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.

Move the stickers? jeesh!

[way2trivial]

twist a top 9 box about 20 degrees,
now counter a side 9box, and apply a little pressure- POP! goes the corner..

remove all pieces except the axes center pieces, and reassemble, along the way, study the fascinating mechanism that is a rubiks cube...

Re:Move the stickers? jeesh!

[nizo]

With the old orig. rubiks cubes you could pop off the white center cube's face to find a screw behind it. This made taking it apart/putting it back together much easier. Sadly the new ones don't seem to have this feature :-(

Re:Move the stickers? jeesh!

[kzinti]

... remove all pieces ...

And when you reassemble the cube, make sure you assemble it into a solved state... even if you know how to solve it. If you assemble it into a random state, there's only a 1 in 12 chance that it's solvable without another disassembly.

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:Dad, is that you!?

[Naikrovek]

1.0109×10^38 (101097362223624462291180422369532000000) is the number of cube combinations that you can create by moving stickers.

4.3252×10^19 (43252003274489856000) is the number of cube combinations that you can create by rotating cube faces (as it is designed).

the odds that you'll create a valid cube combination by moving stickers is slim. Even if you make all faces solid color the chances that the internals of the cube correctly representing the face colors is slim.

3.2×10^22 (320000000

Ummm ....

[gstoddart]

the odds that you'll create a valid cube combination by moving stickers is slim. Even if you make all faces solid color the chances that the internals of the cube correctly representing the face colors is slim.

Maybe I'm missing your point ... but have you seen the inside of a rubiks cube? The individual pieces don't "know" they correspond to the blue face.

There is no direct correlation between the internals and the faces -- other than the stickers are attached to the faces and preserve their relative placement on the pieces.

It's just got the nice sane starting point of each face is all one colour when it's complete. By definition once you've made all of the faces a solid colour, the internals of the cube will be consistent with that arrangement of faces.

If I take all of the stickers off of a rubiks cube, the faces don't know that. Heck, remove all of the stickers and re-surface each face in its entirety in one colour like a brand new cube. That will give you a fully working rubiks cube which appears to have been solved. Thereafter it will work exactly like all other cubes do.

Now, if you arbitrarily move stickers, you're in for a world of hurt. But most anyone moving the stickers to cheat isn't going to put them on randomly. If you're doing it to drive someone insane it would probably work, 'cus as you pointed out, a whole lot more permutations.

But I most decidedly saw a lot of people in the 80's just re-do the stickers to get a finished cube.

It might change wether blue and green are on opposite or adjacent faces and the like, but it is a rather effective way to get a cube 'finished'.

But you'd be really incorrect to think that if you made all of the faces each with one solid colour that the cube would cease to function. It's built in such a way as to guarantee it will continue to work.

Cheers

Re:Ummm ....

[isepic]

if you move the stickers, you'll have to learn a new way to solve it. ALL the published techniques (and java engines, etc.) to solve it are based on the original placement of the stickers. Most of the automated solutions I've seen even state, it will not work if the stickers have been rearranged, or if the cube was apart and put back together differently.

Nuff said.

Re:Ummm ....

[gstoddart]

if you move the stickers, you'll have to learn a new way to solve it. ALL the published techniques (and java engines, etc.) to solve it are based on the original placement of the stickers. Most of the automated solutions I've seen even state, it will not work if the stickers have been rearranged, or if the cube was apart and put back together differently.

Well, since I can solve the cube, and I have disassembled and re-stickered literally dozens of cubes, I must again say NO.

Assume for the moment that each face has been correctly re-assembled with one colour/face -- the nominal position. Most of the solving techniques involve identifying the opposite and adjacent faces, and the patterns of moving pieces are to make them line up. From there it's not all that complicated.

I concur that if you take apart the cube and re-assemble it in a randomized pattern, you won't solve it. Same goes for randomly moving the stickers. But I'm specifically saying that once you have each cube face as being exactly one colour, it's all the same, and just variations on the same theme.

Solve the cube, re-sticker it. If Blue and green used to be adjacent, make the opposite. Solve the cube again. The moves are all relative to the known configuration (each face is one colour), not which colour is on which face.

Again, taking it apart and re-assembling it randomly is not what I am saying works. If you start with a cube in a known-good state (all faces have one colour), you will always have a cube that behaves self-consistently.

