Classic Toys

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What toys do you consider to be true classics- toys that are money (or time) well spent, that last and do not go out of style?

What toys did you enjoy most as a child and would buy for your children or grandchildren?

-- Rebekah (nomail@thanx.net), November 28, 2001

Answers

Unfortunately, Rebekah, the electronic age has pretty much overshadowed the toys that I played with 40-45 years ago. I was happy with a doll that had eyes that opened and closed and had a change of clothing. In the winter, new ice skates were always welcome as was a sled. I was blessed with wonderful parents and we were well off. But times have changed as far as what children want, what they expect and what they are allowed to expect.

Sock monkeys, tops, balls, kaleidescopes, baby dolls and baby carriages. Then of course there were Barbie dolls (I still have my first Barbie and the clothes my mom knitted for her). But these are all pretty much passe' now.

Now it's game boys, action figures and I don't know what else, 'cause I don't have children.

Do children still play hide n seek, red rover and kick ball??

Ah, for gentler, more laid back times

;-)

MissJudi

-- MissJudi (jselig@clemson.edu), November 28, 2001.


blocks, legos, moccasin kits, suncatcher kits, weaving kits, toys that "go" by means of a balloon blown up, Yo Yo's, wire puzzles, push toys (like duckies that flap their feeties when you push the long stick - very hysterical), bead kits for bracelets and necklaces, hand puppets, marble "racer" kits, frisbees, tennis balls for interaction with the dog, rope, magnets, tire swing, slide, books!, coloring books and 128 color Crayolas with the built-in sharpener, colored pencils, Origami paper with book, String with string figure book, jumprope,... Ok, now I'm getting tired....

-- Gailann Schrader (gtschrader@aol.com), November 28, 2001.

TinkerToys!!

They are making them again out of wood. Here they sell for about $40 for a large set, but they last forever and expand the imagination.

-- Cordy (ckaylegian@aol.com), November 28, 2001.


I still have my baking soda boat. metal one,,, gotta be 30 years old now.

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 28, 2001.

What's Nintendo??? I have an 11 & 16 year olds. They have never asked for any kind of video games. The closest thing we have are several educational computer games.My children have ALWAYS gotten a stuffed animal for Christmas. They also get such things as Barbies, balls, board games, playing cards. This year they want stuffed animals, camera,and books. So... not all kids are spoiled rotten and want the latest fad. My kids don't even want NIKE's. So don't give up hope on todays kids. There are still plenty of good ones around.

-- Lou Ann in KY (homes_cool@msn.com), November 28, 2001.


Brio wooden train sets, wooden blocks, Tonka big metal dump truck (my 3-year-old scoots around on it contentedly for hours), sand box, little red wagon (my boys will push and pull each other in it, as well as load and unload stuff), legos, play-doh (I make the homemade kind). There's an Austrian wooden building set called Matador that Sears used to sell 40 years ago or so.

-- Elizabeth in E TX (kimprice@peoplescom.net), November 28, 2001.

The best toy we ever bought for our daughter, now age 4, was a Brio train set. The Figure Eight set is about $40, and relatives added to that set over the years (she's had it three years). The set alone is enough, though, to keep them busy. Now, her little sister plays with it, and you cannot tell it has ever been touched - excellent quality. My youngest daughter has a wooden doll house, and we are planning to get her a room of furniture for Christmas, birthday, etc., to add on. No one gets everything at once! Brio and Plan Toys are excellent companies whose toys last forever - we have Brio antiques, too. These toys will be passed on to my children's children.

As far as spoiled children go, my almost five-year old has never asked for a toy for Christmas. I think she once asked for a toilet seat, maybe. We don't watch nasty television commercials and don't do "fad" toys, even McDonald's junk (neither has ever had a Happy Meal). They get lots for Christmas, too, because I stay at home and I want some new stuff! We love crafts things and Barbies and indoor "games" for our cold Michigan winters. I also have given them Madame Alexander dolls to pass on to their daughters (if they have them!).

p.s. EBay sells all sorts of classic toys at decent prices.

