Baby Boomer Toy Trip Part One

[Kevinpreston3]

Veg, here you go, as promised. Everybody please add!!!!

Here are a few shots of my new toy room. Still not set up all the way yet, but getting there.

PLEASE EXCUSE THE MESS! But I wanted to share, just know I wish the "presentation" was more attractive.

Our house is really split into two houses. The front one is our main house. A small house was built in back, but not out of the detached garage like you see alot in older towns here like Orange. It was built as a seperate unit. The cool thing is that it was "grandfathered" in under the old codes, which means I have a fully functioning kitchen, rest room and laundry in the house. It's self contained.

The living area of the house contains my wife's larger office. Our vintage dishwasher and stove are in the kitchen, and the back "bedroom" contains the following on the left side wall.

I loved Tog'l when I was a kid (obscure Mattel Lego type toy) so I have collected almost every version of it.

There are two Jimmy Jets (loved that as a kid of 6, and now) a Pan Am 747 by Remco, a Remco Flying Fox, and an Ideal Fighter Jet Console. To the right of that is one of my Plazer guns, a story unto itself.

At the bottom is a mix of items, a Mattel Magnetel set, Eldon Skee-Ball and the edge of a huge Motorific Racerific Super Speedway set (with "Crash Mountain"!)

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Right side of room

Here is the right side as you walk in.

Operation X500 by Deluxe Reading, Eldon Bowl-a-Matic, another Skee-Ball plus a bizarre mini Skee-Ball, an Operation Orbit (years to find that one) GiJoe Mobile Support Vehicle, and a really odd Mattel Driving School from like 1960.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Closet area

Still many, many items in crates. Just don't have time.

 

[petek]

Kevin, a friend of mine had a toy called Orbit, it was shaped something like the top half of a globe(dome) with a space ship that circled around, controls on the front so that you could control the spaceship and pick up magnetic little pieces on the earths surface or soemthing. That's not the same one you have is it.. I think his was blue.

 

[jasonl]

BIG TRAK

WOOHOO! My cousin had one of those. We had so much fun taking turns and programming the thing.

It was LOADS of fun for two 10 year olds.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Pete...

That is exactly it. It is Operation Orbit, made in about 1963 by Transogram. I have a salesman's flyer on it somewhere.

I thought I was buying a console play toy, but it really is a skill game. Your "rocket" is a magnet that spins around in a circle. It picks up the rocket nose cone when you dip down. Moving in another orbit off to the side, and intersecting only at one small area, are three planets. Each has a magnet on it.

You can control the speed of your orbit and a little of the height. The goal is to time it just right to get the rockets onto the planets. It can be very hard!

Very fun and rare game.

 

[petek]

Wow, that's it..I wanted one so bad back then for myself. I wonder if my friend all those years ago kept it. Now I know i wasn't hallucinating. Just wait till I get to California which toy I want to play with.

 

[jmirawm]

G.I. Joe

Although I LOVED playing with my sisters barbie dolls...more than she did in fact. I also had G.I.Joe. I have that vehicle at my parents house. The yellow one with four wheels on each side. I guess i need to go over there and dig through my toys. Mom saves everything. I am sure they are all still there.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Ooooh, I wanna come visit! You definitely have a LOT more toys than I do. Better get to work on those pictures!

I can still remember the commercial: "Voice Controlllll Kennedy Airport!" My brother got one for Christmas one year. The headphones really hurt!

Always loved "Lie Detector" and it's sister "Spy Detector". I thought they were much more fun than Clue.

Do you ever set up a Christmas tree with vintage toys under it? I do, with my little aluminum tree.

veg

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Veg great idea...

We have a vintage aluminum one with the roto-light unit. The thing is really scraggly though...maybe with enough tinsel.

We didn't decorate at all last year because we were in the process of selling the house. It was terrible. This year, I am making up for it. It is going to be total "C-9" lightbulbs everywhere outside. I am going to try to find vintage lawn spotlights (in red and green lights of course) to flood the lawn. No twinkle lights or monochrome lights for me...C-9s only!

We had the original Lie Detector game until I was about 4, then it was one of those "whatever happened to..." deals. The one in the pic is from the 80s by Pressman. I NEVER heard of Spy Detector, I am intrigued.

Voice Control Kennedy Airport was one of those toys that looked neat on the box and when you got it home, it was "what the heck????" It looked like you were able to "fly the planes" somehow, but there is no flying here. As you know, they are crummy plastic airplanes and little records in the control tower playing some sort of chatter. Man was I disappointed. But years later I go get one for the collection. Had to have it, and it is very cool still to look at.

jmirawm I tried to play with my sisters with my GI Joe (legs and arms all contorted and backwards, but heck, I was 6) but they always threw me out of the room. I don't know if I wanted to really play with them, or just create havoc. My sister (who is now an oil engineer) made little lamps for her Barbies where the lamp base was a AA battery, a flashlight bulb was the light, and a paper lampshade. Both of my sisters believe it or not, made Barbie furniture out of folded and reinforced KLEENEX! No kidding, they looked like overstuffed furniture and not half bad.

When they weren't looking, Joe would take off with their Irwin-made Barbie Hot Rod. Joe liked it so much he broke off the roll bar.

My sisters all have their original Barbie Dolls, all the original cases, clothes. They were very careful with them. I don't know if the Kleenex furniture survived. My sister was keeping them in her attic and I told them to get them out of that hot area! She finally did. Oddly, my one sister gave me her Chatty Cathy doll. I kept it just for sentimental reasons, but always wonder why she wanted to get rid of it.