Ever Wonder What You Would Have Gotten If You Ordered That Crap They Advertised in Comic Books?

The X-Ray specs, I never once believed; I was enchanted, to use Jeff Zeleney's word, by the idea, and had a normal boy's curiosity about little girls' underwear, but even as a very little kid I realized that x-ray spectacles would be impossible, and even if it were possible, it would not be an gizmo that could be had for a mere 98 cents.

Something that mesmerized me -- because it seemed actually possible, though not at the given price -- was the claim of a 7-foot tall ghost that you could control and make float around per your commands and scare the living hell out of people.

Now, I had an idea that that would indeed be possible -- I would dream of the radio control and the little lightweight directional fan that would hang beneath a helium balloon, like an airship's gondola, the whole thing draped in white cheesecloth perhaps stained with glow-in-the-dark ink to give it a spectral halo.

And I dreamt, and dreamt, and dreamt of that ghost.

But I sort of doubted I would get a helium tank, a radio control, and a fan propulsion system for the $1.49 or whatever they wanted for it.

Also causing me to doubt this was the alleged Frankenstein's Monster they also offered, supposed with the same features.

See, I could see how they could give you ghost -- a ghost could just be a helium balloon and some light gauzy fabric draped over it. That indeed could look like a ghost.

But how could you do Frankenstein's Monster? It's solid. We're talking a lot more material for that. And Frankenstein's Monster doesn't float; he walks.

So, for that to be real, they would have to send you a working, walking seven-foot tall robot with some kind of latex to mimic flesh.

And that, I realized, would be impossible, and that in turn punctured my dreams about the radio-controlled ghost. If they were lying about Frankstenstein -- and they must be lying about that one -- they must also be lying about the ghost.

But I used to lie in bed for long hours perseverating to myself, trying to convince myself, rationalize to myself that while the Frankenstein's Monster thing was a lie, the ghost thing could actually, plausibly be real.

It's a weird feeling I have right now, having looked this up, the memories of those old muttering internal conversations with myself thinking of a Remote-Controlled Ghost, and how it could totally be possible, and wouldn't that be wonderful?

And then would come the doubts: For 98 cents, Dummy? What are you, a Dum-Dum, Dummy?

But they couldn't lie could they? Not to children, of all people. There are laws.

And I did this a lot as a kid.

I thought about that damned ghost a lot. All the people I'd scare, and all the friends I'd make with my amazing technological illusions. I really tried to convince myself this was a real thing.

Well anyway, this guy collected most of those things advertised in comics, buying them decades later on eBay, and now, for the first time ever, I have the definitive word on that Remote Control Ghost.

Collectors Weekly: What were the biggest disappointments, aside from the X-Ray Spex?
The other [disappointment, apart from the gadget that supposedly allowed you to throw your voice like a ventriloquist] is that U-Control Ghost. The ad says, "U-Control 7-foot life-size ghost. It obeys commands indoors and outdoors, acts life-like, soars 30 to 40 feet. You control in secret, conceal in your pocket, ready to operate, floats, dances, spooky effects, 7-foot head and body, white shroud, secret control." Well, it’' a balloon and a trash bag, basically, and some string. That would be the ultimate disappointment because that ad paints such an elaborate image in your mind, and even the picture shows a boy fleeing from this huge specter. I’m envisioning this remote control thing that's massive and scary, and then you find out it's just a balloon. Well, what's horrible is one of the faces that was printed on the balloon is none other than Casper the Friendly Ghost. It's supposed to be this terrifying thing, and it's literally the friendliest ghost there is.

Decades later, and the mystery that haunted me is finally solved.

And it's a buzzkill:

Check that guy's link to find out what you would have gotten if you bought those X-Ray Specs, or the Amazing Radio Spy Pen, or Sea-Monkeys building futuristic miniature subterranean civilizations, somehow, or Charles Atlas' Bodybuilding course, or... that army of 500 plastic soldiers you could have for a couple of bucks.

Man, is that a disappointment too.

Open Thread, but feel free to share what you really wanted as a kid, but never got -- or did get, and whether it was all that you hoped for. Soothsayer suggested that as a topic last Friday; without remembering that until just now, I just wrote a post on that theme.

So it seems like a good subject for discussion.

Posted by: Ace at 06:54 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Texas Rangers win 6-4.

Posted by: dogfish at October 09, 2015 05:42 PM (0O2Lr)

2 Putin slips that ghost over his dick to scare Obama.

Posted by: maddogg at October 09, 2015 05:45 PM (xWW96)

3 ...I'm waiting...

Posted by: dogfish at October 09, 2015 05:47 PM (0O2Lr)

4 You owe me a first.

Posted by: dogfish at October 09, 2015 05:55 PM (0O2Lr)

5 I'm so boxed in

Posted by: Harry Paratestes, the artist formally known as mynewhandle at October 09, 2015 06:51 PM (AkOaV)

6 I remember actually placing an order for that very ghost, as well as a super scary bat and a spider.

To say I was disappointed is an understatement. It's a huge part of why I am so messed up to this day.

Posted by: Pug Mahon at October 09, 2015 06:53 PM (RwwCT)

7 Casper the friendly condom?

Posted by: EC at October 09, 2015 06:53 PM (D/6wx)

8 With reservoir tip!

Posted by: R Burgundy, SD Cali at October 09, 2015 06:54 PM (i9uqJ)

9 >>>s well as a super scary bat and a spider.

The bat!!!! The bat I wanted even more than the ghost!!!

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 06:54 PM (dciA+)

10 Love this post Thank you ace!!
I had sea monkeys
My mom threw them away when I was at sleep away camp
The whole sea monkey kingdom sank beneath the waves of that toilet like Atlantis
That's how I pictured it anyway

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 06:55 PM (qxNrP)

11 what was the bat?!!

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 06:55 PM (dciA+)

12 In Authentic Colors

well, shit, I was hoping for the inauthentic colors.
*throws money back in drawer*

Posted by: weft cut-loop at October 09, 2015 06:56 PM (JmGFJ)

13 Don't forget about turning your vacuum cleaners into hovercrafts.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 06:56 PM (kqGWM)

14 And I did this a lot as a kid.

And now you have to wear glasses. At least you didn't go blind.

Posted by: Ready For Hillary!!11!! at October 09, 2015 06:56 PM (Dwehj)

15 Actually, the bat was the least disappointing part of my purchase. It was rubber (low-grade, admittedly), and I actually still had it when I was in high school.

Posted by: Pug Mahon at October 09, 2015 06:56 PM (RwwCT)

16 The one I wanted most was plans to build a jet engine (provided you had access to a 9" lathe).

Posted by: profligatewaste at October 09, 2015 06:57 PM (+gatN)

17 I got the big chest of 500 army men (or whatever large, boy-impressing number they used) and they were flat. I mean, they had a base and everything but the soldier itself was FLAT. Nothing at all like the usual Green Army Men. It was my first lesson in practical economics: If it seems to good to be true it probably is.

Posted by: joncelli, in a cynical mood at October 09, 2015 06:57 PM (1FhAQ)

18 >>>Actually, the bat was the least disappointing part of my purchase. It was rubber (low-grade, admittedly), and I actually still had it when I was in high school

just the same rubber bat they sell in every drug store at holloween?

They also made great claims of the bat obeying your commands... did they at least give you a stick and some rubber string?

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 06:57 PM (dciA+)

19 Columbia records and tapes.
All those free cassette tapes...oy!!
In my defense, it was the 70's...

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 06:58 PM (NOIQH)

20 17 joncelli,

i know, i saw that in the picture at the link. I always wanted those soldiers. I did not see how it was possible to have such a huge army for so little money.

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 06:58 PM (dciA+)

21 Biggest disappointment I ever had was buying Platinum Membership to this blog for the use of ampersands. You can't even give them away now!

Here....have some free ones.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Posted by: EC at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (D/6wx)

22 good for the rangers....looks like the astros are going to fall to the royals and the cards have scored in the first against the cubs

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (0O7c5)

23 My big disappointment was a "free" camera when I was 12. ("Only" a $5.00 shipping charge.)

It was a plastic piece of no work that had light leaks. And for you kids, Back when we had that Kodak camera film, light leaking into the camera was a big deal. That camera made me the suspicious and cynical person I am today.

Best lesson I ever had, I am glad my Mom and Dad let me "Win" it.

Posted by: rd at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (SukjU)

24 >>>The one I wanted most was plans to build a jet engine (provided you had access to a 9" lathe).

i think i realized that was out of my abilities... what they just sent you the plans?

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (dciA+)

25 and can we all agree that the mets must beat the dodgers?

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (0O7c5)

26 TOO good to be true. Damn am I tired.

Posted by: joncelli, in a cynical mood at October 09, 2015 06:59 PM (1FhAQ)

27 Chris Elliot had a great episode of his short-lived show Get A Life where he built the mini-sub and took it for a ride in the bathtub.

Damn my 8yo self wanted one of those subs. And Ace, I'd forgotten how many hours I lied in bed trying to understand a world where my visions of those advertised items fought reality in my pre-pubescent brain.

Posted by: Bivalve Curious at October 09, 2015 07:00 PM (k/Ctg)

28 the "Kenner Give-a-Show Projector" was my greatest wish. My grandparents gave it to me for Christmas. It was nowhere near as much fun as the commercials promised. I was bored with before school went back in session.

Posted by: museisluse at October 09, 2015 07:01 PM (5erTj)

29 Sea monkeys were a disappointment.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:01 PM (NOIQH)

30
Of course that ghost wouldn't scare people, you need to use it with the horror record.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at October 09, 2015 07:01 PM (ODxAs)

31
Get a Life S1E20 Neptune 2000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Gm1lc0BmE

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at October 09, 2015 07:02 PM (kdS6q)

32 What intrigued me more were those military surplus catalogs. I always wanted a jeep for $39.

Posted by: Roy at October 09, 2015 07:02 PM (fWLrt)

33 Cardinals will win in a three game sweep, followed by a mysterious spike in live goat sacrifices throughout greater Chicagoland, and several weeks of low priced curry specials.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 07:02 PM (kqGWM)

34 33 Cardinals will win in a three game sweep, followed by a mysterious spike in live goat sacrifices throughout greater Chicagoland, and several weeks of low priced curry specials.
Posted by: Walter Freeman
----------------------------

Chicago has outsourced that work to Minneapolis, a.k.a. Greater Somalia.

Posted by: Roy at October 09, 2015 07:03 PM (fWLrt)

35 was the skinny guy who always got sand kicked in his face the ad for charles atlas?

i hated him.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:04 PM (0z/89)

36 I bought that ghost! Fell for the ads I did. hahahaha

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 09, 2015 07:04 PM (JO9+V)

37 When I was a kid we played with real bats-- no joke.

I feel sad for myself now--I didn't even dare to dream of getting something I liked.

Although I did get that girly underwear--yeah me!

Posted by: Sun Tzu at October 09, 2015 07:04 PM (mcm0N)

38 I liked Silly Putty. Silly Putty and the colored cartoons from the Sunday paper. A winning combination.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:04 PM (dFi94)

39 and had a normal boy's curiosity about little girls' underwear

I've made it a lifelong obsession.

Posted by: Sen. Menendez at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (D/6wx)

40 I've got it.

Ace is Ralphie from A Christmas Story with his decoder ring.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Never Forget. Never Forgive at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (GEICT)

41 I think the only thing I ordered from the back of comic books was... comic books. Some guy from Canada whose name escapes me. Rarely was disappointed

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (2lndx)

42 I wanted the barbie dream house (elevator!) as a kid but my cousin got it
I got the barbie camper
Yes, my barbie had to drive her yellow corvette up to a freaking trailer NTTAWWT

Then the boy cousins got all the star war toys and I kept getting ballerina barbie *horrors*

Eventually my bionic woman and wonder woman barbies kicked the shxt out of my ballerina barbies and donny & Marie barbies, took the 'vette and left them in the trailer (sheeeet I could a wrote Thelma & Louise in 1976)

This effects me as an adult I guess because I have an addiction to Comic Cons and keep having the urge to jump in the car and ditch the house since the flood and remodeling disasters

But not enough room in car for all my star wars & star trek crap lols

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (qxNrP)

43
ViewtoMidEast

Unbelievable- 100's of stabbings in 1 week against Israelis but CNN Highlights 1 attack by Israeli on Arabs

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (iQIUe)

44 I don't think my sea monkeys ever even came alive.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (UFZRg)

45 these were NOT disappointing at all. I expected this to be crap, like the ghost or bat, but in fact it actually did EXACTLY what it claimed to do.

In fact, it lied in a good way: It claimed to be safe for children, but in fact it was pretty dangerous, and could easily be used as a weapon. It was very hard to aim, but if you could hit someone, it would leave a welt, or put the proverbial eye out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpz_8iu3vnI

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:05 PM (dciA+)

46 >>I liked Silly Putty. Silly Putty and the colored cartoons from the Sunday paper. A winning combination.

Yes!

Whereas Slinkies always seemed more fun in theory than in practice. The one I had got tangled and bent almost immediately.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:06 PM (NOIQH)

47 Ever Wonder What You Would Have Gotten If You Ordered That Crap They Advertised in Comic Books?Barack Obama as Present-Snit?

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 09, 2015 07:06 PM (0irYe)

48 Cardinals will win in a three game sweep, followed
by a mysterious spike in live goat sacrifices throughout greater
Chicagoland, and several weeks of low priced curry specials.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 07:02 PM (kqGWM)
============================

::: makes scowly Ernie Banks face at Walter :::

oh who am I kidding. Ernie never scowled.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:06 PM (dFi94)

49 I got some fun stuff from the Johnson Smith novelty catalog as a kid.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (Mz/Zg)

50 I ordered the itching powder and little tablets you could tamp into cigarettes to go !BANG!, neither of which worked, unless you count my dad yelling "What the hell is going on?!"

Sea monkeys were the biggest disappointment, and really a child's first introduction to comic book flim-flammery. Brine shrimp do not wear little crowns or bows in their kelpy hair.

One thing I did not want but got for my birthday was a ventriloquist's dummy, complete with top hat and monocle. Even my young self new that his smiling, gap-toothed visage masked pure evil. I'd give anything to have him now so that I could speak through him at our office's weekly status updates.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (jR7Wy)

51 That recorder thing from Home Alone.

My dad got it for me and man I was so, so excited. I was going to fool everyone!

Didn't work out as planned.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (bYGAR)

52 why is the formatting on this page so borked?

Posted by: redc1c4 at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (0irYe)

53 You can bat, bats down when they come out of your attic sith a broom.

Then your dumber cousins can stick 'em in grandma's canning jars till they die.

Good thing grandna got too old to can stuff. Pffffttt.

Posted by: Sun Tzu at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (mcm0N)

54 as a kid...i really wanted the bozo the clown blow up punching bag....i asked for it for my 6th birthday.....i didn't get it....but then i never got what i asked for on my birthday.....my children actually got me one for Christmas a few years back....i can't bring myself to open the box......it's like the magic of it will disappear......

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (0O7c5)

55 Not sure if they were from the back of comic books, but I also ordered--they were free--pamphlets from places around the country. Was mesmerized by Salt Lake and the dinosaurs supposedly there. Also that it was so salty you couldn't drown, unless you were trapped in a fighter jet.

Still haven't been there.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (2lndx)

56 I also saved a metric fuckton of Bazooka Joe comics. Why, I never figured out.

Posted by: Roy at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (fWLrt)

57 I knew someone who ordered the xray glasses.

I sent my pennies in to order 100 greatest classical songs. I got an LP with the first 10 seconds of 100 songs. Boy, was I disappointed.

I got a tiny japanese tape recorder. Didnt work. Then there were all the tiny jap spy cameras that also didnt work.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (iQIUe)

58 >> I think the only thing I ordered from the back of comic books was... comic books.

Heh. I am embarrassed to admit that I ordered more Archie comics from the back of an Archie comic book. I thought it was awesome.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (NOIQH)

59 ...and just like that Turkey is old news.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (7shwm)

60 Would you like rabies with that?

Posted by: Sun Tzu at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (mcm0N)

61
I ordered the Super Decoder Ring from a cereal manufacturer and was never disappointed. Don't recall the details of how it worked, but that it worked and allowed me to decipher what cute little Brenda Kay Finsterwald was thinking.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (OiFtZ)

62 Don't have to check the link to find out what Sea Monkeys were all about. My sister ordered them.

Brine shrimp. What a buzz kill.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (/tuJf)

63 >>>>I liked Silly Putty. Silly Putty and the colored cartoons from the Sunday paper. A winning combination.

never understood silly putty. Kinda looked down on children who were amused by it, to be honest

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (dciA+)

64 "Yes, my barbie had to drive her yellow corvette up to a freaking trailer "

LMAO. That's better than my poor barbie. I had the barbie minivan. Come on.

I guess it was oddly prophetic though....

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (bYGAR)

65 My sea monkeys could actually fly. Scared the hell out of the neighbor kids.

Posted by: Roy at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (fWLrt)

66 OMG I have the bazooka Joe comics too
Mwaahaaaaaa

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 07:09 PM (qxNrP)

67 Okay I'm out my chink phone is plotting against me.

Posted by: Sun Tzu at October 09, 2015 07:09 PM (mcm0N)

68 ...and to topic ...

Harbor Freight

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:09 PM (7shwm)

69 It's odd. I never really obsessed about those gimmicks as a kid; but now, I'm obsessed with surviving the gimmick that is the US Federal Government. The taxes and debt keep rising and we're promised the Moon. Alas, we get mooned.

The Biggest Ripoff in Life isn't something from a comic book.

BTW, DC Comics? I could see them looking for ways to screw buyers over. Probably printed by the Treasury.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 09, 2015 07:10 PM (1CroS)

70
Speaking of childhood, did anyone see the Beatles on Ed Sullivan? The next day, no one talked about the Beatles but Mitzi Gaynor. Man o man! We had never seen anything like her before. Her dress appeared to be sprayed on. lol

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:10 PM (iQIUe)

71 I wanted that submarine as a kid. And then the "Treasure Finder" out of the back of Old West Magazine. I actually did buy a metal detector when I was 14.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:10 PM (rwI+c)

72 Way back when I was a young one, sea monkeys were awesome. But so were yo-yo's and those new frozen pizza things. And dragging empty Coke bottles back for the deposit.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:10 PM (u49WF)

73 13
Don't forget about turning your vacuum cleaners into hovercrafts.

That's the one I wanted.

Posted by: Cave Johnson at October 09, 2015 07:10 PM (2jQGY)

74 what about the chocolate covered bugs?

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (0z/89)

75 True confession. My Sea Monkeys starved to death after I lost their food.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (rwI+c)

76 Heh. I am embarrassed to admit that I ordered more Archie comics from the back of an Archie comic book. I thought it was awesome.

For me it was all those footnotes that Stan Lee and company used to put in Marvel Comics. What! There's a backstory to Thor fighting his evil brother? Where can I get those? And in our tiny town, the answer was: nowhere.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (2lndx)

77 But so were yo-yo's and those new frozen pizza things.

Clackers.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (rwI+c)

78
Soldier of Fortune magazine and the like.

I'll bet my left nut more than a couple of you were regular readers as boys.

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (e0fQD)

79 Silly Putty is the greatest. You can deform newspaper comics and use it as a bouncy ball, it was like a super toy back when newspapers still existed.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (UFZRg)

80 56 I also saved a metric fuckton of Bazooka Joe comics. Why, I never figured out.
Posted by: Roy at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (fWLrt)
---
National Lampoon had Bazooka Joe bubble gum comix from around the world. Baz-u-Kah hadji got a real bazooka if he sent in his wrappers, upper class twit Bazooka Joseph got a set of Elgin marbles, etc.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (jR7Wy)

81 One thing I did not want but got for my birthday was a ventriloquist's dummy, complete with top hat and monocle. Even my young self new that his smiling, gap-toothed visage masked pure evil. I'd give anything to have him now so that I could speak through him at our office's weekly status updates.

When my son was small, I did that with him during a visit to his grandparents and told him to move his eyes back and forth a lot. I even sharpied the lines down either side of his chin to make him look that much more like a dummy

My wife still hates that I used our child as a toy.

Posted by: EC at October 09, 2015 07:12 PM (D/6wx)

82
Sea monkeys. How cd I forget sea monkeys.

Our local real newspaper also advertised Ranchettes in Arizona you old buy. lol

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:12 PM (iQIUe)

83 One thing I did not want but got for my birthday was a ventriloquist's dummy, complete with top hat and monocle. Even my young self new that his smiling, gap-toothed visage masked pure evil. I'd give anything to have him now so that I could speak through him at our office's weekly status updates.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (jR7Wy)

Yes, that would be a golden opportunity to claim that you have a split personality and it would be a violation of the ADA to restrain you from having the dummy call everybody "Jello-brained slut-monkeys." Because EVERYBODY wants to do that.

Posted by: joncelli, in a cynical mood at October 09, 2015 07:12 PM (1FhAQ)

84 And you were fed KABOOM! Don't forget the KABOOM!

Posted by: Weasel at October 09, 2015 07:12 PM (e3bId)

85
How many of you wizards were intrigued by the Popular Mechanics article on
"Grinding the lens and construction of a personal telescope?"

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (OiFtZ)

86 And superballs. Not that kind. The ones you got to bounce once and then could never find them.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (u49WF)

87 never understood silly putty. Kinda looked down on children who were amused by it, to be honest

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:08 PM (dciA+)
=======================

We got Silly Putty because we couldn't have those candy cigarettes because, Baptist. Which is what I really wanted. Oh, for just one taste of that tempting candy cigarette ......

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (dFi94)

88 I've said it before and I'll say it again, if someone will manufacture an adult sized classic Big Wheels, I will buy it toot suite!!

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (qxNrP)

89 Astros lose. series at 1 - 1. Minute Maid park on Sunday.

Posted by: Count de Monet at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (JO9+V)

90 24
>>>The one I wanted most was plans to build a jet engine (provided you had access to a 9" lathe).

i think i realized that was out of my abilities... what they just sent you the plans?

Our next door neighbor had a machine shop in his garage, but he and my dad rolled their eyes every time I brought it up, so I never got the plans.

Posted by: profligatewaste at October 09, 2015 07:13 PM (+gatN)

91 You know what I still sometimes crave? Those wax soda looking candies.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:14 PM (bYGAR)

92 That ghost might be a bit scarier if it didn't have that big grin on its face.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:14 PM (sdi6R)

93 "Astros lose"

That's too bad. I really want a Rangers Astros series.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:14 PM (bYGAR)

94 Clackers.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:11 PM (rwI+c)
we weren't allowed to play with clackers.......they might shatter and blind us.....thank God for our next door neighbor, Carol......Carol's parents didn't love her...they bought her everything dangerous and she shared them with us.....i think my brother actually did shatter hers......

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:14 PM (0O7c5)

95 Clackers, until one exploded and Sister Francis deSales took them away.....forever.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:15 PM (u49WF)

96 Oh yeah KerBangers!! Freaking deadly bolos more like Man were they fun

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 07:15 PM (qxNrP)

97 OH, that little ventriloquist buzzer thing that you kept in your mouth to throw your voice without moving your lips. . . it was a little tiny tube... and it got caught in my throat and I had to swallow it.

Can't sell anything like that now a days because it's a choking hazard. We were innocent back then.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:15 PM (7shwm)

98 never heard of this but it seems pretty cool. surprised it wasn't a big deal, or that they didn't keep selling it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyhqMD-w5ks

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:15 PM (dciA+)

99 Yeah, parents would not get us clackers, either.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:15 PM (NOIQH)

100 Even if they didn't explode, clackers were a menace to eyes and fingers. We loved them.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:16 PM (rwI+c)

101 Cracker Jacks were pretty cool. Always loved getting the cheap piece of plastic or paper as a prize. No false advertising there. It was cheap crap that you knew was cheap crap but it did entertain for a few moments. And the excitement of the surprise... oh the excitement!

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 09, 2015 07:16 PM (1CroS)

102 My wife still hates that I used our child as a toy.
Posted by: EC at October 09, 2015 07:12 PM (D/6wx)
---
That's why ya have 'em!

That sounds like it was great fun.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:16 PM (jR7Wy)

103 never understood silly putty. Kinda looked down on children who were amused by it, to be honest

For us it was a grandmother's house thing. I can't remember playing with it at home, but there wasn't much to do at grandma's except read the comics and then deform them hideously, with the bonus of turning them into a ball that bounces hard, and hurts a lot.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (2lndx)

104 Stamps....on approval.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (u49WF)

105 >>>One thing I did not want but got for my birthday was a ventriloquist's dummy, complete with top hat and monocle. Even my young self new that his smiling, gap-toothed visage masked pure evil. I'

oh boy. not only did i want one, I got one.

i completely forgot about that.

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (dciA+)

106 never heard of this but it seems pretty cool. surprised it wasn't a big deal, or that they didn't keep selling it.

