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Low Tech Toys? 152

Posted by Cliff from the but-these-things-never-go-out-of-style dept.
hypertex asks: "Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through and see all patterns the crystals produced? I've been looking for a kaleidoscope (for my 3-yr old) and no brick and mortar retailer seems to carry them. Even finding an knowledgeable employee was difficult. Walmart, Toys R Us, Kay Bee, Discovery and Disney stores are just a few to 'just say no' or 'it's too low tech' How can something so simple fade into obscurity? What else is gone?" What are some of the toys that have such a universal appeal that they should never be removed from the shelves? What toys surprised you when they fell into obscurity and what items have shocked you by their ability to stay on the shelves?
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Low Tech Toys? More

Low Tech Toys?

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  • You can never get a better toy than an action figure. Or better yet, a Transformer/Voltron type of thing. Robots rule.

  • I was shocked that I couldn't find a Go board. (Score:5, Funny)

    by 3-State Bit ( 225583 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @08:24PM (#4884600)
    I bet most people who read slashdot regularly have heard of Go. But when I was in New York over the summer, none of the big huge retail stores carried a board! Grrrr.

    Crackpot theory:
    The reason stores don't carry kaleidescopes anymore is that they're not under patent or copyright, and so no one can overprice them. If one company started selling it, another company would sell them for less, until you approached the cost of production. If toys started selling for $1 or $2 for something fun and lasting, stores would cannibalize their own sales. (And profit percentages.)
    End crackpot theory.

    • Re:I was shocked that I couldn't find a Go board. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by MacAndrew ( 463832 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:29PM (#4884856) Homepage
      That explains why I couldn't find any waterballoons!

      As for crackpot, I'm not sure you're quite on the money; I think the availability of cheap plastic and price-sensitive consumers has led the race to the bottom. The patent (?) on a toy only increases profit to the producer; I think the retailer would prefer extremely price-competitive generic merchandise that can be marked up to what a consumer thinks is an "appropriate" price. The retailers are not making killings -- rather they are bing killed with the switch to game consoles, even Toys'R'Us has had troubles -- so the high prices probably reflect their inefficiencies and any higher cost in the wholesale would be passed straight through to the consumer.

      But ... it's not like I've read a market report on this or anything. Still, ignorance doesn't stop anyone from becoming a stock analyst for Merrill Lynch!
      • Toys'R'Us problem is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the largest toy merchant in the US; Toys'R'Us is number 2.

        Toys'R'Us problem is that it is stuck selling toys all year. Wal-Mart can stock up on toys for Christmas and reduce the space devoted to toys during the rest of the year. That space can be used for selling items in more demand at other times of the year.

        Also, Wal-Mart has used IT better than anyone to improve logistics.

    • Re:I was shocked that I couldn't find a Go board. (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The main reason you won't find go boards is very few
      people actually play go. Odds are if you went into a part
      of town that has a high concentration of Chinese people it
      would be easier to find one. Most stores still sell
      chess and checkers sets (usually under $4) yet they
      are basically public domain games and apprently do sell. The main
      difference is more people learn/play chess or checkers
      than go.
    • You can still find kaleidescopes, at least the pricey ones. I've seen cheap paper ones too at dollar stores, shiny wrapping paper around a cardboard tube with plastic mirrors inside.
    • Last christmas I asked my grandparents(who always want to spend about $300 on my christmas presents) to get me a go board and pieces. She came up empty handed. None of the stores she went to had even HEARD of the game. You might try looking at some SCA events [sca.org].

  • Cardboard tubes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by m_chan ( 95943 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @08:25PM (#4884603) Homepage
    Remember those cardboard tubes you used to look through

    Any cardboard tube that came from wrapping paper, paper towels, whatever, became a light saber. Too bad they broke so quickly.

    Little yellow squares of construction paper glued to bigger red pieces of construction paper taped around our wrists so we could be Space Ghost.. that was great. I think I reached my creative peak there, probably because I became distracted by the glue.

    Lawn darts (way before congress banned them). Now that I think of the games we played, it was probably good that those went...
    • *sigh* Lawn darts....I remeber having to get a ladder to take a lawn dart out of the side panelling of my neighbours house (father was not pleased). I can't see why they were banned.... ;-)

    • Lawn darts (way before congress banned them). Now that I think of the games we played, it was probably good that those went...

      Hey, I remember those. The people down the street used to have a set. There's something satisfying about the unpredictability of throwing heavy, sharp metal things into the air to see where they land -- much like throwing your standard wall darts, only better. There was this one time when my friend tossed one up and I caught it -- in my back. Mom really loved that one.

