Toys from the past...They wouldn't let you have now :eek

[Omega Man]

When I look at toys, and what really fascinates kids now, it makes me wonder. Back in the day we had all sorts of toys that would send, the "over-protective" into orbit. Of course this when kids were "sent outside to play" and be home the the streetlights came on was the norm.

Here is one I had, and I had the one that you could bake army figures with wires in them so they could be posed.

What did you have that now would be proclaimed "Life Threatening"? How did we survive

OM

 

[shortythorne]

OMG! What a great thread! I had a Creepy Crawlers set too, and spent many hours playing with it. I am an only child of the mid 50's era. I was raised on a farm way the heck out in the country, my friends were mostly boys and I found out at an early age that they were way more fun to play with than silly girls! It is a wonder any of us are still alive considering some of the things we did for fun! Kids back then made their own entertainment from catching an unsuspecting cow laying in the field, suddenly jumping on it, and hanging on for dear life, to playing in a creek or river. Of course we all had BB guns, so you can only guess how safe THAT was . Most kids now don't even go outside. Thanks for starting this thread, it's a good one.

 

[Omega Man]

It was a tough year for Christmas ornaments when this bad boy showed up-

OM

 

[lkraus]

Chemistry sets! Including all the components of gunpowder and an alcohol burner for melting and shaping glass tubing. And the biology set with a preserved frog and scalpels for dissection.

Kids today seem to have bicycles, but don't get to use them for transportation. We rode daily to get to school, had lights to get to evening scout meetings, or deliver papers. Now Mom starts the car and takes the kids fifty feet down the driveway and idles for five minutes waiting for the school bus to take them the remaining mile to school. The schools don't seem to even have bike racks anymore.

 

[pglaves]

My dad groused because I had it soft since I just had to walk to school but didn't have to walk behind a team of mules to plow, or cut and rake hay.

 

[dlowry]

Not a toy specifically, but I had a portable record player that had a metal tone arm and we'd take this out to the patio to play records in the summer. Problem was it was not a grounded plug, nor like today did it have a polarized plug. So, sometimes when you plugged it in the tone arm was on the neutral size of the AC, and sometimes the live side. When plugged in so the chassis of the unit was connected to the live side rather than the neutral we would get shocked if we were sitting on the patio stones changing the record. Didn't think twice about it, we'd get a piece of wood to move the tone arm instead... Of course when I got to high school and took the electrical classes it all became clear what has happening. Then I just marked the plug with a marker that said UP so we could use it safely outside...

 

[akbeemer]

Living in VA there were always Civil War replica desktop cannons for sale at the tourist shops. We'd drill a hole for a fuse, pack the barrel with match heads or powder from blank ammo we'd find on the local Army post and use a marble or ball bearing as the projectile. They were quite powerful, and dangerous as well. It was common for there to be a catastrophic failure of the barrel since they were made of pot metal.

 

[Omega Man]

Living in VA there were always Civil War replica desktop cannons for sale at the tourist shops. We'd drill a hole for a fuse, pack the barrel with match heads or powder from blank ammo we'd find on the local Army post and use a marble or ball bearing as the projectile. They were quite powerful, and dangerous as well. It was common for there to be a catastrophic failure of the barrel since they were made of pot metal.

Sort of like stacking beer cans and adding a little lighter fluid and sticking a tennis ball in the end?

OM

 

[MTHelmet]

Next to school was a silk mill. The mill was just 8 to 10 feet, off of the play ground. The ladies at the mill would throw us the spindles after the silk thread was use, the were to be recycled.

But the older boy found out the made great PEA shooter.

When the pea hit, on bare shin it stung, like H???.

Just thinking what would happen now.

 

[dieselyoda]

Potatoe cannon. Nuff said.

 

[tourunigo]

Forget the Cap Pistol.....dropping a brick on a box or two of Caps was WAY more fun. No wonder I can't hear all that well! Lighting them was fun too. - Bob

 

[52184]

Daisy RedRyder BB gun that was replaced with a .22 rifle when I turned ten, M-80 firecrackers. Is the Wham-Oh Superball still around? Those suckers would bounce forever in a gym but always brought tears when someone had it bounce off their head... But then, when I was ten I was driving an A Farmall field tractor with a sickle mower and a side delivery rake pulled behind. By twelve that had become a diesel tractor with four-bottom plow and a pony drill behind. Do that with your kids today and it'd be a toss up between the Dept of Labor and the state DCFS crew to see who'd have your butt first. Personally, tho, I still think a season of farm or ranch work would be a beneficial experience for a lot of today's youth.
Best,
DG

 

[AKsuited]

Lived close to a spur of the Long Island RR. We would find those little bombs they strapped onto tracks as signals. We of course made our own bombs out of those. Also had real firecrackers, M80 "ashcans." We also made match-head bombs and rockets out of various concoctions. It's a wonder I still have all my pieces/parts.

Harry

 

[Omega Man]

You guys a making me proud

OM

 

[roncooper]

How about ink bottle hand grenades or bicycle spoke guns?

 

[Anyname]

Some years back there was a magazine called "Precision Shooting". It's audience was primarily bench rest shooters. The demographic for bench rest competition is primarily old farts (sound familiar?). They ran a couple of articles on the joys of potato cannons. PVC pipe, piezo sparkers from gas grills and propellant provided by flammable aerosols, usually hairspray. The boys took their creation to a shooting range (these are benchers shooters after all). After some good times with hair spray, the lads escalated to starting fluid (ether) pepped up with help from an elderly member's oxygen tank. This successfully exceeded the tensile strength of the PVC pipe. One of the intrepid experimenters ended up with a sharp shard narrowly missing his femoral artery. You don't have to be a kid to be crazy.

Then there is the behavior of a plastic bag full of oxygen and acetylene and sunk in a pond...

 

[pglaves]

Anybody else play with road flares?

 

[Omega Man]

Anybody else play with road flares?

With spike or wire legs?
om

 

[henzilla]

Three boys with slingshots, bb guns, and "come home at dark" instructions led to a few trips to the family doctor.
Lost the Benjamin pump bb guns for wearing P-coats,shop goggles and a wool beanie in muggy Houston July with shootouts with about 8 other hooligans...and dad driving up...with mom of course.

Estes rockets, and strapping the "engines" to just about anything slightly aerodynamic after the rocket kits became predictable.
Also building many a Revell model plane...then mounting a methanol .029? prop engine to them, go look for the crash and start again...good times.

 

[henzilla]

Anybody else play with road flares?

Maybe....