There was something very similar but rocket shaped. The amount of slack in the string controlled the speed.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (rwI+c)

107 I always wanted the two man submarine. God only knows what they would send you.

Posted by: Darth Randall at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (YSxtn)

108 oh boy. not only did i want one, I got one.

i completely forgot about that.

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (dciA+)

Ace with a ventriloquist's dummy.

That's the stuff of nightmares right there.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Never Forget. Never Forgive at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (GEICT)

109 That sounds like it was great fun.

It was. Now my son is a teenager and hates everything. No more cooperation on stupid funny stuff.

Posted by: EC at October 09, 2015 07:18 PM (D/6wx)

110 That movie Magic was scary as shxt
No ventriloquist dummies!!

Posted by: ginaswo at October 09, 2015 07:18 PM (qxNrP)

111 I miss my Jarts. I think my parents threw them away wnen they last moved, thinking nobody wanted them.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 07:18 PM (Qvgg/)

112 Someplace or another I still have the plans I bought when I was like 12 from Glen L boat building to build a plywood hydroplane. I saved my pennies until I had the $15 bucks and I was convinced I was going to build the most kickass boat on the planet.

Still have the plans. Never built the boat.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:18 PM (/tuJf)

113
I got a Whirly Bird helicopter for my birthday.
All it was a remote control helicopter on a very short rigid tether. So all it did was going round and round in a circle, but I could control it's up and down.

Best gift I ever got.

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 07:18 PM (e0fQD)

114 I do remember acquiring a Whoopie! cushion but don't remember the source. It served its purpose. A good investment.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (1CroS)

115 I miss my Jarts.

I still have some.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (rwI+c)

116 I used to collect GI Joe proof of purchase to mail in to get vehicles.

I think it wound up costing eighty dollars for a fifteen dollar vehicle.

Posted by: Bevel Lemelisk at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (fJ5wU)

117
Sometimes dads must intervene and make things happen for youth. Plans for a 16' Snipe sailboat became a reality for me at age 10. My dad purchased the plans, constructed the boat, and we spent many happy hours sailing and learning nautical skills.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (OiFtZ)

118 101 Cracker Jacks were pretty cool. Always loved getting the cheap piece of plastic or paper as a prize. No false advertising there. It was cheap crap that you knew was cheap crap but it did entertain for a few moments. And the excitement of the surprise... oh the excitement!
Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 09, 2015 07:16 PM (1CroS)

I hear nowadays you can get Nobel Peace Prizes in Crackerjack boxes.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (sdi6R)

119 >>That movie Magic was scary as shxt
No ventriloquist dummies!!

Ugh! I remember seeing a trailer/ad for it when it was on TV and yikes, scary!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:19 PM (NOIQH)

120 Heh I had Clackers.

Those fuckers hurt big time.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (4ErVI)

121 I saved and saved and saved Bazooka Joe wrappers for a Dick Tracy Professional Fingerprint Kit. It did come in the mail, half missing and so lame I knew I got ripped off, even as a kid. I also entered the Art Instruction School's ad that was all over the place when I was a kid. Actually got a real critique and helped me to become the poor artist I am today.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (kDYa9)

122 Oh ya, stamps. Bag of foreign stamps for a dollar or some thing.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (7shwm)

123 And balsa wood gliders. If you had money, you got the one with the rubber band.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (u49WF)

124 oh boy. not only did i want one, I got one.

i completely forgot about that.

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (dciA+)
---
Was it the Mirror Universe evil Charlie McCarthy, like I got?

Ace and a ventriloquist's dummy -- it's like an episode of Night Gallery.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (jR7Wy)

125 I never ordered any of that shit.

Even as a kid I thought it was retarded.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (rjtGa)

126 There's also the category of "toys that are really dumb, but strangely awesome."

Ball on a string in a cup is one of those. And yes, I know you're all thinking about Family Guy right now.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (bYGAR)

127 Those sea monkey ads are the ones i remember, and the body building one. I never wanted any of the stuff from the ads, i just remember always enjoying my mom giving me a quarter on saturday and then walking to the 7 Eleven down the street to get my Archie comic for the week, always looked forward to it, never did get into the super hero comics, i just liked Archie and Richie Rich, later on i got into Jonah Hex though.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (VviqM)

128 I wanted the submarine like BURNING

Posted by: Dave in Texas at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (Lz/sK)

129 oh boy. not only did i want one, I got one.

i completely forgot about that.

Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (dciA+)

Starting to understand a lot of things better, now.

Posted by: blaster at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (2Ocf1)

130 >>Heh I had Clackers.

I had those. And Jarts. Both got banned.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:21 PM (/tuJf)

131 I had a gaspowered line control plane as a kid. the ones with the ubiquitous .049 Cox Baby Bee motor. Maybe it was Super Bee, but it was Bee something.

Round and round and round you go. I would take it out to the baseball field and fly it from the pitchers mound.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (rwI+c)

132 I recall in childhood some promotion where a helicopter dropped ping pong balls, and for every ball turned it, one received a goldfish.

Parents were thrilled, and the nearby lake was overwhelmed with carp (overgrown goldfish) from then on.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (Qvgg/)

133 feel free to share what you really wanted as a kid, but never got -- or did get, and whether it was all that you hoped for.

Depends on how loosely you define "kid". I'll tell you this, I really, really wanted boobies when I was 13, and no I didn't get them from a comic book, but ultimately I did get them, and they did not disappoint.

Not boobies on me, you pervs.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (LAe3v)

134 One day the neighbours got a new fridge. Oh, dang were we in heaven! Imagine a dozen or more filthy, barefoot, white trash kids screaming and fighting over a refrigerator box. I still have a hard time throwing away boxes.

Posted by: Snoodling World Champion 1997 at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (k9qR4)

135 Ever put gum in your hair? Or sleep with it and it falls out and gets in your hair and yr mom is all pissed off?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (iQIUe)

136 The Sea Monkeys intrigued me.

But I knew adults were trying to scam me.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (rjtGa)

137 Still have the plans. Never built the boat.

Somewhere around here I have a book describing how to build a radio telescope. My dad and I collected the chicken wire necessary, and that was about where we stopped. By "we" I mean "I".

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (2lndx)

138 Appliance boxes are the best!

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (iQIUe)

139 I got one of those Frankenstein Monsters. My Dad told me what I would get, but I did it anyway. And I got a plastic picture. That was about 5 feet tall. Bogus rip off. It taught me a lot.

Posted by: Jack at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (53CCM)

140 107 I always wanted the two man submarine. God only knows what they would send you.
Posted by: Darth Randall at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (YSxtn)

Somebody wrote a blog post about that a few years ago. I don't remember whether it was Lileks or someone else.

The sub was made of cardboard.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (sdi6R)

141
Who ordered the risque deck of playing cards sent in a brown wrapper?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (OiFtZ)

142 123 And balsa wood gliders. If you had money, you got the one with the rubber band.
Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (u49WF)
---
I got the balsa wood gliders, and the Ornithopter (a rubber band-driven bird that flapped its wings), and greatest of all, the pump rocket (pump the water until the pressure makes the rocket go BOOM, right toward the new plate glass window your dad just installed).

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (jR7Wy)

143 My sister still has the Weber grill with the Jart dent in the cover lid.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (u49WF)

144 500 plastic soldiers? Isn't that all that we're willing to spend our blood and treasure on deploying abroad anymore?

Posted by: Smelly Kat at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (Rpnpg)

145 And balsa wood gliders. If you had money, you got the one with the rubber band.
Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (u49WF)

I made so many of those things. Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (UFZRg)

146 it's like an episode of Night Gallery.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (jR7Wy)

Oh man. I used to watch reruns of that show. Shit, what channel was that? Night Gallery and Hitchcock and Twilight Zone.

All replays right in a row during the summer when I was a kid.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Never Forget. Never Forgive at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (GEICT)

147 I remember that episode of Get A Life with the submarine, it was hilarious.

One of the ones I got suckered into in the back of Boys Life was "blueprints" to build a few things like a Go Kart or Mini Bike. It was so ridiculously complex I doubt a team of engineers could have figured it out much less 12 year old kids.

Posted by: Coolio at October 09, 2015 07:23 PM (bDoV9)

148 Appliance boxes are the best!

It's a fort!

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (rjtGa)

149 GBruno: "And balsa wood gliders. If you had money, you got the one with the rubber band."

Loved those. Went through tens of them over the years. The trick was doubling and tripling the tension on the rubber band to get the craft into an airstream... then watch it disappear into a dot.

Good times.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (1CroS)

150 dude. My older brother actually got the ghost when we were kids. So disappointed. Advertising works. Cause, you know, lying.

Posted by: simplemind at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (BTnAK)

151 That was fucking cool. I grew up with the Johnson Smith catalog and I used it, man, I used it.

But I never got any of the crap this guy talked about.

Although I had the specs and the voice thrower.

Good times.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (Ojdnl)

152 >>Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

Oh, my brother did those - we would put thing in them. Heh.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (NOIQH)

153 >>>had a normal boy's curiosity about little girls' underwear,

Ace, I had the exact same curiosity.

Trust me, it's not normal. I think I now know why you seem so cranky and depressed all the time. Come shoe shopping with me. I think I can help you out here, honey.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (oZxN4)

154 Yea the cardboard submarine was fascinating - til you figured out it was cardboard.

Posted by: DaveA at October 09, 2015 07:25 PM (DL2i+)

155 >>Somewhere around here I have a book describing how to build a radio telescope. My dad and I collected the chicken wire necessary, and that was about where we stopped. By "we" I mean "I".

Yea, my theory had my dad helping me which translated as my dad building it for me. One of the first of many subsequent plans that did not pan out.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:25 PM (/tuJf)

156 Some evil relative bought us 4 boys paddle balls. That paddle thing with a ball on a rubber band that was sure to break. My ma put the paddles on top of the fridge to use after she broke all of her wooden spoons on us.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (kDYa9)

157
Someone on this forum must have built a crystal radio?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (OiFtZ)

158 I really, really wanted a Commodore Amiga. If only I had brought a fake bomb to my high school, CBM may have given me one.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (EHU9F)

159 Whenever I had a million bazillion dollars (~27 dollars)

I bought one of those Cox planes.

First major life disappoint.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (rjtGa)

160 It wasn't just comic books. The back pages of Analog SF had pages of little one paragraph ads. I don't remember what any of them were.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:27 PM (7shwm)

161 Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

Oh, my brother did those - we would put thing in them. Heh.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (NOIQH)
I put my sister's newt in the nosecone of one to see if he could walk in space.

No.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:27 PM (LAe3v)

162 Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

We screwed up and put two second or final stage motorss in a two stage we had. First stage up, burn-out, parachute delay long enough for the rocket to turn nose down and IGNITION. I have never seen anything move that fast seemingly straight at me before. I was rooted in terror.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:27 PM (rwI+c)

163 Estes rockets for sure. The big Bertha. And the X-Ray (with a mouse inside)

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:27 PM (u49WF)

164 Appliance boxes are the best!

It's a fort!

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (rjtGa)

No it's not! It's a space-ship you fu--

*gets mouth washed out with soap*

Posted by: Snoodling World Champion 1997 at October 09, 2015 07:27 PM (k9qR4)

165 "Someone on this forum must have built a crystal radio?"

Yes. Don't remember if it worked, but it made noise.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:28 PM (7shwm)

166
When the catalogs came out first we looked at the toys and then the ladies underwear.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:28 PM (iQIUe)

167 The back pages of Analog SF had pages of little one paragraph ads. I don't remember what any of them were.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik

Are you sure you aren't thinking of Screw magazine, because if you are, I'm pretty sure I know what the ads were about.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:28 PM (LAe3v)

168 Now i have a craving for candy cigarettes.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 07:28 PM (VviqM)

169 I wanted a pair of white (or black!) vinyl go-go boots when I was about 12; my Dad said they were trashy, so no. He was right.

Posted by: the Butcher at October 09, 2015 07:28 PM (fUjxW)

170 Just now checking in. Imagine the surprise of Millennial Girl when Modern Man pulls out the ghost rubber.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:29 PM (FsuaD)

171 >>I put my sister's newt in the nosecone of one to see if he could walk in space.

>>No.

Heh. We were more into mid-air tragedies. Which meant we loaded them up with firecrackers and M-80s.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:29 PM (/tuJf)

172 I was never into comic books, but my older brother had Playboy & my mother didn't care if me & my younger brother looked at it. It was tame then. One girl on the cover looked like a redhead version of our next door neighbor.

Posted by: Carol at October 09, 2015 07:29 PM (sj3Ax)

173 My neighbor had a Briggs&Stratton powered minibike. I lusted for that thing like Barry lusts for the choom.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (rwI+c)

174 In 3rd or 4th grade I really wanted a pogo stick, and we got one, and I wore the thing out.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (NOIQH)

175
I got the go-go boots and turned my little kitty into a money maker.

Posted by: Jenna Jameson at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (OiFtZ)

176 Pep, we couldn't get Screw magazine in our little town. Not when I was a kid.

Posted by: Serge Bortnik at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (7shwm)

177 Someone on this forum must have built a crystal radio?

Goodness yes. Probably as part of Boy Scouts. Or it might have been from a book of electronics projects.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (2lndx)

178 Now i have a craving for candy cigarettes.

And giant sugary wax lips.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (rjtGa)

179
I liked slime. And a few years back I bought a version called Angel's Snot. It was white and came in a white egg and glowed i the dark. I gave some to a friends kid and she slept with it and it got in her hair and they had to cut it all out. The parents were mad at me, but hey I didnt tell her to take it to bed with her.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (iQIUe)

180 Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

___________________

I remember having a lot of fun with those as well, the only issue was, I remember them being a bit pricey, at least when I was a kid they seemed like a lot of money to fire off a rocket.

Do young boys have these sorts of hobbies anymore?

I have daughters that are into crafts, but I get the feeling most boys of the current generation are just messing around with smartphones or video games.

Posted by: Coolio at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (bDoV9)

181 What is cool is when somebody pours Elmer's glue into the parachute end of an Estes engine. A fun model rocket with parachute becomes a mini V2

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (Qvgg/)

182 >>Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

Oh, my brother did those - we would put thing in them. Heh.
Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:24 PM (NOIQH)

One time after I had lost all the rockets but still had a few engines left, I just glued a launch rod tube right to the engine. Fired that baby off and it shot up about 15 feet then spun around wildly before shooting away and dying.

Posted by: mugiwara at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (UFZRg)

183 Someone on this forum must have built a crystal radio?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (OiFtZ)

We had a kit in 7th grade, but it was nothing like going to the electronics store for a bunch of resistors and such and soldering it up yourself.

Posted by: Snoodling World Champion 1997 at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (k9qR4)

184
I wanted this so bad when I was a kid, but we were poor, so no Evil for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVR7dm2Fw9E

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (ODxAs)

185 170 Just now checking in. Imagine the surprise of Millennial Girl when Modern Man pulls out the ghost rubber.
Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:29 PM (FsuaD)
---
You clearly haven't been attacked by a light sabre (glow-in-the-dark condoms). Complete with zizzzz sound effects.

You f*ck nerds, you gotta expect that kind of thing. My own damn fault.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (jR7Wy)

186 I'm of the age when the Sears catalog would arrive in cold war Germany, on our AFB, and my sister and I would scan the pages for the latest toys to ask "Santa" for.

Alas, I told my five y.o. sister that Santa didn't exist, when she became, in my opinion, too greedy.

Which is why she's a liberal now, I'm sure.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (FsuaD)

187 I got the go-go boots and turned my little kitty into a money maker.

Posted by: Jenna Jameson at October 09, 2015 07:30 PM (OiFtZ)

And we're all grateful.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Never Forget. Never Forgive at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (GEICT)

188 We got National Geographic at my house. Neighbor kids were impressed with the natives.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (u49WF)

189 I always thought Ovaltine tasted like shite. And Tang was cheap substitute like powdered milk.

Posted by: Fritz at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (3tjn4)

190 I put my sister's newt in the nosecone of one to see if he could walk in space.

Kid next door used to put his pet mice in those rockets that had parachutes in the nose cone. Mice don't fly well.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:32 PM (kDYa9)

191 Instead of "Who pissed in your Cheerios?", I'm going to start asking grumpy people "Who put a newt in your nosecone?".

Posted by: Lincolntf at October 09, 2015 07:32 PM (2cS/G)

192 Ok ace, you may have been disappointed by all the spookhouse mail order junk, but did you ever get to try on little girls' underwear as a kid? How did it make you feel? Confession is good for the soul.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 07:32 PM (oZxN4)

193 I wanted the X-Ray glasses.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 07:32 PM (9mTYi)

194 Built a fired off a shit load of Estes model rockets too, good times.

**

happy day was when I bought the bulk engine pack, like a 100 engines. Oh I rocketeered I ddid.

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 09, 2015 07:32 PM (Ojdnl)

195 I was always intrigued by sea monkeys. But we lived with my grandparents in FL for a while when Daddy was first sent to Germany.

The thought of tiny, fake shrimp was unappealing to me.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:33 PM (FsuaD)

196 My biggest disappointment was, as a first year college student, ordering from a Readers Digest ad a pair of LED digital watches. They were to be Xmas presents for both me and my girlfriend, and they were awesomely priced at just $9.95 each plus shipping.

That $24 was a lotta scratch, when we were working for $1.50 per hour. And, of course, it was a scam. Years later, I got back around $2 after the feds seized what was left of the scammers' assets.

But it was a valuable lesson in not believing shit you see in a 'reputable' publication. Oh, and Readers Digest has turned into a lefty rag nowadays.

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 09, 2015 07:33 PM (gyKtp)

197 I want these toys:

https://youtu.be/45boXIgXFUQ

Posted by: Myiq2xu at October 09, 2015 07:33 PM (5fSr7)

198

Who used to walk around with a canteen full of water and binoculars and pretend you were going hiking?

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (e0fQD)

199 The plastic soldiers were a rip-off. Just thin profiles. That's why I now require trigger warnings, and cry a lot.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (9mTYi)

200 "You f*ck nerds, you gotta expect that kind of thing. My own damn fault"

Ahahaha. I've got to say, I have never been attacked by glow in the dark condoms.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (GZ6Pf)

201 things i wanted but never got were spirographs and an etch a sketch. i did get the peanuts color forms though and loved them.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (0z/89)

202 123 And balsa wood gliders. If you had money, you got the one with the rubber band.
Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:20 PM (u49WF)

Once in grade school, the teacher had us build balsa wood planes and compete to see which one could fly the farthest. I was the only kid in the class who bought one with a rubber band. Needless to say, I won, by a large margin.

Afterwards, some of the other kids cried "Unfair!" The teacher was like, "I never said you couldn't use one with a rubber band."

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (sdi6R)

203 I don't recall seeing any of those He-Man Muscle-Building ads.

Were they still a thing back in the day?

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (FsuaD)

204 201
things i wanted but never got were spirographs and an etch a sketch. i did get the peanuts color forms though and loved them.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (0z/89)

you know what were awesome? shrinky dinks.........

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (0O7c5)

205 Seamonsters.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (DrXWT)

206 Since I didn't have that kind of money to spare (and my mom wouldn't let me order it anyway) I used my money for more uplifting adventures.

Mad Magazine. Candy and soda.

That's about it. I got like a 1.00 a week for doing chores which was a total ripoff. Where was OSHA when I needed them?

Slave labor, that's what it was.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (Xo1Rt)

207 Shrinky Dinks! Hell yeah!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (kqGWM)

208 >>Who used to walk around with a canteen full of water and binoculars and pretend you were going hiking?

Heh - We lived 4 blocks from the mountains so we went hiking all the time. Free range kids, yo!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (NOIQH)

209 Did anyone else build the X-Wing Model Rocket and forget a few parts?

Sure it still flew, but........

Posted by: Tim in Illinois. Old and unimproved. at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (dOD0J)

210 i did get the peanuts color forms though and loved them.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (0z/89)
======================
Colorforms were the best. Do they still make those? I bet my little granddaughter would love them.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:35 PM (dFi94)

211 BTW, Perseveration?

reactions

1. what? nerd.

2. be careful, you'll go blind, kid.

3. yes yes, you're an excellent driver

Posted by: joe-impeachin44 at October 09, 2015 07:36 PM (Ojdnl)

212
I always wanted and never got the Crayola 64 crayon box WITH THE BUILT-IN CRAYON SHARPENER.

I didn't care about the crayons, really. The sharpener inside the box was really.

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 07:36 PM (e0fQD)

213
Do ghosts have white privilege?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at October 09, 2015 07:37 PM (DiZBp)

214 Fortunately we were too poor for me to answer the ads. But this post is great fun.

Posted by: Caliban at October 09, 2015 07:37 PM (3GFMN)

215 My husband and his brothers used to use mirrors to light their green army men on fire.

Our son used a Barbie in a barely appropriate science experiment in middle school.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:37 PM (FsuaD)

216 The best TV product I've ever bought was a set of Shamwows. That was like 10 years ago and I still use them.

They make great water filters when I go camping. They soak up blood and can plug a gaping wound better than any bandage.

Posted by: CozMark at October 09, 2015 07:37 PM (CbGSW)

217

I also wanted to be a ship's captain. So I begged for a captain's hat. They got me one.

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (e0fQD)

218 Shrinky dinks - YES!

Still have a few shriveled up Christmas ornaments I made as a kid.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (NOIQH)

219
Were they still a thing back in the day?

Posted by: Jane D'oh

The Charles Atlas ads were shown with a muscular guy kicking sand in the face of a 102 lb. skinny guy. I believe it was a body building book?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (OiFtZ)

220 Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (FsuaD)

Oh, yeah. You never saw the ones with the guy kicking sand on some skinny wimp and later in the strip, He's now all pumped up and kicking ass?

Yeah. I knew that was bs. Even more bs than the gadgets. I knew what it took to get those muscles. Exercise and genes.
And maybe 'roids but I didn't know anything about them either.

I just knew I wasn't gonna be kicking any bullies around after sending in my 5 bucks.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (Xo1Rt)

221 My brother got a bow and arrow set and we'd "play catch" shooting them to each other so we wouldn't lose the few we had left or play chicken and shoot it straight up and see who could stand there the longest. Smart kids we were.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (kDYa9)

222 The link is funny.

Posted by: Carol at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (sj3Ax)

223 Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM

I think all the neighborhood boys were budding anthropologists. And I really wanted a Fol-bot so I could go white water rafting. In Texas. Heh!

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at October 09, 2015 07:38 PM (ij7E3)

224 171
>>I put my sister's newt in the nosecone of one to see if he could walk in space.

>>No.

Heh. We were more into mid-air tragedies. Which meant we loaded them up with firecrackers and M-80s.

Posted by: JackStraw

I would really like to say "he got better", but alas, that would be a lie.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (LAe3v)

225 I don't recall seeing any of those He-Man Muscle-Building ads.

Were they still a thing back in the day?
---------------

Oh yes.

Posted by: 90 lb. weakling with sand in his eyes. at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (9mTYi)

226
I swear ValJar, Rice, Powers, & Barry are intent on or by just sheer incompetence and joo hatred, going to start WW3.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (iQIUe)

227 or put the proverbial eye out

youtube suggestions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r9gmLfpFTg

Premature splosion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhTGfJ_R7bA
feature=player_detailpage#t=79

Other hobby splosion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wxnID2q4A

Posted by: DaveA at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (DL2i+)

228 Clackers, until one exploded and Sister Francis deSales took them away.....forever.
________________________

Yeah, they were banned at my elementary school too, after a few people got whacked in the face with them.

"You'll put your eye out with that thing, kid!" (Not really, but they could raise some really nice welts on your face, and some very colorful bruises too).

I liked the pogo stick. You just jumped around on it, for no particular reason, but it seemed to annoy the hell out of the adults, which was always a good reason to like any toy.

Posted by: TrivialPursuer at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (a31sM)

229 Gah I found the email thingy and it only says to change at to @ and dot to a ., so I give up for today.

Posted by: Blano at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (LbDXZ)

230 Once in grade school, the teacher had us build balsa
wood planes and compete to see which one could fly the farthest. I was
the only kid in the class who bought one with a rubber band. Needless
to say, I won, by a large margin.

Afterwards, some of the other kids cried "Unfair!" The teacher was like, "I never said you couldn't use one with a rubber band."

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:34 PM (sdi6R)

Jeeze louise. Imagine the howling and caterwauling that would ignite now.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:39 PM (FsuaD)

231 >>> Who used to walk around with a canteen full of water and binoculars and pretend you were going hiking?

I do that every weekend that I can. I'm still kind of childish, if that counts.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 07:40 PM (2iV3X)

232 I remember a flying scale model B-25 with retractable landing gear and it could drop little dummy bombs. I wanted that real bad. I was told to shit in one hand and want in the other and see which one filled up first. Sadly, I knew the answer to that one without having to experiment. My little brother on the other hand....

