Anyone here remember old-school toys?

[Chykin]

Y'know... Slinky, Mr. potato head, etc. I myself am a little too young to remember (or even have seen) them, but does anyone here.

[defunctzombie]

How about Lincoln logs, silly putty, and tinker toys? Yeah I remember those. (We were technically poor so I had the older, cheaper toys. Hell, I didn't have a CD player until like 1999. I had records.) But I may be disqualified: I live within walking distance to the Slinky factory. :sweat: The lady who was CEO and who named it just died recently.

Edit: We even have Slinky Action Zone (a way better place than Chuck E. Cheese).

[Dr.Pepper]

Y'know... Slinky, Mr. potato head, etc. I myself am a little too young to remember (or even have seen) them, but does anyone here.
You've never seen a Slinky or Mr. Potato Head before?

[EinBebop]

My toys as a child were die-cast metals with sharp edges and small parts that children could swallow if they broke off, and the guns looked like real guns! Remarkably, most of us survived into adulthood.

[Chykin]

You've never seen a Slinky or Mr. Potato Head before?
Yes I have, I was just using those as examples.

[Tapout]

I used to spend hours making Lincoln Log villages just to have Galvatron and Starscream come in and destroy them.

[TheTerror]

I was and still am a fan of old school toys. What was the thing that looked like a planet with a ring around it and it was a ball you bounced up and down on? I forget.

[Michael24]

I had a Mr. Potato Head when I was little, along with Slinkys and Lincoln Logs. Also had tons of Playmobil sets and some Brio train tracks, too. Love old school toys. :)

And who else had one of these in the '80s?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2145/2387650243_cfd3224471.jpg

:D

[TheTerror]

Anyone remember the Matchbox (or was it Hotwheels) carwash/gas station set?

[ABrown]

I used to spend hours making Lincoln Log villages just to have Galvatron and Starscream come in and destroy them.

Nice. The only toys that I ever liked were action figures. I had the original He-man, Transformers, GI Joe, TMNT. Along with Thundercats and Silverhawks. Ah the 80's, those were the days.

[defunctzombie]

I had a Mr. Potato Head when I was little, along with Slinkys and Lincoln Logs. Also had tons of Playmobil sets and some Brio train tracks, too. Love old school toys. :)

And who else had one of these in the '80s?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2145/2387650243_cfd3224471.jpg

:D
You lucky little meister. I would have loved one of those.

[Daxdiv]

The NES! Spend a lot of time playing Duck Hunt and the Track and Field! (Oh look someone back then were trying to get people to get off their asses and play a game that requires motion.)

[TheTerror]

Remember Madballs? They just brought them back recently!

[Radical Raven]

My mom keeps going on about something called a shrinky-dink.


What the hell is a shrinky-dink?

[TheTerror]

My mom keeps going on about something called a shrinky-dink.


What the hell is a shrinky-dink?


LoL, i'm not going there......

In all honestly, maybe a slinky type device?

[Radical Raven]

LoL, i'm not going there......

In all honestly, maybe a slinky type device?

:raven:

[TheTerror]

:raven:

Here is some info on Shrinky Dinks.......

Shrinky Dinks are a children's toy/activity kit consisting of large flexible sheets which, when heated in an oven, shrink to small hard plates without altering their color or shape. They reached the height of their popularity in the 1980s. Most sets are pre-printed with outline images of popular children's characters or other subjects, which are then coloured in before baking.
Shrinky dinks were invented in 1973 by Betty Morris of Brookfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookfield,_Wisconsin), Wisconsin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin). The first kits were manufactured by the major toy companies of the time such as Milton Bradley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Bradley_Company), Colorforms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorforms), Western Publishing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Publishing) and Skyline Toys (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skyline_Toys&action=edit&redlink=1). The shrink plastic is still available from many retailers and can be used for anything from charms to pins.
Prior to heating, the thin, flexible polystyrene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene) plastic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic) sheets can be coloured with felt-tip pens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen), acrylic paint, colored pencils, etc. and cut into shapes. However, oily or waxy substances (such as cheap colored pencils, crayons, or oil paint) are not suitable because they melt or burn in high heat. When heated in the oven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oven) or with a heat gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_gun), the plastic shrinks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrink) by about 5/8ths and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design.
Although Shrinky Dinks is considered to be an arts and crafts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_crafts) product for children, many adult crafters find the product to be suitable for jewelry making and other projects. For this purpose, blank sheets are available sometimes known as Shrink Plastic.
Recently, University of California, Merced (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Merced) Professor Michelle Khine has applied Shrinky Dinks to create tiny structures for the application of Microfluidics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfluidics) to topics such as stem cell research.
The clear plastic used in disposable food container lids is often the correct plastic. You must find "6" inside the recycle-triangle, and "PS" corroborates the designation. This plastic is then put in a 350F (toaster) oven and shrinks just like the commercial plastic. Since the lids are otherwise waste, this is a great way to re-cycle and amuse yourself or your kids at the same time. Additionally, if the plastic is shrunk over a rigid form, the plastic will retain that shape upon cooling. This can be used to make rings and shapes more interesting that flat plates.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/42/Shrinky_dinks_.jpg/320px-Shrinky_dinks_.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shrinky_dinks_.jpg) http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shrinky_dinks_.jpg)




