Today's dangerous toys pale to those of past

Chicago Sun Times ^ | November 26, 2003 | MARK BROWN SUN

[petercooper]

I still have the lawn darts somewhere. Wow they were awesome, even if a little dangerous.

[kegler4]

My 10-year-old son is getting a Creepy Crawler set for Christmas. Yes, you an still get them.

[kegler4]

I don't remember the shooting toy involved, but, yes, a friend of mine named Steve lost his left eye in fourth grade.

[Starboard]

there were some kind of plants that we could pull up that had a big clod of dirt around the roots

I recall a particular variety of plant (conveniently abudant) with a long stalk that, when properly cut to the right length to counterbalance the weight of the root, made dandy spears. Thank goodness these were "seasonal toys" only available in the Fall.

[Lokibob]

I'll admit I havn't read the whole thread, but....
we would stuff the strike anywhere matches down the barrel of our b-b guns. When the match hit the sidewalk or a rock, the matches would flare up, just like real bullets (we thought).

[Lokibob]

Stick a pin in the back side of a strike anywhere match, insert in a straw, and it makes a great blow gun.

[KneelBeforeZod]

I remember hearing about a study of boys and girls in my psych and sociology classes... basically they were given sticks or just some randomly shaped objects...no real toys.

of course the boys turned them into guns and cars etc, and the girls turned them in to people etc

[KneelBeforeZod]

i had to covet my neighbor kids toys (yes I was a sinner)

the coolest one I thought was a hand held air craft carrier...it was about 24" long maybe,and had a trigger to launch little plastic WWII fighters...

no one had that bazooka though...

[KneelBeforeZod]

I liked the little "bomb" that used caps...about 2 inches long maybe, heavy front end so it would nose down...you put caps in a space up front and just threw it up in the air... we used to throw those at each other...but at your feet, otherwise it wouldn't set off the cap.

Nothing like the smell of running thru a roll of 36 or so caps in those old cowboy guns.

[KneelBeforeZod]

I wonder if "Johnny Seven" that robot in "short circuit" (silly steve gutenberg movie") was a nod to that toy...I'd never heard of it before now

[Looking4Truth]

Cheery Picker, Lemon Peeler, Apple crate--Schwinn.
I'd buy one now if I could find one.

There was the Cotton Picker and the Grey Ghost, too. My brother and I had them. Of course BMX'ing before BMX was BMX trashed them. I saw one hanging from a ceiling at a bike shop in '97 and found out they can fetch a couple of grand now if intact.

[Looking4Truth]

Statists have enacted or are trying to enact 'zero tolerance' against most of the toys.

The reason is mostly sold as being for "safety" but these meglomaniacs could care less about anyone's safety except for their own, and of the corrupt state that they worship.

The objective of getting rid of these toys is to quell the natural curiousity and the development of mechanical knowledge that generally comes about as a result of playing with such toys.

Then you wind up with a bunch of males that have no natural curiosity or mechanical inclination, and hence no self-sufficiency. That makes them easy to control.

Sadly you are right IMHO. I'm having a blast on this thread because I've been lucky enough to experience most of what's been brought up.

But unfortunately, the sheeple of today need to grow something.....

[Looking4Truth]

Then you wind up with a bunch of males that have no natural curiosity or mechanical inclination, and hence no self-sufficiency. That makes them easy to control.

The almost perfect definition for the 'METROSEXUAL'!