Classic Toys For Christmas?

waterwheel asks: "Christmas is coming, and it's time to start planning our online shopping list for future Slashdot readers. This year I'm having a look at some of the more classic toys - and am finding that not only are some of the classic toys still around - but they are still educational and fun. Two good examples of this are the Rubik's Cube and the time honored gyroscope. The cube has been around for about 20 years, the gyroscope it seems for almost a 100. Both will be under the tree this year. Both of these toys are able to compete with video games - a true test of staying power. This begs the question - what other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?"

Dad, is that you!?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now I know what's under the Christmas tree! Not to hurt your feelings, but I really do like the video games. When you're not looking, I'll just move the stickers on the Rubik's Cube.

Oh, and mom hates it when you use "begs the question" on Slashdot. It just starts a whole "that's not the meaning" discussion that no one cares about.

Hungry Hungry Hippos

[Red Weasel]

Nuff Said

Classic toy

[Indy Media Watch]

What other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?

Firearms.

Re:Classic toy

[shadow303]

Or a red rider bb gun with a compass in the stock. Don't shoot your eye out.

Crossfiiiiiiiiii-yaaaaa!!!

[ArmenTanzarian]

This game [x-entertainment.com] entertained me well into High School for no apparent reason. There's really no skill to it, but trash talk and rematches kept it going for hours on end.

Lawn Darts

[hAkron]

Not the plastic tipped ones either...

Buy Yourself an Projection HDTV

[ralf1]

Give the kid the box. He'll make a fort and have hours of fun, and you get yours too.

Re:Extra $$ this Christmas?

[grub]

Nah, LEGO!

Then your 8 year old can step on sharp blocks in the middle of the night just like you used to!

THE classic toy from our youth

[lbmouse]

Girls
Oh wait, I'm on slashdot... nevermind.

Harry Potter's 12 inch Magic Wangd

[Japong]

It's not a classic, but the Harry Potter Nimbus 2000 [amazon.com] is a fun toy for younger children, and surprisingly for a lot of older girls (13-18) as well. Just straddle the broom's comfortable girth, activate the magic vibrating switch, and away you go for blissful sessions (about 15-35 minutes, varies) of fantasy fun!

as I am an american

[Anonymous Coward]

im buying my kids handguns.

Obligatory Monty Python Joke

[Eviljay]

Can't..... resist..... desire... too... strong

When i was a kid all i got for christmas was a lump of coal and a kick up the arse. Then for dinner our mother and our father would kill us with a breadknife and dance on our graves singing Hallelujah.

You tell that to kids today and they won't believe you

Two Words...

[tallpole]

Lawn Darts

You really want to know?

[Swamii]

What other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?

Coal. You insensitive clod.

Re:Legos!

[Usquebaugh]

Well hello lego nazi, what else do you do for kicks.

I spent a lot of time with...

[mr_z_beeblebrox]

what other classic toys do you remember from your youth that are still fun enough that kids will play with them today?

Power outlets, broken glass and matches.

Re:Extra $$ this Christmas?

[Zorilla]

Dude, the clear pieces were awesome because of that. I could always see where the pieces were, but my parents couldn't. "OW!"

Re:Hungry Hungry Hippos

[AvantLegion]

For the more mature crowd, Hungry Hungry Hippies.

Or less mature, as the case may be.

Re:Lawn Darts

[HaeMaker]

From IMDb:

[Ralphie is seeing Santa, only he can't remember what he wanted]
Santa Claus: How about a nice football?

Ralphie as Adult: Football? Football? What's a football? With unconscious will my voice squeaked out 'football'.

Santa Claus: Okay, get him out of here.

Ralphie as Adult: A football? Oh no, what was I doing? Wake up, Stupid! Wake up!

Ralphie: [Is shoved down the slide, but he stops himself and climbs back up] No! No! I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!

Santa Claus: You'll shoot your eye out, kid.

Re:And what about Stratego?

[(trb001)]

Stratego was also good because it didn't seem to cultivate the hatred among my friends that Risk did. We've ended marathon Risk games in fistfights, comparing each other to Hitler and Stalin. We may take it a little too seriously.

--trb

Re:Classic toy

[moitz]

Don't forget the thing that tells time too.

-moitz-

Re:toys are evil

[maiden_taiwan]

Wow, Burgermeister Meisterburger reads Slashdot!

What about Log?