But I can gurantee you that if you take a cube to someone who can manually solve it, have them solve it, then switch the colours of two faces, that person will still be able to solve that exact cube.

You can take this all the way to moving all six faces, because the pattern is based on an association between the elements, and the assumption you don't have a truly randomized cube. In that case, the colours of a corner piece would not match up to the relative orientation of the center faces (the only pieces which never actually change their location).

I'm saying there are a bunch of valid "original placement of the stickers" which can be made to work. Wether the blue face is opposite to green, yellow, red, orange, or white, the mechanism for solving the cube does not change.

This doesn't mean I expect any reassembly of the cube to be solveable, but if you strip off the stickers and assemble it as a finished cube, that cube is solveable by the exact same techniques always used.

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:Dad, is that you!?

[writermike]

I keep reading about folks moving the stickers around on their Rubick's Cube. The only way I could solve it was to pull it apart an reassemble it solved.

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[techsoldaten]

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

M

Re:Dad, is that you!?

[WesG]

Kids these days would probably just visit a cube solver webpage like http://www.wrongway.org/cube/solve.html instead of peeling stickers.

Speaking of stickers - anyone remember sticker collecting. Do kids today even know about stickers?

Hungry Hungry Hippos

[Red Weasel]

Nuff Said

Re:Hungry Hungry Hippos

[AvantLegion]

For the more mature crowd, Hungry Hungry Hippies.

Or less mature, as the case may be.

Legos

[tech_guru5182]

I remember playing with legos, and still see them on the market today.

Re:Legos

[seanellis]

In Europe, of course, the plural of Lego is Lego. Like sheep.

But they are, I agree, an absolute must for kids of all ages, in order to instil a properly reductionist mindset :-)

Re:Legos

[ArsonSmith]

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

Erector Sets

[SeanDuggan]

They're plastic these days. :( We still have one of the old metal sets at home, compete with electric motor with two gear ratios. There was just something inherently solid about creating your mechanisms with metal beams and bolts. Heck, after we accidentally broke a bed by jumping on it, my oldest brother Michael fixed it with one of those corner pieces from the Erector Set and it took months for my parents to realize the bed had ever been broken.

Sadly, I suspect that the metal sets would no longer be considered safe for kids anymore. *shrug* Which makes sense from a pure safety perspective, as I know we banged ourselves up repeatedly making weapons out of the pieces in addition to scrapes from burrs on the pieces and a few cases of hair or skin getting caught in the open workings of the motor. *wry grin* And then there was that incident where I got thrown across the patio by an electric shock. But in retrospect, yanking the cord out of the outlet when on a rain-soacked patio was not the brightest of moves for all that I had good intentions. (My little sister, Eileen [louisville.edu], was reaching for the plug. Her being a toddler, I knew she wouldn't remove it safely, so I did so. Ouch...)

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?

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.

Re:Classic toy

[chill]

How true. My daughter (16) asked for her own .22 rifle this year and one of my sons (14) wants a new bow.

Considering both require parental supervision at their age, target practice is a great way for the whole family to get outside and do something together.

Or, were you being sarcastic?

Re:Classic toy

[NardofDoom]

You know what else is good for that? Geocaching. And you can't kill anyone (easily) with a GPS receiver.

Re:Classic toy

[TheGavster]

There's no reason that you shouldn't teach your children about those things. If alcohol isn't a rebellious thing, but simply a beverage, then they are less likely to abuse it. Simply ignoring the existance of something dangerous will not protect your children from it; either you can educate them, or society can educate them, and society doesn't have a great track record in that respect.

LightBright

[SlongNY]

LightBright Pwns.

Slinky and Superball

[akweboa164]

The slinky was one of my favorite toys growing up.

Also, the superball was awesome as well. I usually could be found with a superball in my pocket all the time and would be constantly bouncing it off walls, annoying my parents and everyone around me in the process!!! LOL, good times.

A kind message from pedants anonymous

[JamesD_UK]

This doesn't beg the question, it raises the question. See here [wsu.edu].

Re:A kind message from pedants anonymous

[fishbowl]

The cause you're fighting is every bit as noble as that for "hacker", and just as lost.

Legos

[genkael]

You have to love Legos. Not only are they fun, but they teach creativity, mechanical engineering, and design. If you are playing with someone else, they teach teamwork and sharing. Not to mention you can build some cool guns and spaceships.