Posted by: Old Blue at October 09, 2015 07:40 PM (9iR5/)

233 I bought Sea Monkeys. Boooooo.

I always wanted an Easy-Bake Oven and a Snoopy Sno Cone Machine. And a slot car track. Man, did I want a slot car track.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 07:40 PM (q20+R)

234 You f*ck nerds, you gotta expect that kind of thing.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:31 PM (jR7Wy)

Nerds? I thought you were banging the gavel of liberty?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at October 09, 2015 07:40 PM (Zu3d9)

235 I didn't get the Ventriloquist dummy, because I saw "Magic" Scared the crap outta me, but cant remember a single scene now lol.

I also got the Army Men, first shock was the size of the box.. er CHEST lol..

Got the sea monkeys, growing crystals (weren't too bad, tho, was like watching paint dry), and a few other things.

I remember the commercial for the airplane, but my dad had a P-51 on a string with a real engine, so that didn't impress..

Clackers, or Ka-Bangers were fun, but dangerous! lol Kinda like Lawn-Darts!

But by the time I was 8 or so, most of my money went to Star Wars figures! lol Too bad I destroyed all but 2 when I was a teen...

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (3+E+K)

236 Anybody ever get a present from your parents that was really for them? For example, I never realized I was into HO gauge trains until my dad got me a set for Christmas. He then proceeded to build an entire landscape with a city, mountains, a lake, tunnel, etc.. It all built on to sheets of plywood sitting on top of sawhorses and he cut a hole in the middle of the plywood table so he could stand in the middle and control everything.

My dad got a real kick out of my Christmas present.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (/tuJf)

237 You Kaboom kids who didn't experience the magnificence of powdered milk? Yeah, you were elite snobs, - too big for your britches!

Posted by: Fritz at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (3tjn4)

238 This ghosty thing, will it scare a Russian?

Asking for a friend.

Posted by: John Kerry at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (3myMJ)

239 Blanco!!!!
Go read #267 in last thread from me with two free suggestions!

Caro

Posted by: Carol at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (sj3Ax)

240 I miss Jarts. The real ones with the sharp, deadly tips.

One of my fondest memories in the ATL, is getting liquored up at the old boyfriend's, and playing with other liquored up friends.

Not one of us was even injured. Shockingly.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (FsuaD)

241 I always wanted and never got the Crayola 64 crayon box WITH THE BUILT-IN CRAYON SHARPENER.

I didn't care about the crayons, really. The sharpener inside the box was really.

Lol, blast from the past. I never got one either.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (kDYa9)

242 186 I'm of the age when the Sears catalog would arrive in cold war Germany, on our AFB, and my sister and I would scan the pages for the latest toys to ask "Santa" for.

--

My mom had a copy of a Sears Christmas catalog ("dream book") and I lusted for all the doll houses.

Posted by: @votermom at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (cbfNE)

243 Obey my commands, Boney the skeleton!

Posted by: Barack Obama at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (9Fc79)

244 You know what NEVER disappointed? Jiffy Pop poporn. That little silver dome rising and the anticipation were so cool.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (jR7Wy)

245 OT: since we've discussed covers before on the Friday night decompression thread, here's one that's new to me, but very good. The Wilson Sisters (Heart) doing Stairway to Heaven at the Kennedy Center Honors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf2O3OAQjng

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (LAe3v)

246 We had a nice seam of limestone a couple hundred yards from the house. We loved taking hammers (including dad's nice framing hammer) down to the "cliffs" and looking for fossils.

Posted by: Snoodling World Champion 1997 at October 09, 2015 07:43 PM (k9qR4)

247 >>You Kaboom kids who didn't experience the magnificence of powdered milk?

Tang.
Kool-Aid packets where you mixed it w/1 cup of sugar and a pitcher full of water.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:43 PM (NOIQH)

248 I bought the x-ray glasses. Your hand kind of looked like a skeleton when you held it in front of your face because of the optical effect of looking at something through a piece of a feather. (I took it apart.)

But no naked women, dammit.

Posted by: rdbrewer at October 09, 2015 07:43 PM (Iyg03)

249 They make great water filters when I go camping. They soak up blood and can plug a gaping wound better than any bandage.

Posted by: CozMark at October 09, 2015 07:37 PM (CbGSW)

*makes note to self -- Don't go 'camping' with Cozmark*

Posted by: GnuBreed at October 09, 2015 07:43 PM (gyKtp)

250 I always hated Kool Aid.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:44 PM (DrXWT)

251 You Kaboom kids who didn't experience the magnificence of powdered milk?

We went through some periods of powdered milk. In general, I didn't mind when my parents tried to save money during our poor periods--it meant hot dogs on Appian Way pizzas, hamburger fried with potatoes, etc. But bulk powdered milk was just not very good.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 07:44 PM (2lndx)

252 Danger-Girl, my sis got EZ-Bake oven and Snoopy Snow Cone.. Utter junk! WAAAY to much effort to get the smallest amount of shaved ice outta it, and I think she got one or two cakes that were thick as brownies outta it.

I got the slot car track, and still have at least one of my cars. It actually worked, if you could keep from going full throttle! lol

Also had/have a Train that looked like Silver Streak! Freekin great, but never set up a full time track for it.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 07:44 PM (3+E+K)

253 I knew I had been screwed when the walkie talkies I saved for and ordered and waited for came with a 25 foot string.

Posted by: 1000 at October 09, 2015 07:44 PM (BO/km)

254
Someone must have ordered and still has the Howdy Doody doll in marionette or dummy form?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (OiFtZ)

255 The Dreaded Pot Pie.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (DrXWT)

256 241 I always wanted and never got the Crayola 64 crayon box WITH THE BUILT-IN CRAYON SHARPENER.

I didn't care about the crayons, really. The sharpener inside the box was really.

Lol, blast from the past. I never got one either.
Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:42 PM (kDYa9)
---
Only the rich kids had the box with the sharpener in it!

My dad gave me an Exacto knife and I'd sharpen my crayons to hi-fii needle exactitude. In elementary school! I kept the knife in my desk, too. No fatalities.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (jR7Wy)

257 >>> and never got the Crayola 64 crayon box WITH THE BUILT-IN CRAYON SHARPENER.

Never realized I had a privileged childhood.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (2iV3X)

258
I always hated Kool Aid.

Me too, tasted like melted jello.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (kDYa9)

259 Amazing Historic First Black President! Creates Immediate World Peace! Cuts Deficit In Half By End Of First Term! Passes Universal Health Care Which Lowers Premiums While Slashing Federal Deficit! Heals America's Racial Divide! Causes Rise Of The Seas To Slow! Rebuilds American Infrastructure OVERNIGHT!

Comes With Certificate For Genuine PRE-APPROVED Nobel Peace Prize! Also Comes With Authentic Grecian Styrofoam Column Set! Activate Hidden Wet-Noodle Handshake Feature Via Hidden Control Mechanism! Amaze Your Friends!

Special Bonus: Companion First Lady Klingon Warrior And Not One But Two Bitchy Spoiled Daughters! All Three With Patented Sullen PowerScowl(tm)! Synchronized Displays!

Extra Special Bonus: Hadji The Muslim Spaceman Package As Part Of NASA Outreach Mission! Conduct Home Science Experiments! Do Body Bombs Make A Sound In The Vacuum Of Space? Find Out The Probing Questions Of Tomorrow Today!

Only Eight Trillion Dollars On Approved Credit! Be The First On Your Block! Order NOW!!!!!!

(requires "green, renewable" batteries sold separately at great cost)

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (noWW6)

260 237
You Kaboom kids who didn't experience the magnificence of powdered milk?
Yeah, you were elite snobs, - too big for your britches!

Posted by: Fritz at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (3tjn4)
we were poor but not poor enough for powdered milk...

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (0O7c5)

261 Oh yeah. Powdered milk. My mom used to cut real milk with powdered milk. Half real and half powdered. Blech. I mean isn't it bad enough that we're poor? Do we have to swallow fake milk too?

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (dFi94)

262 >>Danger-Girl, my sis got EZ-Bake oven and Snoopy Snow Cone.. Utter junk!

Oh, I wanted those, too. Suppose mom never bothered because we were baking using the real oven all the time. But the allure of that tiny oven with the teeny-tiny cupcakes!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (NOIQH)

263 My dad gave us a train set one Christmas. Sister and I were like, "Yawn?"

In our housing in Germany, several of the officer dads used the attic area for an "Off Limits!" dads' only train set operation. I was allowed to visit it on occasion. With my dad's supervision.

That train set is upstairs in son's old room. I hope he'll want it some day for his own son or daughter. It's in perfect condition.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (FsuaD)

264 i knew an Irish Jew gentleman who owned a great many of the various comic book toys and such back in . the late 70s. Nice guy. wound up getting knifed in a hold up gone wrong at an adult bookstore he worked at (well he was a geek). haven't thought of him in years...

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (Cq0oW)

265 interesting that you placed faith/trust in an advertisement

imagine how cynically they knew that

Posted by: Feh at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (Uk9e2)

266 I only had about two changes of clothes at times but we had Cap'n Crunch.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (DrXWT)

267
What do kids order today?

How to determine if you've been discriminated against, and what legal recourse you have to attain a cash settlement from your mom and dad or the system?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (OiFtZ)

268 Lol JackStraw, I think my dad wanted to do the same thing but mom wouldnt let him have the room!

We did get to build a few models together till I decided I didnt need him and his wait times for the glue, and they could be build as quickly as possible w/o paint or anything else that held up the process!

Now, I built one with my nephew, and we took the time. In fact, we still have decals to go next time I see him.. Its taken about 3 yrs!! (tho, only working on it 3-4 times a year after the first sessions)

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (3+E+K)

269 I realize now the coolest thing about those x-ray glasses is the inserts that say X-RAY VISION and the crazy circle pattern.

I'd wear that to a party and use it to flirt with women.

Posted by: rdbrewer at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (Iyg03)

270 >>Snoopy Sno Cone Machine.

I had that. It was awesome.

Posted by: Lea at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (vmMMi)

271 We had some kind of aluminum cups when I was little that I swear would set up a galvanic circuit with juice or citrous Koolaid. It was like drinking electricity.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (rwI+c)

272 Buy comic books? They were read in store until the manager ran us off.

Posted by: Edmund Burke's Shade at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (cmBvC)

273 Ace, yes, it had a string, but I'm pretty sure there was no stick. The bat. Had to drive home or I would answered sooner.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Kaboom kid at October 09, 2015 07:47 PM (frWac)

274 >>You Kaboom kids who didn't experience the magnificence of powdered milk?
_____________________

I hated that stuff. No matter how much you stirred it, you could never get all the powder to completely dissolve. It just tasted nasty.

Reminds me of those packets of "Carnation Instant Breakfast." My mom always insisted we eat breakfast before going to school. Sometimes we just didn't feel like eating, so instead she would make up drink one of those Carnation things. Also nasty tasting.

Posted by: TrivialPursuer at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (a31sM)

275 I got the HO train set one Christmas. My father actually created a 4' x 8' permanent track on plywood that could fold up against the wall, so I used the heck out of it. I still have one of the old locomotives, the Casey Jones IC. I didn't realize how much some of these old toys are worth until I looked for some of my childhood toys on Ebay

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (Qvgg/)

276 257
>>> and never got the Crayola 64 crayon box WITH THE BUILT-IN CRAYON SHARPENER.

Never realized I had a privileged childhood.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM (2iV3X)
the crayon sharpener was a big disappointment....it would get a crayon stuck in it....plus...it didn't make the crayon look nice if you did get it sharpened....

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (0O7c5)

277
Six Finger, Six Finger, man alive!
How did I ever get along with five?

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (wAQA5)

278 Walkie talkies I bought had a range of 3 feet.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (iQIUe)

279 255
The Dreaded Pot Pie.

Posted by: Boss Moss

Costco makes a very good Costco-sized chicken pot pie. About a kcal a piece.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 07:48 PM (LAe3v)

280 off 1k sock

I kept Sea Monkeys to feed to my fish. Their screams haunt me to this day.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 07:49 PM (BO/km)

281 You people cry about your powdered milk.

My family was so poor we had to use dehydrated water.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois. Old and unimproved. at October 09, 2015 07:49 PM (dOD0J)

282 i think the wrist walkie talkies were the best items

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 07:49 PM (Cq0oW)

283 The long hot summers drinking Spam.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (DrXWT)

284 I thought I could use the Hypno-Coin to hypnotize my parents into buying me a mini-bike

Posted by: kbdabear at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (GrXXa)

285 My family was so poor we had to use dehydrated water.

Luxury!

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (rwI+c)

286 I always wanted the mystical smoke you could conjure from your finger tips. We had a gag and gift store in the mall, Spencers IIRC.

Anyway, I saved up some change and talked my mom into letting me enter the store. I found the stuff sold in a tube with a wizard or magician on the front. Needless to say it was some smelly and sticky substance that you smashed between your index finger and thumb.

The tendrils of the gel would float up from your fingers, hence "smoke". I had already forgotten about it by the time I got back home.

Posted by: Arson Wells at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (UnJ7w)

287 I go the coffin bank with the skeleton hand that would reach out and grab the coin.

Posted by: rdbrewer at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (Iyg03)

288 That's too bad. I really want a Rangers Astros series.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (//bLW)

289 Best "toy" ever while a child on AFB in Arizona? A bird cage with no bottom.

My best girlfriend and I would walk out into the desert, and shove a stick into a mesquite bush. Whatever ran or crawled out, we put the cage over it and made it a "pet."

I'm still gobsmacked we never disturbed a rattler.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (FsuaD)

290 Loved our walkie-talkies - took 'em hiking or when playing "spy" around the neighborhood.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (NOIQH)

291
The best toy in my era was the doctor kit that allowed you to listen to little girls hearts and inspect other places for disease.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (OiFtZ)

292 OT...

Latest New Hampshire poll results,
1st, Carson at 13%;
2nd, Fiorina Rubio and Bush at 8% each; and
Lastly, Trump at 32%; and
The rest at 10% and lower.

Posted by: Burnt Toast at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (NaeCR)

293 And the . . . Paddle Ball. Go keep yourself busy kid.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (u49WF)

294 You people cry about your powdered milk.

My family was so poor we had to use dehydrated water.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois. Old and unimproved. at October 09, 2015 07:49 PM (dOD0J)

Luxury. My dad used to beat the sweat out of us and that was all we got to drink

Posted by: TheQuietMan at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (DiZBp)

295
Speaking of nasty tasting: Fizzies

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (iQIUe)

296 163 Estes rockets for sure. The big Bertha. And the X-Ray (with a mouse inside)
Posted by: GBruno
_____

A mouse? Really? My grandfather's farm was about three or four miles from an Estes factory, and I always assumed he was just making stuff up about mice in the rockets.

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (HpEBw)

297 Lea, you had success with SSC??

Come to think of it, I bet it would work, but we had an automatic Ice maker fridge, and the wedge shapes would get instantly stuck in the sides of it..

CUBED Ice would prob work tho... that and a power drill running it from the back!! lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (3+E+K)

298 I had to buy my own minibike from the kid down the street for $50. Not long after that was when I learned to weld.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (BO/km)

299 Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:41 PM (/tuJf)

Mine was U control planes and then after begging to find a place to use it, we found a field where the u controllers were and also rc controllers. My dad was hooked on the rc stuff.

He was still doing it 25 years later.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (Xo1Rt)

300 "The one I wanted most was plans to build a jet engine (provided you had access to a 9" lathe)."

I wanted to build the _Popular Mechanics_ "LoudMouth" free-piston turbine engine for a go-kart. (Not really a turbine.) Still do.

My understanding is that if you live in the Bible Belt, it produces enough of a racket to cause the entire neighborhood to fall on their knees in supplicating prayer, figuring that the Rapture has suddenly arrived.

Some ridiculous decibel figure. Equally ridiculous power to weight ratio. No one will be able to hear what you're saying afterwards but they will be able to see the enormous grin.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (noWW6)

301 Speaking of nasty tasting: Fizzies

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (iQIUe)
==========================
Wasn't that the powdery sugary stuff that came in a paper straw thing?Those were great !

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (dFi94)

302 my dad collected rain water in garbage cans to water our yard ...one day i saw all these tadpole looking things swimming around the water.....i was so happy...i had visions of our yard being taken over by frogs......and there was nothing like frog hunting at night.....so i watched these tadpoles growing for a week or so......and then they became mosquitoes......that really sucked

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (0O7c5)

303 my pop bought me a daisy bb gun that i loved. i used to go outside and shoot at fence posts and was a pretty good shot.
unfortunately, it was broke in two in a tragic accident.

years later, while at work, my boyfriend came walking into reception with a brand new wood stock authentic red ryder with a pink bandana tied around it. happiest girl in the whole usa.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (0z/89)

304 >>297 Lea, you had success with SSC??

I think so! I liked it at least. Don't remember what kind of ice I used.

Never had an easy bake oven but I don't remember wanting one either...

Posted by: Lea at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (vmMMi)

305
My biggest disappointment ever was the Barack Obama Seal Team Six Action Figure.
It was like Ken... no balls

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (wAQA5)

306 >>Lol JackStraw, I think my dad wanted to do the same thing but mom wouldnt let him have the room!

He punked me again when I was freshman in high school. He got me a slot car set. I had discovered girls and boobs at this point. The slot cars were of no interest.

I gave him the "Wow thanks Dad!" but my look was like "Look, you aren't fooling anyone, we've been done this road before."

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (/tuJf)

307 Wasn't that the powdery sugary stuff that came in a paper straw thing?Those were great !

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (dFi94)

those were pixie sticks

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (0O7c5)

308 Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (FsuaD)

They all wriggled away. They was akeered of you all.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (Xo1Rt)

309 Pixie Sticks.

Posted by: Tim in Illinois. Old and unimproved. at October 09, 2015 07:53 PM (dOD0J)

310 What kid could resist "accidentally" busting open a thermometer for the magic mercury to chase around or shine up a coin? We lived!

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:54 PM (kDYa9)

311 Best memory? My dad dropping me off at the stable in the desert, and telling me he'd be back to pick me up in three or four hours.

I was 10, and free to roam the desert on horseback. All alone.

It was awesome.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:54 PM (FsuaD)

312 271 We had some kind of aluminum cups when I was little that I swear would set up a galvanic circuit with juice or citrous Koolaid. It was like drinking electricity.

--

Were they all different colors?

Posted by: @votermom at October 09, 2015 07:54 PM (cbfNE)

313 287 I go the coffin bank with the skeleton hand that would reach out and grab the coin.
Posted by: rdbrewer at October 09, 2015 07:50 PM (Iyg03)
---
Ah, the Thing bank, where the hand slo-o-o-o-owly snatched the coin! I loved mine!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 07:54 PM (jR7Wy)

314
oh - Pixie sticks. So what were those other Fizzie things?

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:55 PM (dFi94)

315 Lick 'em Aid!

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:55 PM (Xo1Rt)

316 Were they all different colors?

Yes. Red Green Blue and Purple if memory serves.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:55 PM (rwI+c)

317 I'm sorry. i just can't wade through 300-ish comments to see if someone already said this, but:

That's exactly how I feel every time I vote Republican. I mean, I *know* its bullshit ... but what if?

Posted by: fretless at October 09, 2015 07:55 PM (TtMyK)

318 peaking of nasty tasting: Fizzies

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM (iQIUe)
==========================
Wasn't that the powdery sugary stuff that came in a paper straw thing?Those were great !
Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too

You're thinking of Pixie Stix.

Fizzies were flavored tablets that fizzed like Alka Seltzer and made a pseudo soda pop out of water.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9Fc79)

319 Mine was U control planes and then after begging to
find a place to use it, we found a field where the u controllers were
and also rc controllers. My dad was hooked on the rc stuff.

He was still doing it 25 years later.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM

Guillow's, baby! FTW!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (KrAjA)

320 Oh, I wanted those, too. Suppose mom never bothered
because we were baking using the real oven all the time. But the allure
of that tiny oven with the teeny-tiny cupcakes!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:46 PM (NOIQH)

Oh yes, that was the thing! Tiny cupcakes! I'm not surprised to hear it was crap though. It cooked with a lightbulb, didn't it?

I saw someone above commented about Barbie Dream House. I wanted that too, but got the Townhouse (had the elevator) instead. It was cool, but no Dream House. I also had the pool, which was a royal PITA because it held like a gallon of water and could be a total mess.

Loved Colorforms. I had a Lite Brite which was fun for five minutes. I had a ventriloquist doll too, Lester. It was creepy.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (q20+R)

321 And now I want a Pixie Stick.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (dFi94)

322 Fondue Pot. Desert Boots.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (DrXWT)

323 Grammie,

Are you thinking of Pop Rocks?

Posted by: Tim in Illinois. Old and unimproved. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (dOD0J)

324 Who used to walk around with a canteen full of water and binoculars and pretend you were going hiking?
---------------

When I was a kid we all had surplus canteens and pistol or ammo belts. I still have my ammo belt. Surplus knapsacks were common too. Some kids had jungle hammocks for camping.

Posted by: 90 lb. weakling with sand in his eyes. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9mTYi)

325 pop rocks

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (0O7c5)

326 "But how could you do Frankenstein's Monster? It's solid. We're talking a lot more material for that. And Frankenstein's Monster doesn't float; he walks. So, for that to be real, they would have to send you a working, walking
seven-foot tall robot with some kind of latex to mimic flesh."

This is what I know will show up if I ever order a sexbot to be delivered.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (noWW6)

327 My sister and I loved the Fizzies. We'd put the root beer flavored ones in our mouths and enjoy foaming at the mouth.

Ah, the crap our mom would let us eat, drink, play with.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (FsuaD)

328 done = down

Apparently, I really such at multi-tasking.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (/tuJf)

329 One Christmas, my parents gave me the 64 crayon box with the sharpener, and my younger sister got the 48 crayon box. Big mistake. I think she was psychologically scarred for life. Years later, she was still accusing our parents of loving me more than her.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (sdi6R)

330 hey, the Easy Bake Oven wasn't crap. My sister make tiny cakes with it.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (rwI+c)

331 Grumpy, I think we had those cups too. Cold drinks always seemed extra cold in them.

Posted by: @votermom at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (cbfNE)

332 Fizzies were flavored tablets that fizzed like Alka Seltzer and made a pseudo soda pop out of water.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9Fc79)
========================

That sounds hideous

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (dFi94)

333 >>>
A mouse? Really? My grandfather's farm was about three or four miles from an Estes factory, and I always assumed he was just making stuff up about mice in the rockets.
Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 07:51 PM

---------

It was called the X-Ray. It had a clear plastic tube section. Took us a while to figure out that the mouse was dying not from the rocket ride, but from suffocating.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (u49WF)

334 What no baking soda submarine?

Only 25 cents and one box top.

http://tinyurl.com/osxg7yt

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (jJRIy)

335 What I really wanted as a kid but never got?

My parents' love and acceptance.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (kpqmD)

336 324 Who used to walk around with a canteen full of water and binoculars and pretend you were going hiking?

Heck I still do that.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (BO/km)

337 hee mouse inna rocket

we did one those fluffy bug eyed goldfish in a water rocket once. as we pumped it got really skinny. it was just scum and pulp on return though

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (Cq0oW)

338 (((insomniac)))

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (0O7c5)

339 Little wax 'Coke bottles' , filled with sugar water.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (9mTYi)

340 "Best memory? My dad dropping me off at the stable in the desert, and
telling me he'd be back to pick me up in three or four hours. I was 10, and free to roam the desert on horseback. All alone. It was awesome."

Today: Dad tossed in the pokey for felony child neglect.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (noWW6)

341 >>Best memory? My dad dropping me off at the stable in the desert, and telling me he'd be back to pick me up in three or four hours.

Oooh, cool!
My dad would do housecalls on two patients (old spinster sisters) who lived on a farm, so while he was doing check ups we would get to explore the farm for hours - visit the bunnies, collect eggs, climb hay bails, etc. Like Disneyland to us.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (NOIQH)

342 So. Cable TV movies - Olympus Has Fallen or My Cousin Vinny?

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (i7w5R)

343 I pretty much just wanted whatever my sister had.

I don't remember asking for anything, but my favorite toys were actually her toys that I stole... and kept.

Posted by: petunia at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (VoCyE)

344 Oh yeah, I had genuine Army surplus webbed belt and canteen, with a few other accessories like magazine holders I'd use for misc junk, and on occasion I'd lug a folding shovel on it!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (3+E+K)

345 I bought that ghost

Posted by: Kevin at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (JSPBQ)

346 we did one those fluffy bug eyed goldfish in a water rocket once

Are the water rockets still a thing? Those were surprisingly fun.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (rwI+c)

347 I had Barbie and the dream car. And Ken.

My sister had Midge and Allan.

Barbie cheated on Ken with Allen.

Sister and I were ahead of our time.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (FsuaD)

348 >>>I hated that stuff. No matter how much you stirred it, you could never
get all the powder to completely dissolve. It just tasted nasty.<<<

Yeah, that was the worst part, - you could never get rid of the puke-inducing lumps. Seriously, I got my first job at 8 yrs old so I didn't have to consume that shit.

