4 ms·

Yea, we had all the fun toys back then. Creepy Crawlers, where you poured Goop(tm) in to metal molds, and cooked them into bugs and lizards and skulls and what

Yea, we had all the fun toys back then. Creepy Crawlers, where you poured Goop(tm) in to metal molds, and cooked them into bugs and lizards and skulls and what not. The Mattel Vacuform, which you could use to make plastic models. You heated up styrene sheets and folded them over molds. I think we had some army missile truck mold set. I think this toy was a bit advanced for us. Molding was easy, assembly -- not so much. We also had the Hot Wheels Factory, which was an injection mold system to make rubber cars. It was nice because you could carve up the cars you made and feed them back in the machine and melt them back down. Then there were the Erector Sets, Toggles, Legos, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs. We also had a zillion feet of Hot Wheels track. It didn't hurt living in El Segundo, with the Mattel factory store very nearby in Hawthorne. My brother and I managed to make through our 5-10 years while maintaining all of our fingers, toes, limbs, and avoiding skin grafts. I think we did little damage to the floor (we always played on the floor, never on a table). We may have scorched a carpet here to there. Yup, good times indeed! All that said, kids changes, toys change. I remember buying some castle toy set for some friends young boys (4-6) for Christmas. It was a step up of from "Fisher Price" detail. Had horses and soldiers, and big castle. I honestly have never seen anyone so excited to receive something (well, maybe my wife when I gave her that ring thing). They were just bouncing up and down. This was a hot ticket toy and I bumbled into. As a kid, I might have enjoyed something like that. We had our GI Joes and Major Matt Mason stuff. But, I don't think these kids were missing out much on not having toys that had open heating elements.

