Automotive (and other) toys from our childhood

[Snake45]

I have two big cardboard boxes full of Aurora track--one "mine" from back in the day and one I bought at a yard sale a couple decades ago for $20. Don't even know what I have or what's possible to make out of them, mainly because I don't have the room to set anything up.

My son just bought my Dad's house, though, with a big empty basement. Perhaps he and his hot wife will start breeding soon, and in a few years I can talk him into setting up a big track "for the kids."

[Mike_G]

I used to ride my Schwinn Speedster down to the Revell raceway and blow my 50 cent a week allowance on track time

 

[Ramfins59]

Some of my favorite toys way-back-when......

The Fort Apache play set with the plastic snap-together fort walls, the tin cabin/bldg., and all the soldiers and Indians... I spent countless hours playing with that on the living room floor.

A Fanner 50 pistol/revolver with 2 piece snap-together bullets...... I was always hunting around for the front piece of the bullets...

A battery operated 30 Cal(?) machine gun on a tripod with a belt that fed white plastic bullets into the gun that would shoot out but not very far...  I used to chase our Irish Setter dog around the house shooting the soft bullets at her...... she wound up getting me back by chewing up the bullets.

[Dave Van]

This came today..........

 

From my best Christmas ever 1966........These sets were always more than I wanted  to pay....but I stumbled on to this one.....same set I get that year.......VERY nice condition.....everything works! 

This pretty much completes my collection of favorite toys from my youth. I either still have the original toys or have bought replacements.....like this one! 

Motorific sets

Kenner Girder and Panel sets

TONS of Hot Wheels and Sizzlers sets and cars

One I have yet to see.......maybe not pure automotive.....but cool....CONSTRUCT*ALL

 

 

Edited May 20, 2016 by Dave Van

[unclescott58]

I used to ride my Schwinn Speedster down to the Revell raceway and blow my 50 cent a week allowance on track time

 

What year was this? And how much track time did you get for your 50 cents?

Edited May 21, 2016 by unclescott58

[Dave Van]

What was this? And how much track time did you get for your 50 cents?

Late 1960's in So Cal  at Hobby City track on Beach Blvd 50 cents got you half hour on the over and under track or the giant triple stack monster......so tall it had nets to catch cars!!!! 

[Mike_G]

What was this? And how much track time did you get for your 50 cents?

The Revell raceway in Inglewood, CA (I guess it was technically in Westchester) was the biggest commercial 1/24 scale raceway, featuring six 8-lane tracks. I think I got 30 min. for my .50 IIRC

There was also another raceway called "Checkered Flag" that had two 8-lane tracks and was located just a couple of blocks west of "The Big Donut" on Manchester Blvd, which is now called "Randy's Donuts"

I still have my Hoffman slotcar box from the '60s

[sjordan2]

Some of my favorite toys way-back-when......

The Fort Apache play set with the plastic snap-together fort walls, the tin cabin/bldg., and all the soldiers and Indians... I spent countless hours playing with that on the living room floor.

A Fanner 50 pistol/revolver with 2 piece snap-together bullets...... I was always hunting around for the front piece of the bullets...

A battery operated 30 Cal(?) machine gun on a tripod with a belt that fed white plastic bullets into the gun that would shoot out but not very far...  I used to chase our Irish Setter dog around the house shooting the soft bullets at her...... she wound up getting me back by chewing up the bullets.

I had all of those. I think the tripod-mounted machine gun was referred to as a "burp gun."

[Tom Geiger]

I forgot I had this until I saw the last few play sets posted!  Anyone remember Thimble City?  The cars and people moved around via magnetic wands you moved under the city. This is an NOS 1965 set that's never been more out of the box than in these photos.  I found it on a shelf in my grandparent's basement when I was clearing out to sell the house. My grandparents were known for buying gifts off season and hiding them. But they often forgot so this one sat until the late 1990s.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

The Fort Apache play set with the plastic snap-together fort walls...

Wow. that's another one I'd forgotten about entirely. 

...  Anyone remember Thimble City?  The cars and people moved around via magnetic wands you moved under the city. This is an NOS 1965 set that's never been more out of the box than in these photos.  

Cool find, Tom. I never had one of those, but remember wanting one to figure out how to make moving non-train vehicles on my HO railroad layout.

Other memories triggered by the Fort Apache reference...I don't recall if it was this specific set, but something very similar was great fun in the garden behind our house in NJ...man, I would get filthy.

And these, which I remember from as far back as being 5 or 6 when we were in Ohio.

Had one of these too, and later something even more 'dangerous' that mixed vinegar and baking soda for propellant. That was, of course, before moving on the real Estes rockets...

 

 

Edited May 21, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[unclescott58]

 

You can still get the above rocket brand new. They're still being made. Go on eBay and type in "water rockets." They go for right around $10 now. And they are still fun to play with.

(As you can tell by reading my posts here. I'm still nothing but a kid in a grownup' body.)

