Top 100 Toys From The '70s or Thereabouts

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."

Comments

They Came from Innerspace

[Lego-Lad]

Toys from the 1970's make me think of the Micronauts. They were by far much cooler than Star Wars figures, and the came BEFORE transformers.

Skat Skoota

[jag164]

A favorite contraption. I loved my Skat Skoota and my Erector Set. I can still get Erector Sets but I have never seen another Skat Skoota since the one I wore out by the mid-80's. *sniff*

Toy stores

[El Cabri]

What of the most unexpected pieces of happiness that came with becoming a father a few months ago was for me to return to toy stores. I had left the "Toy scene" twenty years ago when all my attention was diverted to getting and upgrading home computers for myself. European toys rule : Lego, Playmobil, Smurf figures were here for me, are still here.

50-in-1 Electronics Lab! Yeah!!

[Artful Codger]

I was born about 20 years too early for the Internet, so while waiting for Al Gore to actually get it done, I was an electronics geek in public & high school (early 70's)

One year a prescient uncle gave me one of those kits, and I absolutely devoured it over the next several months. Highlights were the various radio circuits, audio amplifiers where you pressed that pink crystal earphone into service as a microphone, and the pinnacle - an AM transmitter.

Thanks in part to that thing, I went straight into electronics after high school and had a great 20 year career in broadcast electronics before jumping into programming several years ago.

Thanks for the link. Those were good memories.

Re:50-in-1 Electronics Lab! Yeah!!

[Graemee]

I had one. My cousin's had the 75-in-1 RS kit and I got the 50-in-1. Spent years building and modding different circuits. Then one day in a quest for power, and to majorly annoy my sisters I built the TV jammer circuit and connected a very large battery. The battery was a military brick style, I think it had 120+ AA in series and parallel to make 15V with just a few amps. When the diodes exploded and the potentiometer caught fire the fun ended. So sad. It was however very cool.

Re:What about Lawn Darts?

[Ced_Ex]

I have been accused of single-handedly taking down the original version of lawn darts with the spikes. This happened when a lawn dart impaled my friend's head and got stuck sticking straight out the top of his skull.

We never got to play with them ever again. It's been 22 years and counting since I've seen lawn darts.

Legos

[upsidedown_duck]

Top toy from the 70s: Legos
Top toy from the 80s: Legos
Top toy from the 90s: Legos
Top toy from the 00s: Legos

No, I don't work for them, but having seen all the expensive-single-purpose-toy-with-no-volume-contro l-played-for-for-ten-minutes-and-thrown-into-a-clo set crap sold at stores I really appreicate how valuable toys like Legos are. And, guess what?!? Legos are still in business! You don't have to peddle ADD-inducing crap to entertain children!