I remember chewing on the plug somehow... I don't know why. Yes, that taste and also the smell of super bouncy balls.
I think I had this one (I'm 99% sure): the rubber or whatever it's made of was compromised, and I was half sure I was getting cancer by playing with it. But I was lucky and had a boglin...
When I was a young lad in the 40s, I remember ordering and receiving an Atomic Bomb ring ! I think I may have ordered it from the classic old Johnson-Smith catalog.
I had an "Irradiated Dime" .... well protected in cardboard and plastic, so it was safe... or, maybe not.
Plastic? I remember my older brother's steel "gunsmoke" lunchbox, it had a real metal thermos with the glass liner, plastic cap, of course.. Oh, I bet they sold a lot of replacement glass... My dad always had one of the metal and glass thermoses to take to the office...
Ah, REAL slot cars. Did you have a track, or did you have to go to the track shop and rent time on theirs? We had a huge layout for HO cars...like almost 10 x 10 feet... So much track that I had to put a few 'booster' terminal tracks blocks in the layout to compensate for the track's voltage drop...crappy steel... It had lighting, several tunnels, grass, mountains, trees, a river, bridge, banked corners, the whole deal....oh, and a full length drag strip along the back, with a sharp turn at the end...getcha every time....
I cannot attest to my memory.... Yeah, by the time I got a lunch box, the thermos was all plastic and wasn't worth crap. Then the infamous brown paper lunch bag that, of course, one would have to meticulously fold up and use for the next few weeks.....only the rich kids got to throw them away...oh heaven forbid...buy lunch..
I walked six blocks to the slot car center where they had 3 tracks. That Manta Ray car was a gift from my neighbor when he returned from Vietnam. He let me pick it out. He made a ton of money there running a PX store. He bragged about getting the other GIs whatever they wanted. When he left for 'nam he gave me his bicycle which I used to deliver newspapers at 5am every morning. It got stolen when I popped into a shoe store. I had to buy my own then...
Shoot, your bike was your life. We could never take it (the junkers they were) any place and leave it for fear of it being stolen...school, shops, city pool, parks...who had money for a lock? Or another bike....dad would say, too bad, you figure it out... My older gear head brother was big into the slot cars....there was a track that had about 8 lanes...was also a big model builder.. When he got back from the Army's motor pool in Germany during Viet Nam, he opened up a small body shop in a small town and cleaned up. Retired to Florida at 52. Has a place on the water, a benz, a bmw, a boat, a land yacht, and an old faithful pickup. He is my "not everyone needs college" story.
Superball - by WHAM-O. Boing boing boing....word to the wise...never hit one with a baseball bat. I think that one went into orbit, probably hit Sputnik.
This is one of the worst toys ever invented. It's so bad, not only was it banned in 1976, but the dangers it presented caused the formation of the Consumer Protection Bureau. Here are Clackers...
My younger sister had one and she drove me crazy with it. It was loud and obnoxious as well as dangerous. I couldn't believe they were marketing it to kids. View attachment 358827
