Harry P.

Yep, same here! That Sears tank, for instance... I had totally forgotten that I ever had it, but ran across it while googling other toys. I saw the image on google and thought "Hey! I remember that! I had that!" I'm getting memories back that haven't been active in my brain for 50 years! That's why I like this thread.

I was going for an authentic period finish, not a restored, glass-smooth, shiny finish. But what the car would have looked like back in the day. I think I got it...

Shouldn't you post that in your In Memoriam thread? Never mind. I see you just did.

What you meant was WWII. They use Roman numerals, not our numbers, to designate WWI and WWII. Are you going to add the markings and the rigging?

It's a money problem. As in having the money to print the next issue. Don't know exactly when (or even if) that's going to happen. I don't want to speak for Gregg... he's the one who should be updating you all on the exact status of the magazine, so I won't say any more.

Oh, I just remembered... on the American Airlines jet... when the door opened and the stewardess came out, the faces of the passengers in the windows disappeared (like they had gotten off the plane). When the door closed, the passengers reappeared in the windows.

I sure did! My parents were very generous. And these are just the automotive or vehicle toys. Then there was all the cowboy holsters, all the building sets, all the board games, and more. I sure wish I still had all that stuff today. I would make a fortune on Ebay!

I also had this big American Airlines jet by Marx (actually manufactured by Japanese tin toy company Yonezawa). The plane would taxi, then stop, and the door would open and the flight attendant (or stewardess, as they were still called back then), would sort of glide out to "greet" you. I bet if you had one of these today, in good condition, it would be worth a lot to a tin toy collector.

I also had this remote control plastic tank, from the Sears catalog, that exploded if you ran over the hidden "land mine" under the play mat.

World War Eleven???

Here's another one I had... the "Alcan Highway Torture Track" from Ideal. It was sort of a slot car set where the cars had to go through several "torture tests" like the steering test, the "crash through a brick wall" test, the jump test, etc. But the cars were battery operated, not run through a controller like a "normal" slot car. So besides coming up with the track layout, all you could do was switch the cars on and put them on the track and just watch. No way to control them. It was sort of boring, actually.

Remember those toy car dashboards? I had one, but can't remember the brand name. It was really big, and had all sorts of buttons and knobs and stuff that worked. You could sit at the table with the dash in front of you and pretend to drive. Mine looked something like this, but I don't think I had this exact one...

It took a lot of searching to find this one... all I could remember was German windup cars. This is a German "tin toy" road layout made by Technofix. The cars were wound up with a silver key, and each car would come to a stop when it came to the colored spot on the road. You would control the traffic, avoid collisions, and make each car go again by pressing the correct color tab at the front of the layout. I had this exact toy as a kid, and again... wish I still had it, as I would assume it would bring a pretty good price on the collector market today.

What great memories...

Anybody have Tonka trucks? My friends and I had a ton of them. We would spend all day playing with them.

Another favorite toy of mine was the Kenner "girder and panel" building sets. You would build the skeleton of a hi-rise with plastic girders on a masonite base that had holes drilled in it to accept the girders, then snap on the outer skins with individual panels that you could arrange any way you wanted. I had several of those sets, and loved them. Also... Tinkertoys, and the red and white plastic bricks made by Halsam. Loved those things. http://toysbulletin.com/nostalgic-memory-american-plastic-bricks-the-predecessor-to-lego-2/

Not all of us...

You can also license a Pontiac Aztec, but that doesn't make it right...

Hey... does that truck have a chopped top?

It looks to me like the result of a rollover!

Agree to disagree. I find more uncomfortable styling touches than successful ones. Another case in point... the completely awkward tension between the curved cove molding vs. the "scoop" ahead of the rear wheels. Those two details have absolutely no connection, they don't work together at all. Just another bad "custom" touch that was either not thought through, or put into place by people who didn't know any better. Think how much cleaner and cohesive the design would have been if the whole rear fender skirt detail was eliminated. No chrome "grille" at the front, no body crease along the top... just a smooth, integrated skirt whose design would not have fought with the cove molding. That way, the curve of the cove molding would have gracefully mirrored the curve of the roofline along the tops of the side windows and resulted in a much cleaner and more successfully integrated design. Again... this car is a collection of styling clichés, not a successful overall design. And again... why this car has achieved some sort of icon status is beyond me.

Not technically an "automotive" toy, but a very cool toy nonetheless... "Mr. Machine," by Ideal. You could take him apart and put him back together. I had one of the original releases, not the later knockoffs with plastic parts substituting for the original's metal parts. Again, a toy I wish I still had today, as original issues are worth some pretty serious dineros.

I wish I still had mine!

Oh please. I'm just another modeler. We are all equal in this brotherhood.

Despite your trials and tribulations, the end result is a knockout.