo Bazooka

A formidable weapon when stuffed with a plastic softball. Very effective on annoying cousins.

[noonwitch]

16. Dawn dolls and Mystery Date

I was a total girly-girl.
Duncan Yo-yos were better than any other brand.

Metal toys in general were much cooler than plastic-my brother's toy fire trucks were very cool.

My sister's Fisher Price stuff was cooler than the stuff now, even if it wasn't "safe".

[mac56]

18. Colorforms.

I loved them Colorforms.

[x-g.o.p.er]

19. Rock-'em Sock-'em Robots, along with

Hot wheels

Stretch Armstrong

The football game that had a metal field and plastic players, and the field vibrated to make the players move.

Statis-Pro Baseball

And then came the dawn of video games, and our childhood innocence was lost forever, lol.

[rsdsharp]

25. Ahhh Electric football

I still have a set. My wife gave it to me for Christmas about ten years ago.

Don't forget the original GI Joe (not the tiny one of today). Fully articulated arms and legs, lots of cool uniforms and gear, and periodically he'd kick the hell out of my older sister's Ken and have his way with Barbie!

I also loved my Fanner 50s with genuine plastic stag grips, and double holsters. They fired spring loaded plastic bullets (often topped with greeny stickum caps) that were usually lost within the first 30 minutes of ownership.

I miss the days when every other show on TV was a western, but then today is my 50th birthday..

[Beer Snob-50]

32. YES!!

I recently tore apart my grandmothers attic looking for my old set (she normally threw nothing away!) packers and bears were the two teams I had.

[TX-RAT]

20. Pony Express stick horse

Word of warning about stick horses.
When jumping over barrels, keep their head down.

[NoPasaran]

22. Erector Sets

[forgethell]

23. The hula hoop &

Davy Crockett coon-skin caps. No contest.

[Rowdyboy]

37. You and I must be the same age....

Hula Hoop were MASSIVE and Davy Crockett hats were the HOTTEST fashion statement a young man could make. Also dug roller skates (the kind that had keys) and lincoln logs.

[forgethell]

54. We must be

I can remeber my Dad got into the hula hoop thing himself. He was much better than I ever got. But he passed on the coon-skin cap. and I forgot about the Mickey Mouse ears. they were big, too.

[Touchdown]

26. Mattel Football.

Basically a converted calculator, and ate 9v batteries like there was no tommorrow! The pre-cursor to GameBoy...

[sus]

27. Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots!!

[Speck Tater]

30. Frizbee, Erector set, Leggos

Lionel Trains, and Lincoln Logs

Roughly in that order.

[damnraddem]

31. Let's see, the 50s were my era for cool toys:

1) my Davey Crockett Alamo set, with a tin, painted Alamo and plastic figures;
2) my plastic B-58 bomber, with parachuting pilot and a nuclear bomb that would shoot right off (and hit the front landing gear if I had it down);
3) little plastic 'cars of all nations,' small and cheap, so a kid could literally have hundreds of them and do horrible things with some of them.

The 60s? Frisbees and drug paraphenalia, I guess.

The 70s? Well, subtract the frisbees. ;-)
But 'Pong' came out; and one could play other games on mainframes through dumb terminals and printing terminals: I loved 'Hunt the Wumpus.'

[sjr5740]

33. stretch armstrong

I ripped the arms off several before they were recalled because they always leaked toxic goo.

[maveric]

34. Here is the Great Garloo. And a cool site.

http://www.timewarptoys.com/gallery.htm

[ForrestGump]

38. Big Jim

[DancingBear]

39. The Crashmobile

It was a wind-up model car, composed of about 10-12 pieces (fenders, hood, etc.). After you wound it up, you'd aim it straight for a wall. It would "explode" when it hit it. After it crashed, you'd put it back together and do it again.

Note: Gasoline-drenched flaming model only available when your parents weren't home. :)

[maveric]

41. Kinda like "Duffy's Daredevils"?

This wind up plastic car that went over jumps,mashed into wall and then broke into pieces that needed to be reassembled for the next use.

[DancingBear]

42. Yes, but slightly before the advent of DD's

Didn't they come out about the time of the Joey Chitwood Thrill Shows?

(sponsored, of course, by Mutual Of Omaha)

[maveric]

44. circa 1966 I believe.

I was 10 at the time and can remember running the car over the ramp into my mom's ankle leaving a nasty bruise.

[Canuckistanian]

40. The "Big Bruiser" giant tow truck

The ultimate toy for me.

[DancingBear]

43. Op-er-a-tion!

Careful with that funny bone, please...

[maveric]

45. I bought my youngest son that game just last year.

Along with "Mousetrap".

[ChickMagic]

46. Secret Sam - Secret Agent Briefcase

It was the best! Hard rubber bullets and a periscope to look at your neighbors over the fence!

[DancingBear]

47. What about "Cootie"?

Or the much overlooked "Mr. Potato Head"?

[camero]

49. Matchbox cars

and the slinky too.

[guitar man]

50. Coolest....bike....ever

I wish I had kept mine,collectors are paying an assload for nice ones.

[maveric]

53. My brother had a "Lemon Peeler", also by Schwinn.

I used to build my own Stingrays from parts I bought or traded from other kids.

[geniph]

51. I liked my Lite-Brite and my Spirograph

but what I really wanted was a full Hot Wheels racetrack setup. No one thought that was a suitable present for a girl <sulk>. So I used to swipe my nephew's Hot Wheels cars every chance I got.

I probably spent more time playing with trolls than anything else...used to dig entire underground civilizations for them.

[49jim]

52. I had Hoppalong Cassidy

(probably the wrong spelling) hat, gun & holster, and vest....year 1954 or 1955.

[SarahB]

56. Weebles

They wobble, but they don't fall down! :bounce:

[blondeatlast]

59. LEGOS! Back then they were terrific.

Runner-up: ThingMakers.