On this topic, I'm not a big fan of the premade Lego sets for Star Wars or Harry Potter or whatever. Kids need the generic box of bricks and plates.

Pre-Mades are OK

[Black-Man]

Because, at least with my kids, the end in the huge box along with the other sets and are re-used with their own creations.

I've always just bought the packaged sets. I kinda wish they had those when I was a kid.

Bonus for the parents

[FunWithHeadlines]

Not only are Legos an ideal gift for kids, but dad will still enjoy them as well, at least Slashdot dads. I have fond memories of the monstrosities I created with Legos as a kid, mostly of the How-Baroque-a-Car-Can-I-Make-And-Still-Have-It-Gl i de? variety. Lots of odds and ends sticking every which way, yet always coming down to the same level as the rest and with a wheel underneath. Both those things were ugly -- I loved 'em!

Put me in a room with Legos to this day and you know what? I'm gonna play.

Screw the kids, LEGO for ME!

[TiggertheMad]

I am an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego), and I think that they are the coolist thing ever. Check out some of the more interesting LEGO sites on the net:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/recent.cgi [brickshelf.com] A massive gallery of uber cool models made by AFOLs. There are some really amazing models posted here.

http://www.brickset.com/ [brickset.com] A lego set refrence that has just about every lego set ever made. Want to get a list of every classic space set made in 1978? This is the place.

http://www.bricklink.com/ [bricklink.com] Want 150 tan 1x3 bricks? Buy them individually from fellow collectors all over the world.

http://www.lugnet.com/ [lugnet.com] LUGNET is the Lego User Group. It has an interface to all all of the Lego USENET groups, and is an easy way to keep on top of all the relevant lego news.

http://shop.lego.com/ [lego.com] Of course there is LEGOs homepage. Online shopping, and all sorts of other interesting stuff. They just released a program on the lego site that allows you to build virtual lego models. That isn't really amazing, since LEGO cad programs have existed for years. However, they seem to be ramping up to allow people to build virtual models, and then order the parts to build them online! Every lego fan's dream come true...

There is much more, but that is a quick rundown of some of the major sites. Indulge yourself, you know you want to....

Re:Screw the kids, LEGO for ME!

[AKAImBatman]

Do you still get those catalogs every year that showed off the new model selections? I loved getting those in the mail. As soon as it showed up, I'd flip straight to the "Space" section, and look for the latest base or 10 guy moon rover. (The Lego characters never build anything small! ;-))

It was a sad day the year they switched from building with flat plates and blocks to the large "hull" pieces for ships, castles, and bases. They canceled the $100 monorail at the same time, so I missed my chance at ever getting a Lego train set.

ahh the memories... Lego car-crash contests!

[Black Perl]

Lego, ahh the memories, we used to build ever more fancy cars and race them into each other and see which one would survive.

My brother and I would do the same thing!

Rules:

1. Build a car--it had to roll freely and have four wheels. Sometimes we used a rule variant that it had to contain a lego man.
   
2. On the count of 1,2,3, roll 'em toward each other and wait for the crash.
   
3. If a piece breaks off, you lose. Otherwise if your car flips off its wheels, it's a loss. In the lego man variation, if your man is shaken loose, it's a loss.
   
4. Repeat Steps 2 & 3 until you have a winner.
   
5. Winner keeps his car, loser gets to rebuild in order to try to beat it.
   

We'd try different techniques--increasing the mass, using as few pieces as possible, trying different centers of gravity, building a ramp front-end to try to flip the opponent, building a "lance" aimed at what we thought was the opponent's weakest piece, etc.

We played this game from elementary-school age even through high school. It was a fun exercise in creative thinking and we were learning engineering skills as well!

Now I'm teaching my daughters the game--they like it too.

-bp

Re:Lego having a rough year

[borkus]

If you like Legos, this would be a good year to include Lego on your shoppng list [channelnewsasia.com]. Sales for Lego have fallen over 25% in the last two years and the company is looking at a record setting loss for this year.

Re:Lego having a rough year

[Neil Watson]

That's not suprising. Many recent Lego products lack complexity and imagination, especially the movies sets like Harry Potter and Star Wars. They are also much more expensive than I remember.

Then look at lego designer line

[TiggertheMad]

Lego is actually listening to people like you. They released the Designer series that has a lot of great basic bricks. You tend to get more bricks for the buck, and less hyper-specialized pieces.

