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The Toys That Made You (your Favorites As a Kid)

+17 HS
Hovenaut's picture
June 11, 2018 at 1:42pm
203 Comments

I picked up some episodes from season 2 of "The Toys That Made Us" on Netflix this past weekend...with the first three installments of Star Trek (ok), Transformers (meh) and Legos (greatly interesting, as the lad is a huge fan right now).

Recommend watching the series, the first season had great entries on Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man, and G.I. Joe, with final second season installment on Hello Kitty (that's a pass from me).

The show has rekindled some great memories, as well as stirred up some nostalgia in thinking back to the toys that made me as a kid.

My first recollections come from Fisher Price toys - from baby/toddler toys to the Little People line. The details are gone, but I remember of some of the playsets (parking garage, airport, castle) I had to have spent many a rainy day enjoying.

The big draw outdoors was the Big Wheel. Had a good number of friends of similar age in my neighborhood, and I think every one of us had a BW to rampage around on. Like a junior rolling thunder, we'd tear off full gear only to grab the emergency brake to power slide yards down the street.

Star Wars and Hot Wheels were also headliners as I got older, and I remember my Shogun Warriors fondly - I had the Great Mazinga, Dragun, and Gaiking along with Godzilla and Rodan. Great toys, but short-lived as they quickly fell off the market with complaints of kids getting hurt from the missiles they would shoot.

By the 80's it was video games - had an Atari 2600 and 5200, graduating on to Nintendo. Also kept a modest comic book collection in addition to some sports cards here and there. Those interests along with playing sports, mowing lawns, and delivering newspapers left the toys of my childhood behind. I want to say the last action figure I remember getting was probably He-Man...I had the power, if only briefly. Sadly I lost about everything from my childhood in a flood during my mid-teens. I don't remember being so much upset over the loss then, but it's haunting to think about now.

To today, and seeing my son in his prime (especially his recent birthday gift haul) along with the aforementioned Netflix episodes again puts me back in that time of youth, adventure, and excitement. He's pretty adept with Legos, and doesn't want help from my wife or I - but did have a rare moment yesterday morning when I helped him finish off a pretty challenging set (Avengers Infinity War Iron Man Hulkbuster set).

It was a good new memory I was able to share with him...and will note we're keeping just about all his toys from toddler through whenever he's done with them (hopefully not anytime soon).

What say you, 11W? Share some of your fond toy memories here...

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