Top 100 Toys From The '70s or Thereabouts

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Top 100 Toys From The '70s or Thereabouts

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday December 23, 2004 @03:53AM from the as-seen-on-TV dept.

doctorfaustus writes "Found this on Daily Rotation -- it details, with pictures, many of the toys we all wanted from our parents at Christmas a few years ago.... Everything from '160 Exciting Science Projects' to 'Stretch Armstrong,' along with the promises made in the toy's advertising and how often those promises were broken... The story has a British orientation, but I didn't see a single toy I didn't remember from my American youth.... They're all here: Simon, Slime, Magic Rocks, Sonic Ear... Even the Sinclair."

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Always on the list by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-23 03:55 · Score: 1, Funny

Explosive things, pretty pictures ya know, and alchol of some sort.
The missed the most important thing by Quasar1999 · 2004-12-23 03:55 · Score: 4, Funny

I've wanted one every year since I was 12... a girlfriend... I'm still waiting...

--

---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
1. Re:The missed the most important thing by whiteranger99x · 2004-12-23 04:05 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Girlfriends are not toys.
  Trust me, I know... :-(
  
  Yeah, and toys usually don't bite you :P
  
  --
  Join the TWIT army now!
2. Re:The missed the most important thing by sga.busboy · 2004-12-23 04:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  A girlfriend I have, I just wish I her last name wasn't .jpg
Oh the sorrow. by jellomizer · 2004-12-23 03:55 · Score: 3, Funny

This sure brings back to when I was a kid and all they toys I took apart to see how they work. I bet if I didn't take everything apart they could be really worth something.

I Think the site will be slashdotted early. I saw a slowdown when I was almost done with the site.

--
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
What about Lawn Darts? by AtariAmarok · 2004-12-23 03:57 · Score: 5, Funny

What about Lawn Darts? They bring the exciting element of severe head trauma risk to the fun of summar yard play!

--
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
1. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by TrollBridge · 2004-12-23 04:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I honestly believe "Lawn Jarts" (as our family's set was called) was a Darwinist conspiracy by the government and toy industry to cull the herd a bit.
  
  Fortunately my brother and I made the cut. Society is probably better off without those who didn't. Now we have these confounded safety commissions that prevent us from shedding our weak links.
  
  --
  There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
2. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-23 04:30 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  True story...
  
  When I was a kid (maybe 1969? been a long time), my best friend got a set for his birthday. A day or two later, we were playing with them without "proper parental supervision". After using them "correctly" for about 15 minutes, we got bored and started throwing them up into the air, just for the joy of watching them fly. One got stuck in a small tree, out of reach. I stood under the tree and started to shake it. Just about the time I realized the stupidity of my actions, it came loose (I have had a certain sympathy towards Wile E. Coyote ever since). I still have a thin scar on the side of my nose where one of the big plastic fins cut it. If it had fallen a little differently, I'd have been pithed like a frog.
3. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by miu · 2004-12-23 04:38 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I vaguely remember lawn darts from when I was a kid, but we lost the darts pretty fast - so we had to make do with detergent laced gasoline, rock fights, suicidal bike tricks, bb guns, crowbars, tire rope swings, sling shots, pocket knives, and running with scissors.
  No one ever died but we did have our share of emergency room visits and suspicious fires.
  
  --
  
  [Set Cain on fire and steal his lute.]
4. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by Qzukk · 2004-12-23 04:45 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  I know where. Please contact me at Methodist Hospital, room 233.
  
  --
  If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
5. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by superstick58 · 2004-12-23 05:01 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Oh we still have those deadly lawn darts. They are a commodity that I will always cherish. Of course, I did enjoy many other activities similar to what you describe. One of my favorite was dodgeball on bikes. My cracked teeth did not enjoy it so well though.
  I hope kids these days still can play with these dangerous devices and partake in such risky activities. The memories of childhood that stand out are all those near death experiences such as falling out of the tree fort and barely missing the exposed sticks that are arranged like a tiger pit below or riding down the street at 30mph in a go cart without breaks. This is how childhood should be.
6. Re:What about Lawn Darts? by Tackhead · 2004-12-23 05:02 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  > "I threw a lawn-dart into the air Where it fell, I cared not where"
  "Once ze lawn darts go up,
  who cares where zey come down?
  Zat's not my department!"
  Says Werner von Braun...
Damn you Slashdot! by JustinXB · 2004-12-23 03:57 · Score: 1, Funny

I just got to the 40s when you had to come and kill the site! BLAST!
All I want for Christmas (insert any holiday) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-23 03:58 · Score: 1, Funny

Rock-em, Sock-em, Roomba's!
it always seems by Striker770S · 2004-12-23 03:58 · Score: 1, Funny

that my parents think that clothes are the hottest toy to get because i get so much of that crap every year. Havent seen one toy that i wanted really badly yet...