effingwewt 4y ago
Was talking about this with my friend's grandmother just last night. Easy bake ovens even, so much fun! Then one kids does something stupid and of course the parents blame and sue the companies and now here we are. Caution small parts, don't put in mouth, hot, et al. One idiot ruins it for the rest, as always =( Im so glad to find these videos so I can show my kids what fun we used to have w/o cell phones =)
- aaronbrethorst 4y ago
  Hundreds of kids got their hands lodged in Easy Bake Ovens, many got serious burns, and one child had part of a finger amputated. Hasbro still sells Easy Bake Ovens; they've just been redesigned so that your five year old doesn't have to be removed from it with a bone saw. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/new-easy-bake-oven-recall-following-partial-finger-amputation-consumers-urged-to-return https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/new-easy-bake-oven-recall-... https://easybake.hasbro.com/en-us/product/easy-bake-ultimate-oven-toy-baking-star-edition:5C560223-E21B-4CD6-8D24-020542A6E467 https://easybake.hasbro.com/en-us/product/easy-bake-ultimate...
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    And how many adolescents and adults avoided later kitchen accidents because of childhood Easy Bake Oven accidents? (Said as someone who stuck a paperclip in an electric socket as a child)
    - aaronbrethorst 4y ago
      I don't know, how many? Notably, US electric sockets have been redesigned so that children can't stick paperclips into them anymore. They've been required since 2008: https://www.esfi.org/what-is-a-tamper-resistant-receptacle/ https://www.esfi.org/what-is-a-tamper-resistant-receptacle/ But maybe they should've been left as-is so adolescents and adults wouldn't lick bare 220v wires.
      - ethbr0 4y ago
        > I don't know, how many? More than 2,280 per year? At a cost of 12 child fatalities. [0] And I'm aware of expanding electrical code requirements, every time I have to deal with a tamper-resistant outlet or AFCI over-exuberance with an unhappy motor. Or spill-proof gas can nozzles. My point being -- there's a optimal balance between efficiency and safety, and it's not "zero accidents, ever." And you quip, but getting a 120v pop as a kid certainly made me respect thoroughness in ensuring circuits and components are depowered before work and being extremely careful working on live wires. Absent my "accident" I would not have had that caution, and the consequences working on subsequent higher-amp systems would have been more serious. [0] https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Top-fire-causes/Electrical/Tamper-resistant-electrical-receptacles https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/...
trhway 4y ago
In USSR we didn't have much of all that, so we melted lead out of batteries and sea cables found at the dump and poured it into various hand shaped clay/sand molds thus making us toy cars, soldiers, etc. We didn't have guns, even airsoft weren't available, so we had to do it ourselves, and the first primitive fire handgun i made in the first grade. A bit later i made my first airsoft and crossbow. The explosives, handmade as well as various unexploded WWII munitions, was a fun period i went through in the 5th and 6th grade. That was the end of the toys period for me as other interests came in.
- pavel_lishin 4y ago
  Yup, I did the same - except instead of pouring them into molds, I'd pour them into a cup of water, making "jewelry" as the lead solidified into droplet shapes. Never got into home-made explosives, as I'd moved to Texas by the time I was ten; we did try to make napalm and hydrogen, but never too successfully.
- skavi 4y ago
  Was lead really so fun? It seems everyone was playing with it before it started being regulated.
  - trhway 4y ago
    Lead is a kind of sweetspot - easily available, it is a metal at room temperature and has low melting temperature. Probably tin (less available) and aluminum (higher temperature) would be the close contenders.
    - robocat 4y ago
      Zinc? 420° Celsius. (Tin 232°) Japanese Repairman #9 (from a wonderful series) shows a man restoring one of his own vegetable (Daikon?) graters: he resurfaces the copper with a molten metal, any idea which? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOeKoYW6EQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOeKoYW6EQ
      - 4y ago
DebtDeflation 4y ago
The best toy was those plastic rockets that you would fill with water, then attach a pump and pump them with air to absurdly high pressures before launching. The idea was to launch them vertically and they would land nearby, but if you launched them at a 45 degree angle they'd go over 100 yards. Absolutely insane.
- sandworm101 4y ago
  Still availible on amazon. I bought one last xmass. They also make adult-class versions with metal fittings to connect air compressors.
- incanus77 4y ago
  One time, I did not heed the advice to not over-pump one of these. I was kneeling in the grass, pumping it up. I remember seeing it, then in the next moment, the rocket disappeared in an instant and everything went quiet. I realized it exploded, probably with a very loud noise, and it took me a few hours for sound to come back and the ringing to subside. Luckily I didn't lose an eye (though I did wear glasses, which probably helped).
  - philote 4y ago
    Hah, for some reason I stood over one of these once and got a rocket in the eye. Fortunately I only got a few scratches... on my eyeball. I'm guessing it went off prematurely and wasn't near full pressure.
euroderf 4y ago
Creepy Crawlers were the plastic-ey one. But then there were Incredible Edibles. Same idea but you could chow them down. Ghastly fluorescent flavors. Made of who the heck knows what.
philsnow 4y ago
> I remember buying some castle toy set for some friends young boys (4-6) for Christmas. It was a step up of from "Fisher Price" detail. Had horses and soldiers, and big castle. Was it Schleich, by any chance?
jdkee 4y ago
I used to love my https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_Armstrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_Armstrong

effingwewt 4y ago

Was talking about this with my friend's grandmother just last night. Easy bake ovens even, so much fun! Then one kids does something stupid and of course the parents blame and sue the companies and now here we are. Caution small parts, don't put in mouth, hot, et al. One idiot ruins it for the rest, as always =( Im so glad to find these videos so I can show my kids what fun we used to have w/o cell phones =)

