Childhood toys that you wish you had kept.

Drac of the Sharp Smiles · Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:02 pm

The few ponies I had are still with me and in near perfect condition, and I still have the combs that came with them. (However, the comb's plastic hasn't fared well over time. Have other people with old ponies found problems with the combs over the years?) The few I have include two of the ORIGINAL release set of My Little Ponies. You won't see me auctioning them anytime soon.

The thing I had that I miss was a fully working Pong console. This was the original thing (about the size of an Atari 2800) that played ONLY Pong and had two attached controllers that allowed movement only up and down, since that was all Pong needed. I was temporarily storing it at my parent's house while I was still moving a lot immediately after college and my older sister (who keeps lots of stuff herself but thinks everyone else should throw everything out) decided to "clean" my parent's house without telling anyone. She threw away that and many other things, really pissing off several family members.

I am glad there's a market in older toys however, because I was finally able to fill a hole in my childhood. My mother refused to buy me the GI Joe action figure of Zartan (my favorite character) because he was one of the bad guys. A few years ago, my husband found me one as a present, complete with the swamp skiier (all stickers intact) and all the little pieces most people lost..... PLUS the original "file card" from the back of the box that declared him to be a paranoid schitzophrenic. (That part of the file card text was quickly removed, I assume after angry letters from people in the mental health care industry, and the original card is extremely rare.) I allowed myself to play with it some, but the figure is now in a small shadowbox hung in my bedroom behind UV protective glass. (The color changing plastic used for his skin is apparently easily damaged by UV light, something I didn't know previously to talking with the collector who sold us the figure.)

cutiebunny · Post by **cutiebunny** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 2:18 pm

I still have most of my toys, with exception to all the My Little Ponies that I gave to my cousin. Although these toys are now worth quite a bit, I think that the benefit that she got from them probably is about the same. She now rides horses full-time and plans on looking into a career involving horses.

I have all my Barbies still, the Barbie Dream House and anything else pertaining to them. My parents held onto the items in the hopes that they could give it to my kids. Of course, this means that I'll have all boys and none of them will want anything to do with my Barbie House.

I think, if anything, I miss my Jem doll with the flashing earnings - it was such an innovative toy at the time.

pixie_princess · Post by **pixie_princess** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:08 pm

I wish I still had my Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I have bits of their clothing and combs, but I'm missing the dolls themselves

I had moved around a lot as a little kid, and I get they got lost in one of the moves. I still have my MLPs though.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 5:38 pm

I wish I had kept my hot wheels cars and kept them in good shape. I had quite a few of them and the retro styles they came in would look kind of neat today.

I also wish I kept those Wacky Packages cards I used to have. I didn't have very many of them, but I have fond memories of them as a kid. It was a big thing owning the "good" cards in Elementary school:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Packages

I wish I didn't give away that ?1962-1963 Batman comic I had.

Another one wish I hadn't gotten rid of was that old LED football game. It was the second edition that came out after the white one shown at the top of this webpage. Mine was dark green:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/a-br ... deo-games/

I still have my old LCD Donkey Kong handheld game, Space Invaders LED game and Texas Instruments TI-99 4A computers though.

Drac of the Sharp Smiles · Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:59 pm

Keropi wrote:I still have my old LCD Donkey Kong handheld game, Space Invaders LED game and Texas Instruments TI-99 4A computers though.

YAY!! Someone else with one. ^_^ My TI-99/4A didn't suffer the same fate as the Pong console because I always kept it with me. Best of all, there is a TI office near my house that was able to put me in touch with an old employee once..... he had boxes of the TI-99/4A software still and gave me as many as I could carry away. *^_^*

mightymask · Post by **mightymask** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 10:34 pm

I have 11 toys I wish I had kept -

One -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYSGVvA4ojE

Two through Eleven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xqc7uC0hR4

Belldandy · Post by **Belldandy** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:01 pm

Drac of the Sharp Smiles wrote:
Keropi wrote:I still have my old LCD Donkey Kong handheld game, Space Invaders LED game and Texas Instruments TI-99 4A computers though.
YAY!! Someone else with one. ^_^ My TI-99/4A didn't suffer the same fate as the Pong console because I always kept it with me. Best of all, there is a TI office near my house that was able to put me in touch with an old employee once..... he had boxes of the TI-99/4A software still and gave me as many as I could carry away. *^_^*

TI-99/4A is awesome! I remember programing in logo and basic on it... I'm sure it's buried in my parents garage somewhere, I think we had at least two or three of them, my Dad loved it so much!

Parsec was my favorite <3

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:52 pm

Yep...nothing compares to typing in your own game programs and saving the programs on casette tape. Those $500 5 1/4 inch floppy drives were way too expensive for me.

The problem I had with TI-99/4As were that the cartridge slots would go bad after awhile even if you used that cartridge slot saver device. I would play the cartridge games, get a new high score and then the game would lock up because of an error. It seemed to happen the most often while I was playing the Donkey Kong game. I was never very good at the arcade game, but I was much better at the TI Donkey Kong game and had a lot of fun with it. But that game kept locking up on me.

I liked that TI Pac-Man knock off game too. What was it called? Munchman or something like that. That game got pretty hectic toward the end.

Parsec was fun.

Sylia · Post by **Sylia** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:23 am

I had a stuffed toy of the dragon from the Dragon River, at Chessington World of Adventures in the South of England.