Posted by: Fritz at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (3tjn4)

349 oh boy. not only did i want one, I got one.
i completely forgot about that.
Posted by: ace at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (dciA+)
-------------

Ace with a ventriloquist's dummy.
That's the stuff of nightmares right there.
Posted by: BCochran1981 - Never Forget. Never Forgive at October 09, 2015 07:17 PM (GEICT)

It's a mini-Ewok. It's kind of adorable, actually.

Posted by: NATO at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (0NdlF)

350 That sounds hideous
Posted by: grammie winger
---------------------

Nah..., they were great!

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (9mTYi)

351 What I really wanted as a kid but never got?

My parents' love and acceptance.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (kpqmD)
===========================

I'm right there with ya, my friend. Right there with you.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (dFi94)

352 Sock off.

Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (0NdlF)

353 Cable TV movies - Olympus Has Fallen or My Cousin Vinny?

Cousin Vinny, if you've never seen it.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (rwI+c)

354 Does anyone remember the "Magic Sand" stuff? It came in a few colors (red and blue and a few more?) in a squirty-type bottle. You filled a clear bowl or container with water, then you could "sculpt" mountains and stalagmites and whatnot with the sand. When you scooped it back out of the water, it was bone dry.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (q20+R)

355 (((grammie)))

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (0O7c5)

356 How did they get all those rocket looking things off of the Nike Sites?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (DrXWT)

357 Those wax bottles were gross. Drink the sugar water and chew the wax until it turns crumbly. Bleah. I wonder why we kept buying them?

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (BO/km)

358

http://www.fizzies.com/

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:00 PM (9Fc79)

359 Nip, I had a baking soda sub, but it was a free one from Capt Crunch. I dont remember the results with the soda, but I think it was ok for just playin in the tub with lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:00 PM (3+E+K)

360 I can only think of Calvin dreaming of his Super Secret Spy Camera

Posted by: kbdabear at October 09, 2015 08:00 PM (GrXXa)

361 357
Those wax bottles were gross. Drink the sugar water and chew the wax
until it turns crumbly. Bleah. I wonder why we kept buying them?

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (BO/km)

i still love those....i get them for my kids Christmas stocking but they don't like them so i take them

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 08:00 PM (0O7c5)

362 I was thinking the other day that you can't buy anything for a penny any more. I remember buying tootsie rolls at two or three for a penny.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (rwI+c)

363 I remember in Kindergarten that my cousin got to use left-handed scissors that had the green coating on the handles, and I was really jealous.

Now she just texts me pictures of whatever drink she's having in whatever exotic locale she happens to be in this month.

Cause and effect?

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (HpEBw)

364 Are the water rockets still a thing? Those were surprisingly fun.
Posted by: Grump
--------------
Yup, still avaiable:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/omloaco

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (9mTYi)

365 I can only think of Calvin dreaming of his Super Secret Spy Camera

Posted by: kbdabear at October 09, 2015 08:00 PM

Don't forget the propeller beanie!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (KrAjA)

366 Yup -

https://stephwest.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/snapnpop.jpg

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (VviqM)

367 Remember those cars that you rev'ed up with a zip-tie thingy? I think thru were called ssp or something. My brother and I had dragsters, and then smashup derby cars with doors and a hood that popped off. Best Christmas ever.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Kaboom kid at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (frWac)

368 When I was a kid we all had surplus canteens and pistol or ammo belts. I still have my ammo belt. Surplus knapsacks were common too. Some kids had jungle hammocks for camping.
Posted by: 90 lb. weakling with sand in his eyes. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9mTYi)
---
I used to tromp around with my dad's hat and ammo belt and canteen, and the folding shovel was coolness incarnate. I'd shove the Luger cap pistol in my belt and my wrist rocket and I was all set to terrorize the neighborhood.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (jR7Wy)

369 Does anyone remember the "Magic Sand" stuff?

I had that. I enjoyed it. Created Lovecraftian landscapes before reading Lovecraft. That stuff was weird.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (2lndx)

370 Hey, I was a big fan of wax bottles and also was lips and was moustaches.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (iQIUe)

371 339
Little wax 'Coke bottles' , filled with sugar water.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 07:58 PM (9mTYi)

Candy cigarettes.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (jJRIy)

372

Harbor Freight has an 8" lathe for $999.99. I have one. It's heavy, over 200lb, and actually quite good

But, to the point:

Item 27685 X Ray Glasses $1.98

http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com/

.. they also advertise the Maxim 2016 Calendar ...

Posted by: Arbalest at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (FlRtG)

373 Gumby and Pokey riding on the plastic Cap'n Crunch ship. 10 box tops, $5 and a 2 month wait. And secretly eating Quisp and Quake 'cuz it was better.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (u49WF)

374 still love those....i get them for my kids Christmas stocking but they don't like them so i take them
Posted by: phoenixgirl
--------------

Clever ploy.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (9mTYi)

375 Entrenching Tool.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (DrXWT)

376 haven't seen water rocket in decades, but haven't looked either

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (Cq0oW)

377 I got water rockets for my boys when they were little and they shot them about 3 times and got bored. I probably played with them more.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (BO/km)

378 Yup, still avaiable:

Nice. AS&S has got good stuff. I bought a Romanian Stainless Steel Surgical set from them.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (rwI+c)

379 Fizzies were flavored tablets that fizzed like Alka Seltzer and made a pseudo soda pop out of water.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9Fc79)
========================

That sounds hideous

Posted by: grammie winger

Yeah, well I'm a guy.

Posted by: Jake From State Farm, who has been absent lately at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (LAe3v)

380 >>i still love those....i get them for my kids Christmas stocking but they don't like them so i take them

See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Parents buying presents for the kids but they are really for themselves.

I've still got unresolved issues over this.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (/tuJf)

381 My favorite memory as a child was the railroad. We lived near a multi rail crossing area, so the trains moved slowly. Slowly enough that we could hop on the moving boxcars for a ride. I never got shot at by a brakeman, but I heard stories of those who had.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (Qvgg/)

382 As for the old wax lips, candy cigs and such, there's a candy store in Greenville, SC that sells all the politically incorrect stuff, and more. It's awesome.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (FsuaD)

383 Candy cigarettes.
----------------

You would be arrested today.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (9mTYi)

384

Posted by: Jake From State Farm, who has been absent lately at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (LAe3v)

385 Don't forget the propeller beanie!
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (KrAjA)
---
I sent in my Quisp box tops and got a pink motorized propeller helmet. It was actually cooler than I thought it would be!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (jR7Wy)

386 The worse Fizzies were the root beer ones.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (iQIUe)

387 354 Does anyone remember the "Magic Sand" stuff?

I remember that, never actually got any, but always thought it looked pretty cool.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (VviqM)

388
I often think of Olympus Has Fallen.
Pine for it, really.

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (e0fQD)

389 368
When I was a kid we all had surplus canteens and pistol or ammo belts. I
still have my ammo belt. Surplus knapsacks were common too. Some kids
had jungle hammocks for camping.

Posted by: 90 lb. weakling with sand in his eyes. at October 09, 2015 07:56 PM (9mTYi)

Still have dad's WWII helmet, gas mask and sleeping bag. Pup tent wore out.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (jJRIy)

390 Bubs Daddy bubble gum. 12 inches long and tough like leather.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (u49WF)

391 Tiny cupcakes! I'm not surprised to hear it was crap though. It cooked with a lightbulb, didn't it?

My niece has one now. As far as I'm concerned, it works very well. She brings the cookies over to my parents house (her grandparents) sometimes when I'm visiting.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (2lndx)

392 Candy cigarettes.

Sputniks

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (kDYa9)

393 (((grammie)))

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 07:59 PM (0O7c5)
=====================
Thanks phoenixgirl. I'm actually okay with it now, Took decades to get to that place though. Just had to come to the realization that my folks were deeply, deeply flawed people that should never have had the responsibilities of parenting.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (dFi94)

394 I've still got unresolved issues over this.
Posted by: JackStraw
-----------------

A LOT of elaborate train sets out there, owned by older guys.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (9mTYi)

395 386
The worse Fizzies were the root beer ones.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (iQIUe)

Those were the only ones I liked!

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (FsuaD)

396 I got my son stomp rockets and he loved them. Total kid magnet at the park.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (NOIQH)

397 Remember those cars that you rev'ed up with a zip-tie thingy? I think thru were called ssp or something. My brother and I had dragsters, and then smashup derby cars with doors and a hood that popped off. Best Christmas ever.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, Kaboom kid at October 09, 2015 08:01 PM (frWac)

SST!! And later CRASH EM UP DERBY!!

Those had a switch in the bumper that when hit would cause the doors, hood and trunk to fly off! Freekin GREAT!!

Those, and Evil Knievel had many a collision!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (3+E+K)

398 The bag of 500 green army men for a buck was actually a bargain--as long as you weren't expecting detailed facial features and movable limbs.

Posted by: JoeF. at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (jsNKX)

399
Who owns an original P-38?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (OiFtZ)

400 334 What no baking soda submarine?

Only 25 cents and one box top.

http://tinyurl.com/osxg7yt
Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (jJRIy)

I had those. They were pretty cool.

http://torgo.org/bpsubs/

Apparently everybody calls them baking soda submarines, but they really ran on baking powder.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (sdi6R)

401 Posted by: Jake From State Farm, who has been absent lately at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM

So close, Jake. So close.

Posted by: The Barrel at October 09, 2015 08:05 PM (KrAjA)

402 Who owns an original P-38?

The pistol, the plane or the can opener?

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:05 PM (rwI+c)

403 Amazon sells P-38's.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:05 PM (DrXWT)

404 My keyboard is dying. Sorry for the 100 misspellings in each comment.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:05 PM (iQIUe)

405 Root Beer Kool Aid wasn't very good either.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:05 PM (9Fc79)

406 Anybody ever drop pop rocks into the snoring maw of your roommate? Hilarious!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (jR7Wy)

407 You know what I got as a kid that you losers never did? Frank Marshall Davis's pecker!

Posted by: That One Krazy Kenyan, y'all! at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (k9qR4)

408 Nice. AS&S has got good stuff. I bought a Romanian Stainless Steel Surgical set from them.
Posted by: Grump
--------------

How very... Moronish.
I will not ask.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (9mTYi)

409 There is no Koolaid but Red.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (rwI+c)

410 The most fun was putting pennies on the railroad tracks. Or quarters, back when they were still silver.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (u49WF)

411 Who owns an original P-38?

The can opener?

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (kDYa9)

412 Heh.
Good conversation - sorry I missed the majority of it.

I can remember the day I graduated from the water-filled plastic rockets to actual Estes rockets.
Life changing.
I was going to buy the neighbor kid a rocket for last Christmas - until I saw the price. Have you seen what they want for those things these days?!?

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (i7w5R)

413 What I really wanted as a kid but never got? My parents' love and acceptance.

We got you kaboom and powdered milk. What more did you want?

Posted by: Insomniac's pregeny at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (2lndx)

414 Penny taffy? Long and skinny. Nothing but sugar

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (jJRIy)

415 Jarvis,

Evel Knievel! Had one those too. Used to brag that he was born in Butte MT like me. About the only good thing about being born in Butte...

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Kaboom kid at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (frWac)

416 Who owns an original P-38?
-------------

Me. It's on the chain with my dogtags.

They are both waiting.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (9mTYi)

417 Who owns an original P-38?
Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (OiFtZ)

My dad flew the T-38.

Posted by: Arson Wells at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (UnJ7w)

418 Speaking of memories, just for the record, a bedsheet held over one's head isn't much of a parachute when jumping off of a second story roof.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (Qvgg/)

419 Funny, but I can't think of many things that I wanted to buy as a kid. there were an awful lot of things I wanted to build, though, like a go-kart built to resemble a 1920s roadster, or a submarine (I thought I could really build one out of plywood!), a remote-control zeppelin.... I actually did start building a slingshot built in the shape of a Kentucky rifle at around age thirteen, which was abandoned to build an airgun in the shape of a Kentucky rifle, which was abandoned at age 14 when I was told I could get a real gun...I ended up building a real Kentucky rifle, of course.

One of the advantages of growing up dirt poor was that I got in the habit of figuring out how I could make things I couldn't afford to buy. Gives one options later in life.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (bZ7mE)

420 My father did the pennies on the railroad tracks thing. Never any of the bigger change.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (DrXWT)

421 See, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Parents buying presents for the kids but they are really for themselves.

I've still got unresolved issues over this.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (/tuJf)
...i do this because of my unresolved issues of never getting anything....unless i saved up and got it myself....i get my kids all the things i missed out on.....

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (0O7c5)

422 375 Entrenching Tool.
Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:02 PM (DrXWT)

Thats it!! All I remember was Heavy as heck, and in north Texas, hard as heck to dig ANYTHING with!! I still have my WWII/Korea one, lost my uncles Boy Scout labled one, and the Vietnam ones were utter crap! The nut broke EVERY TIME in this crap soil!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (3+E+K)

423 I looked at a P-1 today, does that count?

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (rwI+c)

424 Still have dad's WWII helmet, gas mask and sleeping bag. Pup tent wore out.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (jJRIy)

I never knew my paternal grandfather. He died before my parents met and married.

I have his binoculars he carried in WW I in the battle of the Argonne Forest. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

My dad said his father never once spoke of the war, and was a sweet, gentle, kind man. Who slowly drank himself to death. In his late 40's.

The binoculars and case are in amazing good shape. The little compass on top of the case still works, and the lenses are still intact.

I can't imagine the horrors he witness through those glasses.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (FsuaD)

425 Jetex rocket motors

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (9mTYi)

426
What do you call those toys that are metal and are a colored that disc spins around making an optical illusion and throwing off sparks?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (iQIUe)

427 What, no love for ant farms?

They sold different species of ants. So you could order several packets, get each one started in a different farm, and then interconnect the tubing.

Ants turn out to not get the concept of "harmonious diversity" very well.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (noWW6)

428 And if sh*t keeps going this way, I think we're headed back to much simpler times.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (u49WF)

429 "There is no Koolaid but Red."

'Effing TELL me about it.

Posted by: Landlords everywhere at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (3myMJ)

430
The pistol, the plane or the can opener?

Posted by: Grump928(C)

Yes, the C-Rat opener normally worn around the neck on the chain holding the dog tags.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (OiFtZ)

431 No one has said a thing about Roy Rogers crap and this,

http://tinyurl.com/psc5frp

Gilbert chemistry sets? I still have my American Flyer train set. Funny sons don't think it's that cool.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (jJRIy)

432 420
My father did the pennies on the railroad tracks thing. Never any of the bigger change.

Posted by: Boss Moss

We were all convinced that if you did that, the train would derail, and boy would you be in trouble then.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (LAe3v)

433 The most fun was putting pennies on the railroad tracks. Or quarters, back when they were still silver.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (u49WF)
============================
My mind registered "pennies" as something else, something that does not belong on a railroad track.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (dFi94)

434 Speaking of memories, just for the record, a bedsheet held over one's head isn't much of a parachute when jumping off of a second story roof.

Neither is an umbrella. Cartoons LIE!

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (rwI+c)

435 Reading through all the disappointments... I think I had a better imagination.

I thought the sea monkeys were the coolest thing ever!

And making stuff in my sister's easy bake... that was magic.

We also had a candy bug maker thing that you cooked some stuff in molds and then could eat them.

And also a similar non-eatable rubbery Peanuts, you know charlie brown... cooked them or soemthing.

Once again, I think they were actually my older sister's.

Posted by: petunia at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (VoCyE)

436 381 My favorite memory as a child was the railroad. We lived near a multi rail crossing area, so the trains moved slowly. Slowly enough that we could hop on the moving boxcars for a ride. I never got shot at by a brakeman, but I heard stories of those who had.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:03 PM (Qvgg/)

I never did that. My dad worked as a claim agent (insurance adjuster) for a railroad, and he really put the fear of God in me about hopping trains. If you tried and missed, you were liable to fall on the tracks and get your legs cut off. He went into lurid detail about it.

He knew whereof he spoke. He had undoubtedly seen accidents like that.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (sdi6R)

437 Jetex rocket motors
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc.

Burned many a finger.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:10 PM (9Fc79)

438
Remember this!

!?:

Your friend or brother or sister would stand behind you and push down hard on your shoulders for like a minute, and let go.

You'd feel like you were floating.

Anyone remember that?

Posted by: Soothsayer of the Righteous And Harmonious Fists at October 09, 2015 08:10 PM (e0fQD)

439 Chuckles candy? In the five color five flavor package? I'd always give the black licorice one to my dad.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:10 PM (kqGWM)

440 The binoculars and case are in amazing good shape.
The little compass on top of the case still works, and the lenses are
still intact.

I can't imagine the horrors he witness through those glasses.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:08 PM (FsuaD)

My son lost my dad's Ray Bans. The case had his WWII army number on it.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (jJRIy)

441 Jarts.

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (i7w5R)

442 Gilbert chemistry sets?
----------------

Still have it.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (9mTYi)

443 I did ask for a microscope in 6th grade... I grew all kinds of stuff in creek water and looked at it under the microscope... I was so cool.

Posted by: petunia at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (VoCyE)

444 You liked Pixie Stix? What are you, a gay Pixy?

Posted by: andycanuck at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (//bLW)

445 Has anyone ever torn the tab off of a mattress?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (DrXWT)

446 We also had a candy bug maker thing that you cooked some stuff in molds and then could eat them.

And also a similar non-eatable rubbery Peanuts, you know charlie brown... cooked them or soemthing.

Once again, I think they were actually my older sister's.
Posted by: petunia at October 09, 2015 08:09 PM (VoCyE)
---
Incredible Edibles and PlastiGoop. I can smell burning PlastiGoop even now (((memories)))

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (jR7Wy)

447 426

What do you call those toys that are metal and are a colored that
disc spins around making an optical illusion and throwing off sparks?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang

If you're Joe Biden, you call that a synchrotron.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (LAe3v)

448
remember INDIAN SUNBURNS?!?

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (e0fQD)

449 I still have a P-38. We called them "John Wayne's ". Don't know why.
Not to be confused with a church key.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (u49WF)

450 "Who owns an original P-38?"

My dad brought one back from II. Also a Luger (black evil looking weapon) and an SS Ceremonial dagger.

Posted by: Landlords everywhere at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (3myMJ)

451 Still have it.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (9mTYi)

I have my erector kit, chemistry kit long gone.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (jJRIy)

452 Chuckles candy? In the five color five flavor package? I'd always give the black licorice one to my dad.

---

Anyone finds some place that sells these, let me know. Holy crap, a thirty year old craving is coming on

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (Qvgg/)

453
Was the coolest toy not the original Erector Set from the 40's?

Built the Ferris Wheel and never took it apart. It disappeared somewhere over the years.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (OiFtZ)

454 .i get my kids all the things i missed out on.....

I do that, too. Fire, the wheel, opposable thumbs...

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (2lndx)

455 418
Speaking of memories, just for the record, a bedsheet held over
one's head isn't much of a parachute when jumping off of a second
story roof.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:07 PM (Qvgg/)

During a typhoon on Okinawa, our son was driving MPs around. They received a call about an "incident" at our son's barracks.

A young, drunk Marine was dared to jump out of a 4th floor window with a parka tied to his ankles and wrists.

Just as a huge gust of wind hit, he jumped. And shot across the f*cking parking lot like a rocket, into a tree.
He was brought up on charges of harming military property: himself. Happily, the idiot survived.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (FsuaD)

456 The Germans made better knives.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:13 PM (DrXWT)

457 g'early evenin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at October 09, 2015 08:13 PM (KCxzN)

458 Never had one, but the ultimate power source for models was the Pulse Jet engine. Always wanted one, dammit.

Pic : http://preview.tinyurl.com/o8bbyol

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:13 PM (9mTYi)

459 SST!! And later CRASH EM UP DERBY!!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My brother whipped me across the back with the toothy side of one of the rip cords once... good times.

Posted by: Burnt Toast at October 09, 2015 08:13 PM (NaeCR)

460 445
Has anyone ever torn the tab off of a mattress?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:11 PM (DrXWT)

I did officer, but I swear I was on acid at the time.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (jJRIy)

461 How about the tin robots that would walk around and spin and shoot their laser blasters and flash their lights? I must have gone thru 4 or 5 of those.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (BO/km)

462 I just found some ancient granola bars. These things have to be five or six years old.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (rwI+c)

463 I love this thread.

I also used to get these things...they would be one or two inches and you'd put them in water and they'd swell until they were five times the size. I think I had an alligator and a bug. I think you could dry them out and they'd shrink back.

My girlfriends and I also collected and traded stickers. We had huge photo albums full of them.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (q20+R)

464 I paid a crapload of money to buy the Matchbox diecast Thunderbirds set from the seventies for the little Nerada.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (Qvgg/)

465 >>> Your friend or brother or sister would stand behind you and push down hard on your shoulders for like a minute, and let go.
You'd feel like you were floating.

Anyone remember that?

No, but I did the twi finger levitation trick. It worked!

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (2iV3X)

466 and shoot their laser blasters and flash their lights?

I remember some like that. The lasers were like coo coo clock boobs.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (rwI+c)

467 Built the Ferris Wheel and never took it apart. It disappeared somewhere over the years.
---------------

I used my No. 8 set so much, that my dad got me a No. 10 set the following year. Still have both.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (9mTYi)

468 Rockem Sockem Robots.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (DrXWT)

469 Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:12 PM (FsuaD)
---
hahaha, Jane, that is hilarious! I've been in Oki during a typhoon and the FIRST thing you do upon getting the weather report is run to the package store before they fore you to shelter in place.

Bravo to that brave, drunk young man.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (jR7Wy)

470 remember INDIAN SUNBURNS?!?

We called them Indian Burns. Put 2 hands together over an arm and twist in opposite directions? What's stronger than a hurricane?

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (kDYa9)

471 -
258

I always hated Kool Aid.

Me too, tasted like melted jello.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM
----------------------------

I had Wylers one time and was disappointed with Kool-aid from then on, but we couldn't get it in our town

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (DtNNC)

472 There is no Koolaid but Red.
Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:06 PM (rwI+c)

And Tropical Punch is its Prophet.

Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (/j9PE)

473 How about the tin robots that would walk around and
spin and shoot their laser blasters and flash their lights? I must have
gone thru 4 or 5 of those.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM

How about that thing that went 'zip' when it moved and 'bop' when it stopped and 'whirr' when it stood still?

Posted by: The Barrel at October 09, 2015 08:15 PM (KrAjA)

474 Rockem Sockem Robots.
Posted by: Boss Moss

He knocked his block off!

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (9Fc79)

475 Model steam engine?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (9mTYi)

476
Does anyone own either a Evinrude or Mercury miniature electric outboard motor from the 50's?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (OiFtZ)

477 I have my erector kit...
Posted by: Nip Sip
-----------------
Beat me to it. I wish I still had mine. Bet it'd be worth a few buck these days.
Made me appreciate tools & mechancel things. By 9, I was taking the toaster apart to see how it worked .
That was a very bad Saturday morning...

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (i7w5R)

478 "How many of you wizards were intrigued by the Popular Mechanics article on
"Grinding the lens and construction of a personal telescope?"

Posted by: Doctor Fish"

Dad and I did that - hours of walking around a barrel rubbing the two pieces of glass together with different grades of Carborundum grinding away - then the polishing - opticall testing the curvature - made a pretty spiff telescope in the end.

"You know what I still sometimes crave? Those wax soda looking candies.

Posted by: Lauren "

A favorite when I was a kid - at the end of summer the whole neighborhood had patches of wax melted into the sidewalk where we would drop the little wax bottles.

The Amazing Radio Spy Pen was a crystal set that would actually get the 3 biggest AM radio stations in the area, way cool !
Built a better one soon after, then got started using tubes, then transistors came out .... and the rest is history, or something.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (go6ud)

479 (((grammie)))
(((phoenixgirl)))

Y'all are great. I'm still working on it. Leaves a deep mark.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (kpqmD)

480 I ordered the stamp collection and really did get a shit load of (canceled) stamps for about 25 cents. Turns out it was some kind of subscription to stamps, which didn't make the parents too glad, so the initial shipment was the only shipment.

Posted by: OP at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (TzeLs)

481 Oh yeah Wylers. I wonder if they still make Wylers.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (dFi94)

482 I had the Sea Monkeys. I'm in the same camp as the writer--disappointed at first, but then...fascinated. (When I got older we had an aquarium. I don't have the patience for fish anymore, but I still love to watch them when I'm around one.)

Posted by: Brother Cavil, hither and yon at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (m9V0o)

483 >>> Anyone finds some place that sells these, let me know. Holy crap, a thirty year old craving is coming on

Try Vermont Country Store for Chuckles.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (2iV3X)

484 Ace's Kaboom kid dreams went unfulfilled? And if he had actually gotten something, he would have been greatly disappointed?

Posted by: otho at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (EWg9n)

485 Damn, Ace. This is one of your best posts ever. I used to spend hours dreaming about those gadgets, especially the spud gun, but like you figured it was too good to be true.

