No, not that Richard Pryor movie. I mean, the toy that was officially The Best Toy Ever when you were a kid. The one that you got for a Christmas, or a birthday, or a Hannukah or a Bar Mitzvah or just a one-time surprise that you never got tired of and that always seems, in memory, to be tinged with a special glow of nostalgia. Does anyone else have one of those?
For me, it was the Death Star Play Station. I got it when I was four, and when fully assembled, it stood almost as tall as I did. It had pretty much everything you needed to recreate the entire Star Wars movie (which I had pretty much memorized by then)…a trash compactor with foam “trash” and a dianoga, which finally gave me a good look at the monster; a bridge that Luke and Leia could swing across; a laser cannon…and the best part, it could all be taken apart and you could play with it piece by piece. You could run around with the laser cannon like it was a toy gun, use the elevator shaft like a bazooka, and everything else a four-year-old’s imagination could come up with. I think it was probably a good four or five years before everything was lost or broken to the point where it wasn’t worth playing with anymore.
Does anyone else have a toy like this? Did anyone else have this specific toy? Feel free to share a piece of your childhood in the comments!
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I think, for me, it would have been the Death Star… if my cheapass parents would have ever bought one for me.
The Death Star play set was, in fact, pretty darn cool.
But I loved the Millenium Falcon. I saw a new one, the fully to scale with the figures one, and I was six again and so wanted to flip down the handle and fly it around the store.
Ah, I would have to say the Decepticon Shockwave, the G1. I still have him, too.
Yeah, I had one. I don’t recall what it was, but I do remember that it went “zip” when it moved, and “bop” when it stopped. I think it made a noise when it stood still, too, but don’t quote me on that. Marvelous little thing.
A tiny plastic horse — it is roughly as tall as my now-grownup pinky, cheaply made from some kind of pale human skin pinkish plastic, not even painted. Despite this, it was a realistic depiction of a foal. I called it “Valko”, which is a diminutive/familiar form of “white”, a name which used to be common for horses of such coloration.
I do not remember being given it, it had always been with me, and although it is now gently packed away, it still is.
I do not know why it resonated with me in such manner — I had many toys (and even more toy horses, which were “better” in the opinion of adults, on virtue of being bigger and more detailed) — but it just did.
It was… well, tiny. And alone.
And it stood out in “crowd”.
Oh.
The old, old Space Lego set with the big ship and the bay doors that opened to reveal the tiny buggy. Best damn toy ever.
Did anyone have the USS Flag GI Joe aircraft carrier…? Man, I coveted that thing.
G1 Scorponok.
I hadn’t even asked for it, knowing even at a young age that my family was not made of money, but there it was. Everything else that Christmas was a blur.
A set of wooden blockes in a pull cart. I still have them, and somewhere my parents still have a photo of the first time I built something that wasn’t just a giant tower to topple over. I’ve never heard of the death star playstation, although it sounds pretty cool.
Skemono, I think I had one of those. Did it go whirrr when it stood still?
A stuffed toy dragon that I was given when I was about four. It stood about four feet tall and two feet wide. Or that should be stands, since it has survived.
Other than that, a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Megazord toy. The big one.
My family believed more in creating your toy… which meant erector sets and tons of Legos.
So I must offer you my favorite Lego toy.
1 Rectangle (2×4) block. Line up 2 Long (1×8) blocks against the x4 side of the rectangle unbalanced with 1 point off one end and 3 points off the other. Use a thin panel (2×8) underneath to lock the pieces together, lined up under the middle of the interior rectangle. Get 2 Rectangles Blocks on each end of the panel to complete the ship. And there you have it: I called it “The Falcon”, ’cause falcons were cool.
The beauty of that miniship was that I could build two more like and then interlock all three ships into a megaship (this was well before the Transformers did it with Constructicons).
And then I would engage in a Lego Base war with my older brother on the other side of the interconnecting bathroom between our bedrooms. My ships against his base, his ships against mine. We used DnD dice to roll for hits. I barely won our major epic battle by just one ship and one surviving power tower.
I *seem* to remember there was a kid who lived across the street from me who had the GI Joe aircraft carrier, but wasn’t allowed to play with it for some reason… but that doesn’t make sense to me, so my mind may be playing tricks.
Mine was Omega Supreme. It was awesome, because it walked on its own! Omega Supreme was acknowledged as being so awesome, I didn’t even use him in my Transformer battles, because it would be TOO UNFAIR. And this when I was 6 or 7, and thus still extremely shaky on the entire concept of “fairness”.
Ooh, A stuffed Woodstock for Easter. Only toy that would’ve been better is a stuffed Rex. 🙂
Loved the Death Star. Lost all the foam trash and one of the foot-pegs broke off, but everything else’s still intact somewhere in an attic….
The one that still makes others jealous, I find, is the original, full-size AT-AT, though. Massive, but awesome. It was a good Christmas.
