My daughter has made out her list to Santa. Some of the items are new toys she has seen advertised on television. Some of the items are long standing toy traditions. One of the items she is asking for is a Barbie doll house. I reminded me of the Barbie doll house one of my friends had when we were children.
I started to think about other toys of my youth, most of which I know I got for Christmas because birthdays were for clothes.
Do you remember any of these?
Animal Twister: It was made by Milton Bradley and came out sometime in the 1960’s, I think. Instead of a spinning wheel like the regular twister it had a bag with cards that were drawn to tell you where and what to move. There were only two colors of animals on the board(plastic), red and blue. There was only one of each animal. It was my one of my very favorite games. I wish I had it today so my daughter could play it…regular twister is not nearly as much fun.
Beat the Clock: It was sort of based on a game show that I loved. It had a wand that blew air. You used it to move light Styrofoam balls through obstacles while trying to beat your opponents time and the clock.
Give A Show Projector: This was way before DVD’s. It was a projector the used special strips of slides that you placed in front of the bulb and slid along by hand. Kind of a projected viewfinder. I remember spending hours in our living room projecting the cartoon pictures up on the wall. Mine was blue and I had to have had it in the very early 1970’s.
Payday: The original game. It was a board game involving a calender board and play money. It was one of my favorites. I think there is a version on the market today.
Susie Homemaker Oven: I did not have an Easy Bake Oven. I did have a little Susie Homemaker oven that really worked. It had a light bulb to bake the items, but you opened the oven door to put the pans in and out, just like a real oven. I also had a little Susie Homemaker refrigerator as well.
Slime: The original came in a green trash can. Fun, but messy.
Crissy Doll: This was a doll with hair that “grew.” You would push a button on her belly and pull the hair to make it grow. There was a wheel in back to shorten her hair. It was one of my favorite dolls.
Spirograph: There is a Spirograph still marketed, but it is nothing like the original. High math concepts made beautiful art. However, I should have known that the newer toys would not be anything like what I had because mine came with colored top straight pins to hold plastic form in place on paper covered piece of cardboard.
I tried to list toys that are no longer available or not available in a form that close to the original. Here are some oldies that still can be found from Amazon:
What are some of your favorite toys from your childhood?