Posted by: Warden at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (XwbzU)

486 I've got my uncles Dick Tracy car.. the gears still work, but I think its missing a part to it. the light or something.

Probably worth something on ebay now, but I'm not desperate to sell it... for now, at least until its worth it lol.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (3+E+K)

487 Off, embarrelled sock!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (KrAjA)

488 Model steam engine?

Only the rich kids had those. With REAL CENTRIPETAL GOVERNOR!

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (rwI+c)

489 Mister Machine?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (9Fc79)

490 471 -
258
I always hated Kool Aid.
Me too, tasted like melted jello.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 07:45 PM
----------------------------
I had Wylers one time and was disappointed with Kool-aid from then on, but we couldn't get it in our town
Posted by: irright
___________

Anyone have a craving for purple-flavored Keen?

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (HpEBw)

491 I have fond memories of passing mercury around the class in our bare hands. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.

A few years ago, here, someone broke a damned thermometer in a middle school classroom.

Precious Snowflakes had to leave the school for two days while a team in hazmat suits "cleaned" the classroom.

Yep, we're doomed.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (FsuaD)

492 I got the hypnodisk out of a Turok Dell Comics ad back in the mid-ancient years ago and it was extra special. Oh, yeah!

It was either that or purchase a superduper-pooper scooper out of Popular Mechanics. I would have been better served, as far as personal development is concerned, had I taken my Dad's advice and gone for the scooper. My dog was a prolific pooper, in every season. Winter wasn't so bad, but Summer was a bummer.

As I recall, it was about 2" in diameter and you held it between your thumb and forefinger and as you moved it in a back-and-forth motion, it caused a kind of spiral effect. No hypnosis occurred that I can recall ... but maybe I gave myself a post hypnotic suggestion to forget my foolish expenditure of my hard earned hay bailing loot.

We won't be doing that kind of foolish shit when ISIS gets here!

Posted by: goon at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (gy5kE)

493 462 I just found some ancient granola bars. These things have to be five or six years old.
Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (rwI+c)

As long as they're sealed I think they have more of a half-life than an expiration date.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (kpqmD)

494 475
Model steam engine?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (9mTYi)

You can always tell the rich kids on the thread, ha ha.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (jJRIy)

495 Don't know what it was called but we had some game where you wore these big plastic thumbs. That's all I remember about it.

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (DtNNC)

496 Jane

when i went home over the summer i went through my grandpa's things i found a picture of his great war unit....it would be weird if your grandpa was in it too.....1st engineers

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 08:18 PM (0O7c5)

497 That was a very bad Saturday morning...
Posted by: Chi
---------------

I invented several clocks.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:18 PM (9mTYi)

498 Oooh! I had an Icee Machine. The one that looked like a snowman. I think it broke after a few uses.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:18 PM (FsuaD)

499 Ever get a present you really wanted and once you got it it was just meh?

For me it was the electric football game with all the players with the little plastic feet on the bottom that you were supposed to bend so they would go right or left when you turned the table to vibrate. Yea, that never worked. It was just a giant vibrating clusterfuck.

Think I played with like twice and shelved it.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (/tuJf)

500 Oh yeah Wylers. I wonder if they still make Wylers.
Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too[/o]

http://www.jelsert.com/Products/Beverages/Wylers.aspx

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (9Fc79)

501 I remember my granddad's bring-back 1911 from WWI. Some asshole broke into their house in Fayetteville in the 60's and stole it after died.

I still have two of his 1918 issue mags and the mag pouch.

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (on01m)

502
We were more into the Duct Tape an M-80 on a Sliding Glass Door at 2:00am kind of thing.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (wAQA5)

503 Anyone else win a goldfish at the school fair?

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (GZ6Pf)

504 The cartoon picture of the sea monkeys creeped the hell out of me.

Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (/j9PE)

505 I had a few Micro-nauts. Even the big starship thing with wings you could use as guns!

The next year Star Wars came out and killed their market lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (3+E+K)

506 Some kind of a board game with a Pyramid and these Jackal headed people that gave me nightmares.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (DrXWT)

507 Y'all are great. I'm still working on it. Leaves a deep mark.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (kpqmD)
==========================

For a couple of years I had a banner on my bedroom wall. It said "Living Well Is the Best Revenge".
I also had a plaque by my bed that said, "It will not always be this hard".
Then I had a picture of Jesus holding a little girl on His lap. I slept with that picture clutched in my hand more nights than I can count.
Be well.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (dFi94)

508 Spud guns are cheap and easy to make.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (jJRIy)

509 'The lasers were like coo coo clock boobs.'

Yea they came out of their chest and oscillated back and forth.

Wait. Those robots were GIRLS?

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (BO/km)

510 Mr. Potato Head..., with a pipe.

Also, Cootie.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (9mTYi)

511 Hungry Hungry Hippos could be a violent game.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (q20+R)

512 I wonder how long canned milk keeps. There's three cans in the same box as the granola.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (rwI+c)

513 470 - Tittie Twister!

And, B - there is a store around here called 5 and below that sells all kinds of our childhood candy. I'm sure they're in any major city/market.

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (i7w5R)

514 Don't know what it was called but we had some game where you wore these big plastic thumbs.
----
"Doctor Proctology!!!"?

Posted by: andycanuck at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (//bLW)

515
Did your mom every make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (OiFtZ)

516 we used to get a lot of the old cheap tin hong kong and taiwan toys. thinds like santa claus on a motorcycle. they'd work about a week then get stuck or lost. cost about 2 bucks now worth a lot more.

also used to get funky things like those little bamboo cages for crickets at the Chinese shops

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (Cq0oW)

517 @511: "Hungry Hungry Hippos could be a violent game."

You weren't playing it right if it wasn't.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (kqGWM)

518 Anyone else win a goldfish at the school fair?

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (GZ6Pf)

Yep, by throwing ping pong balls into tiny fishbowls.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (q20+R)

519 496
Jane

when i went home over the summer i went through my grandpa's
things i found a picture of his great war unit....it would be weird if
your grandpa was in it too.....1st engineers

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 08:18 PM (0O7c5)

That would be weird, and kinda cool. I have a whole wall in a hallway here devoted to my grandpa I never knew. Something interesting I learned, my grandpa's father was one of the first grads of Clemson Military College. And I have the photograph. I love all that history.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (FsuaD)

520 Big inflatable boxing gloves shaped like giant marshmallows. My brothers beat the crap out of me.

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (DtNNC)

521 515

Did your mom every make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays?

Oh, yeah. We were livin' large.

Posted by: pep at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (LAe3v)

522 24
i think i realized that [jet engine] was out of my abilities... what they just sent you the plans?

Lindsay Publications had a nice little book about Tesla's disk turbine engine. Fairly simple and straightforward. There are folks online who have built the thing.

http://tinyurl.com/2uoyaan

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (o78gS)

523 You're supposed to let powdered milk sit overnight to reconstitute.

Posted by: yoptvoimat at October 09, 2015 08:21 PM (Q4sxC)

524 503
Anyone else win a goldfish at the school fair?

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (GZ6Pf)

I have a pool, 20 years ago we had a neighborhood party and invited all the kids. We gave each kid a little net and dropped 50 goldfish in the pool.

They spent hours catching them. One kid's goldfish lived like three years.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:22 PM (jJRIy)

525 I got the ventriloquism device. It was some kind of weird-ass piece of metal with a rubber band on it and I have no idea what you were supposed to do with it. I wonder if it was the same doohickey that puppet performers doing Punch and Judy shows use to make that freaky-ass Mr. Punch voice.

Also ordered the SPY PEN. It was a small telescope/microscope, about maybe 2x magnifying power, but it worked.

Never got the X-Ray specs. As a young teen I wasn't interested in girls' underwear. I thought they were more interesting without any.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2015 08:22 PM (6PivN)

526 and the granola is still good. This might make a fine post-apocalyptic treat.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:22 PM (rwI+c)

527 >>Did your mom every make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays?

We had this set of Tupperware popsicle molds and we would make popsicles using a recipe that included kool-aid and jello (IIRC) - so good.
Also had otterpops - always fought over the blue ones for some reason.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:22 PM (NOIQH)

528 515

Did your mom every make Kool-Aid popsicles in ice trays?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:20 PM (OiFtZ)

Oh, hellz yeah. Or maybe they were Jello pops? Whatever, they would not be Moochelle Obama approved.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (FsuaD)

529 491 I have fond memories of passing mercury around the class in our bare hands. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.
A few years ago, here, someone broke a damned thermometer in a middle school classroom.
Precious Snowflakes had to leave the school for two days while a team in hazmat suits "cleaned" the classroom.
Yep, we're doomed.
Posted by: Jane D'oh
_____________

I remember breaking an Etch-a-Sketch in my grandparents' house. Grandma was really irritated about the little balls of mercury in the carpet. Granddad was on my side--thought it looked really cool.

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (HpEBw)

530 When my Nana (may she rest in peace) would babysit me, she'd let me eat a scoop of powdered Hawaiian Punch straight from the can.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (q20+R)

531 A few years ago, here, someone broke a damned thermometer in a middle school classroom.

Precious Snowflakes had to leave the school for two days while a team in hazmat suits "cleaned" the classroom.

Yep, we're doomed.
Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:17 PM (FsuaD)
---
Didn't Manhattan Project physicist Kistiakowsky swallow uranium and have a friend track it through his body with a geiger counter?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (jR7Wy)

532
470 - Tittie Twister!

Bingo!

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (kDYa9)

533 Here's a toy I bet nobody remembers -
Hugo, Man of a thousand faces.

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (i7w5R)

534
Was it your job to mix the coloring with margarine to make "butter"?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (OiFtZ)

535

time for Timer?

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (e0fQD)

536 How about Heathkits? The ones with the little springs that you could connect up resistors and capacitors and stuff and make things like radios that actually worked?

Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (/j9PE)

537 533
Here's a toy I bet nobody remembers -

Hugo, Man of a thousand faces.

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (i7w5R)

Potato man's older brother?

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (jJRIy)

538 Jello or one of the knockoff brands had a weird two layer concoction that you could freeze and would settle into a gummy popsicle with a foamy top.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (kqGWM)

539 Didn't Manhattan Project physicist Kistiakowsky swallow uranium and have a friend track it through his body with a geiger counter?
Talkin' about green poo!

And you see you later on the ONT. I have sorrows to drown.

Posted by: andycanuck at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (//bLW)

540 Loved New Years' Eve as a teenager. My friends and I would get something like 300 bottle rockets each and launch them right at each other's faces. For years I had a jacket with a big burn mark on it where a rocket hit me.

I live near New Hampshire now and recently went to one of the ginormous firework superstores there. Not a rocket to be found.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (6PivN)

541 I see Chuckles in the checkout lines at hardware stores.
Ace Hardware comes to mind (of course !), also Menards.
Big favorite when I was a kid, I buy one maybe once a year. Same with Necco Wafers.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (go6ud)

542 >>My girlfriends and I also collected and traded stickers. We had huge photo albums full of them.
Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:14 PM (q20+R)

We did that too. Scratch and sniff!!!

Posted by: Lea at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (vmMMi)

543 I have fond memories of passing mercury around the class in our bare hands. Thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Our dentist gave me a small plastic bottle of contaminated mercury when I was a kid. Can't imagine that happening today.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (9Fc79)

544 I have this old weird Chinese Tin toy that looks likes a spaceship but on the side it says "Universe Boat"

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (BO/km)

545 Earliest thing I did was go get a POW bracelet. A tin thing, with a POW's name inscribed on it. Being about six years old it was the coolest thing I had for about a week, then out came the SST racing cars..

Posted by: OP at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (TzeLs)

546 535

time for Timer?
Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (e0fQD)

Yeah, I still got that jackass in my head, they played him between every damn cartoon it seemed!

"You'll have a FUN-TIME, eating SUNSHINE, on a STICK!!" Feh lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (3+E+K)

547 Loved those Star Trek guns that shot those little round plastic discs.

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (DtNNC)

548 Was it your job to mix the coloring with margarine to make "butter"?

Luxury! Oleo was for the finer sort. We spread lard on our bread.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (rwI+c)

549 Some childhood toys can grow with you to adulthood. Twister is one of them.

Still use the game, but now it involves Crisco and nudity.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (Qvgg/)

550 530 When my Nana (may she rest in peace) would babysit me, she'd let me eat a scoop of powdered Hawaiian Punch straight from the can.
Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (q20+R)

With an insulin chaser?

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (kpqmD)

551 Old school hardware stores are awesome like that. You know one of the old guys still working there helps stock the checkout candy rack with some of his old favorites.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (kqGWM)

552 536
How about Heathkits? The ones with the little springs that you could
connect up resistors and capacitors and stuff and make things like
radios that actually worked?

Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (/j9PE)

Hell yeah, spent hours listening to it. AM only.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (jJRIy)

553 When my Nana (may she rest in peace) would babysit
me, she'd let me eat a scoop of powdered Hawaiian Punch straight from
the can.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (q20+R)
==============================

Oh I am so gonna do that!. I'll get a canister of Kool Aid and take it over to my daughter's house next time I watch the wee ones. My daughter's a Food Nazi. Organic this - FatFree that - All Natural No Preservatives. She has a cow if i give then a cookie.

I'm getting a can of Kool Aid and let it rip.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:26 PM (dFi94)

554 Crackerjacks magnifying glass and the sun.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:26 PM (kDYa9)

555 The best stuff that I ever got out of a magazine was the free posters and things that NASA used to send out, before anyone had gone anywhere vertical, to any interested yutes. I bet some of that stuff, with the actual hand written letters by staff members and all, would fetch a fair penny these days. But, this thread wasn't about government propaganda, free or not, but rather about the roots of our never ending quest for the finest goods that childhood money could buy! Sorry.

Posted by: goon at October 09, 2015 08:26 PM (gy5kE)

556 135 Ever put gum in your hair? Or sleep with it and it falls out and gets in your hair and yr mom is all pissed off?
Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 07:22 PM (iQIUe)
I fell asleep with liquorice gum in my mouth. Woke up with it in my hair.

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (4rzL1)

557
The Game of Cootie was originally issued in '49, does anyone own one of the originals?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (OiFtZ)

558 539 Didn't Manhattan Project physicist Kistiakowsky swallow uranium and have a friend track it through his body with a geiger counter?
Talkin' about green poo!

And you see you later on the ONT. I have sorrows to drown.
Posted by: andycanuck at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (//bLW)

Oh dear. Sorry dude.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (kpqmD)

559 "You'll have a FUN-TIME, eating SUNSHINE, on a STICK!!" Feh lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM

Damn it. Now I have a hankerin' for a hunk o' cheese.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (KrAjA)

560 Those ads had stuff like "hot" chewing gum and fly in an icecube.

Posted by: otho at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (EWg9n)

561 I had a whole bunch of those Tandy/Radio Shack electronics kits. Some of them even worked. Built a crystal AM radio, too. Radio Shack doesn't even sell components any more. Nothing but fucking smartphones.

Our phones are getting smarter than our kids.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (6PivN)

562 "Yep, by throwing ping pong balls into tiny fishbowls."

Yep! I bet PETA has stamped that out now.

In retrospect I went to an amazing elementary school. We went skiing at the big mountain once a week from about Feb-April. Lots of overnight camping trips and reading fairs and that sort of thing.

Of course, they also did hippy dippy stuff like whole language, and we didn't have math books at all in 4th and 5th grade because it was all hands on math crap, but I'll take the good with the weird.

I'm sad my kids will never have that experience. At least with homeschooling I can give them some freedom.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (bYGAR)

563 Didn't Manhattan Project physicist Kistiakowsky swallow uranium and have a friend track it through his body with a geiger counter?

Wouldn't surprise me. They did some wacked out stuff there. Hide that many geeks away in the desert, you're going to get some strange pastimes.

"Let's see who can hold these two halves of critical mass together the longest?"

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (2lndx)

564 Wow I just looked up Universe Boat and lo and behold there's a picture of one. Ain't the internet great?

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (BO/km)

565 I always wanted one of those submarines you could get in ... for only $29.99

Posted by: Islamic Rage Boy at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (e8kgV)

566 >>I'm getting a can of Kool Aid and let it rip.

"Why, no, I don't know how lil' junior got a bright red tongue!"

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (NOIQH)

567 Penny bottle rockets, another joy from childhood made illegal.

We used to take about six gross of those, and put them in a coffee can with one of those volcano fireworks to set the batch off. That was some fun, hundreds of bottle rockets going off randomly.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (Qvgg/)

568 553 When my Nana (may she rest in peace) would babysit
me, she'd let me eat a scoop of powdered Hawaiian Punch straight from
the can.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:23 PM (q20+R)
==============================

Oh I am so gonna do that!. I'll get a canister of Kool Aid and take it over to my daughter's house next time I watch the wee ones. My daughter's a Food Nazi. Organic this - FatFree that - All Natural No Preservatives. She has a cow if i give then a cookie.

I'm getting a can of Kool Aid and let it rip.
Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:26 PM (dFi94)

Tang FTW!

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (kpqmD)

569 Is that where you build plastic bugs?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (DrXWT)

570 Just had to come to the realization that my folks were deeply, deeply flawed people that should never have had the responsibilities of parenting.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:04 PM (dFi94)

But the rest of the world wouldn't get you, otherwise, so there's that.

Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (0NdlF)

571 557

The Game of Cootie was originally issued in '49, does anyone own one of the originals?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (OiFtZ)

No, but I have a ouija board

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (jJRIy)

572 This is like reliving my childhood, without the vandalism.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (wAQA5)

573 I think those 7 foot tall Frankenstein and skeleton monsters were cardboard posters or something.

Posted by: otho at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (EWg9n)

574 We had the Frostie the Snow man icee machine, too.
And the tittle twister was a "purple Herman".
Youngest of 6 - I still have scars.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (u49WF)

575 We used Koolaid to dye our hair.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (bYGAR)

576 559 "You'll have a FUN-TIME, eating SUNSHINE, on a STICK!!" Feh lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM

Damn it. Now I have a hankerin' for a hunk o' cheese.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:27 PM (KrAjA)

Wow does that take me back.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (kpqmD)

577 >>I always wanted one of those submarines you could get in ... for only $29.99

When my son was 5 I got him a Plamobile boat that has a battery-operated engine. So freakin cool - endless bathtime!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (NOIQH)

578 Get a jug of the pre-sugared Tang powder that's half pineapple flavor. Lick a spoon. Dip. Enjoy. Repeat until you suddenly realize most of the jug is gone.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (kqGWM)

579
How about Heathkits?

Posted by: filbert

Built the Heathkit DX-35 transmitter as a novice ham radio operator.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (OiFtZ)

580 Oh yea the Saturn V rocket model with the little lander in the top. That was a really cool model.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (BO/km)

581 Five hundred comments and not a single word about the Women's NBA battle taking place RIGHT THIS SECOND!1!!!1!!

I denounce you all as misogynist sexist meat-beaters.

Posted by: Mary Cloggenstien from Brattleboro Vermont at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (msVAP)

582 All I ever really wanted was a copy of "How to Pick Up Girls".

Posted by: Randy Westerfeld at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (zp6Kj)

583 I got Exodus: Ultima III. That was fun. Not as cool as the art on the box, but engrossing.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (oZxN4)

584 491 I have fond memories of passing mercury around the class in our bare hands. Thought it was the coolest thing ever
-----------------
Two summers ago, I was at a childhood friend's house, hanging in the garage drinking & wrenching on hotrods.
He pulled a mason jar off the shelf and said "remember this?"

A jar half full of mercury. Damn thing had to weigh 15 pounds. We used to play with that shit...

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (CYqDc)

585 Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (0NdlF)

----------

oh that is so sweet. Thank you.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (dFi94)

586 Apropos of toys, the third lot of M39s goes on sale at Classic on Monday at Noon ET. I got one from the second lot and couldn't be happier with it.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (rwI+c)

587 Johnson Smith, baby!

I ordered the Two Roman Armies, Blue and Gold, With Chariots, Catapults, et al, from the back of some Batman or Tales of the Unexpected comic, and they finally arrived in the mail on the afternoon they let us out early from school because JFK had been shot.

They were cheap, flat plastic, but I did play with them for a couple of years. They were better than the Revolutionary War soldiers my brother got, and I liked them better than the Knights in shining armor too. Don't know anyone who got the Civil War soldiers, but the trading cards for CW were boss.

Posted by: RW at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (jb5hx)

588 I wanted a pet raccoon as a kid. A couple of years in a row at Xmas I went out to the garage to see if it was there. It was not.

Mom & Dad were right

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (QdyoO)

589 Revell model airplanes?

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (jJRIy)

590 "Five hundred comments and not a single word about the Women's NBA battle taking place RIGHT THIS SECOND"

My mom's friend was a coach for an LBA team. You know, the 2 seasons that they existed.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (bYGAR)

591 Or the Creepy Crawly mold a bug thing. You'd squeeze some plastic goop in a mold, then heat it up. And Shrinky Dinks were cool.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (u49WF)

592 I think of all the crap my sweet mother, like most other moms in the day, let us eat and drink. My sister and I would have been lard-asses.

But we were both skinny as hell. Because we ran around outside every single day. The only TV we watched was family stuff at night with our parents, and cartoons on Saturday morning.

The rest of the time, our parents said, "Don't come back until dark." And yeah, there were a couple of "sketchy" times we nearly crawled into a rat-infested abandoned house, and a few other times, but we lived.

Now, if only my liberal sister would come to this thread and remember how we were raised and how we turned out.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (FsuaD)

593 Wow does that take me back.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM

Blow your mind...go to YouTube and listen to Tom Lehrer doing Electric Company songs. No...Poisoning Pigeons in the Park is not one of them.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (KrAjA)

594 Ever put gum in your hair? Or sleep with it

My Grandfather would tell us to put it behind our ear when we went to bed so we could have again the next day.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (kDYa9)

595 A jar half full of mercury. Damn thing had to weigh 15 pounds. We used to play with that shit...

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (CYqDc)

nice....we had a jar of mercury that we played with too....my dad brought it home from work....as long as we didn't have cuts on our hands we could handle it

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (0O7c5)

596 Jello or one of the knockoff brands had a weird two
layer concoction that you could freeze and would settle into a gummy
popsicle with a foamy top.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:24 PM (kqGWM)

This reminds me of Jello 1-2-3. You whipped the mixture, then as it cooled in the fridge, it separated into three layers. Cool in concept, but if I remember correctly, not that great to eat.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (q20+R)

597 581 Five hundred comments and not a single word about the Women's NBA battle taking place RIGHT THIS SECOND!1!!!1!!
I denounce you all as misogynist sexist meat-beaters.
Posted by: Mary Cloggenstien from Brattleboro Vermont
_____________

Thanks. I'm outta here. I haven't seen an exciting left-handed layup in months.

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (HpEBw)

598 The cartoon picture of the sea monkeys creeped the hell out of me.
Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:19 PM (/j9PE)

And so, kids, we once again learn to "read the content, follow the links in the post" to avoid undue embarrassment.

And brine shrimp.

Posted by: filbert at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (/j9PE)

599 432
420

My father did the pennies on the railroad tracks thing. Never any of the bigger change.

We were all convinced that if you did that, the train would derail, and boy would you be in trouble then.

Used to do pfennigs on the strassenbahn tracks all the time (Army brat, lived in Germany).

Once picked up a friend at an out-of-the way Amtrak stop (Cache Junction, Utah, after they took the building away). Put a couple of coins on the track and the train stopped right on top of them. The wheel picked up the coins and after the train left you could see pairs of indentations every so often on the track as they rolled back around.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:31 PM (o78gS)

600 580
Oh yea the Saturn V rocket model with the little lander in the top. That was a really cool model.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:29 PM (BO/km)

Piker, I had a Jupiter B.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (jJRIy)

601 586 Apropos of toys, the third lot of M39s goes on sale at Classic on Monday at Noon ET. I got one from the second lot and couldn't be happier with it.

How much did you say they were going for?

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (BO/km)

602 And the Red, White and Blue basketball from the ABA?

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (u49WF)

603 Jello 1-2-3! Yeah! That's it!

The second and third layers always tasted a little off.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (kqGWM)

604 We did that too. Scratch and sniff!!!

Posted by: Lea at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (vmMMi)

Yes! So many different kinds. We had them all sorted in our books. Puffies, glitteries, scratch n sniff...

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (q20+R)

605 Only thing I was ever allowed to order out of a comic book was little plastic Revolutionary War guys (dad was an American History teacher). Blue for Americans, Red for Brits. If I recall, we sent a check for, like, $1.99. This was the early 70s. It was one of those deals where I started expecting them to arrive 2 days after we sent the check. Probably took well over a month to arrive. But when they did, you bet your sweet ass I was one happy boy. They were smaller than expected, but there was a lot of 'em. Spent hours lining them up in battle formation.