I used to go there frequently as a child as it was our local themepark, and the river was my childhood favourite ride

. The real dragon from the ride is this huge fibreglass monster that lay along a massive wall of rocks; after the first "drop" he eats your boat XD (basically you pass through his massive open jaws into a tunnel). From the outside his body gets smaller along the length to the tip of his tail, and I always wondered how we all fit through there okay XD (hey 5 year olds are easily tricked

). Basically, I completely adored that dragon... every Summer it was this familiar sight, like an old friend I went back to and a symbol of all that fun I was excitedly having XD.

The gift shop for the Mystic East land in the park (the area where the ride was located) had large stuffed toys of the dragon for sale one year... I was so excited when I saw it that I just squealed in delight LOL. He was kind of the size of one of those stuffed toy 'sausage dogs' people used as draft excluders along the bottoms of doors, and he was made of green felt, handstitched it looked like, with red spines along his back and yellow hair made of wool. He was a really good replica of the real thing ^^. Anyway, he was bought for me, and I took him home, named him "Drango", and loved him for years. (I just loved Chinese dragons anyway as a child

).

In the end I got rid of him when I was having a really bad time as a young teenager

. I though throwing away some of those sentimental childhood connections was the answer. I gave him to a children's charity along with several bags full of other things that I'd really, really loved. I realllly wish I had him now though

. I looked around on the Internet occassionally from time to time, but I've never seen anyone else so much as mention the stuffed toy of the Chessington dragon. There can't have been many made since as I said I think he was handmade and seemed to be a one-off season thing at the gift shop. But if anyone should ever see him, please reunite me ^^?

I also had one of those Tetris watches XD. It disappeared; I think I gave it away. I don't really miss it I guess ^^;

Sylia · Post by **Sylia** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:25 am

(sorry for the double post, but I forgot to add...)

The real thing looks like this:
http://www.cwoainsider.co.uk//cpg133/al ... alls_3.JPG

He goes through a new lick of paint every few years, the current one has his features a little on the fierce side lol. At least he's green again lol- could have sworn he was blue for a while several years back

. Just can't find any pics other than of his head right now.

JuniorMintKiss · Post by **JuniorMintKiss** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:13 am

Luckily, I still have my Popple! It's a rock star one with a cool silver fabric guitar and an ear piercing.

As far as toys that I wished I'd kept, I had a huge Roger Rabbit doll that I took everywhere with me. I think my mom did something with it... and I also had quite a few MLP as well (some may still be at my grandma's). Can't say the condition of them is mint, since many grandkids have had their way with them...

transmet · Post by **transmet** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:25 pm

Keropi wrote:Another one wish I hadn't gotten rid of was that old LED football game. It was the second edition that came out after the white one shown at the top of this webpage. Mine was dark green

edit: Ebay-"2002 MATTEL CLASSIC FOOTBALL 2 ELECTRONIC GAME"

Lol! I was actually on the hunt for the Head-to-Head version that my friends and I wore out back in the day. I ran into the 2002 2nd generation dark green single player version (which introduced the "pass" feature) at a Right Aid about 2 years ago going for $10! Needless to say, I snapped it and 2 AA batteries up and have enjoyed that thing whenever I'm caught in my car with any downtime. It's even been known to draw a small crowd of nostalgic 30-40 somethings, including one who proudly showed me the app featuring the game for the iPhone (which is actually a watered-down version of the 1st generation sans the passing feature).

Keropi wrote:I still have my old LCD Donkey Kong handheld game, Space Invaders LED game and Texas Instruments TI-99 4A computers though.

My old man started out his engineering career at TI and used to bring home all kinds of wonderful toys, including an early (talk'n '72-73 here) LED calculator, a early ('75-76) LED watch (which I desperately wish I still had), an early ('77) Speak-and-Spell, as well as an early ('79-80) TI-99/4. On the down-side of all that, we got to test out a prototype ('75?) Fairchild Videogame System (pre-Atari 2600). Unfortunately, it delayed us getting a 2600 because my Dad just couldn't understand why we weren't happy with this dog of a system

(spoiled little brats that we were

).

Penguinton · Post by **Penguinton** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:14 pm

My family throws nothing away. We still have some of my Great Grandfather's childhood toys.

Its kinda creepy in a way. But my parents hoarded the majority my toys in the attic or basement for better or worse. I have no idea WHERE they actually are located but I know they haven't left the house.

Although I do wish I didn't demolish some of my old GI Joes. And alot of them went MIA sometimes when I played with them outside. They had some very rough missions.

Caroline · Post by **Caroline** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:35 am

Drac of the Sharp Smiles wrote:The few ponies I had are still with me and in near perfect condition, and I still have the combs that came with them. (However, the comb's plastic hasn't fared well over time. Have other people with old ponies found problems with the combs over the years?)

seems like ponies are dominating this post. what kind of problems do the combs have? if you see regrind spots or mold, keep the comb far far away from the pony. the mold (aka pony cancer) spreads and it will ruin the pony.

Belldandy16 · Post by **Belldandy16** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:06 am

what does the mold look like?
i checked on the last few i have left the other day and i noticed one or two have some discoloration in them (might have been that way when they were bought but i havent seen them in so long i dont remember).
thanks for letting us know!