Automotive (and other) toys from our childhood

[Snake45]

 There is something very satisfying in beating the cr ap out of a clown.

There are whole websites and even entire TV channels based on this idea. But I cannot go any further with that observation.

[Metalmad]

Don't have any pictures but what about the Matchbox City & Farm which I had back I think was about  1969 or 70 .

[unclescott58]

Don't have any pictures but what about the Matchbox City & Farm which I had back I think was about  1969 or 70 .

I always wanted one of those back in the day. Seeing them as an adult, they don't impress me anymore.

[KeithJackson]

OK, I'll jump back in. 

Do they even sell these anymore? They used to have one at my grade school. That will never happen again.

Hosted on Fotki

They still sell these Punch-Me type things.  I could swear that I saw one at a Big Lots last week.  I don't remember what the character was.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I still have one of these. Tin, friction "motor", and sparks with something like lighter flints in those red jet exhausts. Pretty cool, but not in anywhere near this condition.

[Harry P.]

A lot of those vintage Japanese "tin toys" bring some impressive prices today.

[Tom Geiger]

OK, I'll jump back in. 

Do they even sell these anymore? They used to have one at my grade school. That will never happen again.

Hosted on Fotki

This was one of those gotta-have-it for Christmas when I was a kid. I found out many years later that my parents had to drive to a few different stores to find one. I still remember the original ad - "Hey, you knocked my block off!" I bought another one as an adult. 

 

They sell those today as "Huggables"!

[Ace-Garageguy]

They sell those today as "Huggables"!

Gee willikers...isn't it wonderful to be living in such a kind and gentle and enlightened age?  

[unclescott58]

OK, I'll jump back in. 

Do they even sell these anymore? They used to have one at my grade school. That will never happen again.

Hosted on Fotki

This was one of those gotta-have-it for Christmas when I was a kid. I found out many years later that my parents had to drive to a few different stores to find one. I still remember the original ad - "Hey, you knocked my block off!" I bought another one as an adult. 

Hosted on Fotki

I just noticed how the kid going after Dennis punching toy is dressed. He even has the slingshot in his back pocket. When was the last time you saw a kid with a slingshot? Boy, a slingshot! They'd send a kid to counseling or worst if a kid carried one of those today. And god forbid, if they had a pocketknife! Punching toys, slingshots, pocketknives. And let's not forget those Rockin Sockin Robot above. How did we all grow up and not become psychotic killers?

[unclescott58]

And the horror of punching a dolphin! I want one! Look at the smirk on Flipper's face. It just makes me want to punch him. ?

Edited June 18, 2016 by unclescott58

[philo426]

I had the Bozo version,loved to sock it to him!We also had the Rock em robits but the blue one could take more damage than the red one!

[Snake45]

And the horror of punching a dolphin! I want one! Look at the smirk on Flipper's face. It just makes me want to punch him. ?

I can think of several people I'd like to see on one of these punching bags. Some of them aren't even Kardashians.

[Mark]

I was in a Target store the other day, they had the Rock'em Sock'em Robots.  I thought those had been produced again in recent years, but hadn't seen them anywhere.  I thought that they were a limited-run "nostalgia" thing.

[philo426]

I recently had to fix this Tonka Crane from the 80s for my 5 year old nephew.I was busted up pretty bad and I had to drill out the rivets to fix the spool mechanism.The wheel was missing so I had to use the dial from an old dryer.   

[Harry P.]

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/irwin-mainway/n8641

[unclescott58]

Here's one I haven't thought of in quite a while. Mattel's VRROOM bike/trike engines from the mid 1960's. Did a little looking online as I hadn't seen them in a long time. The one everybody remembers, and the one I wanted as a kid, was the battery operated Hot-Rodder-Engine. Which looked like a one cylinder motorcycle engine. The one I got was the non-battery operated Booster-Engine. It looked a bit like a two cylinder BMW motorcycle engine. But, unlike the Hot-Rod-Engine which you just inserted your key and turned a switch for the motorcycle noise. The Booster-Engine had a manual pull lever to generate the noise. No where near as cool.

I got mine Christmas of 1964 or '65. (I don't remember which?) Not a good time to get a toy like that, living in Minnesota. For it was too cold to ride your bike at that time of the year. And the toy was not a good indoor toy. Way too loud! So, for the first few month's I only got to try it a couple times down in the basement. But spring came! My VRROOM motor got mounted to my bike. Sadly soon after, the pull handle that made the noise got broken. After that it was not vary easy to use. Plus it just wasn't as cool as the neighbor kid who had the Hot-Rodder one.

