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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?"
God Bless America.
I remember playing with legos, and still see them on the market today.
BAN BPL! Keep the radio spectrum free fro
You have to love Legos. Not only are they fun, but they teach creativity, mechanical engineering, and design. If you are playing with someone else, they teach teamwork and sharing. Not to mention you can build some cool guns and spaceships.
On this topic, I'm not a big fan of the premade Lego sets for Star Wars or Harry Potter or whatever. Kids need the generic box of bricks and plates.
GeneralKael -- Slacker Extraordinaire
Ignore all that fancy "Harry Potter" type themed Legos that are 3 times the price of basic blocks. You can buy a huge tub of basic Lego for around 20 bucks at Toys R Us or any Lego Store.
You can get a MASSIVE amount of plain lego that's great for stimulating a kid's imagination at a fraction of the cost of some of that "themed" Lego junk.
If that's not "creative" enough, find some Technics Lego. That stuff is neat to play with, too!
I played with these every chance I got when I was a kid. And now my own kids can make literally anything out of legos. Currently their favorite creations are Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails!
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
Depending on the age of your kid but as far as my 2 yr old is concerned, he still enjoys the big empty cardboard boxes. You can make castles, tunnels, houses.. And I like it this way ;)
esilva
I mean really, how many times can your re-wrap the string, yank it and hold it in your palm (i'm talking 'bout the gyroscope you perv)?
I'd rather have something that makes use of the stupid gyroscope. Where are all of the fun toys that use the gyroscope? Where's the home segway kit? Why doesn't someone make more toys that USE these classic toys instead of leaving someone uninspired and wanting more?
There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
How true. My daughter (16) asked for her own .22 rifle this year and one of my sons (14) wants a new bow.
Considering both require parental supervision at their age, target practice is a great way for the whole family to get outside and do something together.
Or, were you being sarcastic?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
The cause you're fighting is every bit as noble as that for "hacker", and just as lost.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
Please, nowadays classic toys mean buying PS2 games from the Greatest-Hits bin at $19.99.
You know you can do both right? I've been a hardcore gamer since I was old enough to buttonmash (even though the C64 had only 1 button), but I still loved my legos and my gyroscopes when I was a kid.
A good solid metal gyroscope is a fun toy that won't break or obselesce. I loved mine.
Ones that are still big hits with the kids: anything with marbles. You can't go wrong with marbles. Pinball machines, chute kits, Fireball Island. While static boardgames might be a dead issue for kids, motile, kinetic boardgames like Crossbows and Catapults (unfortunately also a lawsuit magnet) have the novelty of actually having active, real world objects smashing into each other.
Personally, I want to make a simple real-world RTS game involving a punchclock and some wind-up toys.
The Classic Football handheld. Fun, cheap, nostalgic.
The problem with Legos now is that first, they are so damn expensive, and two, they aren't "generic" enough. The kits are made to be built into one "thing", whether it's a jungle or a spaceship or a whatever. You can use your imagination to make it into other things, but you're fairly limited. Instead, give me a big box of Legos from my childhood, where they aren't so specialized, and imagination is more important.
Besides, Erector sets are way cooler, sharper, and deadlier than anything else out there.
I used to buy all my X-mas presents. But then I figured out that baking or making a present is cheaper and more personal than anything else.
My mom can't eat flour, so I make flourless cookies. My grandfather's diabetic, so I make sugar-free cookies. And I know what each person likes, so I vary the recipes.
15 containers from Dollar Store - $15
Cookie ingredients for 8 dozen cookies - $50
Total for X-Mas presents - $65
Giving really great, personalized presents - Priceless
This only really works if you like to cook and are good at it. But after a couple years, you'll be pretty damn good at it, and it doesn't take that long in the first place (30 minutes of labor per batch, so 4 hours).
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
It's a known fact: boys from 7 to 70 _love_ to play with a big magnifying glass, say 4" or larger diameter. Remember looking in the mirror with one huge eye? Discovering you can project images onto a wall? Or best of all, frying ants on the front sidewalk? It's all still fun!
.nosig
That's not suprising. Many recent Lego products lack complexity and imagination, especially the movies sets like Harry Potter and Star Wars. They are also much more expensive than I remember.
UNIX/Linux Consulting
Hours of fun playing around with basic-level electronics, and you get to learn some stuff too!
You used to see them all the time at Radio Shack and other stores, but I haven't seen one in person in over a decade. There are also different "sizes", but I can't recall what they are.
Baseball, glove, and wooden bat. Instructions and lesson for care of same, including the esoterics of neatsfoot oil and pine tar.
Large box of generic legos. Forget the little men, just give in bulk, including the long pieces. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of planning the project before building it, so as not to run out of the aforementioned long pieces.
Pocket knife and sharpening stone. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of blade oil (and keeping it off aforementioned stone).
Estes Rocket. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of making it go faster through the use of pin striping and how to use a power strip as an ignition switch without causing electrocution.
Microscope. Instructions and lesson for use of same, including the esoterics of what's in saliva.
50-in-1 electronic project kit. Instructions and lesson for use of same, including the esoterics of using the FM transmitter project to override the sibling's favorite FM station.
sigs, as if you care.
People on slashdot have this knee jerk reaction to think that themed lego is bad.
It is not.
1) Great way to get a child interested in Lego
2) You don't have to use the themed pieces as they where intended. When you see a child use those themed pieces in a creative way to create something that owuld have been IMPOSSIBLE to crate 20 years ago, you'll relize the themed piece can ADD to the imangination process.
3) If A child only build a kit as per the intrustions, and them leaves them alone they weren't going to get anything out of Lego anyways.
4) they help keep the Lego company around.
Hah! Take that!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
That's double-plus ungood.
Besides, writing Lego in all-caps is really annoying. There is no reason for that other than making their name standing out in context. Like .NET or ATi. One capital letter is enough.
Calling the bricks "Lego bricks" is a valid request, though, since there really isn't anything called "a lego". At least not in my vocabulary. But that might be a matter of taste.
"Stop failing the Turing test!" -- Dilbert
the perfect toy for boys and girls, young or old.
:)
fess up. how many of you still have Legos from 20+ years ago?
the history of the world
There's no reason that you shouldn't teach your children about those things. If alcohol isn't a rebellious thing, but simply a beverage, then they are less likely to abuse it. Simply ignoring the existance of something dangerous will not protect your children from it; either you can educate them, or society can educate them, and society doesn't have a great track record in that respect.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
You can never go wrong with Lego.
Rule of thumb.
Besides, they're in dire financial straits and we need to help them out. Maybe they'll bring back just plain ole bricks vs. specialised or licensed stuff.
check out their online store:
www.lego.com
do() || do_not();
There was an Erector Set, lots of girders and nuts and bolts and stuff. Even an engine.
My Chemistry set. I still remember what color you get when you mix Ferric Ammonium Sulfate and Tannic Acid! I remember starting to play with it Christmas afternoon, and my Mom insisted that my Dad sit in the room with me, I assume to make sure I didn't blow anything up. He sat there reading the whole time, only looking up when I said "Hey Dad! Look! I can pour this into this and it turns blue!"
My first Microscope. I forget the name of the set, it was a set of cardboard tubes, and lenses you could plug into either end. It worked great, and I remember Dad giving up a drop of blood so that we could take a look at it.
Kids today.. yeah, Gamecubes are cool, but they don't know what they're missing.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
I had a microscope and a telescope when I was a kid and I remember them being the coolest things I owned. A microscope or a telescope will introduce a child to a whole new world that they can't see on their own. They may even get to wondering about other aspects of life that they can't directly interact with or see with their naked eyes (e.g. how a tree works).
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