What was your favourite toy/plaything when you were younger? what about now?

Lincoln Logs, Legos and Tinker Toys are still awesome to play with.

I've blocked out most of my childhood memories, but I can remember that my primary toy (or toy subsitute if you will) was my record player, in conjunction with whatever sort of simulated guitar and/or microphone stand I could conjure up. I spent way too much time lip-synching and air-jamming in my little pre-teen bedroom. Nowadays, I've graduated to an actual guitar, but on occasion you can still hear me jumping up and down on the bed, jamming to the strains of "Rockin' Robin" by the Jackson 5. *sniff* Excuse me, *sniff* I'm getting all misty...

Well, when I was four it would have been a teddy bear that I am told I referred to as "Googie". After that, I'm afraid I don't know. Probably action figures and green army men.

my sister and i (she's 2 years younger) spent a lot of time playing with dolls when we were little. most of our dolls were female, so they always ended up having teddy bears for boyfriends. after we outgrew the dolls, we played a lot of backgammon. now it's a toss-up between my hammer collection and my oxy-propane torch, and my sister isn't in on the game anymore.

my favorite toys have always been tools and construction toys. Legos, socket sets, volt meters, saws and screwdrivers. The list has gotten longer and longer as I learned how to use more tools, but the theme is the same. I never really liked computer games. I now play with cars (real ones!)

When I was real young, I had this stuffed Koala... after that.. it would have to be my star wars figures.. after that.. it was and remains my computer. .

As a child, I mostly ran around in the woods and didn't play with store-bought toys much. My brother would blow them all up if I had them, anyway.

I played with all sorts of toys and games, here are some I remember being among my favorites: Lincoln Logs, Erector set, Micronauts (small action figures), Big Jim (12" manly doll), Tonka trucks in the sandbox, Hot-wheels (my dad got them free at some gas station, we had tons) with flexible orange tracks, Slot car racing (my brother and I built some custom cars), HO tain set - we set it up on an old ping-pong table, a short but intense model rocket phase (Estes!), Board Games: Monopoly, Chess, Life, Stratego, Battleship Cards: Gin Rumy. Riding bikes around the neighborhood and woods was lots of fun. Computer games came later, but I've been intensely into them since ~ 6 grade. Atari 2600 was big in my youth. I always wanted a Vectrex, but it took me 10 years to finally get one (it's on my desk at work now). I'm deeply offended that Vectrex is not listed on the Video Game line (above)! Today, I mostly just play with computers. Computers.are.Infinite.Fun. ...oh and I recently had some fun with a Super Levitron (though the luster has worn off, and I should put it away now). I'm sorry, picking a favorite was just not possible, all of these toys and games were great (and I forgot a bunch too). Thank god for the creators of these!

I would sit and play with my Barbie dolls for hours. As I got older I made them do different things like kiss, and hold hands etc. I also went through this phase where I loved those 4X4 stompers, but then one got all twirled and tangled in my hair and we had to cut it out. Needless to say, I went back to the Barbies! I also used to play Intellivision's Baseball for hours with my friends when it first came out. These days, my idea of fun is playing with my Shih Tzu puppy-girl. We go to the beach, have cookies, fly kites, and chase seagulls, we love it!

When I was little (pre-school) my favourite toys were a clock I could take apart and put back together, my wood-with-magnets train set, and fir cones with toothpicks or matches. I made armies of people and cows and stuff. Then I stomped on them, big monster-style. :)
My cousin's construction set was way cool too, though, and of course Legos. And books. I read anything I could get my little hands on since I was 3 or 4.

Mr. Potato head, Dancerella, and a non descript guy I used to call "baldybean".

I loved legos and model trains. I still have lots of both. My stepdad ran a computer company in the 70s so I got terminals with thermal paper back when they were just coming out, and had a blast coding my own adventure games.

I liked toys, but preferred furniture. It's much more creative. Ever used a chair to be a bank teller with Monopoly money or to put someone in jail(granted the latter wasn't always effective, but still fun)?

Books. Paper & crayons. The garage (it had the broken down booths for the church fair in it...the best forts in the world). The snowbank. The stream in the woods behind the bank. Books. Friends. I had plenty of concrete toys and I played with them and enjoyed them. But none of them would make this list.

My favorites were the Sit 'n Spin, board games, and books. Now it's computer games, movies, & books.

whatever with wheels...