[Dave Van]

One thing I have yet to find, something I spent LOTS of time playing with was MARX play sets, The two we had were the Civil War and the Flintstone set. Both original and repro sets are out there.  We really liked the Civil War set. Anyone here collect these??

[SfanGoch]

 

 

 

 

The American Plastic Bricks were cool. They came in handy for a bunch of projects in school. That Honor House ad is pre-1963, no zip code.  

[Mark]

One I have yet to see.......maybe not pure automotive.....but cool....CONSTRUCT*ALL

 

 

I had one of these sets.  For some reason, some of the plastic parts deteriorated to a point where they would crumble when handled.  It wasn't all of the parts, but it was either all of the "girder" pieces or all of the connecting pieces.  Either way, the deteriorating parts didn't leave you enough to build anything afterwards.  If my experience was typical, I'd bet most of these sets were tossed once that was discovered.

[Harry P.]

I had one of these sets.  For some reason, some of the plastic parts deteriorated to a point where they would crumble when handled.  It wasn't all of the parts, but it was either all of the "girder" pieces or all of the connecting pieces.  Either way, the deteriorating parts didn't leave you enough to build anything afterwards.  If my experience was typical, I'd bet most of these sets were tossed once that was discovered.

Already posted a bit higher up on this page.

[Snake45]

I had a set of "bricks" that came in a can like the one above (pic not now showing for me). The bricks were white and more like the size of cinderblocks. The doors, windows, and trim pieces were all green. I guess there was a cardboard roll of "roof" material in the tube but that got lost so early I don't even remember it at all. All my houses, forts, and castles were therefore roofless. I remember there were some clear plastic bricks. Never learned till much, much later that "glass blocks" were a '50s thing and popular in some parts of the country. There was sort of a retro-nostalgia fad for these in the '80s--I remember one of the regular locations on Miami Vice had some of these glass blocks in its front wall.

Ran across one of these white-block sets in a flea market about 10 years ago. Asking price was $20 or $25. I should have bought it.

[Dave Van]

I had one of these sets.  For some reason, some of the plastic parts deteriorated to a point where they would crumble when handled.  It wasn't all of the parts, but it was either all of the "girder" pieces or all of the connecting pieces.  Either way, the deteriorating parts didn't leave you enough to build anything afterwards.  If my experience was typical, I'd bet most of these sets were tossed once that was discovered.

I have two sets I bought in the last few years......both have the brittle parts issue....so no building....just looking.....but I didn't pay over $10 for otherwise mint sets....so still fun to look over and remember. 

[unclescott58]

One thing I have yet to find, something I spent LOTS of time playing with was MARX play sets, The two we had were the Civil War and the Flintstone set. Both original and repro sets are out there.  We really liked the Civil War set. Anyone here collect these??

Being in West Virgina, which side do you root for when playing with the above Civil War play set. No need to answer that, I'm just kidding around. ?

[unclescott58]

Does anybody remember in the early-to-mid 60's larger foam building blocks that were marketed in conjunction with the Flintsons TV series? They may have been called Bedrock Building Blocks? But I'm not sure on that? I just remember the neighbors across the street having set. And building walls and maybe even buildings that were big enough for us kids to sit in. Besides the neighbors across the street, I remember seeing them at other peoples houses too.

[SfanGoch]

Yup. It was called Flintstone Building Boulders" by Kenner. They had that odd colored flecking that remind me of formica counter tops

I used them to elevate my Aurora slot car tracks.  

 

[afx]

Sizzlers were another favorite of mine.

[Dave Van]

Being in West Virgina, which side do you root for when playing with the above Civil War play set. No need to answer that, I'm just kidding around. ?

My house is built on a Yankee camp site at the base of Droop Mtn.....one of the last Civil War battles......growing up i So Cal it never crossed our minds!!!  BTW some family members fought on both sides at one time or another!!!

[Roadrunner]

I remember there were some clear plastic bricks. Never learned till much, much later that "glass blocks" were a '50s thing and popular in some parts of the country.

Yep, art deco architecture was very popular for a while here, and clear blocks were frequently used in certain styles/versions of art deco. Up until fairly recently, there was a rather famous (infamous) motel located on old route 66, just about two miles south of here, that relied heavily on clear blocks as a portion of the design of various elements of the motel.

[Vince Nemanic]

I LOVED my American Plastic Bricks so much that I kept them.  In my High School Years, I used to build garages and commercial workshops as Christmas decorations and put them with some of my models under the tree.

[unclescott58]

Yup. It was called Flintstone Building Boulders" by Kenner. They had that odd colored flecking that remind me of formica counter tops

I used them to elevate my Aurora slot car tracks.  

 

That them! How big were theses blocks? Is my memory correct? Were we able to build decent size walls and/or small buildings with them? I haven't seen a set of these since I was at least 7 years old. Before we moved out of our old house back in 1966. They don't look all that big in the photo. But then again, we have nothing to really compare them to in the photo. Being that these were made from basically styrofoam, from what I can remember. There can't be too many set of them still around?