What is your favorite retro toy?

[Obob]

Oh Yeah!

Anyone remember "Major Matt Mason" or "Robbie Robot"?
Late '60's space themed toys were big at our house.

Major Matt Mason, oh yeah! I had him and his Moonwalker. That thing would really crawl! I also had a lot of original GI Joe stuff, too. I don't have either now, due, in part to parental pressure to "git rid of some of that Damn junk"
.

I did have some pleasure, when I was in my mid 20's, reminding my dad that "that Damn junk" (ex. the GI Joe figure) was then worth about $300+; in the effort to "git rid of that Damn junk" I'd sold him at a yard sale for about a buck...well, the " 'ol man" didn't have much to say about that one, then

As for Matt Mason, wellll, not having that one was my own fault....:eusa_doh:

Obob-trying not to regret it all, too much

 

[freebird]

Half the fun of slinky is the noise the metal ones made. I can hear it right now in my head. The plastic ones are a poor imitation.

I have a friend who buys every metal slinky he can find and uses them to make antenna's (ham radio). Says that to change frequency he just stretches them or returns them to their normal state. Have never seen this in operation, but have found it fascinating that even vintage toys can have other purposes.

 

[Ace Fedora]

When I was six or seven, I had a Lone Ranger set -- mask, belt, holsters, two silver cap pistols. Over the years, the pieces slowly became lost, misplaced, or taken away from me (schools were sensitive about guns even then).

All I have left is one holster and one pistol, minus the handle... and they're getting it when they get it off my cold, dead...

 

[BeBopBaby]

When I was six or seven, I had a Lone Ranger set -- mask, belt, holsters, two silver cap pistols. Over the years, the pieces slowly became lost, misplaced, or taken away from me (schools were sensitive about guns even then).

All I have left is one holster and one pistol, minus the handle... and they're getting it when they get it off my cold, dead...

I have a Lone Ranger Pen Set (with its original box) at home. It's a leather bullet holster that attaches to your belt. There are 4 silver bullet-shaped pens in the holster - one for the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Silver and Scout and they're each a different color ink. The box has some pretty neat-o graphics on it.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

My favorite retro toy is my shiny red Vespa LX50. It has classic lines and affords me the freedom to go anywhere here in Boston. It has opened up the city for me in a new and exciting way.

 

[JohnnyGringo]

Model rockets, BB guns, Major Matt Mason- these were favorites of mine as a kid until I was introduced to my first electric guitar, a Teisco Del Ray, at age 11. As I grew older, I found the only things that mattered to me were Guitars and Girls-and not necessarily in that order.

 

[Scuffy]

I don't quite remember when my dad said he obtained this as a present but it had to be while he was fairly young... and being 61 this year puts it probably near '57-'63 or so. I'm assuming any way!

He still has an actual metal (imaging that... they used to make things of metal!!) cap gun but it doesn't shoot caps at all. It would just use a narrow roll of newspaper and a pin or rod would punch through the paper and make a sharp "crack" noise similar to a cap gun. Fun stuff! Just before my grandparents put their house up for sale, the house my dad grew up in, he went back up and took the Wainscoting off one wall of his old bedroom and low and behold the gun that he lost in the wall while my grandpa was finishing it was still there! Pristine! It's a gorgeous shade of red.

Though it's not mine I still smile every time I think of my dad finding this little treasure and the look on his face, the grin from ear to ear. It's almost like watching a little boy receiving it for the first time as a gift.

EDIT: Which reminds me- does anyone know the name for these types of toy guns? I'd like to look into purchasing one... maybe off an auction site or online antique store...

 

[dhermann1]

My first cap guns would have been a pair of real Roy Rogers pistols, made of chromed base metal, with white plastic grips and real tooled leather holsters and belt. Cheap for their time, but pretty snazzy looking today. They used those rolls of red paper caps that slowly spewed out the top of the gun as you shot them off. A small touch of inauthenticity, but a very authentic looking toy gun. You'd get arrested if you played with one today.
Of course there was the first Lionel train set, around age 7 or 8.
Then there were Tinkertoys, and later Erector Sets. And at nursery school, a huge set of beautifully finished wooden blocks. Our nursery school at Riverside Church had huge sets of blocks, and we little boys built absolute skyscrapers with them. Part of the fun was the very real anxiety about the huge crash they could make if and when the whole structure collapsed.
There was a smaller type of blocks that had little wooden train tracks that hooked together, with nifty little trains that ran on them. Some of the small blocks had images of building facades painted on the front. (My memory is now wandering back to the Truman administration! Sigh . . . )
That reminds me, anyone remember the era of Japanese toys when they would take old scrap metal, often beer cans, flatten them out by hand, and make toys out of them? Like cheesy toy guns and cars? If you looked on the inner surfaces of the metal, you could see the beer can labels still visible. Toys like that go for a fortune in antique shops now.

 

[John in Covina]

I recall the metal toys from Japan, the ones I had seen I would swear were made from old tunafish cans! Getting the web between thumb and forefinger caught in the ttrigger / hammer mechanism in a cheap semi auto replica cap gun from Japan was an eye opener. It would have been worth milloins in lawsuits today.

 

[Warbaby]

When I was a kid in the late 40s, I had the coolest cap gun ever. It was almost the size of a real Colt Peacemaker and used real 'bullets'. There were six of them that fit into chambers in the rotating cylinder. The cartridges had brass casings and the 'bullets' were cast metal and extended all the way to the bottom of the casing. You'd cut the explosive centers out of ordinary roll caps, slide the bullet out of the casing and put the cut-down cap inside and replace the bullet (there was a hole through the bullet to release the gasses). When you'd loaded all the cartridges and put them in the cylinder, the hammer struck the back of the casing and fired the cap. Of course, I would load them with 4 or 5 caps and get a pretty serious bang. It was slow work and you only had 6 shots while the other kids could shoot their cap guns dozens of times while you were reloading, but the loudness and the coolness factor made it an object of the other kids' envy.