      Man, those things were fun!

    • Lawn darts were fun, but the stories of their danger are not greatly exaggerated.

      Mom took one in the knee once. She was not a happy camper...
    • Have you ever walked around the fashion district in New York City? They throw out these cardboard tubes that make FABULOUS lightsabers. They're about 1.5 inches in diameter, but they're made of thick cardboard. And they're about 4 feet in length. They really stand up to a pounding.

      Even though I'm now 33, I still can't walk by them without thinking "oohh... those would be cool!"

      -Peter

  • Erector Sets (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lostindenver ( 53192 )
    This Christmas I am Passing on My fathers erector sets. YEs Connex Is out there But Nothing compares to the steel Case, Steeel Parts, And Open moters for fun and education. Not to mention It develops an attion span longer than your next kill In a video game.
    • Just don't pass on your capitalization skills!

    • Re:Erector Sets -- not dead yet (Score:4, Funny)

      by MacAndrew ( 463832 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:32PM (#4884867) Homepage
      I typed in "erector set" in Google and naturally got dozens of hits for sexual dysfunction.

      Check out Erector World [erectorworld.com]. And for nostalgic toy types generally, there's Yesterday Land [yesterdayland.com].

    • Re:Erector Sets (Score:3, Informative)

      by jayrtfm ( 148260 )
      I agree. The kit I had included a pretty powerfull AC motor. One of the projects in the manual was basically a working cattle prod.
      There's a movie on this sunday, from TV guide:

      9:00 PMWCBS Sunday, 15

      The Man Who Saved Christmas
      120 min.

      Jason Alexander stars in this 2002 TV-drama inspired by the true story of toymaker A.C. Gilbert.

      In the years before World War I, business isn't booming for Gilbert (Alexander). His father (Edward Asner) wants him to go to medical school, but his wife (Kelly Rowan) and brother (Ari Cohen) persuade him to follow his dream. When A.C.'s Erector Set toy becomes a success, he starts a company that provides a comfortable life for his family. But the Great War comes and so does the Government, asking A.C. to transform his factory into a munitions plant. Not long after, Uncle Sam requests an even greater sacrifice, which threatens Christmas for everyone.

      • Could this has been the inspiration for Yoyodyne in in Thomas Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49? Yoyodyne was a toy-maker turned weapons company. Incidentally, Yoyodyne is the name of the alien-ontrolled company in Buckeroo Banzai (early 80s, as well as the name of an early dot-com (mid to late 90s).
    • Erectors rule. The nuts and bolts are a million times more durable that LEGO plastic studs.
  • If you're having problems finding it in a brick and mortar, buy it on ebay. Trust me, if it exists you can find it on ebay eventually. I'm positive that something as common as a kaleidoscope will be available on ebay. Here [ebay.com]are 544 listing on ebay right now... It shouldn't be a huge surprise that some things go out of fashion for a while.

  • Try an "educational" toy store (Score:4, Informative)

    by noitalever ( 150546 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @08:32PM (#4884640) Homepage
    Here in the Portland, OR area, there are OPB Knowledge stores, and Hobby stores, and a couple of "educational" toy stores that have kalidescopes, microscopes, telescopes, chem labs, those foam dinosaurs that you put in water, sea monkeys, etc. Just a thought... That's where you should be shopping for your kids anyway... KB is just one cheap plastic piece of crap after another... (except the new transformers, which are surprisingly hard...)
    • Also in Portland is Finnegan's [finneganstoys.com]. I bought a kaleidoscope there a few weeks ago.
      Looks like all they sell online is a "Harry Potter Kaleidoscope [finneganstoys.com]," but there's more in the store that aren't movie merchandising.
      • I've been seeing Kaleidoscopes of all price ranges for the last 15 years that I've been paying attention. The original questioner's insistence on a "brick and mortar" store (proceeding to list major retail chains that play to lowest common denominators) seems absurd. There are plenty of "real world" places to buy kaleidoscopes, and that doesn't count all the places online.
  • it's low-tech, but enjoyable!

  • Local dollar stores? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Yuan-Lung ( 582630 )
    I have been searching for some old-fashion toys recently myself, for old-time's sake. I have noticed that the big department chains don't even carry those anymore. In fact, they have little beside the highly advertised hot items.

    Then I paid a visit to my local dollar stores. Although I haven't being able to find the particular items I was looking for, I did found quiet a few other old-time favorites that I though have gone extinct.

