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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?"
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!
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
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.
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 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.
The facts are, DHS is made up of what once was INS and Customs.
It's in fact their job to prevent bootlegged products from hitting American markets, so quit trying to spin this story as some kind of ridiculous "war on terror gone crazy" horseshit.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
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.
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".
It's in fact their job to prevent bootlegged products from hitting American markets, so quit trying to spin this story as some kind of ridiculous "war on terror gone crazy" horseshit.
You know what the real horseshit here is?
Being told that the Dept. of Homeland Sercurity was formed to "improve communications between agencies."
So why didn't they go to the freakin' uspto website and spend 30 seconds there to see that the rubik's cube patent had expired, and the trademark office had granted the magic cube guys a valid "magic cube" trademark??? (like I did)
Rather than sending some agents to shakedown a toy shop??
It is in fact "war on terror gone crazy"
Somebody needs to lose their job on this one. In fact, why don't they do away with that monkey-ass color thing that flips between orange and yellow all the time and no other colors???
I say if they can't ever give us a green (aka peace) or at least a blue, they should fold the whole damm "homeland security" department and save us the tax money and stupid stories of agents looking to use the company card on a vacation to a toy shop.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"