Automotive (and other) toys from our childhood

[GT4494]

I remember them just as you do. I think some of them had a thin hole through the center, but I don't recall ever blowing a puff of smoke through them. Don't think I even tried that.

Same here.  I could puff on mine along with Mom and Dad as they smoked the "real" ones.

[unclescott58]

Did anyone mention Tootsie Toys?

Tootsie Toys and metal service stations. Two of my all time favorite toys. Recently got an old Marx service station a couple of months back. It's in very good shape, but missing all of plastic accessories. Pumps, lifts, the attendants, the cars, everything. I've been looking on eBay for replacements. But, nothing so far. Can anybody help me there?

Just over a year ago, I picked up three never played with, mint Tootsie Toy cars on eBay. A '59 Plymouth hardtop, a '57 Ford convertible, and a Jaguar D type. They came in a little burlap like bag with a receipt from the late 50's indicating they had been sent as a sample to an adult. For what purpose, I have no idea. But, they were in as perfect shape as I've ever seen any Toosie Toys ever. And I got all three for less than $20. One of the best deals I've ever gotten on eBay!

Tin service stations and Tootsie Toys. The original service station I owned was only played with with it's plastic cars indoors. The Tootsie Toys, were played with just about everywhere. Indoors and out. I remember the neighbor lady behind us could not grow a flower garden up close to her house. Because her son, Dick and I, and some other kids in the neighborhood were always playing with our Tootsie Toys in the cool shade of her flower garden dirt in the summer. Building roads by scraping paths with the sides our hands. I also remember lusting over Dick's '60 Chevy El Camino with the plastic camper in the back. Even today, I wish I had one of those El Caminos.

Ahhhh. Good memories.

[Roadrunner]

I had a fairly large motorized tank, though I've long since forgotten the manufacturer. I seem to recall that it sort of looked like an M48, M46 or possibly a Walker Bulldog. At least that's what I remember now, and that could be way off.

[KeithJackson]

I got a little portable reel-to-reel recorder in about 1966

Later I used it to record my experiments with my Gilbert chemistry set

Speaking of Gilbert Chemistry sets, I haven't seen anyone mention this one.  Did anyone here have one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

[Ace-Garageguy]

Speaking of Gilbert Chemistry sets, I haven't seen anyone mention this one.  Did anyone here have one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

TOO COOL !!!    Man, I wish I'd had one of those. The world as we know it might be a lot different today...

[unclescott58]

Speaking of Gilbert Chemistry sets, I haven't seen anyone mention this one.  Did anyone here have one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory

My mother knew better than to get me this one. If she did, there proably no Minneapolis today. ? Actually that set was well off the market before I came along. Low level radiation. How much fun and safe was that?

[slusher]

Remember loads?

You stuck them in the ends of cigarettes and they'd explode. After a school trip to Rye Playland, and the requisite stop at the novelty store, I decided to play a joke on my mom. I boobytrapped an entire pack of her Pall Malls and mixed a couple of packs of foaming sugar

in the sugar bowl. Her girlfriend stopped by that day and my mom offered her a smoke. She lit it up, took a drag and BOOM! My mom apologized and said she didn't know what could have caused the explosion. She and her friend both lit up new cigarettes with the same result. My mom went through half the pack. Then, she brought in the coffee. She watched the coffee in her cup start foaming after she put some "sugar" in it. Needless to say, it wasn't a pretty site when I walked into the living room.  

That bad Joe, back in those days parents could get away with capital punishment....

[philo426]

Roadrunner.the tank was called Tiger Joe by universal Reading.You can get them on the bay but working examples can be pricey.

[unclescott58]

Another favorite toy from when I was kid, was a '55 or '56 plastic Cadillac Eldorado. About 1/43 scale in size. All of the ones sold at our local Ben Franklin were molded in red. You could buy them one of two ways. A convertible with no top. Or a convertible with a snap on hardtop. Even as a kid, I could never understand why anybody would have bought one without the top. The top just snaps on and off using the same holes in both (really one) body styles. From want I remember, the tops came molded in white. And there may have been some white cars with red tops. But, I can't be sure on that?

A few years back I found a blue one for sale on eBay. Blue with a red top. Not the best color combination. But, I bought it anyhow. As I do like blue. This was the first time I had ever seem a blue one.

i think these Cadillacs were made by a company called Precision Plastics. But, again I'm not 100% sure on that. These little Cadillacs had a major influence on my taste in what a luxury car should be to this day. And I'm pleased to have the blue one in my collection today. (Now that it's summer, I need to take to top off.)

[FordRodnKustom]

Great thread here. Lots of cool memories for sure.

A few I had. PICs from the net and not my originals...sure wish I still had them!