Posted by: ghost of hallelujah at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (7RXcs)

606
Almost 600 posts and no one has mentioned the must have gift at Christmas...the Slinky!

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (OiFtZ)

607 This is like reliving my childhood, without the vandalism.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:28 PM (wAQA5)
-----------------

Ha!

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (dFi94)

608
remember ZOOM?

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (e0fQD)

609 583 I got Exodus: Ultima III. That was fun. Not as cool as the art on the box, but engrossing.
Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM (oZxN4)

Heh, I liked Ultima II better, Visit the Hotel California, and the clerk says "It's a lovely place!" (and you could steal unlimited food from McDonalds.. If you got caught, you ran away till they forgot, or restarted or something like that..

I still have my Apple II copies of Wizardry I-III and Leather Goddesses Of Phobos! Hitchhikers Guide too I think, tho I wore the disc out so much I had to transplant it into another one!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (3+E+K)

610 >>> The Game of Cootie was originally issued in '49, does anyone own one of the originals?

"Schapper always leaves you laughing!"

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (2iV3X)

611 I worked with heating air conditioning guys a long time ago that came into a lot of mercury, they said they reclaimed it because it was worth quite abit money

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (gY61M)

612

ZOOM was Sesame Street for older kids.

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (e0fQD)

613 $350 for VKTs, Sakos for $380, plus plus.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (rwI+c)

614 589
Revell model airplanes?

Used to run down the PX in Stuttgart and get plastic model airplanes in plastic baggies for 10 cents.

Don't think they had a brand name.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (o78gS)

615 Revell model airplanes?

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:30 PM[/]i

Oh, hell yeah! I grew up about 5 miles from the Guillow model airplane factory. I used to build the shit out of those as a kid. And then my best friend and I would use fireworks to blow them up when they got too damaged. Good times...good times...

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:34 PM (KrAjA)

616 @ 577

Ah yes the sub. Never got that either. But the Creepy Crawler st was pretty freaking cool. Hot plates, liquid plastic, what could go wrong?

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:34 PM (09Lhy)

617 With an insulin chaser?

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:25 PM (kpqmD)

Hah! I didn't get much sugary stuff as a kid, so it was a real treat. My other grandmother would buy me all the cereals my parents wouldn't. Captain Crunch, Booberry, Golden Grahams.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:34 PM (q20+R)

618 611
I worked with heating air conditioning guys a long time ago that came
into a lot of mercury, they said they reclaimed it because it was worth
quite abit money

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (gY61M)

They leach it out of old film. That and silver.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:34 PM (jJRIy)

619 There is a gang war in Chicago over the sale of loosies. That's what you get when you make cigarettes unaffordable for the poor.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 08:34 PM (iQIUe)

620 Crash em Up Derby and Evil Kneivel were always the best commercials on saturday morning.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (VviqM)

621 Built the Heathkit DX-35 transmitter as a novice ham radio operator.
Posted by: Doctor Fish

My novice xmtr was a DX-40. But that was in 1964.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (9Fc79)

622 Oh I am so gonna do that!. I'll get a canister of
Kool Aid and take it over to my daughter's house next time I watch the
wee ones. My daughter's a Food Nazi. Organic this - FatFree that - All
Natural No Preservatives. She has a cow if i give then a cookie.

I'm getting a can of Kool Aid and let it rip.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:26 PM (dFi94)

Best. Grandma. Ever. Just make sure it's the sweetened kind. Otherwise....yikes.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (q20+R)

623 >>We had them all sorted in our books. Puffies, glitteries, scratch n sniff...
Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (q20+R)

Yes!! I wish i had one of them still just to see how useless it actually was

Posted by: Lea at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (vmMMi)

624 Now is the time to pick up Booberry, Fruit Brute, and Count Chocula at the grocery store.

I think they're reissuing Frankenhooker too.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (jR7Wy)

625 Yeah, Captain Crunch with ice cold milk was the ultimate munchie food.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (rwI+c)

626 602 And the Red, White and Blue basketball from the ABA?
Posted by: GBruno
______________

Thanks! Great memories of listening to Denver Rockets games on the radio with my grandfather.

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (HpEBw)

627 612

ZOOM was Sesame Street for older kids.
Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:33 PM (e0fQD)

HUBBI FRUBBINS!!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (3+E+K)

628 We had the Squires.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (DrXWT)

629 I denounce you all as misogynist sexist meat-beaters.

You use this word "denounce." I do not think it means what you think it means.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (kpqmD)

630 I built the health kit tube CB, back when you had to get a license to have one.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (jJRIy)

631 I got BOYS LIFE magazine for years in the 1970s (much longer than I was in scouting, for some reason). I loved the ads for ghost pirate model kits -- which I realize now were from the old Disney World Pirates of the Caribbean ride, before everybody turned into Johnny Depp. Ads back then had a lot of copy text, and it was interesting to read.

Posted by: Trimegistus at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (6PivN)

632 my other grandmother would buy me all the cereals my parents wouldn't. Captain Crunch, Booberry, Golden Grahams.
=========================

This is what I'm sayin'. This is why God made Grandmas. To let you eat whatever you want and play with whatever you find in the basement.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (dFi94)

633 Skateboards. With clay wheels. Hardcore.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (BO/km)

634 >>Almost 600 posts and no one has mentioned the must have gift at Christmas...the Slinky!

*ahem* #46

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:36 PM (NOIQH)

635 I'm so old I remember having to steal Playboy magazines so I could show my dick to the centerfolds, instead of just texting dick-pics to random bitches.

Posted by: Anthony Weiner at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (msVAP)

636 I had so many Estes rocket motors, big ones, small ones, igniters, big 9 volt batteries with lots and lots of wire (it's a clock!), not to mention fully built, half-built and unopened rocket model kits ... then, along came basketball and girls, damn! ... Homeland Security would put you in Gitmo for that stuff these days. Sorry, Son, no more daylight for you ...

Posted by: goon at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (gy5kE)

637 Going to watch a little news, BBL

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (jJRIy)

638 From Johnson Smith novelty catalog, smoke bomb powder by the ounce and fuse by the foot. Good times.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (Mz/Zg)

639 H.R. Pufnstuf with the Artful Dodger was the strangest most hippy tv show ever. Discuss.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (rwI+c)

640 My saddest thing is every few years from about the age of 10 until I moved out I would get rid of every toy, game, collection I didn't look at for a couple of years. Oh how I wish I still had things long tossed away

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (gY61M)

641 Matthias Wandel's handmade wooden Slinky escalator:

http://bit.ly/1FX9h4c

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (kqGWM)

642
Almost 600 posts and no one has mentioned the must have gift at Christmas...the Slinky!
Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:32 PM (OiFtZ)
.....................

They were great until you got one caught in your teeth.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (wAQA5)

643 All those plastic model cars, trucks, airplanes and rockets.
I remember the Space Shuttle Challenger had instructions with an "exploded view"

Posted by: Islamic Rage Boy at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (e8kgV)

644 Silly Putty

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (on01m)

645 624 Now is the time to pick up Booberry, Fruit Brute, and Count Chocula at the grocery store.

I think they're reissuing Frankenhooker too.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (jR7Wy)

Yep. I've noticed the last few years they do a limited issue around Halloween.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (kpqmD)

646 >And superballs.

I have a fond memory of working nights at Macy's over the Christmas Holidays and dumping a box full of loose superballs from the sports department down the trash shaft.

Posted by: charris at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (2hI19)

647 579
How about Heathkits?

Built the Heathkit DX-35 transmitter as a novice ham radio operator.

I've got an HW-8 QRP rig tucked in a box somewhere. I didn't build it, though; bought it from the guy who tested me. Bought some 300 ohm antenna lead-in wire from Radio Shack and put a big inverted V dipole on the side of the house. Talked from Utah to Chicago with the thing, but dad complained whenever I fired it up because it messed up the TV (my antenna was right next to the lead-in wire from the TV antenna).

By now I've forgotten all the Morse code I ever knew.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (o78gS)

648
Almost 600 posts and no one has mentioned the must have gift at Christmas...the Slinky!

*ahem* #46

Whereas Slinkies always seemed more fun in theory than in practice. The one I had got tangled and bent almost immediately.

Posted by: Lizzy

Sorry Lizzy for not recognizing your post. I must learn to read faster!

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (OiFtZ)

649 >>H.R. Pufnstuf with the Artful Dodger was the strangest most hippy tv show ever.

Yes, WTF was that all about?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (NOIQH)

650 Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp,
Brave, courageous and bold.
Long live his name, long live his glory,
And long may his story be told.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (kDYa9)

651
ZOOM opening, which is the only thing I remember about this wretched show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7gzHLKT5g4

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (e0fQD)

652 >>> Oh, hell yeah! I grew up about 5 miles from the Guillow model airplane factory.

Same here. What town? My high school sports teams were the Rockets.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (2iV3X)

653
Puffnstuff for may-ya
Puffnstuff for may-ya

Posted by: Sorry it's a curse at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (BO/km)

654 I noticed years back that Boo Berry Franken Berry and Count Chocula had become seasonal Halloween Cereals. A ways later and they clearance them.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (DrXWT)

655 639
H.R. Pufnstuf with the Artful Dodger was the strangest most hippy tv show ever. Discuss.

Lidsville with Charles Nelson Riley.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (o78gS)

656 628 We had the Squires.
Posted by: Boss Moss
___________

And Dr. J. Wow.

Posted by: Furious George at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (HpEBw)

657 Yes, WTF was that all about?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (NOIQH)

========================

Drugs, I think.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (dFi94)

658 I think they're reissuing Frankenhooker too.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (jR7Wy)

Yep. I've noticed the last few years they do a limited issue around Halloween.
Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:38 PM (kpqmD)

I got some a couple yrs back.. Boo Berry made my poo purple!!

And it tasted like crap, not at all like I remember.. Thought it was just Lucky Charms, but maybe that tastes different now too.. I haven't had those since I was 12 or so lol.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (3+E+K)

659 648
Almost 600 posts and no one has mentioned the must have gift at Christmas...the Slinky!

*ahem* #46

Whereas Slinkies always seemed more fun in theory than in practice. The one I had got tangled and bent almost immediately.

Posted by: Lizzy

Sorry Lizzy for not recognizing your post. I must learn to read faster!
Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM (OiFtZ)

I became expert in untangling those things.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (kpqmD)

660 Yes, WTF was that all about?

It was like Land of the Lost on Acid meats McDonalds BurgerLand.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (rwI+c)

661 When old moldy copies of Playboy replaced Highlites. Screw Goofus and Gallant, we got Miss June now.

And Mad Magazine.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (u49WF)

662 or meets

either or

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (rwI+c)

663 639 H.R. Pufnstuf with the Artful Dodger was the strangest most hippy tv show ever. Discuss.
Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:37 PM (rwI+c)
---
Nope. Lidsville.

And yes, the Kroft Brothers smoked a lot of rope.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (jR7Wy)

664 There is a candy store in old town sacramento that still sells the candy you ate as a kid, all of it....must have spent an hour checking it all out , eating samples.....was like a kid in ....well, a candy store

Posted by: E.T. at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (yq4gk)

665 My late mom saved Every.Single.Toy my sister and I played with, and gifted them to her only grandchild, D'oh Boy.

Roy Rogers' Ranch, our original Legos from Denmark, our little collector cars, wooden blocks, original Lincoln Logs...

I hope and pray I'll live to see at least one grandchild some day who will play with those, and our son's Thomas the Tank Engine set and all his toys waiting in the attic.

*sigh*

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (FsuaD)

666 632 Grammie.

My Mom use to give our oldest ice cream for breakfast. Yet this was the woman who forced fed cream style corn and other file things to her two children.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (vL/IL)

667 625 Yeah, Captain Crunch with ice cold milk was the ultimate munchie food.
Posted by: Grump928
--------------------
You called it "munchie food" - you must be young.
I can remember when Capn' Crunchberries came with a little package of extra berries in the box instead of a toy.

Posted by: Chi at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (CYqDc)

668 Shazam!

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (DrXWT)

669 655 639
H.R. Pufnstuf with the Artful Dodger was the strangest most hippy tv show ever. Discuss.

Lidsville with Charles Nelson Riley.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:40 PM (o78gS)

Definite Sid and Marty Krofft acid trip. I liked Land of the Lost.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (kpqmD)

670 Beware the Sleestacks!!!! -- They're walking, ever so s-l-o-w-l-y at us....wait, why are we running?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:42 PM (NOIQH)

671 Damn, what was that little Heathkit QRP rig? The little two watt cw transceiver.

ah yes HW-8.

Posted by: Nasu Paetersen at October 09, 2015 08:42 PM (HxBWK)

672 Why did that one Sleestack wear a dress?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:42 PM (DrXWT)

673 ZOOM opening, which is the only thing I remember about this wretched show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7gzHLKT5g4

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM

*twitches* Oh, the childhood flashbacks.

Here's one for you...the first comment just makes it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV48Ujv4yzg

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (KrAjA)

674 HR Puffinstuff was the one with the magical talking flute, right?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (NOIQH)

675 I think Ace knew this would be like red meat for nostalgia.

Thanks Ace.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (u49WF)

676 I think Lidsville was after my time.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (rwI+c)

677 Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (vL/IL)

---------------------

Ice cream for breakfast ..... and creamed corn for dinner. Hmmmm. An odd menu.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (dFi94)

678 Fell for it once and sent them my dollar. I never did it again (circa 197

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at October 09, 2015 08:43 PM (Z2k+c)

679 I loved Charles Nelson Riley as a kid. He was that crazy uncle you always wanted. And could he rock the neckerchief!

What a treat when he was in that excellent X-Files episode.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM (jR7Wy)

680 668 Shazam!
Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:41 PM (DrXWT)

FWIW, my dad is friends with Jackson Bostwick. (Capt Marvel), we both saw the latest Archer (separately) and he passed along his "cameo" to him lol.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM (3+E+K)

681 These comic book junk items are a perfect analogy for entitlement culture. It all sounds really cool until you stop and think about how can we possible afford to do all of that.

Posted by: SGT_Stumpy at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM (6BJHO)

682 Jose Cheng's From Outer Space.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM (jR7Wy)

683 And Charlie Weaver on the Hollywood Squares.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM (u49WF)

684 We used to make paper airplanes, best designs ever, a skill I have passed along to my grandsons.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:45 PM (wAQA5)

685 Most disappointing thing for me was "Stamps of the World for 99 cents!"

it was also the least disappointing, because it was the only thing I ever ordered.

What they send you at first was pretty good -- a lot of canceled stamps from around the world.

But THEN -- they keep sending you stuff you didn't order! And scary notices saying you HAVE to pay!

In fact the original order is just a scam to get your address so they can then send you every other fake-o stamp order. Very quickly I had amassed $28 in bills for "collectors'" stamps I did not want.

I was in tears, until someone told me they the law said I didn't have to pay if I hadn't ordered it.

I didn't pay. They send threatening letters for about six months and then gave up.

Traumatic.

Posted by: zombie at October 09, 2015 08:45 PM (jBuUi)

686 Same here. What town? My high school sports teams were the Rockets.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:39 PM

No shit? Small world. Tanners, here. Rockets...Reading, right?

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:45 PM (KrAjA)

687 forced fed cream style corn and other file things to her two children.

Man, I hated cream corn and most of that canned shit from the 50s and 60s.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:45 PM (kDYa9)

688 Balsa wood airplanes with rubber band powered propellers.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (Mz/Zg)

689 Remember how all the canned fruit was packed in syrup?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (DrXWT)

690 And my one rich neighbor with a Curtis Mathis color TV.
It was huge....like 26".

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (u49WF)

691 Grammie I never got ice cream for breakfast my oldest daughter did tho. Grandmas

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (ZZgPW)

692 Jose Cheng's From Outer Space.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 08:44 PM

That was a great episode. One of the best ever from the 90's. As was Bad Blood.

Posted by: otho at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (EWg9n)

693 Man, I hated cream corn and most of that canned shit from the 50s and 60s.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:45 PM (kDYa9)

-------------------------

Ya to this day I can't eat canned vegetables. Which poses a serious problem when it comes to my Apocalypse stash.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (dFi94)

694 All Hail Eris look up Weird Al CNR if you have not seen it.

Posted by: Sorry it's a curse at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (BO/km)

695 32 inches is the small TV now.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (DrXWT)

696 690 And my one rich neighbor with a Curtis Mathis color TV.
It was huge....like 26".
Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (u49WF)

And weighed 800 pounds

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (kpqmD)

697 499
Ever get a present you really wanted and once you got it it was just meh?

Dad bought me a computerized mastermind game back in the late '70s when that was an amazing thing. The computer would pick a four-digit number, you'd type four digits into the keypad, and the computer would tell you how many you had gotten right and how many in the right order.

Took me like half an hour to figure out how to beat the thing. Dad was upset because it had been expensive.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (o78gS)

698 I'm ashamed to say before we left Chicagoland, just to lighten up the moving load, I sold my Barbie and Ken (who were in immaculate condition), our old Mousetrap game, Candy Land, original Lincoln Logs, and a collection of comics and Mad Magazines that went waaaaay back. For $300.

I still hate myself, but the basement had flooded a couple of days before, and I was stressed as hell. Still. Dammit.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (FsuaD)

699 All these toys mentioned now would be way to dangerous for Modern Man's kids.

Posted by: wth at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (wAQA5)

700 Sorry it was a sock

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (BO/km)

701 Anyone else have Mr. Mouth? It was like Tiddlywinks but with moving parts.

I collected Garbage Pail Kids too.

Oh 70s/80s nostalgia...

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (q20+R)

702 What a treat when he was in that excellent X-Files episode.

I was sorry he got the axe in his second appearance.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (rwI+c)

703 Monkeys in a barrel!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (kqGWM)

704 And rabbit ears on top of the TV.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (u49WF)

705 Or the drawing sample you send in.....

Posted by: E.T. at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (yq4gk)

706 688
Balsa wood airplanes with rubber band powered propellers.

The rubber-band powered ones and I never got along.

There were some nice unpowered biplane gliders. I would buy several of them and make triplanes and quadroplanes.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (o78gS)

707 Balsa wood airplanes with rubber band powered propellers.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (Mz/Zg)

Yes! I bought so many of these. The wings eventually would snap.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM (q20+R)

708 forced fed cream style corn and other ~~file~~ vile things to her two children.

For some reason my mother thought I just loved mashed sweet peas. She fed me mashed sweet peas until I barfed them all up. Couldn't eat sweet peas for at least forty years after that.

Posted by: Nasu Paetersen at October 09, 2015 08:50 PM (HxBWK)

709 Mailboxes, hot wheels, slinky, Lego, a battalion of green army men, weapons (plastic) of every kind (and usually as real looking as it could get) electric football, Lincoln logs, slot cars, model planes & tanks, games lots of games all tossed away. At least the model rockets got fired until they trashed themselves.

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:50 PM (gY61M)

710 Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (ZZgPW)

================

Gotcha. Well see, when the grammie gene kicks in, all the old rules get tossed right out the window. First of all, we don't care anymore, and 2 - we know it doesn't really matter.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:50 PM (dFi94)

711
Ya to this day I can't eat canned vegetables. Which poses a serious problem when it comes to my Apocalypse stash.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:47 PM (dFi94)

We had HORRIBLE school meals in the AF, especially in Germany.

I still remember the smell of mushy canned green peas. UGH. I think they served them every damned day.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:50 PM (FsuaD)

712 Ants In The Pants

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:51 PM (DtNNC)

713 i liked h.r. pufnstuf.
i didn't like the banana splits.
they never said a word and just played zany music.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 09, 2015 08:51 PM (0z/89)

714 Balsa wood airplanes with rubber band powered propellers.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 08:46 PM (Mz/Zg)

Yes! I bought so many of these. The wings eventually would snap.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:49 PM

Introduced my little goddaughter and her twin brother to those. Holy carp is it great to see how much fun a kid can have with such a simple little toy!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:51 PM (KrAjA)

715 Mad magazine was the best. It was political sarcasm that even kids could understand. Spy vs. Spy.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:51 PM (u49WF)

716 Stuffed bell peppers. Apparently they were a fad in the late 70s, because my friends and I were all forced to eat them as kids. Disgusting.

It's a big reason I married a woman who can cook. Not going to put my kids through that hell.

Posted by: wooga at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (nYAaL)

717 >>> No shit? Small world. Tanners, here.

You are correct.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (2iV3X)

718 Yeah, Captain Crunch with ice cold milk was the ultimate munchie food.
Posted by: Grump928

Pity the roof of the mouth, cause I could eat that all day.

Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (0NdlF)

719 701
Anyone else have Mr. Mouth? It was like Tiddlywinks but with moving parts.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 08:48 PM (q20+R)

I still remember the commercial jingle.
"MR. MOUTH, MR. MOUTH..."
Really, a triumph of lyrical effort.

Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (yxw0r)

720 Mattel hand-held football and baseball with the little red LEDs

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (kpqmD)

721 I still hate myself, but the basement had flooded a couple of days before, and I was stressed as hell. Still. Dammit.

I remember saving all the Kennedy assassination newspapers, wrapped them in plastic and the basement flooded. The ol' man threw it all out. Must be a Chicagoland thing.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (kDYa9)

722 I almost mentioned stuffed peppers earlier.

*cringes*

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (kqGWM)

723 O/T, but what did the JEF, or as Ace calls him, this sissy bitch, have to say out in Roseburg, OR today?

Who cares, actually? He already said all he had to say about it, before the shooter's corpse reached room temperature.

Maybe it was that, maybe not, maybe it is just the thrill of the beginning of big game season in Colorado, but the crowd in the guns and ammo department this afternoon at Cabela's in Thornton, just up the freeway from downtown Denver, was pretty big.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (U6f54)

724
Have you noticed on Christmas morning you no longer see hordes of children in the yards and streets riding bicycles, throwing footballs, and playing with toys or proudly wearing new clothes?

What went wrong with America other than electronic devices, lack of desire to excel, and parents nwilling to allow their children to vegetate?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (OiFtZ)

725 grammie winger,

Plays hell with the emotions also...heh.

But yeah, the don't-give-a-shit motor does tend to go into overdrive

Posted by: SMFH at it all at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (zyIlW)

726 We had HORRIBLE school meals in the AF, especially in Germany.

I still remember the smell of mushy canned green peas. UGH. I think they served them every damned day.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:50 PM (FsuaD)
=============================

This is how bad of a cook I am: Little Winger loved Army food. He said it was some of the best food he ever had. He also loved school lunches. That should tell you something right there.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (dFi94)

727 No shit? Small world. Tanners, here.

You are correct.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM

Still a member at the Reading Rifle Revolver Club. Hell, I think I spent half my childhood there. LOL

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (KrAjA)

728 -
716
Stuffed bell peppers. Apparently they were a fad in the late 70s,
because my friends and I were all forced to eat them as kids.
Disgusting.

It's a big reason I married a woman who can cook. Not going to put my kids through that hell.

Posted by: wooga at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM

---------------

I LOVE stuffed peppers.

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (DtNNC)

729 Can we talk about reboots of toys that ruined the original?

I'm going to show my youth here, but Polly Pockets were the best toy ever. A tiny little doll house that fit in your backpack? Amazing.

I was so excited to get some for my girls.

But no. Polly Pocket now is just like a 1/2 scale barbie. They make houses, but they're just normal doll houses. They aren't portable.

I was so disappointed. Who screwed that idea up? I want names!

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (bYGAR)

730 Oh boy, a wayback thread.

Everything I know about politics I learned from Mad Magazine.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (LUgeY)

731 Stupid kindle, matchboxes not mailbox

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (gY61M)

732 My friend had a Commodore 64 with the "Spy vs Spy" game, which was almost as cool as the GI Joe game.

Posted by: wooga at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (nYAaL)

733 I see Chuckles in the checkout lines

Those were the best. Also, Brachs Royals.

625 Yeah, Captain Crunch with ice cold milk was the ultimate munchie food.
Posted by: Grump928(C) at October 09, 2015 08:35 PM (rwI+c)

What do you mean "was"?

*wanders to kitchen for some Crunchberries*

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Staring at the Lake in the rain at October 09, 2015 08:55 PM (7rAXc)

734 724

Have you noticed on Christmas morning you no longer see hordes of
children in the yards and streets riding bicycles, throwing footballs,
and playing with toys or proudly wearing new clothes?

What went
wrong with America other than electronic devices, lack of desire to
excel, and parents nwilling to allow their children to vegetate?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (OiFtZ)

True, this. Some of the little bastards are being gifted the latest iPhones and other pricey electronics.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:55 PM (FsuaD)

735 >>First of all, we don't care anymore, and 2 - we know it doesn't really matter.

Heh. I love that my son gets special treats a nana's house. Seems like the natural order of things (especially after putting up w/me as a kid).