    On a side note, you can easily make a kaleidoscope with easy-to-find items... a paper towel tube, 3 reflective serfaces, and some beads coloured paper, and you get yourself a nice new toy. May even be a lot making it with your kids instead of just buying them.

  • Ebay (Score:3, Informative)

    by LowellPorter ( 466257 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @08:35PM (#4884651) Journal
    Try Ebay. You may even fine a really nice one there and not a cheap $2 cardboardone.
  • You just have to know where to look. Most of the stores that cary more educational toys cary at least one model of kaleidoscope. You can even find places that will sell fancy kaleidoscopes with interchangable glass tubes filled with oil and whatever the other stuff is that falls by the window to create the paterns. I'm not sure if you can still find the inexpensive ones that don't use glass, but kaleidoscopes are definetely an excellent toy. Good luck in your search.
    • Just some information. There's a chain store called The Nature Store (can be found in many malls) which also has an online presencs that carries kaleidoscopes. I was looking for them when I posted, and didn't initially find them, but they have a website at http://thenaturestore.com [thenaturestore.com]. Of course, they won't show up if you do a search on their site, but they do in fact cary them, because I stumbled across one through google. The one I found was at http://thenaturestore.com/kidkidtoys.htm. Hope this helps.
  • Personally, I'm amazed at the shelf life of the Britany Spears' albums.

  • DIY (Score:4, Funny)

    by Pentagram ( 40862 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:01PM (#4884759) Homepage
    Why not make your own kaleidoscope? Get an empty toilet roll tube, tape up one end, fill it with pieces of coloured broken glass. Job done.

    Make sure your kid looks down into it though rather than holding it up to the light.
    • Yes, do it yourself, but it's just a bit more complicated than that. A kaleidoscope has two mirrors in it. And the broken glass or colored stuff is held between two translucent coverings at the other end.

      http://my.pclink.com/~jhaug/howto.html
      • Actually, I believe it has three mirrors. We made kaleidoscopes at summer camp once. And you're right about the coverings to hold the broken glass. I have a pretty cool one at home that has little seashells instead of colored glass, also one that has no colored glass - you just look through it at various objects around you. I imagine it cost about a buck at some discount import or party-supply store.

  • Dollar stores (Score:1, Redundant)

    by ghostlibrary ( 450718 )
    Try your local dollar store. Usually in 'toys' or in the party section (in which case they'll be in a bag of 4 or 6). Dollar stores are great for 'old style' toys. Bought some kazoos recently, too.

    Another place is science museum shops; they have some nice ones for $3 or less that are tiny but have a big eyehole.

  • A stick and a piece of string... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MacAndrew ( 463832 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:09PM (#4884793) Homepage
    ...was always enough for me.

    Yeah, my kids didn't believe me either.

    Part of the fun of having kids is getting to regress. I love these old unstructured toys that don't break and don't trap you into ding the same thing over and over ad nauseum. Unfortunately I think many have fallen victim to higher labor costs and the demand for greater margins.

    We've emphasized low tech toys (no batteries is ideal) and it hasn't been to hard too find them, especially as these toys have enjoyed a sort of yuppie renaissance. The main problem I have is with the expanding use of plastic and declining quality of the toys, like Lincoln Logs just aren't the same now.

    So the higher end toy stores like Zany Brainy and Imaginarium (regional?) have a higher proportion of sturdy, imagination-driven toys like blocks and alphabet jigsaw puzzles (I like the Lights, Camera, Interaction! [putziespuzzles.com] line available everywhere, even our Borders bookstore ... they must be old-fashioned, they don't seem to have a website) and the like. Unfortunately, they have higher prices.

    Of course, you can always take refuge in the internet.... Hey, anyone know why they discontinued Weeble Wobbles? ;-) But the best toys are the ones that "made it" -- my kids play with my old Brio train set, which is a wonder of simplicity, and free.

  • Hard to find toys? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Smidge204 ( 605297 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:24PM (#4884838) Journal
    What else is gone?

    Gyroscopes! Simple, cheap, die-cast gyroscopes. There's not a store within 50 miles of my place that sells them. (And a few guys I talked to didn't even know what the hell they were)

    Such amazing little widgets, too.
    =Smidge=

  • plastic bubbles (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lepruhkawn ( 199083 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:26PM (#4884845) Homepage
    I think they still sell that child-torture toy where you squeeze a dab of multicolored rubbery goo out of a toothpaste tube and put it on the end of a short red straw and are supposed to blow it up into a bubble.