-- carla s. miller (carlasmiller@hotmail.com), November 28, 2001.


Has anyone mentioned the Etch-a-sketch yet? If not, now it has. Cool toy; keeps my three year old son occupied for quite a while, just like myself when I was a 'little person'.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 28, 2001.

I wish my kids were young again (girls 18 and 15), now all they want is money and clothes neither of which I can/want to give. So, we compromise I give gift certificates for the clothes and fill in around the edges with small gifts. I can still buy for my youngest (never clothes, tho!) as she shows horses and always needs something for that, she loves Harry Potter-I won a nice triva game on eBay for her, and they both like jewelry. But I miss buying toys, and seeing the wonder and amazement in a young child's eyes when they see the lights and decorations. I don't miss it enough to want grandchildren yet tho!!! Maybe I can borrow someone's toddler this year.

I've done a bunch of shopping on eBay this year--great prices and everything has been in excellent condition.

I played with model horses the most when I was young, I wish I still had them- they're collectibles now! My brother played with Lincoln Logs, and army men.

Stacy in NY

-- Stacy (KincoraFarm@aol.com), November 28, 2001.


I have three boys and the best gifts they have ever received are a trampoline(they can stay on for HOURS) and a basketball goal. They love to play basketball. We have some of the electronic stuff, but that runs in phasas. They play a game for a few days, then can go weeks without turning it on again. Also, we love to do puzzles. The big 1000 piece kind. My boys have been helping me do them since they were three and are really good at it. It is especially good on those cold and wet winter days.

-- Ivy in NW AR (balch84@cox-internet.com), November 28, 2001.


Lincoln Logs and BB guns!

-- Steve in So. WI (Alpine1@prodigy.net), November 28, 2001.

Anyone remember the sunshine family? sorta the hippy form of barbie.The had a farm set,veggie.stand and camper.

-- renee o'neill (oneillsr@home.com), November 28, 2001.

Hot Wheels cars,I collected these cars from about 67 to 71.They call these cars redline series for the red line on the wheels,anyway the set I had was nearly perfect condition,48 cars total in a storage case. One day last fall I responded to an ad in the local paper from a serious collector,wanting to buy complete collections.This fellow came from way up state to look at the cars,and made a xxxx.00 offer on the spot.I held out for a while,but this person wanted this set real bad.While in a bookstore a couple a weeks ago I picked up a price guide for these cars,now I know why this guy had to have the set....................who would have thought...

-- Steve in Ohio (stevenb@ohiohills.com), November 28, 2001.

My son and all his college buddies just found dominomos! Seems they all get together and play on Sat. nights @ parties! They would be great 'hand made'! Just cut the wood and use the 'countersink' drill bit--you could paint with great colors! We used

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), November 28, 2001.

Ebay has a separate category for vintage toys - tinker toys, etch-a-sketch, lincoln logs, etc. Check it out!

-- gita (gschmitz@directcon.net), November 28, 2001.


I'm with Steve. Depending upon age, the best things have been Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Erector sets (No Bob Dole jokes, please), and BB Guns, or the newer "soft" BB guns that shoot a 6mm soft plastic BB. Depends upon the age and maturity of the little one. At age 12, I have found a nice youth model .22 is great, but it is not for every kid that age. Do not listen to Sarah Brady about not giving kids guns. She apparently advocated cigarettes, which I find much more abhorrent! GL!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), November 28, 2001.

Gift certificates for books, and maybe for the artistic-minded, tape some of the art shows off PBS and get the child a set of decent, mid- priced watercolors, brushes and paper, or pay for some lessons at the local community center if that is an option (usually they are for a day and are not very expensive). Also, an excellent book to teach children (and adults) drawing skills is Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks.

