first toy I ever got that I really wanted ! before that it was cap guns and spud guns and I always used to say "When do I get a real airgun ? (this was it )
I am way to old to have anything to do with them as a kid but I Remember buying one for my god daughter/niece at Christmas one year. She loved it. They weren’t on the market for very long. If I remember correctly they were recalled because they caused some kind of injuries.
This week (Feb 2021) I read that Barbie dolls are still a major seller for Mattel toy company. I remember in the late 1950s/early 1960s my sister had Barbie dolls. It's amazing that 60 years after its introduction Barbie dolls are still a major seller. I seem to remember that Barbie was somewhat controversial when it was introduced because she was the first doll to have breasts and to have the body of an adult woman, and the clothes to match.
i remember something like brio wooden track wooden toy trains except they weren't yet called brio. i remember it was before child safety protections so instead of magnetic coupling they had hook and eye couplings between the cars. i don't know if the dimensions were the same but i remember the track looked almost the exact same. i'm talking about very early 1950s. the same era as tinker-toy (tm) cast metal swap body small toy trucks, which were long before the concept was ever implemented as it is now in real international transportation.
i remember when model railroader magazine's byline was "model railroading is fun". that the hobby had started during the depression by people who had skill and time but very little money. of course i wasn't around until the late 40s and early 50s, and didn't turn 12 until 1960. but even into the 70s it was about enjoying a craft rather then spending a lot of money on finished products. i remember when the whole hippie thing, and not just the people who wore the appearance, but even a lot of people who went along with the main stream, it was about figuring out how to do things, build and make things, for your self, and not spending a lot of money to buy what what you could. it was really a time for do it yourselfers. a lot of books published during that time was about doing so.
mr potato head. was a bunch of little plastic eyes and noses and the rest, but you had to supply the potato. something i actually had as a kid. slinkies, think i had several of those at different times. the 50s were my kid years, 2-12.
I long for those days again, when the power of human imagination and ingenuity was put on display as a measure of pride.
I was busy building and racing HO cars on tracks like this... Or building and showing 1/25th scale model cars like this... Obviously, these are not my photos...
I went to an estate sale some years ago where the guy had an addition built to his garage and about as big, with a whole train village in it! There was a hole in the middle where you could watch and control. It was very impressive. I hope it eventually went to good, enthused hands.
