h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Add your own favorite childhood toy here, or create a new thread for one.

Some of these toys, and many others, deserve their very own article...feel free to contribute. Fill those glaring gaps in the Guide!!!!



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When I was younger I loved to play with Lincoln Logs. My cousin and I would spend hours building creative structures with the interlocking pieces. One of my Lincoln Log sets even came with plastic cowboys and indians so you could build western towns. Lincoln Logs have been around for a very long time, and they are definitely a classic (at least in the US).

Personally, I liked to play with LEGO. There just seemed to be no end of the possibilities you had with these small plastic blocks.
Later on (2 years ago) I started working for a company that worked for LEGO. So I sat from 9 to 5 and built LEGO blocks in 3D on a Silicon Graphics machine... It just wasn't the same

There is a spiffy new LEGO entry in the Guide at
http://www.h2g2.com/A239537

Check it out. I am sure the author would love comments.


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Several toys, all of which could probably be considered "classics" by now were left out, unintentionally I'm sure:

- Lite Brite: the first toy every kid got upon graduating from the "I will choke on everything I put in my mouth" age. Lots of little colored plastic pegs that appeared to illuminate when the base (which contained a typical household light bulb, I think) was turned on.

- Pla-Doh: Clay for dummies. Non-toxic also, often providing an edible alternative to less appetizing things like Brussels Sprouts.

- Fisher Price "Little People": No arms, no legs... just a cylindrical torso with a perfectly round head on top. Do I even need to explain why these were so much fun??

- View Master: A binocular-ish piece that displayed super-cool 3-D images projected from little paper-and-film discs. I can't imagine kids use these anymore, since the advent of computers. A pity.

- See -N- Say: "This is a pig. This is a cow." Et cetera. If only more complex subjects could be taught simply by pulling a string.

Hot Wheels! man I spent so much time with those I still remember my very first... A metalflake blue GTO.

DOH!

Hey, who remembers Stickle Bricks? These things were wafers or sticks of plastic covered with thousands of short, slightly bendy protrusions on all of their sides and edges - these allowed two bricks to stick to each other if you pushed them together. Not as versatile as Lego, of course, but great fun, and the corners weren't as sharp!

Azimuth

I loved legos. If you still want to use them you cam make vaguely digified things like pencil holders out of them, which you then reassemble into spaceships when no one's looking.

How could Slinkies be left out? I recently gave 10 slinkys as christmas gifts. The 10 people in question were in the same roo at the time, so the spectacle of all of them playing with the slinkies was rather funny.

i remember the whole of the infants school playground whirling with hoola hoops of every different color,all the girls throwing their hips around to try and stop the stupid things from hitting the ground. if a teacher caught you doing such gyrations now i imagine you would be in for a swift trip to the school councillor.

Lincoln Logs filled many lonely hours for this only child!

You have listed many of my and my childrens' favorites!

Any one of these deserves their own guide article. Write 'em and we will beg the PTWVH to link to them from this article!!!


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Heh.. I was thinking of many of these when the article was written, Light Brite and Play Doh in particular, but I thought the article was centered around more the non-electric, made-of-wood-or-metal, play anywhere type toys.

Lincoln logs were great fun, also one of those things where the smell can bring back instant memories - like smelling a box of crayolas - if you can find a set of LL's to smell. Very distinctive wood smell versus all the metal and plastic toys.

Another favorite was (were?) Tinker Toys, a bunch of wooden spindles with drilled holes, together with various length thin dowels that could be inserted in the holes. One could create huge constructions if you had enough pieces and patience.

And a distinctive lack of big/little brothers/sisters. This wasn't a problem for me, but for the well-spread 8-child family a couple doors down....

I also had no problems with siblings, my sister is 20 years older, my brother 15 years older ... although my nephews were about my age and they would show up regularly.

But the siblings were gone by the time I was spreading toy constructions across the living room. The slot car track (electric race cars which had guides that followed a slot in the plastic track - Strombecker Co.? Anybody remember?) got so big my buddies and I relocated to the church basement a block away. Used about four big 4x8' tables, what a scene!

Sounds like fun. Said neighbours had a set, and I used to play with them, so I do remember the cars/track, but I'm afraid I have no idea who made them. Those were on my "always wanted, never got" list.. A lot of stuff on that list were there because, though Dad wanted to indulge me, Mother thought they were likely for him (she should have known me better ).

'Nonnie

Yeah, adults buying toys, sounds vaguely familiar (both you AND your mother were probably right).

I read some interesting advice in a magazine on 3D computer animation (another one of my toys), on interviewing for a 3D job (something I do NOT want, it would take the fun out of it). Rather than hand over a resume and pitch your talent with 3D software, they suggest giving the interviewer a toy. Its gotta be a cool toy. Those guys love toys (code word: "Toy Story"), and will remember you. The downside is they may not listen to you anymore in the interview. For some of us, this can also be the upside.

So maybe the better approach would be to go in, hand over your resume, give your speil, and when they start asking the uncomfortable questions, -then- hand over the cool toy.

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