Automotive (and other) toys from our childhood

[ewetwo]

I still have all my Matchbox cars in their boxes. The Matchbox carry case. And Matchbox city.  And some Dinky and Corgi cars. 

[unclescott58]

3 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

Absolutely!  Before truth in advertising!   I remember a military transport plane that came full of tanks, trucks and soldiers.  In the TV commercial the stuff marched out of the plane in formation!  In reality it was just green army men quality junk that did absolutely nothing.

In that same vein was Kennedy Airport.  In the commercial it seemed kids were running a busy airport.  In reality it was a tower with a small record player in it with one small record of tower calls. The runways were a board game board with plastic airplanes.   

 

 

 

It's great that you brought up Voice Control Kennedy Airport. The last big toy of that type I lusted for, and got for Christmas that year. And got bored with fairly quickly. I think in less than a year, it was passed on to a friend of my mother's younger child. The Christmas' after that I wanted more sophisticated things like models. I was pretty much done with toys.

Christmas of 1969 I was 11, almost 12. That I believe, was the year I got three Eldon model car kits. The Pink Panther. The Milk Truck. And their bathtub thing, custom car. Christmas 1970. I believe the big gift that year was Mongram's Mean Maverick. '71, I know was the Visiable V-8. 

 

[Jantrix]

You guys might laugh me off the forums for this, but I can't tell you all the happy moments this game has given me throughout my life. I met my wife (27 years now) and my best friend through this game and many of the people I've played with throughout my life, I'm still friends with  today. I started in 1981, and today I play with my sons gaming group, so it seems I've passed on the table-top gaming gene. Like modeling, I can't imagine my life without it.

 

[unclescott58]

Here's one from the 1960's, that I just got in today's mail. These are little cars made by a company called MPC. Not the MPC model company outside of Detroit. But, a toy company from Chicago. These very tiny cars. They were usually sold in bags like this in dime stores and grocery stores. I also remember them being sold through ads in comic books. Most of the cars, have the names of what they are on their rear decks. Two models in the sets were known to have some interesting names on their rear decks. One was the '61 Mercury Comet. It states on its trunk it's an Edsel Comet (which is partly correct). The other is the Alfa Romeo. On its deck, it claims it's an Alpha Romeo. 

Cool little toys I remember playing with as a kid. But, I never had a set of my own (until today, that is). I always though they were cool. Because they always looked like the cars they claimed to be. Maybe not prefect replicas. But, in the size they were, they looked fairly close. And they were small enough to take with you anywhere. You could then play with them just about anywhere. They where molded, including the wheels, in one piece. Yet for what they were, the non rolling tires were not a problem. It just meant there were no worries about parts braking off or disappearing. In someways the perfect little toys. At least for many situations. 

 

[Tom Geiger]

So Cool Scott!   I remember having that bag as a kid.  There were a few different sets, maybe from different companies.  I have a handful today,  whenever I find them in the bottom of a junk box at a show I will buy them unless the vendor is unreasonable.  

BTW..  the Comet was supposed to be an Edsel model, but became a Mercury when the Edsel brand was discontinued.

 

[Fat Brian]

6 hours ago, Jantrix said:

You guys might laugh me off the forums for this, but I can't tell you all the happy moments this game has given me throughout my life. I met my wife (27 years now) and my best friend through this game and many of the people I've played with throughout my life, I'm still friends with  today. I started in 1981, and today I play with my sons gaming group, so it seems I've passed on the table-top gaming gene. Like modeling, I can't imagine my life without it.

 

I've really gotten into watching people play on youtube, the online dnd community is very large.

[unclescott58]

41 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

So Cool Scott!   I remember having that bag as a kid.  There were a few different sets, maybe from different companies.  I have a handful today,  whenever I find them in the bottom of a junk box at a show I will buy them unless the vendor is unreasonable.  

BTW..  the Comet was supposed to be an Edsel model, but became a Mercury when the Edsel brand was discontinued.

 

You are correct about why it's not a mistake to call a Comet an Edsel. Very good. I'm impressed. 

[DonW]

Anyone remember this?:

I wanted this so badly when I was a kid.

Finally my birthday came around and Mum came through!

I loved it, played with it for hours. Happy memories, apologies if its already been posted!

[unclescott58]

Good old Mouse Trap. I have never really "played" the game. Neighbors had a copy. But, the only thing we ever did with it was set up the trap and make it work. Other than using the board to hold the trap pieces in their correct positions, we never used the outer movement squares to play the actual game. I can't even remember if you had a spinner, dice, or what, for determining the movement of the mice. 

[unclescott58]

Don brining up Mouse Trap reminded of a fun game I got for Christmas in '67 or '68. The game was the Silly Safari Game. I remember the game being fun, but for what ever reason we didn't play it a lot. I think setting up and taking down the game center piece evertime you wanted to play, was maybe the reason why? 

 

[stavanzer]

I had this one. It was  quite fun. I need to track down a copy and play it with my Grand Squirrel.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1551/sub-search

[unclescott58]

On 4/17/2020 at 11:09 AM, alexis said:

I had this one. It was  quite fun. I need to track down a copy and play it with my Grand Squirrel.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1551/sub-search

I've never seen this one before. It looks really cool. Battleship take another step forward? 

