Best Toys Ever

William and I went to see the fantastic Walnut Creek Model Railway today. It was packed with two and three-year-old boys and their dads.

The boys were all stunned, in awe, clinging to the handrails staring at the vast array of tracks, trains, buildings, vehicles, noises (thunder, rain, mood music) and lights (daybreak, night, lightening).

The dads were transfixed too, but you could tell their minds were elsewhere; pondering, as I was, the prospect of converting the garage into a giant re-creation of the Sante Fe Southern Railway, complete with mountain scenery, and a scale replica of the town of Lamy.

Hmmmmm....

When I was William's age, my dad made me something like that. I was too young at the time to remember it exactly now, but there was a large track nailed to a board that lay flat when it was brought down by a hinge on the wall. My brother still has the locomotive that was my dad's pride-and-joy. I remember very clearly that I thought it was awesome.

Then again, I remember my other favorite toys with similar joy. Did you have any of these?

• Scalextric - Electric racing cars, powered by hand-held throttles. It was almost impossible to maintain high speeds and keep the cars on the track, but that became part of the fun. I remember creating 50-lap Grand Prix races wherein I would simply replace any car that had somersaulted across the living room back onto the track and continue as if this sort of thing happened all the time in real racing.

• Subbuteo -The idea of subbuteo (flicking small soccer players attached to hemispherical bases around a green baize soccer field in pursuit of a ball half the size of the entire player) seems ludicrous now...but my dirty secret is that I still have a set in the garage that I bought on eBay a few years ago. Anyone want a game?

• LEGO -When I was a boy, Lego involved real creativity. You couldn't just BUY the Star Wars set...you had to painstakingly build your own Millennium Falcon with only square or rectangular pieces, and the planet Naboo had to be created from scratch with shoes boxes for terrain and a large bed sheet for landscape.

• Marbles -I feel like I should be 65 years-old to admit I played with marbles, but I had hundreds of them, and somehow used to imagine them to be anything from two sets of armies to cars that I would send hurtling around my loop-the-loop track!

• The Hornby Train Set -It was awesome, and as I recall, there was another bigger set that I had in my teens. I'm pretty sure it was really my dad's toy...but that's okay. I can relate now.

That reminds me...must go and decide whether I'm going to put Lamy high up above the bikes, or across the top of the work bench...

 

 

Comments

[Zoe]

As a girl from the 70's I have slightly different memories ....

Lego ... of course, a total given, but I liked to build houses and have total towns with stories (daughter now does this with abandon, although we've just bought her the train set ... woo hoo .. to the remote control, level crossing and station)

Subbuteo .. I remember it, a boy friend (note the big space between the 2 words, I was way way too young for that joiner) ... had a Subbuteo set, I remember hours of flicking

Marbles ... I still have my marbles (yes, yes), no, seriously, I do .. they are preserved in a jar :)

Conkers, do you remember conkers? I know, technically doesn't fit into "toy" category, but we did spend hours gathering, drying and bashing :)

Apart from that, as a girl ... well, I had "Pippa" dolls, and then "Sindy" dolls, I was not a "Barbie" girl (probably too expensive ?)

And above all else ... my father bought me a farm, complete with horses and fences .... that was my absolute favourite :)

[David]

So, are you trying to infer you are YOUNGER or OLDER than me with your "girl from the 70s" crack!?

Of COURSE I remember conkers...the pilgrimage down Whitfield Hill where all the horse chestnut trees were...the application of nail varnish (shh...don't tell anyone)...it was a rite of passage!

Good point about dolls...not that I played with dolls, obviously, but I did have Action Man! My favorite was the old-fashioned diver's outfit Action Man. Classic.

[Dushka]

I bet you Luca would play Subbuteo with you for an entire weekend.

[Ella]

Marbles! Skaletrix! Lego! ahhhh. Can I borrow yours (garage) for Ivan when William has had enough?!

[David]

Dushka - that is actually not a bad idea for a weekend! I will look for an Inter team on eBay for Luca!

[David]

Ella - once William is done with the CURRENT set-up, the garage will be getting transformed into something even more amazing! Of course, Ivan is always welcome to visit!