    Whenever I tried doing that as a kid, I would blow on that straw so hard, I'd get an earache, headache and feel dizzy from breathing in the fumes.

    I never did get a bubble.

    Goddamn, I still hate that friggin' toy.
  • --I remember my favs from the 5 and dime, when stuff actually costed a 5 or dime... hmm, slingshots, 10 cents, pack 0 trading cards with gum, a nickle, capbombs, those where cool, open the heavy end, insert one cap, close, throw, they come down, bang, great sport, marbles, would actually play for deadly serious keepsies, jackknives were good -hmm a trend here, politically incorrect toys sorta phased out a little, balsa wood gliders, the expensive ones were a whole quarter with the wind up rubber band props- now a few higher end price wise, upto the few buck range- jump ropes, clamp on roller skates, wooden boomerangs, mad scientist kits with mr lizard on the box, the invisible dude, then it got to be heathkits and shotguns and then cars and then GIRLS and all bets went off, stuff costed serious lawn mowing and snow shoveling and fruit picking and then real job money.

    • I suspect I'm not as old as you, but I remember some of these, especially the cap bomb. The cap bomb eventually blew itself apart after I got tired of just putting one cap in there. How about water rockets? Fill it up with water, 10 pumps IIRC, release, WHOOOSH! They'd go almost out of sight. The end of that toy was similar to the cap bomb: 20 pumps and a hard landing on asphalt. It was just cracked, and still worked, but couldn't hold full pressure anymore. Then of course you can't forget delta darts--little styrofoam gliders that could be hand-thrown or launched with a rubber band. They were cheap enough for me to buy them 3 at a time in gradeschool. They were usually lost or stepped on before they got scuffed enough to be replaced. Don't get the big styro-gliders. One of my disapointments was saving up for one... probably 7th grade by then, and on the 2nd outing a gust of wind plowed it into a hillside and snapped a wing clean off. A total loss.

  • Walmart, Toys R Us, Kay Bee, Discovery and Disney stores are just a few to 'just say no' or 'it's too low tech' How can something so simple fade into obscurity?

    Because people equate Walmart, etc. with reality. Of this list, I'm a bit surprised that Discovery didn't have them, but the others... what do you expect? Good heavens, kaleidoscopes are not hard things to find, but maybe Walmart isn't the best place to look. Or are there any other stores left in your town?

  • Slinky (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WeaponOfChoice ( 615003 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @09:38PM (#4884892) Homepage
    Awsome staying power for what is essentially a spring...

    I've always had an urge to get a giant one and let it walk down a step pyramid or similar structure...
  • Timely article. I love this place:)
  • http://www.kaleidoscopesusa.com [kaleidoscopesusa.com]
    They're a bit pricey.
  • Has always fascinated me with how simple, addictive, and satifing it is, especially whne you consider it's essentially two lathed pieces of wood and some string. Make up your own rules and wham, bam, thank you ma'am - you've got a great game.

    At first I though kids nowadays wouldn't get it, being used to fancy-ass electrical toys. I brought one to the Camp where I work - bunch of well-off kids - one found it on my bed, played with it, and within a week they were making them in arts and crafts. They were hooked for the rest of the summer...Funny how things that are popular always seem to swing back into usage.
  • Pick a toy, any toy. Take the toy out of the box. Play with the box.

    Then there were the times your parents got a major appliance, and you got a really big box you could play inside, instead of play with. Or the time a friend's father brought home a telephone-booth box.
    • Share the box? With my kids? Are you INSANE? THE BOX IS MINE, ALL MINE!!!!

      *note the lameness filter sucks*
    • Speaking of stuff that's gone -- I've bought a half-dozen major appliance these last few years and seen not a sign of a box. I'm fairly sure they didn't have them on the truck either. I do remember them when I was a kid. What happened? It's not fair!

      Imagine the maze you could build with a few dozen of these.

      Of course what I really want is to do a cornfield or strawbale maze [cornmaze.com]. As you can see from the link, country people take these seriously. Alas, I live near the city, and can't see doing a good maze on our 1/8 acre, except maybe one for mice.

  • If you want a good old toy, my wife says... (Score:3, Informative)

    by dpilot ( 134227 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @10:41PM (#4885108) Homepage Journal
    Try a locally-owned toy store, or toy catalogs such as Hearthsong. The Vermont Country Store catalog also has some "old" toys.