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 08:55 PM (NOIQH)

736 I'm amazed we made to over 700 posts without really talking about President Ruiner.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:55 PM (u49WF)

737 Heh, I liked Ultima II better, Visit the Hotel California, and the clerk says "It's a lovely place!" (and you could steal unlimited food from McDonalds.. If you got caught, you ran away till they forgot, or restarted or something like that.. I still have my Apple II copies of Wizardry I-III and Leather Goddesses Of Phobos! Hitchhikers Guide too I think, tho I wore the disc out so much I had to transplant it into another one!
Posted by: JarvisW
----
I got Ultima 2 years later when they started putting out collections on disc.

I agree, I liked the continuous gameplay much better than the various "modes" U3 would go into.

I also remember HGG. We had an Apple ][e with a monochrome green monitor.

Those were the good old days when Apple was just 2 guys building a PC in their garage, instead of some behemoth lobbying for goodness knows what awful globalist bullshit led by a gay Nazi cake fascist.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 08:56 PM (oZxN4)

738 C'mon Cubs.

You haven't been here for 100 years ....score one freaking run.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 08:57 PM (rjtGa)

739 But yeah, the don't-give-a-shit motor does tend to go into overdrive

Posted by: SMFH at it all at October 09, 2015 08:53 PM (zyIlW)
=======================

Yup it sure does.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 08:57 PM (dFi94)

740 BRuno -sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 08:57 PM (gY61M)

741 'Everything I know about politics I learned from Mad Magazine'

Word

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 08:58 PM (BO/km)

742
Little Winger loved Army food.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too

Did the little guy eat double chipped beef on toast and a triple rasher of bacon?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:58 PM (OiFtZ)

743 Ya Steve Jobs, he was everything the left hates about evil CEOs and they idolized the guy.

Posted by: Nasu Paetersen at October 09, 2015 08:58 PM (HxBWK)

744 Old toy commercials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dZe_cmZNDA

You're welcome.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 08:58 PM (LUgeY)

745 Son has a yuuuge collection of G.I. Joes and all their gear.

And his youngest uncle gifted him all his circa l960's Joes.

He's asked to leave them here in a climate controlled environment until he has a house of his own someday. I have a feeling any very young son of his won't be allowed to touch them.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (FsuaD)

746 730 Oh boy, a wayback thread.

Everything I know about politics I learned from Mad Magazine.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (LUgeY)

And Bloom County for me..

its back BTW, on Facebook and Go Comics..

He's a lil lefty, but as he says "The right does not have a monopoly on idiocy!"

Prob why I'm a libertarian (yes, small "L")

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (3+E+K)

747
Charles Nelson Reilly did his Jose Cheng character for a fantastic episode of Millenium.

Posted by: Soothsayerwing Plover at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (e0fQD)

748 362
I was thinking the other day that you can't buy anything for a penny any
more. I remember buying tootsie rolls at two or three for a penny.

When I was living in Italy, there was a shortage of 1 lira coins. The stores would give you small change in gum and bits of candy.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (o78gS)

749 >>> 737 Those were the good old days when Apple was just 2 guys building a PC in their garage, instead of some behemoth lobbying for goodness knows what awful globalist bullshit led by a gay Nazi cake fascist.

=======

Very well put.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (u49WF)

750 And rabbit ears on top of the TV.

I still use the ones left in my house when I bought it. Prolly from the 60s. I tried the fancy new ones you plug in and they're not near as good. Don't know why.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (kDYa9)

751 Horrible headline:

"The Latest: Obama leaves Roseburg following shooting"

No, it just means that he left after bloviating. There was no new shooting.

Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 09:00 PM (0NdlF)

752
I didn't pay. They send threatening letters for about six months and then gave up.

=====

reminds me of the book and CD clubs. 10 sci fi books for a buck! woot!

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at October 09, 2015 09:00 PM (Cq0oW)

753 I love stuffed peppers, too. Also stuffed cabbage.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 09:00 PM (iQIUe)

754 io9.com: All 163 GI Joe A Real American Hero Action Figures Ranked

http://bit.ly/1OpyI19

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:00 PM (kqGWM)

755 I still love MAD Magazine. I have digital copies of all the 60s through 90s issues. Love, love, love.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (q20+R)

756 still have my Apple II copies of Wizardry I-III and Leather Goddesses Of Phobos! Hitchhikers Guide too I think, tho I wore the disc out so much I had to transplant it into another one!

Oh man...I had almost every Infocom text game that came out. Zork, Planetfall, Stationfall, Bureaucracy, Hitchhiker's Guide...good stuff.

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (kpqmD)

757 I liked Ultima 5, just because it pantsed the self-righteous tyrannical SJWs right out the gate.

Honesty: Thou shalt not lie, or thou shalt lose thy tongue.
Compassion: Thou shalt help those in need, or thou shalt suffer the same need.
Valor: Thou shalt fight to the death if challenged, or thou shalt be banished as a coward.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (aLXXe)

758 >>> Still a member at the Reading Rifle Revolver Club.

Is that over by Camp Curtis Guild? I knew of a shooting range off of Salem Street (?) in Tanner Town.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (2iV3X)

759 I had plastic guns that today would get you jacked up if not flat out shot by site. No orange tips, real looking colors.

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (gY61M)

760 I'm amazed we made to over 700 posts without really talking about President Ruiner.

Posted by: GBruno
---
Or the fact that despite the lameness of the gizmos in the OP, they reflect a quirky whimsicality that would put them completely beyond the ability of a drab, narcissistic brat like clockboy to invent.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (oZxN4)

761 We had an Apple ][e with a monochrome green monitor.

Those were the good old days when Apple was just 2 guys building a PC in their garage, instead of some behemoth lobbying for goodness knows what awful globalist bullshit led by a gay Nazi cake fascist.
Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 08:56 PM (oZxN4)

yeah! Steve WOZniack was a hero to me along with Nolan Bushnell and Lord British.. So I was PISSED when Jobs, jobbed Woz and NEVER wanted another slice of Apple again!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (3+E+K)

762 Did the little guy eat double chipped beef on toast and a triple rasher of bacon?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:58 PM (OiFtZ)
==============================

He ate whatever they gave him and thought it was great. When he would come home on leave he would tell his buddies that he was going back home to a couple of weeks of bad meals. This is an indicator of my cooking skills.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM (dFi94)

763 My mom has kept all my Strawberry Shortcake and Smurf toys. Some day I guess I'll inherit them.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:02 PM (q20+R)

764 its back BTW, on Facebook and Go Comics..

Yeah, I need to check it out. Berkely Breathed is pretty funny.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:02 PM (LUgeY)

765 I joined Columbia Record and Tape Club repeatedly. A penny per cassette?

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 09:02 PM (DrXWT)

766 Pufnstuf and Land of the Lost is on Saturday mornings on MeTV stations.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 09:03 PM (9Fc79)

767 Apple ][ games: Aztec, Swashbuckler, Lode Runner, Choplifter, Zaxxon, Robotron: 2084, etc.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:03 PM (kqGWM)

768 "I didn't pay. They send threatening letters for about six months and then gave up. "

Yeah...about that. Check your credit.

When we were buying our house we discovered that the Disney book club reported me. What happened was my MIL said she'd get it for the kids, but apparently forgot and never wrote the check. We had my information on the card, so I took the credit hit.

It didn't end up mattering except by lowering my score by whatever voodoo amount, but I was pretty shocked to see it on there since I had forgotten all about that incident.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:04 PM (bYGAR)

769 MAD Magazine, awesome

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 09:04 PM (QvClr)

770 Ludens cherry flavored cough drops, 10cents a box. 4th grade teacher freaked when she found I had a little brown bag of ten boxes in my desk.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 09:04 PM (Mz/Zg)

771 I'll bet when Trump was a kid, he never experienced the kinds of disappointments, or apprehension of disappointments that ace details.

His father probably got him a real X-ray machine.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:04 PM (oZxN4)

772 311
Best memory? My dad dropping me off at the stable in the desert, and
telling me he'd be back to pick me up in three or four hours.

I lived in Dugway Proving Ground for a couple of years. Used to spend whole days wandering around the desert. This was, of course, before I had any idea at all what they did in that desert.

Awesomest thing I ever found? Blood stained box of empty test tubes. Brought them home, of course. Dad used them to store little screws and other small thingamabobs.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:05 PM (o78gS)

773 >>>> still love MAD Magazine. I have digital copies of all the 60s through 90s issues. Love, love, love.
Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM

---------------

Where'd you come acros those? If you don't mind me asking?

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:05 PM (u49WF)

774 We ordered a racial healer 7 years ago, and got a race-pimping charlatan instead.

Posted by: USA at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (vsbNu)

775 I still love MAD Magazine. I have digital copies of all the 60s through 90s issues. Love, love, love.

What other publication could expand your language skillz with words such as "Oobin-glit" and "Gleeben-broof?"

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (LUgeY)

776 764 its back BTW, on Facebook and Go Comics..

Yeah, I need to check it out. Berkely Breathed is pretty funny.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:02 PM (LUgeY)

He just got a web-minder, so the first stuff back is only on Go Comics. the dailys are posted on FB tho. check his page or BCs.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (3+E+K)

777
Hell, I remember kids out on their bikes Christmas morn in a foot of snow.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (iQIUe)

778
oh crap you cardinals. crap.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (dFi94)

779 I just remembered another toy I wanted. Perfection. My neighbor friend had it and I wanted it so bad. Something about the anxiety it created as you tried to get those little pieces in the right spots before the timer went off and blew the whole thing was appealing.

Also Trouble. Only because of the popping dice-roller.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (q20+R)

780

I'm amazed we made to over 700 posts without really talking about President Ruiner.

Posted by: GBruno

Can you imagine Hussein participating in this thread? I doubt he had the family synergy or personal ability to imagine fantasy or hero worship. He was an embittered prick from a young age who sought vindictive retribution against others, and most unfortunately, this arrogant bastard was elected to the presidency to change the nation for the worst.

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM (OiFtZ)

781 >>Ya Steve Jobs, he was everything the left hates about evil CEOs and they idolized the guy.

Funny, isn't it?

The Koch brothers and Sam Walton are eeeevil, but that uber-jerk Jobs is a god.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (NOIQH)

782 The coolest thing I could find in rambling through the woods was a dead animal with maggots.

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (4rzL1)

783 Go Cards!

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (0Euvx)

784 I LOVE those Luden cherry cough drops.

Had some sent to me in a care package.

Gammy would always have a box or two in her purse.

Posted by: SMFH at it all at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (zyIlW)

785 767
Apple ][ games: Aztec, Swashbuckler, Lode Runner, Choplifter, Zaxxon, Robotron: 2084, etc.

My favorites were Dung Beetles and a snake game.

Wrote myself a snake game a couple of weeks ago when the IT guys at work snarfed my PC for updates, leaving me with just my BeagleBone Black and no way to do anything really productive.

Immediately got sucked right into the damn snake game, just like it were the '80s all over again.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (o78gS)

786 Heh, Fox News showed video of protesters of 0bama's visit to Oregon to "comfort" the victims' families, and one of the protest signs read simply "GO GOLF".

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (vsbNu)

787 Tommy Pham! Rookie pitch hitting in the eighth! Big applause from an appreciative crowd! Monster home run on a 3-1 fastball from Lester! Boom!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (kqGWM)

788 Trumps dad probably hired a chemist with a doctorate instead of just giving him a chemistry set.

Posted by: Skip at October 09, 2015 09:08 PM (gY61M)

789 Is that over by Camp Curtis Guild? I knew of a shooting range off of Salem Street (?) in Tanner Town.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM

That's the one. Great club. Can't think of any that were in my hometown, though.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:08 PM (KrAjA)

790 767 Apple ][ games: Aztec, Swashbuckler, Lode Runner, Choplifter, Zaxxon, Robotron: 2084, etc.
Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:03 PM (kqGWM)

Oh yeah! many an hr wasted on those too! Also, Oregon Trail and TIPAI! Where you could trade in Opium!! lol.

The teacher in Computer Class never knew either...

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:08 PM (3+E+K)

791 773 >>>> still love MAD Magazine. I have digital copies of all the 60s through 90s issues. Love, love, love.
Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:01 PM

---------------

Where'd you come acros those? If you don't mind me asking?
Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:05 PM (u49WF)

Ditto on that, i'd love to get hold of digi copies of Mad.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 09:08 PM (VviqM)

792 -
Also Trouble. Only because of the popping dice-roller.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:06 PM
-------------

Loved that thing. I think it would make a great stress reliever for the office desk

Posted by: irright at October 09, 2015 09:08 PM (DtNNC)

793 King's Quest. Almost forgot. Even on a monochrome monitor the graphics blew my mind.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (oZxN4)

794 >>> "Oobin-glit" and "Gleeben-broof?"

Potrzebie! Fershlugginer!

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (2iV3X)

795 773
Where'd you come acros those? If you don't mind me asking?

Several (ten?) years ago, they were selling a box of CDs with all of them.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (o78gS)

796 I had perfection. I'm pretty sure it contributed to my generalized anxiety disorder.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (bYGAR)

797 Oh gee Lester - you had ONE job.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (dFi94)

798 And cubs forced to use bullpen

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:09 PM (0Euvx)

799 Where'd you come acros those? If you don't mind me asking?

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:05 PM (u49WF)

You can buy it on Amazon for $90. It's called "Absolutely MAD Magazine - 50+ Years"

I got mine from a less than savory place...I bittorrented it.

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:10 PM (q20+R)

800 Yeah, digital Mad?

*grabby hands*

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:10 PM (LUgeY)

801 Again.

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:10 PM (0Euvx)

802 785 767
Apple ][ games: Aztec, Swashbuckler, Lode Runner, Choplifter, Zaxxon, Robotron: 2084, etc.

My favorites were Dung Beetles and a snake game.

Wrote myself a snake game a couple of weeks ago when the IT guys at work snarfed my PC for updates, leaving me with just my BeagleBone Black and no way to do anything really productive.

Immediately got sucked right into the damn snake game, just like it were the '80s all over again.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (o78gS)

YEp! I was just called "Snake" i think.. later TRON used it for its Light-cycles section of the arcade game.. spent MANY a quarter on that and Star Wars (Death Star Run)

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:10 PM (3+E+K)

803 You rich kids with your 95 cents!

Posted by: Weasel at October 09, 2015 09:10 PM (e3bId)

804 Cap guns were big as a kid. I had both pistols & riffles.

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 09:11 PM (pahrJ)

805 I remember Jiffy Pop commercials and I wanted to try it but my Mom kept on making popcorn the old-fashioned way.

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:11 PM (4rzL1)

806 I had CDs of all the Mads up until about 2000. Now I only have the box.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:11 PM (BO/km)

807 for the love of pete

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (dFi94)

808 Huh ..

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (0Euvx)

809 I simply must try that ghost diaphragm. Is it free?

Posted by: Sandra Flook at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (Dwehj)

810 720
Mattel hand-held football and baseball with the little red LEDs

Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 08:52 PM (kpqmD)

You can still buy those. I got them for my brothers for Christmas a couple years back. Then Rock-em Sock-em Robots.
Finances are tight now, but eventually I'll get them electric football.

Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (yxw0r)

811 >>> Can't think of any that were in my hometown, though.

Near the auto junkyard, which is probably gone now.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (2iV3X)

812 Night, night, Cubbies.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (kqGWM)

813 The Usual Gang of Idiots.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (LUgeY)

814 This. Is. Not. Good.

I have to go be mad at the Cubs. Have a good evening everyone.

Posted by: grammie winger, Isa al-Masih for muslims too at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM (dFi94)

815 BOOM! Again. GO CARDS!

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (0Euvx)

816 You know what doesn't work? Reusing the jiffy pop pan with a Frisbee for the lid.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (BO/km)

817 We would get rolls of caps and get a hammer and a brick and see who could get a whole roll to go off.

4 - 0 Cards!

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (u49WF)

818 #CardinalsDevilMagic

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (kqGWM)

819 Hrm. Atari games, and my brother's big library of pirated stuff on 5.25" floppies.

Also, Nethack on a Commodre64, though I never understood the arcane interface.

. . . . @ . d . . . .

Posted by: Emu'dMonster at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (0NdlF)

820 Oh! Oh! I know.

Skip it! Skip it! The very best part of all...there's a counter on the ball!

...and that tells you how desperate for entertainment we were. The counter was *the very best part*.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (bYGAR)

821 I went back to making popcorn the old fashioned way, and with coconut oil.

It can't be beat, unless you make it over a campfire.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:13 PM (Qvgg/)

822 >>> Can you imagine Hussein participating in this thread?

========

Gee mom, did you really screw Frank Marshall Davis and so is he really my dad? What was life in Indonesia like?

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:14 PM (u49WF)

823 Near the auto junkyard, which is probably gone now.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:12 PM

Probably. Salem Street is just a residential subdivision now. Hell, the old landfill you could see from 128 is covered and has high end apartments next to it. Weird.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:14 PM (KrAjA)

824 Sea Monkeys, ffs!

My brother and I once (4th, 5th grade?) went door to door hawking Christmas cards, with the idea that we would combine our points to get The Hovercraft.

(In the 80's, they would routinely send little kids out to knock on stranger's doors collecting for UNICEF or sell Girl Scout cookies, so this gig was not a stretch for a 10 year old's imagination.)

Get done covering all of the local apartment communities and the houses on the way (efficiency) and realize that to accumulate the points needed for The Hovercraft, we would need to convert the entire population of the Earth to Christianity, so as to make Christmas cards a thing that they would need and Mom probably wouldn't drive us there anyway...

I don't remember what my brother spent his points on ater we split the cartel but I got a sweet pair of super bulky, AM/FM head phones and some some fucking freeze dried brine shrimp.

Posted by: Deety at October 09, 2015 09:14 PM (EmfUD)

825 Have the Cubs been eliminated yet?

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:15 PM (rjtGa)

826 " I went back to making popcorn the old fashioned way, and with coconut oil"

We got a Jiffy Pop. It was awesome until my husband got too enthusiastic and broke the spinner.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (bYGAR)

827 Thanks DangerGirl!

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (u49WF)

828 Snakes. Those things you'd light with a match and they'd grow all over the sidewalk.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (kDYa9)

829 Dodgers and Mets coming up.

That'll be a goodun.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (rjtGa)

830 >>> We would get rolls of caps and get a hammer and a brick and see who could get a whole roll to go off.

A big rock and a curbstone would do the trick.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (2iV3X)

831 Cap guns were big as a kid. I had both pistols & riffles.
Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian
---

I had one, and when the gun broke, I had to explode the rest of the roll using a brick. That was fun.

I also liked keeping crickets. You could hold their heads and make them eat grass: fascinating. I was scared of gypsy moth caterpillars though. They were hideously ugly.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:16 PM (oZxN4)

832 Have the Cubs been eliminated yet?
Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:15 PM (rjtGa)

As soon as they beat the Pirates.

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:17 PM (0Euvx)

833 "Snakes. Those things you'd light with a match and they'd grow all over the sidewalk."

Those were awesome.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:17 PM (bYGAR)

834 Lol Atari games.. I have one left that was SO BAD, it ended up in a CRACKED article..

"Hide and Seek!" You had to send your friend out of the room to make it work at all, and then if they didnt cheat, there was only like 10 places to hide in the house, so you were found anyway..

Thankfully I got it cheap, BUT, dad bought ET for us kids to share for $59 on Christmas!!

WORST GAME EVAR!! lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:17 PM (3+E+K)

835 A big rock and a curbstone would do the trick

Pro tip. Clamp em in a vice and bang on the side with a hammer.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:18 PM (BO/km)

836 Ace will lead us back into our childhood, like the Twilight Zone episode. He's the Ewok Rod Serling.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:18 PM (oZxN4)

837 We got a Jiffy Pop. It was awesome until my husband got too enthusiastic and broke the spinner.

--

Lauren, that is what I use. Let him know you barely have to use the crank.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:18 PM (Qvgg/)

838 Well alright, Mad magazine issues 1-500 are indeed out there in torrent land.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 09:18 PM (VviqM)

839 >>> Probably. Salem Street is just a residential subdivision now. Hell, the old landfill you could see from 128 is covered and has high end apartments next to it. Weird.

Chrissie Hynde went back to Ohio. Worked out about the same.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:19 PM (2iV3X)

840 781 Funny, isn't it?

The Koch brothers and Sam Walton are eeeevil, but that uber-jerk Jobs is a god.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:07 PM (NOIQH)

The death of Jobs completely overshadowed the death of Dennis Ritchie--the creator of the C programming language--a mere week later. That ticked me off.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:19 PM (EHU9F)

841 RedLetterMedia has a new vid of Ultron being voiced by James Spader.

Ace would love it.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:19 PM (rjtGa)

842 @822

Mommy can we eat doggy after going to the mosque? Then can I fuck a goat?
Posted by: Littlle Ba-Rock Obama

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 09:19 PM (UiGnh)

843 838
Well alright, Mad magazine issues 1-500 are indeed out there in torrent land.

Posted by: All Teh Meh at October 09, 2015 09:18 PM (VviqM)
i have them here in my home.....

Posted by: phoenixgirl, i was born a rebel at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (0O7c5)

844 I figured out a way to make great popcorn in a microwave, without buying microwave popcorn.

Pyrex bowl, just popcorn kernels, plate on top.
Butter spray, popcorn salt. Cheap and better.
Takes longer, like 4 minutes, but these days, I make a lot of popcorn.

IYKWIMAITYD

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (u49WF)

845 I wished I could have a sweater from Saks like Maria Shriver in 17 magazine. It had little parachutes on it. I must have been about 12.

If only I could have that sweater, life would be different. I would have a beret and a Chesterfield coat and my dad would put his arm around me.

Posted by: Sarahw at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (3fTXW)

846 I also liked keeping crickets. You could hold their heads and make them eat grass: fascinating. I was scared of gypsy moth caterpillars though. They were hideously ugly.

Back home in Alabama, I'd catch a jar full of fireflies and watch them blink until I went to sleep at night.

The kids that lived next door would hit them with a baseball bat.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (LUgeY)

847 Obama doesn't even know who his momma is.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (rjtGa)

848 Chrissie Hynde went back to Ohio. Worked out about the same.

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:19 PM

LOL!

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (KrAjA)

849 Heh, TFG remembers his time in Indonesia...

"The Muslim call to prayer is the most beautiful song in the world"

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:21 PM (3+E+K)

850 834 Lol Atari games.. I have one left that was SO BAD, it ended up in a CRACKED article..

"Hide and Seek!" You had to send your friend out of the room to make it work at all, and then if they didnt cheat, there was only like 10 places to hide in the house, so you were found anyway..

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:17 PM (3+E+K)

Are you sure it wasn't "Sneak 'n Peek?" Also, E.T. isn't nearly as bad as the Atari 2600 port of Pac Man.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:21 PM (EHU9F)

851 Ever wondered what u would get if you voted for a Republican?

Yeah, kinda like that.

Posted by: Cicero Kid sees Conservatives through his .98 cent X-ray glasses at October 09, 2015 09:22 PM (t3+lV)

852 my cousin always had chameleons and had to order meal worms every week to feed them. But the chameleons were way cool.

Posted by: Badda Bing at October 09, 2015 09:22 PM (/Vs1e)

853 Whirly Pop works, but it's tough and chewy. But no accounting for taste.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:22 PM (u49WF)

854 I recall reading that Atari came out with a game that was so bad, they took all the copies they could get their hands on and buried them in a landfill.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:23 PM (Qvgg/)

855 the glasses worked ok if you snuck into the girls locker room when they were in the shower.

Posted by: Badda Bing at October 09, 2015 09:24 PM (/Vs1e)

856 Well Folks, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Good night!

Posted by: fluffy at October 09, 2015 09:24 PM (2iV3X)

857 E.T. was the game. It was an unconfirmed urban legend until earlier this year when they excavated the landfill and found a rather large pile of boxed games still intact.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:24 PM (kqGWM)

858 826
We got a Jiffy Pop. It was awesome until my husband got too enthusiastic and broke the spinner.

Jiffy Pop? Spinner?

AFAIK, Jiffy Pop is popcorn in an aluminum pan with an expandable aluminum foil lid. As you cook it, the lid grows until it's done, at which point you tear it open and dig in.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (o78gS)

859 Not surprised that Lester got out dueled. He just hasn't been a lock-down ace for the Cubs this year.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (2TUVm)

860 Styrofoam hand gliders with monster or pop images printed on them. The hotdog one worked well.

Posted by: Corona at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (tWUja)

861 Whirly Pop works, but it's tough and chewy

--

Sounds like the corn, not the maker.

2 tablespoons of coconut oil, and 1/3 cup of Orville Redenbacher's and you will be set.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (Qvgg/)

862 844 I figured out a way to make great popcorn in a microwave, without buying microwave popcorn.

Pyrex bowl, just popcorn kernels, plate on top.
Butter spray, popcorn salt. Cheap and better.
Takes longer, like 4 minutes, but these days, I make a lot of popcorn.

IYKWIMAITYD

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (u49WF)

I went back to using a deep pan, but I also use a lunch sack with about 1/4 cup of kernels in it.. a lil salt o taste and 2 1/2-3 mins.. stop nuking when kernels dont pop for more than 2 seconds.