Kits can be good too, and I have even seen cd-roms (only for PCs) that teach knitting and crochet (they come with yarn and some needles/ hooks). You might be able to fashion your own kit from materials you have at hand as well.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), November 28, 2001.


This isn't exactly classic, but the building toys called Kynex are a big hit with my boys, as are any and all of the John Deere tractor toys and accessories. Oh, and they love the "new" wooden Tinkertoys (unfortunately so does the dog.)

Thanks to all of you, they'll be getting Etch-a-Sketch this year!

-- Sharon/WI (pinnow@inwave.com), November 28, 2001.


The things that my 5 year old plays with the most are: scissors, yarn, tape, old card boxes, straws, construction paper - he can spend hours making stuff with all these things.

Other things the kids play with are leggos, duplo blocks (big leggos), wooden train set and wooden building blocks.

Games we play as a family are mouse trap, kurplunk, candyland, monopoly, sorry, cluedo (basically the classics).

-- Anita in NC (anitaholton@mindspring.com), November 28, 2001.


Oh! I just love those Tonka trucks that have the front end loaders and cranes and dump beds and ......oh I wish that my boys were little again so that I could have a decent excuse to play in the dirt for hours. My kids love marbles and jacks. Even at 11, 13, and 15 they will play marbles. Jumpropes are great too. My daughter could play for hours with a roll of scotch tape, some construction paper, paints, scissors, and glue. Remember those pot holder makers that use the cloth loops? I used to love those things. They still sell them too.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 28, 2001.

As a kid I liked that nite brite thing where you poked little bulbs thru paper to make designs...and viewmasters, spyrographs, silly putty, lincoln logs, yo-yos, etc. I remember spending hours playing with that gizmo that had two inclined rods with a steel ball that you tried to get up the incline, and those steel marble puzzle board/boxes where you maneuver the ball through a maze. Rubics cubes were fun too.

-- Susan (smtroxel@socket.net), November 28, 2001.

Duplos!! We have a huge tote box full of duplos and my kids play with them all the time. They play duplos as duplos. They build Barbie stuff with duplos. They build hot wheels cars set ups with duplos. They make duplo farms for their play cows and horses. If we could keep only one toy, duplos it would be.

-- Deb (andersland@webound.com), November 28, 2001.

Nostalgia Sells: Old Toys Reappear in Stores

By Jackie Sindrich Reuters

NEW YORK (Nov. 26) - Like many other 11-year-olds, Sam Breslin wants a GameCube.

But the chatty New Yorker is also very interested in classic games that debuted when video game platforms like the $199 GameCube from Japanese video-game giant Nintendo Co. Ltd. were just a futuristic fantasy.

Yahtzee, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Battleship, Shrinky Dinks, Tinkertoys, Trouble, Lite Brite and other classics from Baby Boomer and Generation-X childhoods are back this year, retailers say.

Breslin clutched the classic strategy game Mastermind, which dates from about 1970 and costs $9.99, as he browsed the aisles at the new Toys "R" Us megastore in New York's Times Square with his parents and younger brother.

"No batteries! There's nothing to put together!" he said, explaining what he liked about games from his parents' era.

"Even though Monopoly lasts a long time, it's still fun. It's long, so the fun lasts longer. Connect Four is fun, too," Breslin said.

Retailers and others say it's partly parents' nostalgia, partly some straitened economic circumstances, and partly reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that caused some to focus on home and family.

Indeed, the toy sector is expected to hold up better than some others as parents go to extra lengths to create a happy holiday season in the aftermath of the September terror attacks. Toys with tradition are playing particularly well in this environment, retailers said.

"I'm really surprised," Charlene Ramos, of Yonkers, said of the retro items as she took snapshots of her child playing in a Cabbage Patch Kids display at Toys "R" Us. "I'll buy a lot of old games."

Nishi Ramcharan, a Toys "R" Us sales associate, said adults seem to be playing a lot of Candyland. "They're pretty amazed these things are coming back. They say, Oh my God, I played this when I was little."

