What was your favorite toy as a child? Do you still have it?

A tool kit that my grandfather put together for me (he was a master carpenter). It had a small hammer, screwdrivers (I still have one of the screwdrivers), small saw, etc. All I have is one of the screwdrivers as someone broke into our storage shed in the backyard two days after my grandfather's funeral in 1961. They took most of my grandfather's tools (which were worth a lot of money) and most of the fishing equipment. We always suspected it was one of his brothers (he had two in the area) who did it, but could never prove it. In fact we really suspected only one of the brothers as he was very jealous of my grandfather because he did better in life.

A dog that would wag its tail and do flips when it was turned on. It was sound or touch activated - if you clapped or hit it then it would start moving. I got it for my second birthday from my grandparents and I loved it. As I got older, the spring in the tail came through the material which was a little dangerous. I took it to scgool once and one of the dinnerladies told me that I should throw it away. I remember crying then tying the tail up with cloth from the material basket so that they wouldn't take it away. I was 6.

I still have it somewhere - I think that it's in the attic. It should still work if I put the right batteries in it.

My other favourite toys were both handmade. A red post box (a cardboard box painted red with a slot and a door) and a farm that my mum made for me. The farm was a small board painted like a field with one corner a mud patch (fot the pigs). My mum made pigsties and walls out of small pieces of wood and corrugated cardboard. The animals were my mum's from when she was little and occasionally I was allowed to buy a new one

I still have the farm but not the post box.

I had a Coca-Cola machine that looked the kind at the soda fountain. Wish I still had it.

I had various favorites at various times. The only one I still have is a Pound Puppy that my mother and I made from a kit when I was in junior high school.

very small-i had a lady bug with wheels.
5-8 or so- i had a winnie the pooh teddy bear.
then board games as i was older.
no, i don't have any of them.

I don't have a good memory about this kind of thing. I have blocked out all but the blaring emotional(pos and neg)parts of my childhood. Defense mechanism. I'll try.

From birth to age 8, I lived in England and my memories regarding toys are that of my favorite stuffed bear who went to the hospital with me when I had my tonsils out. I still have him.
I also remember a dollhouse my mother built by hand and decorated for me with stuff she got from art supply shops and goodwill that was smashed to pieces when shipped to the USA. They promised to fix it but it was never repaired and eventually forgotten in the basement and my pleas to have it fixed were met with frowns. It was thrown out.
I also remember my doll who cried when you took out her pacifier. I took her wrapped in a knitted shawl on the plane to the USA.

In England, I remember always feeling envious and unhappy when I went round my cousin's houses and saw all their expensive wonderful toys. In the USA, I envied neighbors cool bikes and Barbies and rooms with cool stuff.

We were very poor. My dad refused to get up in the mornings and go to work. He'd rather go out at night and spend money playing Snooker, Darts and drinking.

I guess it depends on at what age. When I was really young, I had a stuffed white monkey with a rubber face. I called him "Deekey". I don't have any toys from when I was a child. I have enough stupid crap to drag around with me. I don't need anything like that.

The smurfs,two dolls (a baby boy and a little girl ),I (shame on me! ) even had a thing for Barbie for a while,when I was a little older.I had lots of toys,I still have them tough I can't remember where I put my dolls and the smurfs (100 of them!).
I played with my two dolls (I had many more,but those were my "children".),I played a single mother.I still don't think I will get married.Anyway in the stories I invented the father was always far away.When I was about 3 my husband was a milkman and he was in prison.Then I moved to totally crazy stuff...my husband was a big stuffed pelican (another of my favorites I forgot to mention! I still have him and refer to him as "my ex-husband")and he was always out on the sea fishing.
Married to a pelican !

I knew it!
I could sense you were...one of us!

I love the way your mind works!!!!

My favorite? Has to be Bun, a cotton bunny rabbit. She's on my bookshelf right now, but since I was born to like age 6 she was the center of my existence. My mother saw her at Salvation Army three days after she had gotten out of the Maternity Ward and shared my obsession, making clothes and bonnets for her. I did drawings upon drawings of her in make-believe stories and the only place I didn't take her was school, because they didn't understand. They couldn't see what transcended the grease stain on her thread-lips where I had tried to ignorantly feed her with real food and her long, funny striped legs. I couldn't wait to come home and play with her. It wasn't really playing, though. Sometimes I would just sit by her for hours and sit spaced out in my own little world, but I was happy

I don't know if you would classify it as a toy or not, but my tetherball and pole. I would play tetherball for hours. I've always wondered what happened to it after we moved out of that house. Since the pole sat in a hole filled with cement to keep it in place, my grandmother opted not to take it with us and it's no longer in the back yard of that house.

My daughter was addicted to tetherball in the third and fourth grade. She broke a finger on two separate occasions.

Hmmm....I'm not sure. I really liked stuffed animals, I would play with them and make "set-ups", where I would arrange them in a certain way. I'd make a law office, a school, a hospital, etc. I still have some stuffed animals.