aaronbrethorst 4y ago
Hundreds of kids got their hands lodged in Easy Bake Ovens, many got serious burns, and one child had part of a finger amputated. Hasbro still sells Easy Bake Ovens; they've just been redesigned so that your five year old doesn't have to be removed from it with a bone saw. https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/new-easy-bake-oven-recall-following-partial-finger-amputation-consumers-urged-to-return https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2007/new-easy-bake-oven-recall-... https://easybake.hasbro.com/en-us/product/easy-bake-ultimate-oven-toy-baking-star-edition:5C560223-E21B-4CD6-8D24-020542A6E467 https://easybake.hasbro.com/en-us/product/easy-bake-ultimate...
- ethbr0 4y ago
  And how many adolescents and adults avoided later kitchen accidents because of childhood Easy Bake Oven accidents? (Said as someone who stuck a paperclip in an electric socket as a child)
  - aaronbrethorst 4y ago
    I don't know, how many? Notably, US electric sockets have been redesigned so that children can't stick paperclips into them anymore. They've been required since 2008: https://www.esfi.org/what-is-a-tamper-resistant-receptacle/ https://www.esfi.org/what-is-a-tamper-resistant-receptacle/ But maybe they should've been left as-is so adolescents and adults wouldn't lick bare 220v wires.
    - ethbr0 4y ago
      > I don't know, how many? More than 2,280 per year? At a cost of 12 child fatalities. [0] And I'm aware of expanding electrical code requirements, every time I have to deal with a tamper-resistant outlet or AFCI over-exuberance with an unhappy motor. Or spill-proof gas can nozzles. My point being -- there's a optimal balance between efficiency and safety, and it's not "zero accidents, ever." And you quip, but getting a 120v pop as a kid certainly made me respect thoroughness in ensuring circuits and components are depowered before work and being extremely careful working on live wires. Absent my "accident" I would not have had that caution, and the consequences working on subsequent higher-amp systems would have been more serious. [0] https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Top-fire-causes/Electrical/Tamper-resistant-electrical-receptacles https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/...

trhway 4y ago

In USSR we didn't have much of all that, so we melted lead out of batteries and sea cables found at the dump and poured it into various hand shaped clay/sand molds thus making us toy cars, soldiers, etc. We didn't have guns, even airsoft weren't available, so we had to do it ourselves, and the first primitive fire handgun i made in the first grade. A bit later i made my first airsoft and crossbow. The explosives, handmade as well as various unexploded WWII munitions, was a fun period i went through in the 5th and 6th grade. That was the end of the toys period for me as other interests came in.

pavel_lishin 4y ago
Yup, I did the same - except instead of pouring them into molds, I'd pour them into a cup of water, making "jewelry" as the lead solidified into droplet shapes. Never got into home-made explosives, as I'd moved to Texas by the time I was ten; we did try to make napalm and hydrogen, but never too successfully.
skavi 4y ago
Was lead really so fun? It seems everyone was playing with it before it started being regulated.
- trhway 4y ago
  Lead is a kind of sweetspot - easily available, it is a metal at room temperature and has low melting temperature. Probably tin (less available) and aluminum (higher temperature) would be the close contenders.
  - robocat 4y ago
    Zinc? 420° Celsius. (Tin 232°) Japanese Repairman #9 (from a wonderful series) shows a man restoring one of his own vegetable (Daikon?) graters: he resurfaces the copper with a molten metal, any idea which? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOeKoYW6EQ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mzOeKoYW6EQ
    - 4y ago

DebtDeflation 4y ago

The best toy was those plastic rockets that you would fill with water, then attach a pump and pump them with air to absurdly high pressures before launching. The idea was to launch them vertically and they would land nearby, but if you launched them at a 45 degree angle they'd go over 100 yards. Absolutely insane.

sandworm101 4y ago
Still availible on amazon. I bought one last xmass. They also make adult-class versions with metal fittings to connect air compressors.
incanus77 4y ago
One time, I did not heed the advice to not over-pump one of these. I was kneeling in the grass, pumping it up. I remember seeing it, then in the next moment, the rocket disappeared in an instant and everything went quiet. I realized it exploded, probably with a very loud noise, and it took me a few hours for sound to come back and the ringing to subside. Luckily I didn't lose an eye (though I did wear glasses, which probably helped).
- philote 4y ago
  Hah, for some reason I stood over one of these once and got a rocket in the eye. Fortunately I only got a few scratches... on my eyeball. I'm guessing it went off prematurely and wasn't near full pressure.

euroderf 4y ago

Creepy Crawlers were the plastic-ey one. But then there were Incredible Edibles. Same idea but you could chow them down. Ghastly fluorescent flavors. Made of who the heck knows what.

philsnow 4y ago

> I remember buying some castle toy set for some friends young boys (4-6) for Christmas. It was a step up of from "Fisher Price" detail. Had horses and soldiers, and big castle. Was it Schleich, by any chance?

jdkee 4y ago

I used to love my https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_Armstrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_Armstrong