  • try a museum store (Score:4, Informative)

    by msouth ( 10321 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @10:58PM (#4885148) Homepage Journal
    If there is a children's museum or hands-on science museum near try that. I know they have some kaleidoscopes at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, for example.

  • Ultimate high-end kaleidescopes (Score:3, Informative)

    by Hell O'World ( 88678 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @11:49PM (#4885304)
    Incredible Kaleidescope art! [onreflection.com] I've seen one in a gallery. Mind blowing.
    • I didn't realize what they were. I live in downtown Asheville, and i think i've driven past where they work in West Asheville. I'm gonna have to head over and see if i can poke at those on Monday, will report back with any info i get, if i get any.
  • ...good times with the Big Bag O' Glass. To bad they took that off the market.
  • You were in a small store. You should find a Walmart Supercenter that is in the top 10 of the district, You wont know you are in the top 10 till you notice the store has things other stores dont. (The buyers tend to send items that they are testing market on to the biggest stores in the districts and they also seem to send stuff they cant sell anywhere else to the bigger store.) I work at one of the larger stores, just last week our store's sales hit the highest in the Texas district.

    Over beside the vision center they carry educational toys including the smithsonian stuff. You should locate the telescopes and that expanding plastic ball thing, that is where the klidescope would be at. Other interesting things i have seen there are First electric guitar (and amp), First acoustic guitar, desktop rock garden (im considering getting this one sometime). Several other things appear there, i just dont remember them

    DRACO-

  • If they have them in your area, CrackerBarrel has all sorts of things like that; gyroscopes, lots of wood toys, etc.

    (In case you don't know, they're restraunts often found at the edge of town and always near an interstate).

    -- MarkusQ

  • Ahh...Memories (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Dunkalis ( 566394 )
    When I was younger (I'm 16 right now), we had a box or two of Lincoln Logs. I loved building elaborate stuff with them, then taking a makeshift "cannon" out of a bunch of crap around the house, and then finding the best point to take out the Lincoln Logs. Just be sure to use the wooden ones, since the plastic ones don't have the imperfections and don't make cool noises when they fall down.

    Legos are always fun. Don't get the crappy sets that take forever to put together and then you don't want to take it apart when you're finished. Just get the small little boxes and build up a collection again. I've still got somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 Legos! The programmable robot thingy (I'm working on setting it up in Linux with C or Java) is good fun, especially when it scares the cat!
    • I was really into lego. I remember going round to a friends house once, whose parents were relatively well off. He had all these models lying around, and when i went to play with one, he told me off, and said that we were not supposed to touch them. I think his parents sort of missed the point about lego...
  • Why don't you and your three-year-old sit down and make one yourself? It'll be an useful educational project.

    If you're concerned about safety, I'm sure you can get plastic mirrors. Stick three mirrors into a triangular (cross-section) tube, close both ends with transparent plastic after putting bits of colorful translucent stuff, like spangles or something inside.

    Not only do you have a fairly cheap toy, but loads of fun and some insight into how multiple reflections work.

    And you get the immense satisfaction of screwing the toys cartel.

  • Sear's / Penny's Catalogs. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jag164 ( 309858 ) on Saturday December 14, 2002 @12:59AM (#4885545)
    Do they still have the Sears and J.C. Penny's Holiday Catalogs? I remember STUDYING those damn things for hours and days; circling and intialing the things that peaked my interest. I never did get that train I wanted even though I circled it every year.

    Some Toy's of yester year. Even the ones that are still around aren't really the same. Actually, can you just buy lego blocks anymore?

    * Erector Set's
    * Lego Blocks
    * Match Box Cars and the race tracks.
    * Marbles (golly, I liked marbles)
    * Tonka Trucks
    * Adventure People
    * My first ball glove (not my older brother's hand-me-down)
    * Domino Rally

    • One can buy Lego blocks in bulk, this is due more to the people who use them for artistic purposes rather than toys.

      There is a set (Mechanix?) that is similar to the old Erector sets, I think it is more popular in EU.

    • Oh, God, I remember the Sears "Wishbook" (dunno if that was the official name, but that's what everyone I knew called it)-- thick as a mid-sized city's yellow pages, and chock full of holiday dreams.... man, that takes me back.

      It is definitely not around anymore, though-- I don't remember what year it was when they stopped producing it, but I remember it was a news item when they did. That day, I mourned the loss of yet another small slice of my childhood.

      ~Philly
  • Yo-yos. Still around and companies like Duncan make money on marketing alone. Green army men. Those little plastic guys. They got a resurgance with Toy Story but any big toy store carries these all the time.