I had a Hippity Hop that I loved, and a lemon twist thing (it went around your ankle, and you spun it in circles and skipped over it) I also had Chinese jump rope, and a regular jump rope.

Furniture! A card table with a blanket over it made a cool fort, as did the cushions off the couch...although the cushions one reminds me more of a modern day cubicle...

Legos are the greatest. We had a big cardboard box full of them. My cousins, brother and I played with Legos for many summers by our pool. There is a 5 year span between all of us and we all enjoyed Legos. A toy that I wish was around when I was a child is Playmobil figures. They have some really cool sets (medieval, pirate, etc). I'm not sure what my favorite toy would be at this point in my life. I enjoy our boat, playing hockey (hockey equipment?), books, Playstation, and computers. Also, my husband I can't wait until we have kids so we can buy them the toys we like to play with!!!

I'm still a toy geek. I particularly liked, and like, toys that had a lot of play value without attached storyline; things like Transformers, the original GIJoe, Legos. Nowadays, I don't get to watch Saturday morning cartoons as often so the stories often pass me by so the toys are without story by default. Toys like Playmobil are really wonderful open-ended imagination tools.

Books were always my favorite plaything, but if you want a specific object, it would probably have been my chemistry set. Yes, I have always been that much of a nerd. Now, it's still books, unless you still want a specific object, in which case it would have to be Attack From Mars. (my pinball table)

My favourite plaything would have to have been fingerpaints. Oh yes. We all remember what kids can do with finger paints. I was a nasty little child, I think I went through the terrible twos for about 5 years. :D

Legos! In fact, most construction-type toys were great; I have VERY fond memories of my set of giant tinkertoys, from which we used to build cars, submarines (you could make a perfect periscope out of a few pieces), and helicopters that you could actually climb in.... We had an Odyssey I video game (the kind with the overlays that went over the TV screen because the 'graphics' were just black+white squares..)I really loved too. From about age 9, it was computers, and once I got my Apple ][+ in '82 we were inseparable. Nowadays it's still computers, but also musical instruments, skis, and my hang glider....

Bill: Wow, reading your list was eerily familiar; I played with almost everything you mention also (I used to love Big Jim and a van I had for him...).

Hunter: I'm right there with you re: nature + friends, all of my toys would have been for naught if there weren't buddies around to share them with (yes, even the computer - hours spent sitting together with a friend munching snacks and solving Infocom games were among the best times)

Books. Then and now.

..I liked my dolls, although I usually washed their hair and it fell out ... I also liked my record player...Tubby the Tuba was my favorite tune, but one day I played it so loud and so many times, my mom took it and broke it. [sob] -excuse me, I have to go call my therapist now....

I realize now there may be an age/class bias in this question, as I am a 28 year old male adult (?) only child who came from a middle class family who could afford to buy the spoiled brat anything he wanted.
Lizzie: as I read your couch cushion cubicle comment, a chill went down my spine as I looked around me at work. . . s c a r y.

toys and games rock. i want all my old toys.

When I was a kid, some of my favorite "toys" were math workbooks...

MICRONAUTS! Between me and two friends, we had them all, mutiples of most. We built huge cities, deserts, rivers, lakes, forests, etc in my parents basement to play with our micronauts on.

my atari 2600 was also a cherished tool for amusement.

I loved and still love this little stuffed kangaroo. He may not be a "plaything", but he sure is a toy, by my standards. I guess my favorite "toy" was a collection of teeny tiny little animals, made by Mattel. But these days it's my...hmmm....computer...

I used to love to make potions from ground-up rocks, vegetable matter (crab apples...), things I found in dumpsters (half-full beer!), etc. Until I got a homemade chemistry set. I then grew up to be a chemist

Books, stuffed animals, dolls, and my little sister. I spent hours making little leather bridles and saddle blankets and such for toy horses.

Refrigerator boxes. Card tables with sheets draped over them. Art supplies. Fabrics and cast off clothes for dress-up. Stuffed animals. Board games. Musical instruments. Household staples (combined into big batches of gook). Pots and pans. Live animals, dead animals, parts of animals. Exploring stuff outside. Bikes. Books. Tinkertoys. Butterfly/fish nets. Taperecorders. Wasn't exposed to computers or video games until well into my teens. *jjg: one of my nicknames is Googie. steve: that reminds me, I had an electronic circuits board thingy set that I loved, you could make things buzz and light up and travel...

i can't remember having a favourite toy.. and now, i guess it's me comp.. but only cuz i don't have much else to do..