[ThePolkapunk]

Isn't everyone forgetting the greatest toy ever? The one always advertised during Ren and Stimpy cartoons? Log!!! It's log! It's log! It's big it's heavy it's wood! It's log! It's log! It's better than bad, it's good!

Re:My 2 1/2 year old...

[77Punker]

Dude...this is Slashdot. You're a dork just for knowing about this place. Not only that, but you've registered, posted many comments, and obtained excellent karma. You too are a dork, just learn to accept it and you will lead a happier life.

Re:I hate the cube

[multipartmixed]

I got mine in 3rd grade.

I solved in my 2nd year of university.

Perservere, you will eventually get it!

Re:200-in-1 Electronics Lab

[Anonymous Coward]

So many hours of happy tinkering. I liked the circuit to give your victim an electric shock. I still remember my dad's reaction...

And now, I'm sat here designing an RF T/R switch for an MRI scanner. Maybe it did teach me something.

Re:What about Log?

[FlatBlack]

I kid you not, my younger cousin saw that cartoon and ask for Log for Christmas. I remember watching my grandpa etching the L O G into the bark. Duncan seriously had a log under the tree. He's since asked for consoles and guitars and such. Behold, the power of Television.

Re:toys are evil

[radish]

Guess Santa always passed by your house, huh?

Re:Legos

[lahvak]

You can still buy just a big tub of assorted bricks and pieces.

As far as the little pre-make sets go, they are kind of irritating, but the kids love them. They always beg for the little 10 piece sets, they think the star wars ones are really cool. The funny thing is, 2 days after they get a new set, it end up being all mixed up with the other sets, and they use them all together to build some totally fantastic spaceships. It's kind of funny to see a spaceship occupied by two Darth Vaders with Luke wearing a baseball cap between them. :)

But speaking about classic toys, has anybody seen an erector set lately? The one with all the flat perforated metal pieces and gazzilion litle tiny bolts?

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[eclectro]

Oh, and mom hates it when you use "begs the question" on Slashdot.

I suggest that it might be time to move out mom's basement when mom starts caring about what's on slashdot.

Re:Legos

[ArsonSmith]

The plural of sheep is lego in Europe? You guys are wierd.

How about Happy Fun Ball?

[Protoclown]

It's a classic.

Warning: Pregnant women, the elderly and children under 10 should avoid prolonged exposure to Happy Fun Ball.

Caution: Happy Fun Ball may suddenly accelerate to dangerous speeds.

Happy Fun Ball Contains a liquid core, which, if exposed due to rupture, should not be touched, inhaled, or looked at.

Do not use Happy Fun Ball on concrete.

HFB [happyfunball.com]

Re:Move the stickers? jeesh!

[Thud457]

Always remember to remove one of the 2-corner (as opposed to 3-corner) pieces and put it in backwards. And the scramble the cube so they don't catch it. Kids love when you do that!

slingshot, machete, hatchet, blowgun, crossbow...

[r00t]

Get a wrist-rocket style slingshot. This is the type
that has a wrist brace to allow for more power.
To go with it, get some marbles (cheap) and some
3/8" steel balls (better, and lead-free).

A machete is fun.

A hatchet (hand axe) is fun.

A blowgun is fun.

A crossbow is fun. You can get a compact one
that will take normal-sized darts.

See a pattern here? If the consumer product safety
commision or law enforcement would get nervous,
you've identified a fun toy.

Re:Etch-A-Sketch

[KUHurdler]

Plutonium. Generally they find the most toxic substances possible to put in kids' toys. Just in case.

Re:Rubik's Cube

[Thud457]

No. It's mandatory that we get drunk, fight in front of the children and ruin Christmas!

It's a tradition!

Re:How about Happy Fun Ball?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Re:Legos

[Anonymous Coward]

packaged sets are awesome. They had some when i was a kid (the 80s, but I'm kinda jealous of what they have nowadays. Me and my younger brother would always build what the instructions said the first time we played it, and then it would just all end up in one big box to be used for our own creations at a later date. But those instructions are important, they help prepare childern for the future. They gotta be able to follow picture instructions to assemble their IKEA furniture in college.

Re:You really want to know?

[hey!]

Reminds me of a story my Grandpa used to tell. He told his parents he wanted a pony. He came down on Christmas morning to find a stocking full of horseshit. "Oh, Santa left the horse," his parents said, "but he ran away."

Gotta love that sensitive 19th C. parenting.

Vaseline to improve the feel?

[SeanDuggan]

For some reason, applying vaseline to my toys to "improve the 'feel'" sounds vaguely wrong, let alone my kids' toys...