Looking online, I didn't realize there were other VRROOM toys. I kind other remembered the race car. But, I had never seen a VRROOM Bronco bicycle before. A very cool looking bike. It looked simular to a Schwinn Stingray. Naturally it came with the VRROOM Hot-Rodder-Engine already built on to the bike. But, it also a cool storage box that looked like a motorcycle gas tank. Very cool! Even today, I want one.

Im happy to see there is quite a bit of stuff showing the VRROOM toys on line. And there are few commercials on YouTube for them too. I wonder how well they sold? And how long they were on market?

I don't remember if we talked about the following toy or not here on this thread. I believe it was same the Christmas I got my VRROOM Booster-Engine, I got one of my all time favorite toys. An Ideal Motorific set. The set I got was a special promotional set sold through DX gas stations. And I'm happy to say a couple of years ago, I found a "mint" copy of that set on eBay. And at a very reasonable price. It even still had the same green Ferrari GTO my first one had. With the gold sticker still on the side. A year or two before I found that, a friend had given me the Alcan Highway set and a '64 Cadillac. Besides the Ferrari and Cadillac, I also have a '63 Chevy Impala convertible and a '63 Ford Country Squire.

Man! Toys were so cool in the 1960's. It was a pretty good time to be growing up.

Edited June 23, 2016 by unclescott58

[Snake45]

Here's one I haven't thought of in quite a while. Mattel's VRROOM bike/trike engines from the mid 1960's. Did a little looking online as I hadn't seen them in a long time. The one everybody remembers, and the one I wanted as a kid, was the battery operated Hot-Rodder-Engine. Which looked like a one cylinder motorcycle engine. The one I got was the non-battery operated Booster-Engine. It looked a bit like a two cylinder BMW motorcycle engine. But, unlike the Hot-Rod-Engine which you just inserted your key and turned a switch for the motorcycle noise. The Booster-Engine had a manual pull lever to generate the noise. No where near as cool.

I got mine Christmas of 1964 or '65. (I don't remember which?) Not a good time to get a toy like that, living in Minnesota. For it was too cold to ride your bike at that time of the year. And the toy was not a good indoor toy. Way too loud! So, for the first few month's I only got to try it a couple times down in the basement. But spring came! My VRROOM motor got mounted to my bike. Sadly soon after, the pull handle that made the noise got broken. After that it was not vary easy to use. Plus it just wasn't as cool as the neighbor kid who had the Hot-Rodder one.

 

I had the battery-powered one, and the story is still told in my family: Apparently I wanted one of these so hard for months that my grandparents special-ordered me one for my birthday, or some special occasion, and then when it came, it didn't work at all, and had to be returned/exchanged, which took several days or maybe weeks to accomplish. And then when I finally got a working one, and got it all bolted on and hooked up, I was thoroughly done with it in about one week, or less.

Years later I got to relive this, sort of, from the other side. When my kid was 7 or 8 years old, he wanted this Star Wars toy that shot little white disks at you, and you'd try to hit them with a "light sabre" (a flashlight with a thing on it, basically). Wanted that toy so hard for weeks, and when he got it, he played with it about twice. I think it's still in my basement. Maybe HIS kid will play with it someday.

[Roadrunner]

 Years later I got to relive this, sort of, from the other side. When my kid was 7 or 8 years old, he wanted this Star Wars toy that shot little white disks at you, and you'd try to hit them with a "light sabre" (a flashlight with a thing on it, basically). Wanted that toy so hard for weeks, and when he got it, he played with it about twice. I think it's still in my basement. Maybe HIS kid will play with it someday.

You mean little plastic discs that looked like Tiddly Winks?

[Harry P.]

Here's one I haven't thought of in quite a while. Mattel's VRROOM bike/trike engines from the mid 1960's.

Mattel actually made a complete Vroom bike...

[SfanGoch]

I was always a Sting-Ray kid. I liked my 1968 Schwinn Apple Krate best

Drum brake in the front and spring suspension front fork, 5 Speed 8-Ball stick shift, banana seat with spring suspension, 16" front tire and a 20" rear slick. This was to bikes what Harleys are to motorcycles.

 

My kid and I both have Grey Ghosts today

It's definitely a head turner. Everyone from beer-gutted oldtimers to pogo stick shaped hipsters wants to know where they can get one.  

