The toys you REALLY wanted to own

[Robot Chicken]

Fascinating website. Brings back soooo many memories...
http://tv.cream.org/extras/toys/index.html

Number 98: Test Match cricket

Number 91: Electronic Project/Chemistry set

Number 82: Magic Robot

Number 73: Tank Command

Number 72: Stylophone

Number 68: Perfection

Number 44: Dungeons & Dragons

Number 23: Speak And Spell

Number 14: Paul Daniels' TV Magic Tricks

Number 12: Subbuteo

Number 7: Big Trak

 

[Hampden Park]

i had that magic robot kin hell thats cleaned away a few cobwebs

 

[Bluejuice]

f*** man I had totally forgotten that classic cricket game, and that electronic project type thing too. I remember a series of complex wiring operations it was necessary to undertake in order to light a solitary LED - and this was FASCINATING!!!

 

[Tommy Cook reporting]

Sorry, can't be bothered to check that site, so can you tell me whether Tin Pan Alley is in there?

 

[Rangdo]

I had test match cricket and tank command. San Andreas pah.

 

[Theatre of Trees]

Fascinating website. Brings back soooo many memories...
http://tv.cream.org/extras/toys/index.html

Number 98: Test Match cricket

If you flicked the bowler's arm quick enough you could deliver a West Indian style bouncer and smash the wicket half way down the pitch. However, get it wrong and a Devon Malcolm style wide whould go hurtling through the air and flying underneath the living room's most inaccessible piece of furniture. Great days.

 

[ShorehamGull]

I had Test Match, Tank Commando, and Perfection, I seem to remember having speak and spell at some point. I still have Subbuteo.

 

[Robot Chicken]

Sorry, can't be bothered to check that site, so can you tell me whether Tin Pan Alley is in there?

Number 25: Tin Can Alley

Electronic hillbilly outfit
Ideal's Tin Can Alley reeked of the trans-Atlantically exotic. Everything about it was 100% American and alien to these shores. Rifles were still largely the preserve of farmers and the SAS, and rugged, homesteading types like the game's TV patron, Chuck Connors, were similarly absent from your average Kettering cul-de-sac. As, indeed, were the "targets" in the game - empty cans of that nefarious industrial sealant that got lucky, Dr Pepper, a brew so intrinsically bound to the States that even one of the mightiest multinationals in the world still hasn't persuaded anyone else to drink the stuff. The game itself is a simple affair. A sawn-off plastic gun containing about ninety batteries fired a beam of red light at light-sensitive pads in holes on a plastic representation of the top of a rickety fence, which then flipped up little platforms upon which were balanced said tin cans. Of course, the advertising wisely omitted the mundane mechanical explanation, so impressionable kids did, for a brief while, really believe that a toy company was selling a high tech James bond-style laser weapon as a children's toy - a misconception that Ideal would not be the last company to exploit. A Colt 45-style handgun edition was also launched, though purists prefer the original "Rifleman" version. The inevitable copies abounded, such as Marksman, which featured an owl-shaped target that made a noise and lit up when you hit it - not the same, really. And the awkward side-effect of training a generation of would-be soldiers to always aim three inches below the target might explain why Western coalitions take so long to finish wars these days.

 

[SussexSpur]

Wow, it's like stepping back into the last day of term all over again...

Test Match Cricket was immense. Well, at least in the days before Howzat! on my Spectrum 128k anyway.
Or before I discovered the card game Armchair Cricket. Many happy holidays in Wales just flew by as I simulated cricket games while developing my skills as a scorer...
"Dot ball... dot ball... dot ball... dot ball... wicket... dot ball... wicket maiden!" etc etc etc...

Mind you, as for my FAVOURITE toy...
Well...
It went ZIP! when it moved,
And BOP! when it stopped,
And WHIRRRRR! when it stood still,
I never knew just what it was,
And I guess I never will...

 

[ShorehamGull]

Just actually looked at the site, lots of games on there I have and probably still have somewhere. I think they are a box in the loft.
Brings back memories

 

[Yorkie]

Mind you, as for my FAVOURITE toy...
Well...
It went ZIP! when it moved,
And BOP! when it stopped,
And WHIRRRRR! when it stood still,
I never knew just what it was,
And I guess I never will...

I've just started singing that

 

[London Calling]

aaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrahhhhhhhhhhhhh

subs, subutteo cricket, the stylophone, viewmaster, kerplunk.....
and mouse trap that was a classic rolled out on all great occasions, and silly putty.........and slime wow my mum hated that..............and we loved escaledo, with the folks putting top bets on,

and top trumps though the formula 1 set was total pants,

boy aren't modern day kids deprived

LC

 

[caz99]

um bit to young to remember any of those.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Still got my Test Match cricket somewhere, brilliant game. The fielders would catch the little ball-bearing in their legs. Got a scoreboard for mine, too.

Subbuteo got crushed years ago by too many big feet, though I had the Albion FA-Cup team which was well cool.

And Speak & Spell, completely forgot about that!

Anyone on here still got Computer Battleships (the electronic version)?

 

[Titanic]

One of our favourite toys was a beautifully crafted, wooden 'Nine Mens Morris' game.

But our greatest childhood pleasure was the freedom to 'go out and play' often for hours on end.

Kids today don't know what they are missing.

 

[Robot Chicken]

um bit to young to remember any of those.

Gosh don't I feel old!

 

[virgirlo]

i recently found my 'Get in Shape Girl' ribbons and rhythm cassette and bangle bops!!!

was never allowed the Poochy Dog though!

 

[Gazwag]

Anyone on here still got Computer Battleships (the electronic version)?

I have its in the loft, although I don't think it still works

I can remember it took ages to punch in the co-ordinates of your ships and when you eventually got it right there was the satisfying whoop whoop sound

 

[Gullet]

Mastermind (nothing to do with the tv series of the same name) was a bleeding brilliant game. Really hard but once hooked it wouldn't let you go. On it's launch it won game of the year, and deservedly so. I think you can still get it today. As usual all the best toys stand the test of time.

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

Ah the nostalgia!!!!!

Toys from before computer games when you needed an imagination ....magic!!!