Re:Hungry Hungry Hippos

[Drunken_Jackass]

It sure beats the Waiting Game!!

Re:Lawn Darts

[Ced_Ex]

Those were a great toy. It was all fun and games till someone gets hurt.

*flashback*
I think we were 5 years old playing on my friend Scott's front lawn. Merely throwing them across the lawn was not challenging enough for us, so we decide to throw them over our heads backwards. This was not obviously well thought out, albeit it was a riot. This other kid Joel (or Jowol as I pronounced it) came running over to see what was the commotion. He comes at the perfect time to catch a downwards spiralling lawn dart with the top of his skull.

The lawn dart ends up sticking straight up from the top of his head, firming embedded into his cranium. He didn't start crying till he saw the blood stream down his face. Scott's father comes running out, picks the kid up and runs him back to the house, lawn dart still sticking out of his head.

Needless to say, we never saw those lawn darts again. Whatever happened to Joel, I'll never know. Moved away that summer.

* end flashback*

Ahh... great toy.

Re:Magnifying glass

[mbbac]

I'm an ant, you insensitive clod!

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[techsoldaten]

My Dad forced me to do it the hard way. He bought one of those Rubik's Cubes where the colors were built into heavy, glossy panels and surrounded with a white border - there would be no sticker swapping in my household. The cube itself was heavy, weighing at least 1.5 pounds (which was a lot of ask a 10 year old child to have to hold for 30 minutes at a time). The axes resisted attempts at rotation and it took great effort to make one actually turn. Any movement would audibly click into place, giving each action a sense of dreadful finality.

My attempts to solve the cube would always end in failure and exhaustion, and I was very jealous of those who could take the Gordian approach and just move the stickers. Given a lighter, move wieldy cube I could have easily solved it using a traditional method, but that was not to be. It was like Rubik himself was laughing at me, giving me a problem so interesting yet so impossible to solve. When I was 14, I finally gave up on the cube and smashed it using a large rock. Pieces of it were still there years later when I went off to college.

M

Re:toys are evil

[orac2]

Best. Troll. Ever.

I tip my hat to you, sir!

Rocks, dog crap, rusty appliances

[StefanJ]

Kids today are far too coddled. They need to play in weed-infested vacant lots where they can get a chance to play with rusty pieces of metal, weathered 2x4s with nails in them, and construction debris.

I remember dog crap playing a big part in street play in my childhood. No one picked up after their dogs back then, nor leashed them. Dog crap could be hurled at other kids, or rubbed into item which were then handed, all innocent-like, to other kids. At the Fourth of July, toys loaded with both fireworks and dog crap were a source of excitement and an incentive to great speed and agility.

To heck with your Gameboy Advances and LEGO Star Wars Episode VII sets. An old washing machine can with a little imagination serve as a time machine, and a discarded refrigerator makes a SWELL gas chamber for the final scene in Cops n' Robbers games and that actually kind of works for real!

Stefan

Re:Move the stickers? jeesh!

[Jetboy01]

no no no you'll never solve it like that, you have to do alternate corners... no not so fast, okay, now spin the middle side 'topwise'

Hookers can be a hobby. . .

[Excen]

I collect them in 55 gallon drums in my backyard!

Re:toys are evil

[iota]

Toys represent everything that's wrong with modern western civilization. They enforce the notion that there is a difference between "work" and "play".

I guess the producers at EA read Slashdot after all...

Re:Classic toy

[GuardianAngus]

My bet is on the daughter.

Re:Gyroscopes are GREAT!!!!!

[Torontoman]

I had a die-cast metal gyroscope when I was a kid. One day I wound 15 feet of fishing line onto it, tied the end to a door knob and ran accross the room. I no sooner had put it on the floor when it started making this freakish humm - before I could reflect on the drawbacks of overclocking my Gyroscope it shattered and the spokes shot off in all directions - including two into my lower legs drawing blood. Some stuck into a pine bench accross the room, and some into the wall. Awesome - I'll never forget that. I think it must have been like starting the first nuclear chain reaction... "how high can we rev this sucker?"

Re:Erector Sets

[Spamlent Green]

you do realize you just posted your sister's photo, name, job and location to thousands of desperate single geeks? is this some kind of subconscious retribution for her getting you shocked?

Re:Lawn Darts

[cdrudge]

Oh. So you're the case that spoiled it for the rest of us. Thanks alot.

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[techsoldaten]

Check the darkest pit of Hell, see if they do shipping.

M