There alot of people in the Adult Fan Community that have been saying this for yeats, and lego is paying attention.

Plain-Jane Lego, of course!

[VE3ECM]

Don't forget your plain old Lego.

Ignore all that fancy "Harry Potter" type themed Legos that are 3 times the price of basic blocks. You can buy a huge tub of basic Lego for around 20 bucks at Toys R Us or any Lego Store.

You can get a MASSIVE amount of plain lego that's great for stimulating a kid's imagination at a fraction of the cost of some of that "themed" Lego junk.

If that's not "creative" enough, find some Technics Lego. That stuff is neat to play with, too!

Re:Plain-Jane Lego, of course!

[Japong]

And not just for kids either... this has been seen on slashdot before, but the things people can do with Lego Mindstorms [lego.com] is simply amazing. [i8.com] An expensive set to be sure, but it's a toy that will scale up as the child grows older, and it's probably the most user friendly robotics set ever created. Of course, for $179.99 US (MSRP) you might want to just get one for yourself and ignore the kids altogether.

Re:Plain-Jane Lego, of course!

[calzplace]

Along that line of the "Technics" legos -- how about the old Erector [ideafinder.com] sets (or the equivelant Meccano [wikipedia.org] sets)?
I used to play with those a lot -- mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, gear/pulley ratios, etc. Although Techics Legos are cool, I think that Erector sets are much more time tested.

Re:Plain-Jane Lego, of course!

[GrouchoMarx]

If that's not "creative" enough, find some Technics Lego. That stuff is neat to play with, too!

I have to second the call for Lego Technic. I had much fun with those when I was younger. Even if the kid (does need to be at least about 8-9 to deal with them properly) just follows the directions and doesn't make anything new, he'll get to see how basic mechanics work up close without any danger of working with "real" fanbelts and motors and such. You can learn a great deal building a Technic car or motoroc

I hate the cube

[thered]

I've got a PhD in Mechanical Engineering - I can't do it, I can't stand it.

Sure there's a bunch of steps you can follow, but where's the challenge in that.

I can only stand in awe of anyone who independently is able to solve the Rubic's Cube.

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!

My 2 1/2 year old...

[asdfasdfasdfasdf]

...will be getting some lincoln logs this year. He's already way ahead of the game thanks to educational TV, electronics, and two voracious readers as parents, so we're looking to give him something to inspire good old fasioned fine motor skills and 3d perception..

I never liked those big fat legos-- I'll wait until he can manipulate the "real" ones before I get him into legos...

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

[lukewarmfusion]

Man, I always loved Lincoln Logs but I never had any of my own. I remember going to a friend's house for the night and turning down video games in favor of Lincoln Logs. His mom kept saying, "Why can't you be more like lukewarmfusion?"*

* No, that's not my real name. My parents weren't that cruel.

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.

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.

Legos Legos Legos!

[blueZhift]

I played with these every chance I got when I was a kid. And now my own kids can make literally anything out of legos. Currently their favorite creations are Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails!

Fridgets

[FatRatBastard]

I'll go with Fridgets [toymagnets.com]. I don't know if they're considered "classic" in terms of age (I'd never seen them before a few years ago), but I think of them as "classic" in the sense that they're simple, creative, low-tech and a lot of fun to play with. And all the rug-rats in my neighborhood love 'em.

for a 2 yr old, the box

[esilva]

Depending on the age of your kid but as far as my 2 yr old is concerned, he still enjoys the big empty cardboard boxes. You can make castles, tunnels, houses.. And I like it this way ;)

Lawn Darts

[hAkron]

Not the plastic tipped ones either...

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 R

Re:Lawn Darts

[cdrudge]

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

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.

Gyroscopes don't last more than a day

[Drunken_Jackass]

I mean really, how many times can your re-wrap the string, yank it and hold it in your palm (i'm talking 'bout the gyroscope you perv)?

I'd rather have something that makes use of the stupid gyroscope. Where are all of the fun toys that use the gyroscope? Where's the home segway kit? Why doesn't someone make more toys that USE these classic toys instead of leaving someone uninspired and wanting more?

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?"

Rubik's Cube...

[bje2]

"The cube has been around for about 20 years"

Actually, the cube has been around exactly 30 years [wikipedia.org] (this year)...i have one sitting in my cube (no pun intended) as we speak...

