Posted on 04/19/2021 6:48:11 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Back in the 1960s, when you were Christmas shopping for your children, both boys and girls, you looked for toys that would help teach them useful skills for adulthood.
Before there were Legos, there were Erector Sets. In which you were given a wrench to screw together various steel pieces that were then hooked up to motors to make them do things.
But that's not all. Children were provided with microscopes, telescopes, chemistry sets, electronics kits and even home brewing kits.
Okay, I'm just kidding about the last part. But check out this video.
I had Thingmaker and Creepy Crawlers, but I really wanted a woodburning set. My mother informed me that they were only for boys.😡
I was a Lionel guy. Still have their famous 4-6-4 Hudson 773. We lived inNYC so every Christmas my dad and I went to see the Lionel display at their HQ on 26th between Madison and 5th. Then we’d walk to B’way off 23rd St to see the American Flyer display at Gilbert’s HQ. That building today is the site of Eataly, the grouping of Italian markets and restaurants
I still have the burns to show for it.
Don’t forget Marx toys...
Although the Marx name is now largely forgotten except by toy collectors, several of the products that the company developed remain strong icons in popular culture, including Rock’em Sock’em Robots, introduced in 1964, and its best-selling sporty Big Wheel tricycle, one of the most popular toys of the 1970s. In fact, the Big Wheel, which was introduced in 1969, is enshrined in the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Marx’s toys included tinplate buildings, tin toys, toy soldiers, playsets, toy dinosaurs, mechanical toys, toy guns, action figures, dolls, dollhouses, toy cars and trucks, and HO scale and O scale trains. Marx also made several models of typewriters for children. Marx’s less expensive toys were extremely common in dime stores, and its larger, costlier toys were staples for catalog and department store retailers such as Eaton’s, Gamages, Sears, W.T. Grant, Montgomery Ward, J. C. Penney and Spiegel especially around Christmas. In pre WWII America, it was common for Kresge’s and Woolworth’s to place yearly orders for at least one million dollars each with Marx.[2]
I know, right?
The only safety feature was the printing on the corner of the box saying CAUTION:HOT
And I’m not sure about that! Lol.
” I stunk up the house for days when someone told me that sulfur would burn.”
My pyro tendencies were inflamed (intentional pun) when i found out about saltpeter and sugar. Bought it at the drug store for $2 an 8 oz bottle. Things got really out of hand when I discovered you could buy it for $1.50/lb at the feed store.
my absolute fav was the panel and grider sets:
https://www.google.com/search?q=panel+and+girder+toy&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch
my second fav was the Mold Master:
https://www.google.com/search?q=mold+master+toy&source=lnms&tbm=isch
The real fun in my youth came from Remco:
Creepy Crawlers, I had those and Vac-U-Form, and an Erector Set. And Lincoln Logs.
I was just a little too old for the Big Wheel, but we did plenty of stupid stuff with bicycles, BB guns, and fireworks.
Dang, you beat me to it. Such a classic meme.
The Kenner Girder and Panel building sets were HO gauge, and I’d build suspension bridges for my trains.
I had one in the 1950s, but it must have been made in the 1930s, because it belonged to my uncle who died in WWII.
Had his Lionel Train set too, but somehow I managed to destroy that and/or scatter the parts to the wind. Too bad. I understand they are worth big bucks today.
My parents got me and my siblings some of this stuff as kids.
When we lived through it all, they stopped getting us anything.
“We tried!” they’d say to each other.
I loved my Gilbert Chemistry set and my toy Atomic Annie cannon that fired plastic nuclear shells.
Goodness, this is a COOL thread!
I LOVED my Erector set, and also those plastic block sets.
Also, anyone remember Crazy Ikes? They were fun!
“Creepy Crawlers”
Oh yes, that was the name.
You couldn’t have toys dangerous now a days. Kids can’t have as much fun either!
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