--
I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
Great... by armer · 2004-12-23 04:01 · Score: 5, Funny

Now to rehash old wounds, a list of all the toys I ever wanted and never got. Merry Christmas!!...
1. Re:Great... by harrkev · 2004-12-23 05:48 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  I hear you, bro.
  
  I always wanted Rockem' Sockem' Robots when I was a kid. Never got it.
  
  Now, my son is 3-1/2. Guess what I got him a few months ago?
  
  I am glad that some of the retro 70's toys are cool again.
  
  --
  "-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Re:And by the bloody way... by JustinXB · 2004-12-23 04:02 · Score: 2, Funny

Does it matter? You got made fun of either way.
Re:A cricket playset? by SoTuA · 2004-12-23 04:04 · Score: 2, Funny

Cricket? Why of course, indian children with HB1s...
LAWN DARTS LAWN DARTS LAWN DARTS LAWN DARTS by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-23 04:06 · Score: 1, Funny

My friend and I used to throw them straight up in the air and then dodge them when they came back down! Can't believe we never made it to the ER or become darwin award nominees......
North Pole: AKA Communist China by TrollBridge · 2004-12-23 04:10 · Score: 3, Funny

NORTH POLE
Leader: Big red guy.
Employees: Countless little people.
Labor Conditions: Servituude
Cost of Product: Zero

COMMUNIST CHINA
Leader: Big red government.
Employees: Countless little people.
Labor Conditions: Servitude
Cost of Product: Next to Zero

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Support capitalism, debunk the myth of Santa!

--
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Re:zero by LiquidCoooled · 2004-12-23 04:15 · Score: 5, Funny

Dear Santa,

Since we have been good admins all year long, could you please send us:

1 New Web Server.
A nice fat internet connection.

Sincerely,

tv.cream.org admins.

--
liqbase :: faster than paper
My $6,000,000 Man Action Figure... by Sideshow+Coward · 2004-12-23 04:16 · Score: 5, Funny

used to have his way with all of my sister's Barbies. Who could resist with his bionic leg, magnifying eye, red jump suit, and his oh-so-fuzzy head?
Rock 'em Sock 'em ROBOTS!!! by Marquis+de+Sade · 2004-12-23 04:31 · Score: 2, Funny

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"You knocked his block off!"

(...even as a child I felt a special love for offering pain...)

HA! HAHA! SMACK AGAIN!!!
Re:Toys today! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-23 04:32 · Score: 1, Funny

Hey quiet down over there; I'm trying to watch tv!
bittersweet memories by catdevnull · 2004-12-23 04:54 · Score: 4, Funny

I remember back in '73, I got a GI Joe--the 12" action figure from the Viet Nam War era! He had rough beard and pre-camouflage utility uniform. VERY cool and manly. But then, my dad exploited my colorblindness by giving me a pink banana seat high-riser girl's bike he bought from a police auction for $5. Cheap bastard.

I think that was "tough love." But, on the bright side, I get to pick his retirement home.

--

I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
5 months in the 70's by frovingslosh · 2004-12-23 05:04 · Score: 4, Funny

I was alive for maybe 5 months in the 70's
Me too, and I was born in the 50's.

--
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
*Sigh*... I miss dangerous toys by phillymjs · 2004-12-23 05:09 · Score: 3, Funny

I didn't get very far in the list before the /. effect thwarted me, but my God, someone actually put a blob of mercury in a toy??? Oh, how I long for the days of my youth!

The lack of dangerous toys are a major part of why American society is going to hell in a handbasket. Back in the good old days, Darwinism made sure only the strongest, toughest, smartest kids survived. Nowadays, you can't hurt yourself with toys even if you try, playgrounds have 3 inches of soft rubber under everything, and they don't even have monkeybars (and you risk an NAACP protest march if you still call them monkeybars). The soft, stupid children survive into adolesence or adulthood and end up cracking for one reason or another and shooting up their school or workplace.

There's a bash.org quote that says, why don't we thin the herd of idiots in this country by taking the safety labels off everything for a while? I say we go one better and bring back toys that were deemed too dangerous and were removed from the market.

~Philly