  • ignorance (Score:4, Funny)

    by Snafoo ( 38566 ) on Saturday December 14, 2002 @01:09AM (#4885573) Homepage
    Dude, it's /usr/lib/xscreensaver/kaleidescope.

    (Perhaps your locate.db is corrupt?) I give kudos to your low tech tastes; kaleidescope doesn't even -lgl --- a real antique! They don't make toys like they used to, do they?

    I'm not sure I got what you meant about a paper tube and bits of crystal, but it's all OSS so I'm sure you can hack the .c to draw them in.

  • How about just plain old Legos? It is becoming increasingly hard to find a simple bucket of regular colored *non-themed* Legos. Instead we have the commercialized Star Wars and Harry Potter Lego sets all over the place. Sure, you can still use those sets to build whatever you want (especially after you mix them and lose a lot of the pieces like I did when I was little), but when I eventually have kids I would still like to be able to hand them a plain set of colored block and have them go out it with their own imagination, rather than have them be influenced by what the latest movie craze is...
    • Dunno where you live - but here in sunny Texas all the toy stores
      carry the bulk Lego buckets. They cost around $10 and contain around 200
      parts. Some of them are *mildly* themed - so the StarWars bucket has
      some interesting things like radar dishes and fins and stuff - but
      it's still basically bulk Lego.

      For younger kids you can also get bulk Duplo - which is twice-normal-size
      Lego that is reverse-compatible with 'real Lego' but is less of a choking
      hazard. Because Duplo works with Lego, they can still use it when they
      grow up enough to have the real thing.

      Don't be tempted into buying any of the 'clone' brands of brick - only
      the genuine Lego parts are made of the softer plastic that enables the
      bricks to be re-used indefinitely. The cheaper brands are made with
      hard polystyrene and the wear out extremely quickly. Build about
      three things with the same set of bricks and you'll start to notice
      that they don't hold together anymore.

      So - get genuine Lego bulk buckets. My son has about a dozen of them
      - and it's never enough.


  • I got my nephew a good quality set of nice weighty hemlock pictur/letter/number blocks one christmas.

    He soon realised that it was far more fun to chuck the things against the plasterboard wall to see the funny shaped dents they made.

    If you want low tech, you might as well make them yourself. Toy manufactuerers tend to stay away from anything with any longevity for the obvious reasons.

    Books, a computer, drawing/writing materials, magnifying glass, and some stuff for exercise like a bike or skateboard, etc.

    Oh and if you care about your child that much, I wouldnt go near public education. Home tutoring would be my bet, funds permitting.

    Ali
  • Results at American Science & Surplus [sciplus.com]:

    Not affiliated, YYY. But they are a good place to find toys and tools of all techs. Like, for example, wooden tops, those magnetic wheels on bent wire handles, chaos kits, etc.

  • What the heck happened to Big Wheels? I went to ToysRUs to get one for my daughter, and couldn't find them. Found PowerWheels all over the place, but I'd like my hyperactive kid to at least get *some* pedalling exercise. I know there's a high end one that's made by the folks who make scooters and runt-bikes...but what about the good ol' plastic tires/plastic seats kind?
    • I guess nowadays, the lowest tech toys on the market today are a pair of socks. My 18-month old nephew plays with one pair of socks for two hours at a time. Put 'em on the TV remote! Put 'em on the dog! Put 'em on your head! They're SO fun!!! No muss, no fuss! I think one day, though, he'll grow out of playing with socks. I'm going to try to graduate him into playing with a plastic spoon at that point.
  • ...Spirograph? I actually saw a set somewhere the other day. If I had any kids I would've bought it.

  • Most antique stores have a section of collectable toys that are not really antiques but stuff from the 60s and 70s that were popular. I would be you might find what you were looking for there. Also in most cities you can find a specialty toy store that carries nostalgic toys. There are two here in Sacramento (and this is a cow town) so in a larger city there probably would be more. Good luck !

  • 1. Metal Tonka Trucks
    2. A decent Generic lego Set...they used to sell
    like 300+ piece generic lego sets I can't find these any place now.
    3. Tinker toys...Kinda like wooden konentix(sp?) but much cooler.
    4. Bristle Blocks
    5. Crystal Climbers
  • Hope I'm not too late posting here..Hawkin's Bazaar [hawkin.com] here in the UK sell all manner of low-tech toys, and will ship internationally (although it may be wise to club together with some friends & buy a load of stuff & split the postage)
    Matt

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