Wish I still had that cap gun.

 

[olive bleu]

The first thing that comes to mind is my etch-a-Sketch.Spent hours and hours on that baby. but i also had an Uncle who was actually just 3 years older and he had the most amazing G.I.Joe set.I was such a tomboy, but of course there's no way my mother would have ever let me own my own set.I used to love to go and play with his.Also i loved the old lego, the kind that looked like real bricks and came w/ a cardboard roof.

This is actually me with my uncle Roger in my Avatar..good times

 

[dhermann1]

When I was a kid in the late 40s, I had the coolest cap gun ever. It was almost the size of a real Colt Peacemaker and used real 'bullets'. There were six of them that fit into chambers in the rotating cylinder. The cartridges had brass casings and the 'bullets' were cast metal and extended all the way to the bottom of the casing. You'd cut the explosive centers out of ordinary roll caps, slide the bullet out of the casing and put the cut-down cap inside and replace the bullet (there was a hole through the bullet to release the gasses). When you'd loaded all the cartridges and put them in the cylinder, the hammer struck the back of the casing and fired the cap. Of course, I would load them with 4 or 5 caps and get a pretty serious bang. It was slow work and you only had 6 shots while the other kids could shoot their cap guns dozens of times while you were reloading, but the loudness and the coolness factor made it an object of the other kids' envy.

Wish I still had that cap gun.

They were made by Hubley. They had a 45 caliber, a snub nose 32 or 38 calibre, and a couple others. They were VERY authentic. You could also get caps that came in sheets with round perforations, designed for those guns.
Any kid playing on the street with one of those nowadays would get shot on sight by almst any cop nowadays.
http://www.nicholscapguns.com/hubley.htm

 

[John in Covina]

CAPS

Speaking of caps, anybody out there under the bigger is better mindset, take an entire roll of caps and slam it with a large hammer of sorts? We were always going for the bigger bang.

Also about the time we were watching Combat on TV some company was making cap loaded handgrenade replicas. load in some caps toss and as long as the weight head hit first you'd get a bang.

 

[Warbaby]

They were made by Hubley. They had a 45 caliber, a snub nose 32 or 38 calibre, and a couple others. They were VERY authentic. You could also get caps that came in sheets with round perforations, designed for those guns.
Any kid playing on the street with one of those nowadays would get shot on sight by almst any cop nowadays.
http://www.nicholscapguns.com/hubley.htm

Yep, that's the one - mine was the .45 calibre. The gun is long gone, but somehow I managed to save one of the bullets and still have it.

I also had a nifty Daisy BB gun and a real hunting knife, a Navy issue PAL that were common in army surplus stores (they sold real army surplus then) for about two bucks.

Too bad kids today don't have great toys like that. Too bad we now live in such a repressive, over-nannied society. No wonder so many kids are so messed up these days - they can't have decent guns and knives to play with.

 

[Warbaby]

Speaking of caps, anybody out there under the bigger is better mindset, take an entire roll of caps and slam it with a large hammer of sorts? We were always going for the bigger bang.

Also about the time we were watching Combat on TV some company was making cap loaded handgrenade replicas. load in some caps toss and as long as the weight head hit first you'd get a bang.

They didn't have grenade replicas when I was a kid, but what we called torpedos were common. They were made of cast metal in the classsic finned bomb shape and took caps in the 'warhead'. Great fun. Still have one.

That reminds me of another favorite toy when I was a kid. I don't know what it was called, but it was a toy bombsight - a rectangular box with lenses in one end and an angled mirror that let you look straight down. It came with a large map of enemy territory with railroads, towns and tanks. The box held tiny metal bombs with pins in the tips. You put the map on the floor, looked through the lenses at the bomb sight and pushed a button on the side which released a bomb that dropped and stuck in the map (and often your foot, if you didn't straddle the map just right). Yet another toy that would horrify today's overprotective parents.

Funny, how many of us survived all those 'dangerous' toys.

 

[Chas]

Johnny West. I had him and the Indian warrior.

The Silver Knight. His horse had wheels in the hooves so jousting was an option...

Evel Knievel...too much fun. I wonder if I can find one.

My "Green Hornet" squirt gun. Very handy for surprise attacks; hides very nicely in the palm of your hand...walk camly up to your target, and give him or her one in the ear....I will pay good money to find one in good condition.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Speaking of caps, anybody out there under the bigger is better mindset, take an entire roll of caps and slam it with a large hammer of sorts? We were always going for the bigger bang.

In my town, the thing to do was sit on the curb and bang caps with a rock. The show-offs would find a chunk of old cinder block or a brick, stand up and slam it down on a whole BOX of caps.

This was our whole Fourth of July celebration. We weren't a very big town.

 

[olive bleu]

lol lol What a hoot! We did that too.I loved that burning smell you would get on your fingers.

 

[mrshanno]

my toddler likes the metal radio flyer wagon...my favorite type toy growing up would have to be the cap pistol.

 

[BeBopBaby]

My brother had the Evel Knieval Stunt Cycle! It was awesome. He also had his own Evel Knieval jump suit and big wheel. He tried to jump his big wheel over me once. lol

Speaking of Big Wheels, I had a Fonzie big wheel that was supposed to look like a motorcycle. I tried to google for a picture of it, but couldn't find one. I would ride that big wheel around in circles in the basement while listening to an old 45 of The Champs performing Tequila on my Mickey Mouse record player. All the while pretending to be in a biker gang. lol