[DonW]

On 4/17/2020 at 1:50 PM, unclescott58 said:

Good old Mouse Trap. I have never really "played" the game. Neighbors had a copy. But, the only thing we ever did with it was set up the trap and make it work. Other than using the board to hold the trap pieces in their correct positions, we never used the outer movement squares to play the actual game. I can't even remember if you had a spinner, dice, or what, for determining the movement of the mice. 

Likewise if I'm honest.

I did spend a happy few hours trying to make it work with the tub filled with water - it was tricky to get the balance right!

[Snake45]

On 4/17/2020 at 12:09 PM, alexis said:

I had this one. It was  quite fun. I need to track down a copy and play it with my Grand Squirrel.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1551/sub-search

 

And then there was Sonar Sub Hunt, another way to turn a game that anyone can play with two pieces of paper and a pencil into a high-priced, battery-powered profit center: 

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/1216/08/mattel-sonar-sub-hunt-game-original_1_abd23110c2ae398629611e4f8286294a.jpg

 

 

[unclescott58]

Looking at Sub Search closer online, I can kind of see why it never became big hit. The game board/box looked both too big and flimsy. I understand why it had to be so big. But, that also takes away one of the fun aspects of regular Battleship over other games like this. The great thing about Battleship is you didn't have to sit at the same table with your opponent. You could play it from just about anywhere. Just grab your individual Battleship board, hop in any comfy chair across the rom and you can play. Using pegs, you could even play in a moving vehicle. With Sub Search these options for playing, just are not there. But then again, that's true with most games. 

I'm still surprised I had never heard or seen anything of this game until earlier today. It would be fun to try playing it at least one time. 

[Tom Geiger]

Per old toys... maybe some older folks remember these!  This one sits up in the corner of our bedroom!  I’ve owned it a long time, someone put it out for trash and I saved it.

[unclescott58]

Being a kid who loved Halloween, monster movies, and other scary things. Here are three game I remember seeing advertised and in the Christmas catalogs that I was intrigued by. Not only never got. But, never knew anybody else who had a copy. So I never got to play any of them. 

The first one, the Huanted House always intrigued me the most. It just looks interesting. I'd still like to try playing today. The Green Ghost? The blob like ghost looked cool. And I think he spun around as the spinner in the game? Ka-Bala, tough to beat an evil eye for spookiness. But, from what I've read in recent years, this one sounds like it would have been the least fun. And was nothing but a lame attempt at being another Ouija board which was going though one of it's up periods of popularity at the time.  

Speaking of which. We did have a Ouija board in the late 60's. In retrospect I'm surprised. My mother was fairly religious. Though more so in later life. The version we had was put out by Parker Brothers. So how bad could it be? It was fun to play with to a point. Nothing bad ever happened to us, as far as we know, because of playing the game. The only "prediction" it made, which we thought was funny for some reason, was my one sister, Shari, was suppose to marry some guy named Henry. We would kid her that she would be screeching to him, "Henry... get over here!" Need to say, she never fold her "true love" Henry. And had to settle for some guy named Randy for last forty some years. So much for the Ouija board's predictions. 

 

[cobraman]

Got a new one of these probably late 50’s. Buckley Irish Mail . My dad worked for them . That was back when we lived in Chicago . It was a lot of fun . 

[unclescott58]

Through today's mail, I've just re-added one of the all time great games to my collection. Mille Bornes. First played this game with a cousin and his friend back in the summer of 1972. Being a car nut, I fell in love with it right away. A fun game, and in this edition with its original art work, a beautiful game too. Tire to go racing racing again through the French countryside. 

 

[peteski]

Yes, that is a fun game.  I used to play it a lot on the computer at work (against the computer).  But it is even much more fun palyed with other humans (especially more than 2).

[espo]

On 4/20/2020 at 11:14 AM, Tom Geiger said:

Per old toys... maybe some older folks remember these!  This one sits up in the corner of our bedroom!  I’ve owned it a long time, someone put it out for trash and I saved it.

Good that you saved this. I remember the rich kid that lived down the block had one of these. 

[Pete J.]

I remember building one of these and playing with it.  It had a system that steered the front wheels that used several cams to make it do ovals and several other driving paths.  Very complex build for a kid!

[Ace-Garageguy]

I had one of these. Not solar powered, but it had a light sensitive cell that fired a transistor relay to make it stop and go using a flashlight beam. Mine was black.

       

Built one of these about the same time...

Hmmmmm...I think I may have posted these back at the beginning of the thread....

Yup. Oh well.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Ace-Garageguy

[1930fordpickup]

On 4/16/2020 at 8:36 PM, unclescott58 said:

You are correct about why it's not a mistake to call a Comet an Edsel. Very good. I'm impressed. 

My brother looked at a comet for sale in Toledo about 5 years ago. The guy that was flipping it had the original title with the car. It said Edsel on the Title. So that car had to be an early 60 sale. 

[1930fordpickup]

Being one of 11 kids growing up we didn't get any fancy board games for us to lose the parts of.  (We always had socks and under wear as kids, that was important. ) 

 I was just talking to my sister about game night and the card games we liked to play. Water Works, Pit and Mille Bornes when we were younger. Uno , Phase 10 and a few other when we were older.