Alan Marcus, spokesman for FAO Schwarz, owner of New York's toy store icon on Fifth Avenue, along with about 40 other stores, said the resurgence of classic toys started last year and has now kicked into full gear.

"Part of it has to do with the trend that people are spending more time with their families," Marcus said. "They're looking for toys that have a broader-based appeal. Board games really aren't so old- fashioned anymore, especially in the wake of 9/11," he said, referring to Sept. 11.

No. 2 toy maker Hasbro Inc. launched its Family Game Night campaign in 1998, with commercials and a Web site that encourage families to set aside one night a week to play board games together, such as Monopoly and Clue.

LOW PRICES, NOSTALGIA TRIUMPH

Very low promotional prices have also had in a hand in moving classic toys from the shelves, said Jon Reilly, spokesman for K-B Toys, one of the largest U.S. toy retailers with 1,400 stores. The Game of Life is $17.99 on the company's Website, kbtoys.com. Monopoly is even cheaper at $14.99.

Holiday retail sales in genral are expected to be relatively flat from a year ago, as shoppers snap up deep discounts of the type often seen after the holiday rush is over. Consumer confidence, seen as the key to the recovery in the U.S. economy, was badly dented by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

Still, many toy makers, retailers and analysts say they expect parents to spend as much or more money on their kids as last year to help restore a sense of stability, safety and comfort. Parents want to give children what they played when they grew up -- a time when the world world seemed like a safer place, they say.

It's going to be a "decent" year for the toy industry, said Chris Byrne, a toy industry consultant and columnist known as "The Toy Guy." "The parents that we've talked to aren't exchanging as much amongst themselves, but are not pulling back on their kids."

Alethea Podmore, marketing director for the Seattle-based consultancy The Retail Group, said there is a trend toward nostalgic items and "toys that are non-violent for obvious reasons."

Nevertheless, retailers have reported brisk sales of G.I. Joe action figures, play guns and other military toys. Video games, also expected to be strong sellers, are another bastion of shoot-'em-up gameplaying.

But Gary and Sandra Mathis, who visited relatives in Long Island recently from West Virginia, said they liked vintage toys like Hasbro's Lincoln Logs -- simple wooden sets for building log cabins and forts, first marketed in 1916 -- because they stimulate a child's mind more than computer games.

"More than anything, old games create more imagination then the new stuff, where everything is handed to you," Sandra said.

Gary said he would buy their infant son Tonka trucks and a train set when he was old enough. "It's the stuff we had."

Reuters 17:21 11-26-01

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 29, 2001.


I guess my most favorite was the model horses, (Breyer). But, remember how much fun the wind up wooden airplanes were? They came in a package and you pressed out the balsa wood pieces and slid/stuck them together to make the plane? The gliders were great, and probably worked better for what they were, but the others had hooks to attact the rubber band to and you wound up the propeller and they really flew far! Most fun, especially if each child had their own and could choose to let them off simultaneously or in series... Hummm, nice memories. Thanks for the questi

-- Leslie (leslie@ntrealdu2trlls.com), November 29, 2001.

I received one of those pot holder makers when I was 8 or 9. I just loved that! My girls always liked to get craft kits, dolls and outdoor sports equipment like bikes, skates, wagons, new soccer balls ...

-- Lyn (lyn@work.com), November 29, 2001.

My favorite toys as a child were arts and crafts supplies, a lap loom, and books. But my all time favorite was the E-Z Bake Oven. I played with it for years and years and years. Every time my mom baked she would give me a small portion for my e-z bake oven. It bakes with a light bulb and mine never had to be replaced. I finally gave it to my niece a couple years ago and it still worked fine.

-- Tracy (tbrock@splitrocktel.net), November 29, 2001.

Stacy , you can have my kids for Christmas !!!

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.

This is the gayest website i have ever visited

-- Ray Caffrey (RayCaffrey@hotmail.com), January 18, 2002.

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