[edit (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Shrinky_Dinks&action=edit&section=1)] Pop-culture references

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Ambox_style.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ambox_style.png)
Lists of miscellaneous information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Trivia_sections) should be avoided. Please relocate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Handling_trivia#Recommendations_for_handling_trivia) any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2008)

California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California) rock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music) band Sugar Ray (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Ray) formed in 1992 with the name Shrinky Dinx, but later changed it (upon threat of lawsuit from Hasbro).
Family Guy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Guy) - In a running joke, God (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God) invents Shrinky Dinks but, while he is getting them out of the oven, Albert Einstein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein) steals them (Einstein earlier did the same thing with a patent office security door and the Theory of Relativity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Relativity)).
Futurama (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurama) - In Anthology of Interest I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_Interest_I), Fry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_J._Fry) invites a 500-foot-tall Bender (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bender_(Futurama)) to make Shrinky Dinks together, before the latter's untimely demise at the hands of a similarly-enlarged Doctor Zoidberg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Zoidberg).
The Broadway musical [title of show] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_of_show) mentions Shrinky Dinks in the song "Die Vampire, Die": "You have a movie to make, Shrinky Dinks you can bake..."

[Michael24]

Remember Madballs? They just brought them back recently!

I think I had a couple Madballs.

How about in the early-90s when they had the special Koosh Kins line of Koosh Balls with various faces? I had one of those. Actually, I think I still have mine (Slats), in a box out in the garage somewhere.


My mom keeps going on about something called a shrinky-dink.

What the hell is a shrinky-dink?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrinky_dink

I remember having Shrinky Dinks, including the Ninja Turtle ones on that page. :)

EDIT: How about Colorforms (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorforms)? My grandmother used to always keep those in stock for me to play with whenever I was over for the weekend.

[defunctzombie]

I used to have shrinky dinks, and in 11th grade we even made them in chemistry class. The plastic lids on meat containers are great to use.

[Tenku]

Mr. Bucket. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV1hv6L0R74)

Watching the commercial again... I didn't realize the slogan had a poor choice of words there. XD

[Dr.Pepper]

I remember I had a Bugs Bunny Shrinky Dink. I think I might of had a Tweety Bird one too

[Shadow Fire]

I didn't have a shrinky dink, but I remember most of those other toys. I had a slinky, Lincoln logs, Mr. Potato Head, tinker toys, and some old barbie dolls that were passed down.

[defunctzombie]

How about the bigger hipped Barbies from the 80s/early 90s? With the 2 inch waist... All of mine were that type, and one or two of them had underwear patterns. I had Skipper, and Stacy and Kelly (named after ME! :p) were introduced when I was a customer.

[purplehairedwonder]

When I was younger, the only gaming system my family had was Intellivision (and it was old when I was young). Burger Time and Frog Bog were pretty much the coolest games ever when I was 6. Then it broke and we didn't get anything else.

My brother had Lincoln Logs, so I would always sneak into his room when he wasn't around and play with them.

Also, when I was a kid (:p), Polly Pocket was actually pocket-sized. I practically had an entire city going with my collection. I miss those things.

Oh, I also had a hand-me-down old school Lite Brite when I was younger. My older siblings were children of the '80s, so I ended up getting a lot of their old toys.

[TomatoSpud]

I didn't really have any retro toys...but I had a whole lotta Barbie dolls. Boy, did I think those were the shiznit...

The one I remember most vividly was the Dentist Barbie I got at the dentist for some reason. You pressed a button on her back, and she would say "Open wide" and crap. Eventually her speaker wore out so much that she became Demon Spawn Barbie. Seriously, she was almost scarier than Dr. Rabbit.

I had the pregnant Midge doll, too. The Alan doll is still in my sister's toy box. He has no arms and only one leg. Poor guy...

[TheTerror]

When I was younger, the only gaming system my family had was Intellivision (and it was old when I was young). Burger Time and Frog Bog were pretty much the coolest games ever when I was 6. Then it broke and we didn't get anything else.

My brother had Lincoln Logs, so I would always sneak into his room when he wasn't around and play with them.

