Classic Toys For Christmas?

waterwheel asks: "Christmas is coming, and it's time to start planning our online shopping list for future Slashdot readers. This year I'm having a look at some of the more classic toys - and am finding that not only are some of the classic toys still around - but they are still educational and fun. Two good examples of this are the Rubik's Cube and the time honored gyroscope. The cube has been around for about 20 years, the gyroscope it seems for almost a 100. Both will be under the tree this year. Both of these toys are able to compete with video games - a true test of staying power. This begs the question - what other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?"

Comments

Dad, is that you!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I know what's under the Christmas tree! Not to hurt your feelings, but I really do like the video games. When you're not looking, I'll just move the stickers on the Rubik's Cube.

Oh, and mom hates it when you use "begs the question" on Slashdot. It just starts a whole "that's not the meaning" discussion that no one cares about.

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[techsoldaten]

My Dad forced me to do it the hard way. He bought one of those Rubik's Cubes where the colors were built into heavy, glossy panels and surrounded with a white border - there would be no sticker swapping in my household. The cube itself was heavy, weighing at least 1.5 pounds (which was a lot of ask a 10 year old child to have to hold for 30 minutes at a time). The axes resisted attempts at rotation and it took great effort to make one actually turn. Any movement would audibly click into place, giving each action a sense of dreadful finality.

My attempts to solve the cube would always end in failure and exhaustion, and I was very jealous of those who could take the Gordian approach and just move the stickers. Given a lighter, move wieldy cube I could have easily solved it using a traditional method, but that was not to be. It was like Rubik himself was laughing at me, giving me a problem so interesting yet so impossible to solve. When I was 14, I finally gave up on the cube and smashed it using a large rock. Pieces of it were still there years later when I went off to college.

M

Lawn Darts

[hAkron]

Not the plastic tipped ones either...

Buy Yourself an Projection HDTV

[ralf1]

Give the kid the box. He'll make a fort and have hours of fun, and you get yours too.

Obligatory Monty Python Joke

[Eviljay]

Can't..... resist..... desire... too... strong

When i was a kid all i got for christmas was a lump of coal and a kick up the arse. Then for dinner our mother and our father would kill us with a breadknife and dance on our graves singing Hallelujah.

You tell that to kids today and they won't believe you

You really want to know?

[Swamii]

What other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?

Coal. You insensitive clod.

Re:Legos

[ArsonSmith]

The plural of sheep is lego in Europe? You guys are wierd.

Re:Gyroscopes are GREAT!!!!!

[Torontoman]

I had a die-cast metal gyroscope when I was a kid. One day I wound 15 feet of fishing line onto it, tied the end to a door knob and ran accross the room. I no sooner had put it on the floor when it started making this freakish humm - before I could reflect on the drawbacks of overclocking my Gyroscope it shattered and the spokes shot off in all directions - including two into my lower legs drawing blood. Some stuck into a pine bench accross the room, and some into the wall. Awesome - I'll never forget that. I think it must have been like starting the first nuclear chain reaction... "how high can we rev this sucker?"