That toy for me was two buckets of Legos. Because I could make just any toy I wanted.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles playset. The one with the elevator, swing line, sewer pipes. I don’t remember the Christmas morning getting it, but I got years of play out of that thing.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pizza Wagon that shot plastic pizzas out of the front of the van. That thing was bad ass.
I never really got surprised with anything that I can remember. Gift giving to me is simple: Know what you want; put it on the list; get what you want.
So I’d have to call it a tie between the Ninja Turtles Sewer Lair play set and the K’Nex Big Ball Factory. Both gave me hours of play time. Especially the Ball Factory, I would combine it with my micro machine planes and tanks and have a prented assauklt on the enemy fortress or lay out quilts on one side and throw the balls at it. I’d stop when it would start to lean or somehow bend in a serious-looking way. Then I’d have fun repairing it. I stopped doing that after a while though, I simply got too many permanentally broken pieces. Still, it was the best, took my parents years to get me to finally take the thing apart to store it.
Commodore 64. It was the only thing I got for Christmas when I was seven, as we didn’t have much money. It didn’t come with any games or software, but I didn’t care…I DEVOURED the manual it came with, and spent many, many days and nights writing my own programs. It’s what made me decide to become a software engineer when I “grew up”. God, I’m such a geek.
The original Lego pirate set; the pirate ship, the non-piratey ship, and El Dorado Fortress. The ones with the cannons that were spring-loaded and actually shot tiny lego pieces out of them, not the later, pussified versions.
I loved those things and still have their remains.
Superpowers Doctor Fate figure. No question, flat out.
Mine was a Playmobil spaceship. I haven’t seen the space stuff for years, but I still stop to look at any Playmobil I come across these days…
Powermaster Optimus Prime. With the trailer that merged with Optimus to make a BIGGER Optimus.
Still have him on a shelf, along with original Galvatron and a few other random folks.
Crossbows and Catapults was the best game ever played on a living room floor.
Mad props to everyone who said Legos, BTW. Just went over to my parents’ house, and my daughter spent a happy hour or so playing with my old Legos, which my parents kept around for the grandkids. Still wonderful, still engaging, still Legos. 🙂
Mine actually happened to be a comical black man.
And yeah, Brad, Crossbows and Catapults was sheer awesome.
It begins and ends with the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. That bike was virtually indestructable and when you wound it up with the laucher it could clear huge caverns. Evel himself was pretty fire resistant when you did the ring of fire trick with the stunt stadium. I remember a great Christmas where I got everything including the Scramble Van and my and my father had a ball with it. Unfortunately is was the one box that we lost when moving from Germany back to Canada but my Father found a reproduction that they put out several years ago so I have the toy proudly back in my toy collection. It was the greatest toy ever.
Hanna-Barbera Give-A-Show Projector. It was the only time I ever had a Christmas present spoiled for me. Normally I’m very patient with that kind of thing, but he kept telling me it was something I;d really like, and boy was he right!
For me, it was Voltron. The big five lion one. I had all the crew figures, and you could assemble it completely with them inside, ready to pilot. My mom would get me cheap rubber monsters from the store to fight as robeasts. Voltron is still in storage somewhere at my parents’ place, but I think all the enemies got sold off at garage sales..
Playmobil, especially the pirate and medieval lines which I pitted against each other in a gloriously anachronistic free-for-all.
The three toys that stad out in my memory above all other Christmas presents are all Star Wars-related: Both Boba Fetts (the 3″ and 12″ versions), and the Slave 1.
Best birthday present that a friend ever gave me? Rom, Spaceknight, bar none.
For me, one year I got the original grey Lego castle* AND a yo-yo. I spent Christmas morning merrily building that castle, and when done… I used the yo-yo as a wrecking ball to take it back apart again. Ah, the memories
* Not the ghastly yellow one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lego_1984.jpeg
My toy that will stay with me in memory would be the Micronauts Battlecruiser, that thing was epic in sheer multiple configs.
The Ghost Busters Fire House. And the Ecto-1. And the Proton Pack. And I loved the slime gun. Anything Ghost Busters.
The GI Joe Aircraft Carrier and a few LEGO sets (King’s Castle, the big pirate ship) both come close but the best ever was the Omnibot* that I got for christmas in ’85 or ’86. It was around the time that Rocky IV came out and I thought Rocky’s robot was the collest thing since R2-D2, so the Omnibot filled me with a nigh-indescribable glee.
My little brother found one on eBay and gave it to me for christmas this year, so it’s actually been my best toy ever twice. I have plans to wire in a webcam and wifi module and some kind of Arduino controller that would allow me to drive it around the house remotely through a web browser. Maybe add some laser pointers to fuck with my cats.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibot
LEGOs, multiple times. One year my favorite Christmas present was the pair of about 1-foot-by-1-foot plain green bases I got. I built all kinds of things on those; houses, castles, pirate hideouts, and more.