 

 

Edited August 2, 2016 by SfanGoch

[Tom Geiger]

When you lived in Europe the Krate series equivalent was the Raleigh Chopper.   I had two of them in a row.  This orange one that got stolen, was replaced with a yellow one.  I believe this is Christmas 1969.

Edited June 24, 2016 by Tom Geiger

[SfanGoch]

Cool bike, Tom. There's a metallic blue Mk I 10 speed chained to the gate of an apartment building in the neighborhood. I'd like to find out if the owner would be interested in selling it. It looks just like the one you had

Edited June 24, 2016 by SfanGoch

[Harry P.]

My friend Bob had a Raleigh Chopper, but none of the rest of us ever had a Schwinn Krate. Way too pricey for the blue-collar parents we all had. That was back in the late '60s, when my parents paid $50 a month to rent our apartment. No way were they going to buy me a bike that cost more than two months rent!

But man, did we ever lust after them!

[SfanGoch]

My friend Bob had a Raleigh Chopper, but none of the rest of us ever had a Schwinn Krate. Way too pricey for the blue-collar parents we all had. That was back in the late '60s, when my parents paid $50 a month to rent our apartment. No way were they going to buy me a bike that cost more than two months rent!

But man, did we ever lust after them!

My parents weren't rich by any standard. We, like almost every other resident of the neighborhood, were lower middle class Greenpointers. I made that discovery after living with them. There was a point when I considered disowning them.  My mom and dad squirreled away the money so that they could get me this bike as a Communion present and I was forever grateful. I was probably the only kid in the entire Greenpoint-Williamsburg area that was lucky enough to own a Krate. I never saw another one like it while riding around. Believe me when I say that there more than a few kids who attempted to change that status.

The two Grey Ghosts my son and I have were purchased together at a bike shop in Park Slope. We just got off the bus and were heading to the supermarket when I happened to turn toward the street to light up a smoke. Across the street, I saw something strangely familiar in the bike shop window. I grabbed my son and went to take a closer look. JEEZUSEFFINCHRIST! Not one, but TWO FREAKING SCHWINN GREY GHOST KRATE BIKES!!!! I walked right into the shop and asked the woman who owns the joint how many does she have besides the two in the window. She said those were it. How much? "$600." I'm taking both of them. Roll' em out. She let me have both for $1050. She said I was the first jer...customer who had any clue as to what kind of bikes they were. She threw in two front and rear tires, inner tubes, lights, toolkits and bags for free. Needless to say, we forgot about the supermarket. My dad got me a super cool bike when I was a kid. Now, it was my turn to do the same for my son. He also has a regular Grey Ghost with foot brake which we're going to convert into another 5 Speed with a stick shift. I bought that one on eBay for 76 bucks including shipping from Jersey. 

[unclescott58]

I wish MPC would reissue their 1/8 scale Schwinn Pea Picker. Which was part of the Schwinn Krate series of bikes.

Like you Harry, my parent were not spending what it cost have a Schwinn. My first new bike was a single speed, coaster brake bike with 26" wheels. I think the brand was a Monarch? And I think I was 9 at the time. I could barely straddle the bike. And that could be a little ruff on the family jewels, if you know what I mean. But my folks expected that I would have the bike for years and grow into it. Which I did. Went on a church high school bike/camping trip of about 40 miles at the end of 9th grade. The old bike was so beat up by that time, and the tires were bad. I had 8 flat tires on the way to where we camped. The bike rode home in the back of a pickup truck. By that time I was making pretty good money mowing lawns, so as soon as I got back back, I went to local chain store (Holiday) and bought myself a Roadmaster 3-speed.

Before the Monarch (?), I had smaller used bikes. And for a while I had to share my sisters 24" girls bike. Oh the humiliation! Then the Monarch. My best friend had a 5-speed Schwinn Stingray. Other people on that church biking/camping trip were all riding sofistcated new 10-speed racing and touring bikes. And here is my best friend on his Stingray, and I on my single-speed coaster with bad tires. Boy, did we not fit in. Can you say nerds in capital letters? NERDS. That was us. But yet my buddy was still cooler on his Stingray than I was on my bike. And he was able to ride it home! He was a nerd. I was an uber nerd. How I survived and turned out as normal as I have, I'll never know.

By the way. When the Roadmaster saw it's better days, I finally bought a Schwinn. A Schwinn Suburban. Heavy and conservative. Only 5-speeds. But I loved that bike, and wish I had it today..... With a Vrroom Hot-Rodder motor on it! ?