Playmobile

[Phixxr]

I'm going to have to say Playmobil. Just simply action figures and such, but so very very detailed. Expensive, as those european toys always are, but well worth it in my opinion. http://www.playmobil.com/ [playmobil.com]

-Phixxr

My favorites

[acvh]

Tinkertoys - I got one of my creations published in the Tinkertoy magazine.

Lego - the rectangular block kind. None of this Star Wars/Pirate/Bionicle nonsense.

Anything else that fosters imaginative thinking: PlayDoh, Etch-a-sketch, and the like.

My first toy

[ajiva]

When my family moved to the United States the first toy my parents bought me and my brother were a set of *metal* Tonka Trucks! Those things were industructable! We would smash them, throw them, hit them with hammers, basically do kid things with them. And those trucks still held on...

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

Re:Obligatory Monty Python Joke

[Ubergrendle]

Luxury.

You were lucky.

I used to have to get up half and hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, head off to work at the coal mine and pay for the luxury of working there, come home 2 hours after I went to sleep, and THEN father would cut us in two with a breadknife and dance on our graves singing Hallelujah.

And you tell kids these days about how they have it so easy, and they don't believe you...

And what about Stratego?

[VE3ECM]

Stratego was (and still is) a fun game to play that doesn't require the sometimes hours and hours it takes to play Risk.

Easy enough for a kid to learn, but strategies are so varied, it's hard to ever master it against another good player...

As an aside, I loved throwing a few Major and Colonels at the front with all my scouts and a couple of Miners and decimating my opponents' lower ranks... that gambit usually only works once or twice on them... unless they're slow to adapt.

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

Classic

[blackmonday]

The Classic Football [epinions.com] handheld. Fun, cheap, nostalgic.

If yo can afford it...

[Moby Cock]

LEGO is a great toy except it costs a friggin' mint these days. The old style stuff that was all blocks and some smaller specialty pieces is the best. The stuff today is too specific for many different projects. So I guess I am recommending LEGO from 15 years ago.

When I was kid I had Mecano, which was like Lego, except it used little nuts and bolts and pieces of thin sheet metal. I could make a car with it. It was really cool. Is that still available?

School House Rock

[eaddict]

I just ordered a copy of School House Rock [school-house-rock.com] for my kids...er ... me.
I am also looking at the multi purpose electronics kits and an erector set [newhorizontoys.com] for my oldest daughter.
I can't seem to get enough of the older toys and neither can my kids. They are so tired of plastic.

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: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.

Electric Trains

[Samlind1]

Believe it or not, Lionel is still in business.

Coincidently, Tom Hank's Christmas movie (why not, he's done everything else) - the Polar Express opened Wed. Lionel got the in on the act, and they have the official toy for the movie and are expecting to double their best year in the last 20. They are probably right.

Electric trains are still fun, I still remember the one I had at age 5.

Capsella and more

[dead sun]

I think Capsella (if that's the right spelling) were pretty amusing given the number of things that could be done with simple reconfiguration.

Also interesting and undermentioned is Erector sets. They aren't as easy to configre as Capsella, but certainly give you more freedom to do what you want. I got some good milage out of those as a kid.

Lego is already mentioned a billion times, but I'd recommend the old school bricks as opposed to the recent specialty bricks that aren't nearly as configurable.

Tinker Toys and Construx were good fun, though I haven't seen either around recently. I also haven't really looked.

If you have aspiring artists consider some honest to god nice drawing pencils, some high quality paper, and a good eraser. There's about an endless number of things one can draw.

Board games are up on my list too. Consider a nice chess set if there isn't one around the house. That's a game that's stood the test of time.

Meccano

[fiannaFailMan]

I loved my big Meccano [meccano.com] kit.

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.

How about...