Fashion plates...No I don't have it anymore

I had various favorites. One, however, was a red metal dumptruck. Nope, do not have it now. I also was very fond of my pogo stick and my red wagon...

Mallory had those. I used to sneak into her room and play with them

I never broke any fingers playing tetherball, but I broke my arm in two places in gym in 6th grade. We were doing something that involved jumping over a ball, I can't remember what it was for and I was paying more attention to this cute boy nearby than the ball and fell directly on my right arm. One of the breaks was right below the elbow. It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been righthanded. Thank Heavens my sister is a lefty and was able to show me how to do things left handed while I was in the cast.

Boys are dangerous!
Mallory, my daughter broke her wrist a couple of years ago playing jumprope at school!!! She was "jumping out" and fell backwards reaching back to break her fall with her hand and OW!!

MonkeeeeeeeBoi!!!

*lick*

Yes, actually. It was a Pluto Flipbook I got at disneyland when I was five (and ended up doing animation). Earlier than that, I had viewmaster reels, and now I have hundreds of them (and have worked in every form of stereography). I upgraded the lite-brite for Photoshop, inherited dad's 250 year old cuckoo-clock the musical wind-up clock represented. I'm thinking to buy a replacement for the glow in the dark tinkerbell fairy-wand though. Oh, there was the dearest three-faced doll, evie, but I've sculpted a three faced siva-trimurti from rose-quartz, so I'm ahead there too. There were all sorts of construction tools too.

My point here is pick your childrens toys carefully. They might reflect their career.

My cousin and I would play with his sisters barbie. We would have her and ken making love in the house boat (a shoebox) just as it went over the falls (the stairs). In second grade I got caught up in a boys plot to tear the heads off all the girls paper dolls and flush them at recess. Even when I tried to be good, I ended up spending a lot of time on the wall at recess. I wonder if they still do that? In first grade I had to crouch under the teachers desk. What wierdness, I really can't imagine that that would be acceptable punishment these days.

I looked those up on ebay, they are going for about 20 bucks. I want to get one for my daughter.

A Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animal that I couldn't sleep without until I was over 10 at least. It is somewhere in my house, perhaps mixed in with my daughter's millions of stuffed animals now.

You could well be right - I was mostly encouraged to play outside. My toys were the mud-patch in our back garden, a rope on a bucket I used to lower down to the stream, my tree and various plants. I was always dirty but happy grubbing around barefoot I was told about plants and insects. From being tiny I was encouraged to cut bits of plants up to see what was inside. I was allowed to keep snails and try to feed them all kinds of different food.

Now I want to do scientific research And the only other job I ever wanted to do passionately was archaeology - so that I could grub around in the dirt!

Ouch, I hope she didn't break it too badly! How old is Mallory? I was asking as I have a daughter as well, she turned 21 in January, 2002. Her name is Tarah.

Wow! You really pay for nostalgia!

She's 11. She'll be 12 in August!

I can't remember, and probably.

My Teddy bear. Yes.

It's cool to have others validate my theories at times. Often I'm my only test subject, and my general laws could all be invalidated some day if I discover I'm from another planet.

no idea, definitely not

i remember the little plastic racetracks that you could fit together, to build any kind of racetrack you wanted. and then you could race the little matchbox cars on it.

i dont have any toys from my childhood.

Ah yes, I had hotwheels and sizzlers, but before that I had a plastic train set that I would route all over the house. I loved Gomez's train set.

My nephew was born August 22.

I had a popple (sp?) You know those stuffed animals that looked like the guys from Fraggle Rock and they turned inside out to make a ball. He was green and pink and I took him everywhere with me. There's a few years where every picture of me I have him. When we moved to Arizona from Cali my parents had a big yard sale and he accidentaly got mixed in with the "stuff to sell" and was gone before I realized it. I cried for days... I've searched high and low but can't seem to find one. I don't know why but I would love to find another like him...

An orange teddy bear made by a friend of my Mum's (who I called Auntie). It was made out of an orange blanket and it had a red tummy. I never named it. It was just called teddy. I slept with it every night - probably way beyond the age kids are supposed to sleep with their teddies. Its probably somewhere in the attic at my Mum's house.

A big ginger rabbit called Jaffa Cake.
It's at my dad's house somewehre.

A teddy bear. Alas, it is long gone...

Is that likely?

I used to have popples!!! I had a big orange one that turned into a ball, a yellow and pink one that turned into a pillow and a purple one that turned into a flower

I liked my:
Weeble Wobbles,
Fisher Price Little People (you know, the chocking hazard kind )
My stuffed Hello Kitty- still have it,
Lite Brite,
View Finder,
Lincon Logs,
Oh- I had this cute little ardvark that had a velcrow tounge and if you squeeze the tummy, it would shoot out to pick up all the little stuffed ants. It was really cute!

Weren't they wonderful?!?!

My Little Ponies!
My mom made me sell them in a garage sale when we moved.
A few years ago I bought a bunch on e-bay!

I love those flipping dogs!

what is a sizzler? dont remember the name gomez either, but i did have a plastic train set as well. i have very fond memories of my hotweels cars. my son (8 mo.) already has a hotweels car!