Also, when I was a kid (:p), Polly Pocket was actually pocket-sized. I practically had an entire city going with my collection. I miss those things.

Oh, I also had a hand-me-down old school Lite Brite when I was younger. My older siblings were children of the '80s, so I ended up getting a lot of their old toys.

I had an Intellevision once my Atari 2600 broke due to me dropping it down the stairs, we then got the 2600 again and then the NES.

[Baltofan]

Anybody remember the Little Professor calculator?

[Rook]

Kindergarten tricycle fleet, for singe and group. That was awesome

The train sets that ran on grooved wooden blocks

The bead platform, the one with the maze of wires and you guided the beads through them.

Lots of legos, not the megablocks garbage, the real came-in-a-huge-red-bucket legos.

The clay, omg the clay!

Oregon trail with the those huge floppy drives.

[Michael24]

Everybody remembers Speak & Spell, but who also had these learning toys by Texas Instruments? I recall many hours spent with these when I was little. :)

http://smithsonianchips.si.edu/texas/ti-thumbnails/images/nmah2000_07825.jpg

http://www.datamath.org/Speech/Images/TouchnTell_UK.jpg

[DarthGonzo]

Anybody remember the Little Professor calculator?

No way, I actually had one of those.

[Samhaine]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/42/Shrinky_dinks_.jpg/320px-Shrinky_dinks_.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shrinky_dinks_.jpg)
I love that the picture used on Wikipedia for Shrinky Dinks was stolen from X-Entertainment. (http://www.x-entertainment.com/articles/0814/) You want to look up something from the '80s, there's a good chance you'll find it there.

[Jade_GL]

The one toy that was really popular that my parents got me, and I remember this quite vividly, was a Cabbage Patch doll. I think I remember it more because my dad was back from a long deployment (he was in the Navy) and it was one of the toys he got me while he was home.

I also had a Fraggle (http://www.muppetcentral.com/collectibles/fraggles/dolls.shtml), one of the ones at the very top of this website. I picked Boober and I had him until a few years ago. Then he kind of fell apart. Really a sad day for me.

I also had some Legos and Lincoln Logs.

Oh, and my first video game platform was our Commodore 64, and we had a Betamax player too.

I am kind of old. :D

[WolfieKiwi]

Y'know... Slinky, Mr. potato head, etc. I myself am a little too young to remember (or even have seen) them, but does anyone here.

I used to be obsessed with slinky's when I was a little kid. Big silvery ones or the itty bitty rainbow'd, I'd collect them like crazy. It was too bad most of them lasted no more than a week before getting all tangled up and ruined. Still, those things were cool to watch and play with.

Another old toy I can remember was a K'NEX box my brother and I once had. (We did have a couple of Leggos and Lincoln logs around the house, but most of that stuff was left over by my cousins when they would come over.) It came with a model and an instruction booklet for guidance--and boy did we need it. Building that ferries wheel was crazy work. ^^;

[Tay the Cat]

Oh boy... this topic makes me reminisce about my younger days.

Numerous Slinkies to count, Lincoln Logs, Legos, you name it. My mom and dad also had an Intellivision (though that was purchased before I was born). I believe I may have even had a Cabbage Patch doll too, even though I'm a guy... though I don't quite remember that far back.

[Captain Highwind]

As a kid, I thought the Yo-Yo Ball was cool. It had a retractible coil inside the casing so yo-yo skills were unnecessary. You could fling it at any angle and it would suspend in midair everytime. Just had to be careful because the casing was heavy plastic and would spring back with a vengence.

I used to pretend I was Megaman, who'd just received a power-up from a yo-yo themed boss, or that guy from Star Tropics.

[Nel]

Legos were a given. It was a sad day indeed when I finally deconstructed the super ultra mega castle thingy I had been adding onto for years.

Then there were these action figure series called Great Adventures, I think. Knights vs. Pirates vs. Cowboys, lol

[CyberCubed]

"Remember" my old toys?

I still have most of them, all my old Ninja Turtle figures are still sitting in my closet. Of course I had to re-buy some of them because some were old and broken, but I still have toys now that I had when I was a kid.

[Elven Moon]

Sure, I remember most of my childhood toys, even though 95% of them have long been lost or sold at garage sales :(

I was pretty big on Barbies, I believe my very first was Peaches n' Cream (http://www.flickr.com/photos/16008471@N07/2486377602/) Barbie. I also had Herself the Elf (http://www.strawberry-shortcake.net/AboutMe/Herselftheelf.htm), Star Fairies, Jem, Rainbow Brite and My Little Ponies. Oh, and lets not forget Pound Puppies or Hugga Bunch ;)

I remember loving my Cabbage Patch dolls very much, carried the red-headed one around with me everywhere. I still have her somewhere, though she's seen better days.