[LWATCDR]

A bicycle?
A tree house?
Legos.
Lincon Logs.
Estes Model rockets.
Cox Control line airplanes.
Any of the new RC airplanes.
Rubber band powered planes.
Swing set and slide?
Anything to get them out of the house and moving in the sun shine and fresh are and not sitting in front of the TV/Monitor.
I have to say that toys that invole the real world beat the heck heck out of video games. I have to wonder what we are teaching our kids. Even the coolest Slashdot stories tend to involve things like making your own roller coaster in your backyard. A battle meck tree house. Or a full scale space ship in your back yard. Not sitting in front of Doom3 day after day.

chemistry set

[cbdavis]

My favorite Xmas toy. But, I would guess that the PC police has outlawed this. Way too much fun if you are nerdy. Hey, you even get chlorine gas from clorox if you work it right.

toys are evil

[theMerovingian]

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

Toys are an artificial construct popularized by the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations in the late 1800's. The inherent psychological principle is that if you mentally dissociate your job from the context of your normal life, then you are willing to put up with a constant low level of dissatisfaction in exchange for a reward of "play time" or "toys".

Thus, by encouraging your children to "play", you are psychologically destroying them and reducing their future potential to that of an assembly line worker. People endure 40-60 hours of pure crap every week of their lives with the dubious reward of "vacation", or a nice car, or time to watch TV as their only reward. Toys simply lay the groundwork for this type of pathological motivation.

What's the solution for this madness? Teach your children to enjoy working hard to accomplish their independent goals. Learning and discovery and adventure are rewarding without the need for false constructs. Hard work and proportional reward are the foundations of our country, and the entrepreneurial spirit should be encouraged at a very early age. Teach your children to live and enjoy life, rather than to simply endure it.

But, failing all that, buy them a Nintendo 64 and Goldeneye... that game rocks my face off.

Re:toys are evil

[radish]

Guess Santa always passed by your house, huh?

Simon rules!

[static0verdrive]

Anyone else remember Simon, the (highly addictive)electronic game where you have to repeat the beeping light tone sequences? Fun, great for toddlers to get into memory games and build ... ya know, character I guess. I loved it, and not only can you find it on Ebay but they apparently still sell it (albeit smaller now, and with a transparent plastic body to jive it up for the 90's...)

Capsula

[Ann Coulter]

If they still make Capsula sets, try getting one. They are modular units that allow one to create mechanical devices and vehicles. I don't know if they are still being made, but I used to love them when I was a kid.

Magnifying glass

[drdanny_orig]

It's a known fact: boys from 7 to 70 _love_ to play with a big magnifying glass, say 4" or larger diameter. Remember looking in the mirror with one huge eye? Discovering you can project images onto a wall? Or best of all, frying ants on the front sidewalk? It's all still fun!

Re:Magnifying glass

[mbbac]

I'm an ant, you insensitive clod!

200-in-1 Electronics Lab

[nautical9]

I toy I absolutely loved as a kid was the 200-in-1 Electronics Lab [hobbytron.com]. It's basically just a bunch of raw electronics bits (diodes, transistors, resistors, a small numerical display, etc) all hookup up to little springs, a whole bunch of wires to connect pieces together, and a huge book with simple projects and diagrams on how to create little "apps".

Hours of fun playing around with basic-level electronics, and you get to learn some stuff too!

You used to see them all the time at Radio Shack and other stores, but I haven't seen one in person in over a decade. There are also different "sizes", but I can't recall what they are.

Gifts for a lifetime

[RealProgrammer]

My list would have to include things that can be enjoyed on many levels, and are assured of a longer useful life:

• Baseball, glove, and wooden bat. Instructions and lesson for care of same, including the esoterics of neatsfoot oil and pine tar.

• Large box of generic legos. Forget the little men, just give in bulk, including the long pieces. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of planning the project before building it, so as not to run out of the aforementioned long pieces.

• Pocket knife and sharpening stone. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of blade oil (and keeping it off aforementioned stone).

• Estes Rocket. Instructions and lesson for use and care of same, including the esoterics of making it go faster through the use of pin striping and how to use a power strip as an ignition switch without causing electrocution.

• Microscope. Instructions and lesson for use of same, including the esoterics of what's in saliva.

• 50-in-1 electronic project kit. Instructions and lesson for use of same, including the esoterics of using the FM transmitter project to override the sibling's favorite FM station.

Not A Classic but...

[FJ]

I got my son a Chaos Tower [chaostoy.com] this Christmas. He is still too young to do it himself, but he loves these kinds of toys. It definitely isn't cheap, but it isn't as mind numbing as a video game either.

I know what I'll be building Christmas morning...

Lego Bricks

[devphaeton]

You can never go wrong with Lego.

Rule of thumb.