[Roadrunner]

Roadrunner.the tank was called Tiger Joe by universal Reading.You can get them on the bay but working examples can be pricey.

That may well have been it, but it looks different from what I remember.

[Kit Basher]

That may well have been it, but it looks different from what I remember.

Could it have been the one I posted on page 3 of this thread?

[Harry P.]

That big tow truck was "Big Bruiser" by Marx. Pretty cool...

[The70judgeman]

As a kid I had the usual Tonka dump truck and loader. I also had a Tonka Winnebago camper that I sat on and rode around on. Unfortunately, after being told repeatedly not to leave it in the driveway, my dad ran it over with the car. A couple more are first, the Adam 12 police car with "action figures" and second, Squad 51...again, with the "action figures." And finally, another that comes to mind is a Hot Wheels or Matchbox car that had a magnet embedded in the bottom to hold it onto a circular disk with a road course that spun around slowly and you "drove" the car around on the road. I've been periodically searching for the Squad 51 set over the last few years for a reasonable price to no avail. Come to think of it, I had the Smash Up Derby cars mentioned earlier and the Evel Knievel motorcycle with action figure too.

[Roadrunner]

Could it have been the one I posted on page 3 of this thread?

I can't tell, my memory is too fuzzy. I just remember I thought it was cool, and meshed pretty well with all of my Army toys of the time, as I had gobs of Army stuff, including a plastic M-14 that I really enjoyed. I had a bazooka too, that as I recall, fired blue plastic rounds.

[Snake45]

 I had gobs of Army stuff, including a plastic M-14 .

There were two toy M14s, the very nice Topper Johnny Eagle Lieutenant and the Marx, which was electric and ran on batteries. It made machine gun sound the muzzle recoiled back and forth. I had one of the latter. Which did you have?

I've looked at the Topper JEs on eBay from time to time, but they go for much more than I'm willing to spend. Even the Marx ones go for fairly high prices. Couple years ago I had the idea to get one and "gut" it and fill it up with a real Ruger 10/22. Didn't find an affordable one before the mood eventually passed.

[Tom Geiger]

That's all they were good for. They tasted like Rolaids.  (Candy Cigarettes)

Which reminds me of Pez...   tasted like soap!  Even shaped like little bars of soap!  But we ate them anyway because we were told they were candy!  

[Ace-Garageguy]

... It made machine gun sound the muzzle recoiled back and forth...

... Couple years ago I had the idea to get one and "gut" it and fill it up with a real Ruger 10/22. Didn't find an affordable one before the mood eventually passed.

Playin' in the dirt with 'army men', I was always trying to figure out ways to get things to blow up. Dry dirt bombs made pretty good 'artillery' explosions, but the true stroke of genius came when I tried using Estes model rocket igniters with the wires buried, to light off strings of buried firecrackers or a cherry bomb or M-80. 

[Harry P.]

We used to fire off M80s in garbage cans in the alley. In those days in Chicago the "standard" garbage can was a 55 gallon steel drum, not the plastic cans they use today.

Made quite the racket!

[High octane]

We used to fire off M80s in garbage cans in the alley. In those days in Chicago the "standard" garbage can was a 55 gallon steel drum, not the plastic cans they use today.

Made quite the racket!

It made even more racket in the vestibule of an apartment building Harry that had tiled walls. 

[SfanGoch]

It made even more racket in the vestibule of an apartment building Harry that had tiled walls. 

 

There was a huge plastic and vinyl factory, Harte & Co., which took up half a block on two streets in my neighborhood. There were two large ventilation gates on my block which the workers propped open with the large cardboard tubes used to roll up the vinyl sheet. We would drop cherry bombs or M-80s down those tubes. When they rolled onto the floor and. exploded, it echoed through the whole building. It was REALLY loud!

[Ace-Garageguy]

... It was REALLY loud!

Edited May 29, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[unclescott58]

 

I've always love that box cover. The guy jumping into a Thunderbird to go racing. And the Buick Riviera racing between the Jag and the Corvette. Realistic? No. Cool? Yes! As a kid I saw Thunderbirds and Rivs as being very sporty cars with their big engines, sleek styling, and bucket seats. And all sporty cars were right for racing. Right? As a kid I thought so. And being a big Thunderbird fan back then, I was sure they were out there winning many races. As I grew older, I found out the truth. But, the kid side of me still likes the idea of racing, and winning, in a Thunderbird or Riviera.

[GT4494]

It made even more racket in the vestibule of an apartment building Harry that had tiled walls. 

and quite a mess when one would accidentally get flushed in the school bathroom..

[GT4494]

anyone ever play with the balsa wood airplanes?  They used to last about 5-12 flights before you broke something on them and the wouldn't fly again.

Also the original paper caps.  You could open a bunch of them and make a little gunpowder pile that would go up like the old flash on plate camera's.