Close enough. As time goes by I keep finding ways my mind works different than the average person.

Sizzlers were motorized rechargeable hotwheels. You could put them on the orange single lane tracks, or the black 'Fat track' and have them race laps on banked curves.
Gomez Addams of the Addams family. He used to play with trains that had head on collisions and blew up.

my buddy

I loved them

How could I forget My Little Ponies? I loved them! My favourite was Applejack - I bought him at a Blue Peter Bring and Buy sale. I even had My Little Pony wallpaper in my bedroom I also learned that toys' hair doesn't grow when I cut one of my ponies' mane off. I replaced it with small peacock feathers

I think I had Applejack too!!

Hmmm.. I think my little fisher-price wooden people might have been, but no, I don't still have them. I used to line the little people up on the end of the dock, then reach over the edge and pull a crab up out of the water and set it down a few feet away to see how many little people it would knock over into the deep creek. Years later I was still playing with them, making homes for them in the complicated little knots of the roots of a big tree. I have no idea how many of them I went through over time.

The little people were great- did you have the wooden ones, or the plastic ones?

Plastic peg-type. I had the farm house and the truck with the camper-boat thingie. They were so fun! I don't think I have ever seen the wooden ones...?

This makes me think of all those toys that I wanted but my mom said cost too much:
Barbies (I had 2 from garage sales),
Strawberry Shortcake Dolls ( I had a friend that had *all* of them and she had them all out in this cute white wicker shelf, I was so jealous),
My little Pony's,
Cabbage Patch Kids. I finally bought my first Cabbage Patch when I was 13 with my own money,(money was hard to earn at my house too!) and I think I bought my last one when I was 20. I still have them all.

When we were younger we used to sing 'My Little Pony - Skinny and Bony'. It made us laugh (as you do when your young)

How old are you? The wooden ones were the same shape etc, as the plastic ones, they were just made of wood. I was born in '67, and probably started chewing on my first f-p people by the age of 3 or so.

I was born in '75. I bet that I did have some at some time- my mom was an avid garage sale freak. I just don't recall those kind! I bet they are worth money now.....

My favourite toy was, and still is my "sheba puppy"... it was a st.bernard stuffed animal with a water barrel around its neck.. now its a ratty looking st.bernard with one eye, a hole right through its neck, a shaved head, half a tail and numerous other "scars"! but i wouldnt give him up for the world.

now it all makes sense. guess i just never heard any of those references before. i like the gomez thing. i remember that about the show now that its been mentioned to me.

head on model train collisions are cool.

I had Christmas dog. He was a bull-dog, collie-mix, not too unlike a saint-bernard. I had a whole pack of rescued animals missing body parts. We had a real cat named Sheba. It's siblings were Sphinx and Paternoster (the brother). They were all black, except Sphinx was salt and pepper, about 20% white mixed in.

Oh cool!! my stuffies' name sake was my old REAL (non-stuffed) dog, st.bernard to boot!!!!! her name was sheba and the other one was lighter and his name was pepe la pew

I had My Little Ponie, Care Bears, Barbie....when I was smaller I had this Fisherprice barnyard set I loved, you opened the barn door and it went "mmooooo". I was also in love with my weeble wobble family.

I always thought Safari (tsafari) would be a cool name for a daughter, but since I've used it for a dog, that options been spoiled. Somehow I ended up with the same dog twice (or at least it's reincarnation). It was a black cocker-spaniel or something. It always yelped for attention, but when you offered it, it gnawed on your ankles. I endured her until thankfully someone took her off my hands who was able to bring out her virtues.

When i was about three years old, i was bitten by an english sheepdog, a huge dog, and scarred for life, right on the left side of my forehead (i have bangs!) but i really dont like small dogs, i like german shepareds, st.bernards and rottweilers! i am an odd duck i must say!!!

My older brother used to sing that at me!

I don't care for yippy tense ankle biters either. Labradors, Weimeraners, Australian Shepards are my favorites (wrastling frisbee dogs).

ya i agree with you.. ankel biters are the worst

teddy bear
yes! (somewhere...)

My Teddy. Yes.
http://richardwyndham.tripod.com/hkn/

???

My very politically incorrect (these days, anyway) Fisher Price wind up "ging ging" that plays "One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians". I still have it and it still works, too. I think it was made the year I was born, 1962.

?

smootch

Match Box cars, They are still hidden away at an undisclosed location.

My Baby Susan doll - She is long gone.
Candy Land - Sold at a garage sale 2 years ago.

My wonder horse with Lone Ranger costume. No, long gone.

Barbies.

I beheaded them all and painted in nail polish, and dyed their hairs.

I had a thing for plastic vegetables too.And furniture for doll's houses.I did the walls with 4 big books.I *really* loved plastic vegetables that looked like real ones.

He-Man, I loved killing the bad guys. And yes I still have the original one

teddy

Matchbox cars G.I. Joe Evil kienevil wind up stunt bike

Wooden noahs ark.I don;t still have it but I wish I did