Besides, they're in dire financial straits and we need to help them out. Maybe they'll bring back just plain ole bricks vs. specialised or licensed stuff.

check out their online store:
www.lego.com

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: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!

Re:Extra $$ this Christmas?

[UNIX_Meister]

The problem with Legos now is that first, they are so damn expensive, and two, they aren't "generic" enough. The kits are made to be built into one "thing", whether it's a jungle or a spaceship or a whatever. You can use your imagination to make it into other things, but you're fairly limited. Instead, give me a big box of Legos from my childhood, where they aren't so specialized, and imagination is more important.

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:Extra $$ this Christmas?

[Pxtl]

You know you can do both right? I've been a hardcore gamer since I was old enough to buttonmash (even though the C64 had only 1 button), but I still loved my legos and my gyroscopes when I was a kid.

A good solid metal gyroscope is a fun toy that won't break or obselesce. I loved mine.

Ones that are still big hits with the kids: anything with marbles. You can't go wrong with marbles. Pinball machines, chute kits, Fireball Island. While static boardgames might be a dead issue for kids, motile, kinetic boardgames like Crossbows and Catapults (unfortunately also a lawsuit magnet) have the novelty of actually having active, real world objects smashing into each other.

Personally, I want to make a simple real-world RTS game involving a punchclock and some wind-up toys.

Re:Extra $$ this Christmas?

[NardofDoom]

Which would you rather your child be doing? Blowing up stuff, or building things and then knocking them over?

Besides, Erector sets are way cooler, sharper, and deadlier than anything else out there.

I used to buy all my X-mas presents. But then I figured out that baking or making a present is cheaper and more personal than anything else.

My mom can't eat flour, so I make flourless cookies. My grandfather's diabetic, so I make sugar-free cookies. And I know what each person likes, so I vary the recipes.

15

Re:Rubik's Magic

[richy freeway]

Treat yourself to a brand new one straight from http://www.rubikshop.com/ [rubikshop.com]!

Re:Rubik's Magic

[DLWormwood]

've been looking for one for about a decade, I can never seem to find a "good" one on ebay :/

Seven Towns still makes Rubik's toys [rubiks.com], though the current color scheme for the Magic puzzle isn't the same as the cooler original that Matchbox made. However, they now sell do-it-yourself kits that allow you to make your own Magic puzzles.

Re:Rubik's Magic

[superpulpsicle]

Please, nowadays classic toys mean buying PS2 games from the Greatest-Hits bin at $19.99.

Re:Legos!

[Usquebaugh]

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

Re:Rubik's Cube

[stratjakt]

The facts are, DHS is made up of what once was INS and Customs.

It's in fact their job to prevent bootlegged products from hitting American markets, so quit trying to spin this story as some kind of ridiculous "war on terror gone crazy" horseshit.

Re:Rubik's Cube

[eclectro]

It's in fact their job to prevent bootlegged products from hitting American markets, so quit trying to spin this story as some kind of ridiculous "war on terror gone crazy" horseshit.

You know what the real horseshit here is?

Being told that the Dept. of Homeland Sercurity was formed to "improve communications between agencies."

So why didn't they go to the freakin' uspto website and spend 30 seconds there to see that the rubik's cube patent had expired, and the trademark office had granted the magic cube guys a valid "magic cube" trademark??? (like I did)

Rather than sending some agents to shakedown a toy shop??

It is in fact "war on terror gone crazy"

Somebody needs to lose their job on this one. In fact, why don't they do away with that monkey-ass color thing that flips between orange and yellow all the time and no other colors???

I say if they can't ever give us a green (aka peace) or at least a blue, they should fold the whole damm "homeland security" department and save us the tax money and stupid stories of agents looking to use the company card on a vacation to a toy shop.

Re:Rubik's Cube

[stratjakt]

It has nothing to do with patents.

The look of the Cube is trademarked. If they used different colors, or maybe little symbols on the stickers, they might have been OK.

It's the same thing as a counterfeit Gucci purse or Rolex.

Don't let corporations dictate language usage

[BetterThanCaesar]

That's double-plus ungood.

Besides, writing Lego in all-caps is really annoying. There is no reason for that other than making their name standing out in context. Like .NET or ATi. One capital letter is enough.

Calling the bricks "Lego bricks" is a valid request, though, since there really isn't anything called "a lego". At least not in my vocabulary. But that might be a matter of taste.