Also, during the last move I found our old Hot Air Popper, it has a lil plastic lid and a chute they would slide down into the bowl.. Hadn't used it in 30 yrs, but remember it took FOREVER to make a bowl worth lol.

Gave it to mom, wonder if shes tried it since lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (3+E+K)

863 Cheap woks with dome lids are basically the most perfect popcorn popper you'll ever find.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (kqGWM)

864 Speaking of old gaming/computer systems...my dad bought a TI-99/4A back in the day. It was state-of-the-art with a voice synthesizer. We played "Hunt the Wumpus" "Parsec" "Alpiner" and some other game that I swear had spiders in boxes or something.

The voice synthesizer was a hoot. "Great shot...pilot." In Alpiner (a mountain-climbing game) when an avalanche would happen, the synthesizer would say, "Wat Out! Loot Out!"

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (q20+R)

865 The Atari 2600 version of Raiders of the Lost Ark was way better than E.T.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (vsbNu)

866 They buried games other than E.T. in that landfill, BTW. People are paying big bucks for the excavated copies for some reason.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (EHU9F)

867 Fuckin' Rosenthal.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (kqGWM)

868 I'd catch a jar full of fireflies and watch them blink until I went to sleep at night.

Ha, my buddy would bring his 2 boys to the bar to play the games while we had a few beers. Took them out and caught a jar full that we brought back into the dark bar and let loose.

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (kDYa9)

869 I always thought Rock'em Sock'em Robots were for rich kids.

Posted by: Cloyd Freud, Unemployed at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (u5gzz)

870 My best friend had an Atari. One day he was like, "I got Pac-Man!", which we loved playing at the local deli. I was appalled how shitty the Atari version was. He ate the pills through the top of his head when he wenr up, instead of rotating his head so his mouth faced upwards.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (oZxN4)

871 844
I figured out a way to make great popcorn in a microwave, without buying microwave popcorn.

I have a microwave rice cooker. I just throw some kernels in, clamp down the lid, toss it in the microwave, and nuke 'til done.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (o78gS)

872 Anachronda, its a Whirly Pop

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:27 PM (Qvgg/)

873 Back home in Alabama, I'd catch a jar full of fireflies and watch them blink until I went to sleep at night.

The kids that lived next door would hit them with a baseball bat.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:20 PM (LUgeY)
***************
And now they're either in jail or CEOs.

Or both.

Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at October 09, 2015 09:27 PM (yxw0r)

874 >>>> 858 826
We got a Jiffy Pop. It was awesome until my husband got too enthusiastic and broke the spinner.

Jiffy Pop? Spinner?

AFAIK, Jiffy Pop is popcorn in an aluminum pan with an expandable aluminum foil lid. As you cook it, the lid grows until it's done, at which point you tear it open and dig in.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM

========

I think they mean the "Whirly Pop". It's got the flap lid with the crank handle. Their a bitch to clean.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:27 PM (u49WF)

875 Ace will lead us back into our childhood, like the Twilight Zone episode. He's the Ewok Rod Serling.
Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner

It's great until the merry go round scrunches your leg.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 09, 2015 09:28 PM (9Fc79)

876 Those metal trimmed dishes cause lightning in the microwave.

Posted by: Boss Moss at October 09, 2015 09:28 PM (DrXWT)

877 854 I recall reading that Atari came out with a game that was so bad, they took all the copies they could get their hands on and buried them in a landfill.
Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:23 PM (Qvgg/)

Are you sure it wasn't "Sneak 'n Peek?" Also, E.T. isn't nearly as bad as the Atari 2600 port of Pac Man.
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:21 PM (EHU9F)

Yeah, it might have been that.. A No-name developer did it.. I have that and River Raid left.. THAT was a GREAT GAME!!

And yeah, it was ET they buried, and someone recently did a documentary (ATARI: Game Over) where they found the landfill, and the first one they retrieved got like $100k on ebay for it!!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:28 PM (3+E+K)

878 Geez Bertram I thought I was the only kid who had that happen

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian, Model Citizen at October 09, 2015 09:29 PM (P4OkF)

879 my cousin always had chameleons and had to order meal worms every week to feed them. But the chameleons were way cool.

I had chamelons and tiny little painted turtles and a kitten I rescused from a neighbors barn and hide in the closet until my mother heard it meowing. But after that she couldn't get get rid of it and I won!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 09, 2015 09:29 PM (GERXL)

880 Yadi just gave Rosenthal that look.

Don't f it up.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:29 PM (u49WF)

881 870 My best friend had an Atari. One day he was like, "I got Pac-Man!", which we loved playing at the local deli. I was appalled how shitty the Atari version was.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:26 PM (oZxN4)

I had saved my allowance for weeks to buy that POS within days of its release. I still feel ripped off.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:30 PM (EHU9F)

882 I think they mean the "Whirly Pop". It's got the flap lid with the crank handle. Their a bitch to clean.

--

Yes, it is the Whirly Pop. If you use coconut oil, which has a low melting point, it cleans easily with hot water.

Posted by: Vashta Nerada at October 09, 2015 09:30 PM (Qvgg/)

883 I mean Whirley Pop. Whoops.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:31 PM (LzzEz)

884 865 The Atari 2600 version of Raiders of the Lost Ark was way better than E.T.
Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:25 PM (vsbNu)

heh, dad payed $59 for that too for Christmas. I beat it that night, and have been wary of spending that much on a game since it and ET debacles lol..

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:31 PM (3+E+K)

885 I recently learned how to make popcorn on the stovetop in my All-Clad Dutch oven, with coconut oil. Then add popcorn salt (ordinary salt ground to a fine powder so it sticks better) and real melted butter to taste. It's popcorn heaven. It blows every other method away.

(You don't really need to use a $400 All-Clad Dutch oven, of course. Any suitable container will suffice. I just want to get my money's worth out of it.)

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 09:32 PM (sdi6R)

886 Cards take game 1 4-0. Same score Cubs beat the Pirates by to get into this series.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 09, 2015 09:32 PM (2TUVm)

887 Everything I know about politics I learned from Mad Magazine.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 08:54 PM (LUgeY)
---
Everything I needed to know about LIFE I learned from MAD Magazine.

If you're a BaltiWash hordeling, Geppi's Entertainment Museum at Camden Yards has a magnificent collection of MADs. I remembered every cover!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 09:32 PM (jR7Wy)

888 Well, this has been a wonderful look back. I'm going to go do some reading. Have a good one!

Posted by: DangerGirl and her 1.21 gigawatt Hardline Sanity Prod at October 09, 2015 09:33 PM (q20+R)

889 I saw Pac-Man being demo'd at Sears, so I knew already I didnt want it.. Think I picked it up later in the bargain bin for $5 and it was STILL a rip lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:33 PM (3+E+K)

890 Hey everybody. Are we talking favorite toys?

I hope to order one of these in the near future...

http://tinyurl.com/nqkvgwl

(I had a Tyco set when I was a kid, I think it was a 1972 model similar to this except of course it didn't have nearly as much track length. It barely worked yet I still loved it.)

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:33 PM (ntObR)

891 DC comics advertised a rocket ship, or at least the control room, for a dollar two ninety eight. Oh how I wanted that thing, to impress my friends. Last year...ha-ha I keed I keed

Posted by: Jeanne of the no. at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (Ziu1L)

892 Our parents bought Mad for us.

In the meantime, husband is off to pick up two international students who are staying with us this weekend.

One of them, we are hosting for the year.

Let me just say, if anything were to happen to our host student, an international incident might happen.

Just.Saying.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (FsuaD)

893 I also want a PS3 or PS4.

I just can't quit Gran Turismo.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (ntObR)

894 A soul crushing, generation cursing, three game sweep couldn't happen to a nicer team than the Cubbies.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (kqGWM)

895 @884

I could find the location of the Well of Souls but could never figure out how to get the damn shovel to work in order to get to the Ark. I've still got my VCS, game, and manual, so there's still a chance I'll win.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (EHU9F)

896 I'm a ho for HO scale racing.
;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:35 PM (ntObR)

897 LMAO at people whining about Mexican food night at Clemson.

Good gravy, I've eaten at restaurants in Mexico and mariachi bands would show up and play.

The stereotype is *real*, idiots.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:35 PM (vsbNu)

898 The best issue of Mad, was the one that showed how Alfred E. Newman's face was created from the parts of about 10 politicians. Reagan being one of them. IIRC.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:35 PM (u49WF)

899 All Hail Eris did you check out the Weird Al Charles Nelson Riley video? Did ya? Did ya?

I watched it again and it's still perfect.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:36 PM (BO/km)

900 I had one of those Bag of Laughs gadgets...it was funny as hell.

Posted by: CanaDave at October 09, 2015 09:36 PM (G8QmE)

901 I hope to order one of these in the near future...

*more grabby hands*

One of my HS buddies had a bunch of those. We'd stay up all night racing those things and drinking hot Dr. Pepper in the winter.

Good times.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:37 PM (LUgeY)

902 I could find the location of the Well of Souls but could never figure out how to get the damn shovel to work in order to get to the Ark. I've still got my VCS, game, and manual, so there's still a chance I'll win.
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (EHU9F)

Lol, I forget how now, but I think ou had to be on the EXACT right spot..

Kinda like ADVENTURE! With the invisible dot you could get in the secret room with lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:37 PM (3+E+K)

903 A soul crushing, generation cursing, three game sweep couldn't happen to a nicer team than the Cubbies.
Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (kqGWM)

^^^This^^^

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:37 PM (0Euvx)

904
Hey, Slinkys are cool. They're like some people who shall go nameless. Essentially worthless, but they make you smile when you push them down the stairs.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 09, 2015 09:38 PM (o98Jz)

905 I had chamelons and tiny little painted turtles and a kitten I rescused from a neighbors barn and hide in the closet until my mother heard it meowing. But after that she couldn't get get rid of it and I won!
Posted by: FenelonSpoke

---

You were such a little sadist! Do you realize how long I had to hold my head in a bucket of turpentine in order to get that crap off my face?

Posted by: Mitch McConnell at October 09, 2015 09:38 PM (oZxN4)

906 Backwards, oh boy.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:38 PM (ntObR)

907 You can also find lots of the old games on Abandonware sites.. I used it to catch up on the LucasArts games like Maniac Mansion and Monkey Islands

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:38 PM (3+E+K)

908 903 A soul crushing, generation cursing, three game sweep couldn't happen to a nicer team than the Cubbies.
Posted by: Walter Freeman at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (kqGWM)

^^^This^^^
Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:37 PM (0Euvx)

Um... Yankees?? ( I know they were beat in 1, just sayin ANYTIME is a good time to beat them lol)*drops mic*

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:40 PM (3+E+K)

909 >>I figured out a way to make great popcorn in a microwave, without buying microwave popcorn.

Hmmm. You can also make it by simply putting the kernels in a brown lunch bag and folding the open end tightly a few times to seal it.

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM (NOIQH)

910 The stereotype is *real*, idiots.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:35 PM (vsbNu)

Hence stereotype. Something the idiots will never understand.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM (2TUVm)

911
I think they mean the "Whirly Pop". It's got the flap lid with the crank handle. Their a bitch to clean.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:27 PM (u49WF)

We have one of the heavy-duty ones with a copper plate sandwiched into the base. $5 at a yard sale, still in the box. I just wipe it out with a paper towel unless we make kettle corn. Then, just hot water and a little soap. We like this popper.

Posted by: Cicero Kid sees Conservatives through his .98 cent X-ray glasses at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM (t3+lV)

912 /i

Posted by: cm9000 at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM (2TUVm)

913 And now I will return to my usual lurker status. Y'all have a great evening.

Posted by: tbodie at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM (0Euvx)

914 Now I've got the slinky jingle running through my head.

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:42 PM (4rzL1)

915 I saw in a store the last couple of weeks throwback game sets you plug into your TV. There was Colecovision, Intellivision, and even Sega Genesis. I have not seen any for Atari or NES though (I do have a joystick thingy with 4 Atari games though my brother bought me for my birthday 11 years ago); I'd be curious to snap those up at the right price.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:42 PM (vsbNu)

916 >>Let me just say, if anything were to happen to our host student, an international incident might happen.

Lesser Saudi or emirate royal?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (NOIQH)

917
9000 times in the Barrel, bub.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (o98Jz)

918 Hmm. It's slanty its slanty...

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (BO/km)

919 902 Lol, I forget how now, but I think ou had to be on the EXACT right spot..

Kinda like ADVENTURE! With the invisible dot you could get in the secret room with lol

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:37 PM (3+E+K)

Ach. I tried and tried. There are only so many pixels that can be drawn by an Atari VCS and I think I tried them all. heh

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (EHU9F)

920 335 What I really wanted as a kid but never got?

My parents' love and acceptance.
Posted by: Insomniac at October 09, 2015 07:57 PM (kpqmD)

This breaks my heart.

Posted by: Caliban at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (3GFMN)

921 Where'd the italics come from?

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:44 PM (4rzL1)

922 I thirst.

Posted by: The Barrel at October 09, 2015 09:44 PM (yxw0r)

923 I also had a chemistry set. I spent most of the time using the sulphur to create foul smells. I also had a microscope: I let grass rot in water and then looked at all the cool rotifers and amoeba growing in there.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 09:44 PM (oZxN4)

924 Come to me....We all float down here....

Posted by: The Barrel at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (KrAjA)

925 Posted by: cm9000

Hello there!

Posted by: The Barrel at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (vsbNu)

926 When I was living in Italy, there was a shortage of 1 lira coins. The stores would give you small change in gum and bits of candy.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 08:59 PM (o78gS)
---
Haha, think I already related this story but was in Italy as a teen, standing behind a German in line at the bank. The teller told him, "So sorry, sir, but we are out of money. Here, have some mints! Have some gum!" The Kraut was ready to blow a gasket -- does not compute, does not compute! Error error!

So I always knew the whole EUtopia thing would never work. Separated by the Alps and by an unscalable cultural barrier.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (jR7Wy)

927 logprof, you still have a pre-digital era standard definition TV set, right?

Not sure those old systems would display properly on a new HD set.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (ntObR)

928 Lesser Saudi or emirate royal?

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:43 PM (NOIQH)

Not quite. Asian, though. Dad is a major player in his gubmint and friend of nation's president.

Kid is awesome. Already like a son to us. Still.......

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (FsuaD)

929 Oh I kinda wanted an Etcha sketch

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (4rzL1)

930 Its stinky in here.

Posted by: cm9000 in the barrel at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (2TUVm)

931 893 I also want a PS3 or PS4.

I just can't quit Gran Turismo.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:34 PM (ntObR)

I quit Gran Turismo when when GT5 online support was killed in order to prod people into buying GT6. Am still shopping for a PC equivalent for a reasonable price.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (EHU9F)

932
So, for that to be real, they would have to send you a working, walking seven-foot tall robot with some kind of latex to mimic flesh.

Well that's just the 600 series, which are easy to spot. You had to wait for the T800. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything. Very hard to spot.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (o98Jz)

933 Water rockets are really cool, especially when you make them at home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRlZFzy3ryk

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2015 09:47 PM (3pRHP)

934 I quit Gran Turismo when when GT5 online support was killed in order to prod people into buying GT6. Am still shopping for a PC equivalent for a reasonable price.
Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (EHU9F)

My friend had an F1 game for W95/8 in the late 90s that was pretty good. But you HAD to have a wheel and pedal set to do anything in it.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:47 PM (3+E+K)

935 So, for that to be real, they would have to send you
a working, walking seven-foot tall robot with some kind of latex to
mimic flesh.

Well that's just the 600 series, which are easy to spot. You had to
wait for the T800. They look human... sweat, bad breath, everything.
Very hard to spot.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM

They're so realistic they can be mad Secretary of State.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (KrAjA)

936 927 logprof, you still have a pre-digital era standard definition TV set, right?

Not sure those old systems would display properly on a new HD set.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (ntObR)

My Atari VCS works fine with my plasma TV. The Sinclair ZX-80--not so much. I'll need an old TV with manual fine tuning to get that to work.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (EHU9F)

937 Not sure those old systems would display properly on a new HD set.
Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:45 PM (ntObR)

--The Atari thingy looks all right with an HD TV.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (vsbNu)

938 This seems to have turned into a gaming thread.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (sdi6R)

939 We knew guys who'd freeze the tires and put them on a spindle in a drill to sand them so they'd run true.

Hopped up windings, different gear sets, we'd even drill holes in the frames to save weight. We had as much fun with those as we did with real cars.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (LUgeY)

940 "made", that is.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (KrAjA)

941 Games?.....Dodgers mets?

Mebbe?

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 09:49 PM (rjtGa)

942 >>Kid is awesome. Already like a son to us. Still.......

Very cool! He's lucky he 's with a real American family not w/proggy loons in, say, San Fran who would give him a warped idea of our culture and country!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:49 PM (NOIQH)

943
They're so realistic they can be mad Secretary of State.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (KrAjA)

Yeah, but they have a glitch where their default response to a Secret Service agent is "fuck you, asshole".

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 09, 2015 09:49 PM (o98Jz)

944 933 Water rockets are really cool, especially when you make them at home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRlZFzy3ryk
Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2015 09:47 PM (3pRHP)

--35 years on, my grandparents' house probably still has some water rockets stranded on the roof.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:50 PM (vsbNu)

945 OMG just saw Weird Al's CNR video. Mind blown!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 09:50 PM (jR7Wy)

946 antisocial, I actually already have unopened copies of GT5 and 6 for PS3. 6 has been sitting for a year, 5 for almost two.

Gonna play 'em and enjoy 'em if it kills me. ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:51 PM (ntObR)

947 938 This seems to have turned into a gaming thread.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (sdi6R)

Speaking of, did the weekly one get axed?

I always read it, just couldn't comment on time, because I'd get to it late and it was already dead :/

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:51 PM (3+E+K)

948 938 This seems to have turned into a gaming thread.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (sdi6R)

--Retro gaming thread.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:51 PM (vsbNu)

949 I always wanted to learn how to play Connect Four!

Posted by: Joe Biden at October 09, 2015 09:52 PM (v86SL)

950 Very cool! He's lucky he 's with a real American
family not w/proggy loons in, say, San Fran who would give him a warped
idea of our culture and country!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:49 PM (NOIQH)

Yeah, he's the second international student we've hosted for a year.

He's lived through hell as a kid. Country at war for thirty years with terrorists. (Hint: terrorists "Tigers")

He and our son have hit it off. Praying some inner city yute doesn't hurt our student.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 09:52 PM (FsuaD)

951 CNR is one BMF.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 09:52 PM (BO/km)

952 904

Hey, Slinkys are cool. They're like some people who shall go
nameless. Essentially worthless, but they make you smile when you push
them down the stairs.

Not entirely worthless. Saw an article in, IIRC, 73 magazine in which one was turned into a ham antenna for apartment dwellers. Attached a weight to one end, an alligator clip to another, stored the thing in a can. When it was radio time, tip the can out the window and let the weight stretch it out into an antenna. Coil the thing back up into the can when you were done.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:53 PM (o78gS)

953 945 OMG just saw Weird Al's CNR video. Mind blown!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, banging the gavel of liberty at October 09, 2015 09:50 PM (jR7Wy)

--Whatever you think of the White Stripes, that shit is funny.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:53 PM (vsbNu)

954 Oh, geez - tamil tigers...

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:53 PM (NOIQH)

955 I didn't have any toys. None of the other kids would play with me.

So I'd lie in bed and close my eyes and fantasize about writing "explanatory" articles that would be used to control every aspect of how they lived and thought.

Posted by: Matt Yglesias at October 09, 2015 09:53 PM (oZxN4)

956 A tree rat launcher for the halibut.

http://tinyurl.com/b4raox7

Posted by: dartist at October 09, 2015 09:54 PM (kDYa9)

957 939 We knew guys who'd freeze the tires and put them on a spindle in a drill to sand them so they'd run true.

Hopped up windings, different gear sets, we'd even drill holes in the frames to save weight. We had as much fun with those as we did with real cars.
Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:48 PM (LUgeY)

I didn't go that far, but I'd sand the contacts with a pencil eraser and find the stickiest tires to go with the best chassis, then put my favorite body on it.

Good times lol. especially when I took speaker wire to make a loop and all the track lined up straight for a drag strip! (tho I liked the finesse of the track of course too)

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:54 PM (3+E+K)

958 936
My Atari VCS works fine with my plasma TV. The Sinclair ZX-80--not so much.

I would imagine so. The ZX-80 makes video with software and just quits when it needs to do any thinking.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 09:55 PM (o78gS)

959 What I really wanted as a kid but never got?

My parents' love and acceptance.

Welcome to the club. As soon as I could cross the street (age 5) I was gone. It was either that or wait for Mumsy Dearest to get a snoot full and beat me with a belt.

No wonder Dad committed suicide two months before I was born.

That's why I never tell anyone about that: no one believes me.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 09:55 PM (LUgeY)

960 Erector Set.

Posted by: Bob Dole at October 09, 2015 09:55 PM (Mz/Zg)

961 950 Very cool! He's lucky he 's with a real American
family not w/proggy loons in, say, San Fran who would give him a warped
idea of our culture and country!!

Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:49 PM (NOIQH)

Yeah, he's the second international student we've hosted for a year.

He's lived through hell as a kid. Country at war for thirty years with terrorists. (Hint: terrorists "Tigers")

He and our son have hit it off. Praying some inner city yute doesn't hurt our student.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 09:52 PM (FsuaD)

We've hosted exchange students three times ( two were from Germany and one from Colombia). I really enjoyed the experience. In fact we visited our Colombian daughter's family in Bogota.

Posted by: Northernlurker at October 09, 2015 09:55 PM (4rzL1)

962 My STUPID FUCKING LIB SISTER just texted me to find out how my appt. with the cardiologist went yesterday.

When I told her my not-so-great results, she just replied the following:

"My dog_____ has had liquid diarrhea for days, feeding her nothing except clear broth mixed with Pedialyte and Pepcid AC, per vet tech. Worried that she might have something going on with her liver, as happened with my last dog."

FUCK ME, in other words.

Dammit to hell. Spare me from my idiot Obama-worshiping only sibling.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 09:56 PM (FsuaD)

963 I was pretty good at Pac-Man and Galaga back in the day.

Posted by: cm9000 in the barrel at October 09, 2015 09:56 PM (2TUVm)

964 Did someone say 'Retro Gaming'??

Back when me and my sisters wanted an Atari, the default decent gaming system around 1980, my dad refused to spend the money. Instead, for Christmas that year, we got a... Magnavox Odyssey. (My dad worked for GTE and it was the only system they had available, plus he could charge it to his paycheck at the company store.)

It *did* actually have a weird flat keyboard included, but that was barely worth it. Anyway, as soon as their ripoff version of Pac-Man, "K.C. Munchkin," came out, he got us a copy.

We enjoyed it, it was entertaining, but it just wasn't the same. However... we kids did get some entertainment value out of the fact that K.C. Munchkin later became a collector's item, when Namco sued Magnavox (or whomever manufactured KCM) for copyright infringement against Pac-Man.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:56 PM (ntObR)

965 "Dont be a one-upper!!" Adam Carolla Show sound drop.

So sorry to hear that Jane! Get well!!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 09:58 PM (3+E+K)

966 >>> 909 >>I figured out a way to make great popcorn in a microwave, without buying microwave popcorn.

Hmmm. You can also make it by simply putting the kernels in a brown lunch bag and folding the open end tightly a few times to seal it.
Posted by: Lizzy at October 09, 2015 09:41 PM

-------------

But now I don't even have to buy brown paper bags. I did try that, and it works.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 09:58 PM (u49WF)

967 Wow, Backwards Boy.

I am so sorry.

Posted by: Lauren at October 09, 2015 09:58 PM (bYGAR)

968 I didn't have toys either so I stole some of my Dad's Playboys.....

Posted by: Judas Washington at October 09, 2015 09:59 PM (hCdMd)

969 Ugh, Ancient Aliens segues to True Monsters.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:59 PM (vsbNu)

970 I too once owned a palace of the brine. Still remember the shock of seeing some cousins feed "brine shrimp" to their tank of piranhas.

I remember a toxic smelling tube of goo that you could put on the end of a narrow straw and by blowing your lungs out, create a kaleidoscope bubble.

Posted by: venus velvet at October 09, 2015 09:59 PM (g94P/)

971 "He's lucky he 's with a real American family not w/proggy loons in, say,
San Fran who would give him a warped idea of our culture and country!!"

It was pointed out to me that next week is "Fleet Week" in SF.

In an area where the last remaining local military bases were driven out in the late 1980s. And where the berthing of an _Iowa_ class battleship as a portside museum was violently protested and eventually cancelled. Imperialist capitalist patriarchalist running dogs!

Notwithstanding the predictable "Hello sailor!" jokes, I keep wondering when the Obama administration are going to rebrand the Blue Angels as the Pink Angels for their local appearances.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 09:59 PM (noWW6)

972 I had one of those air guns that you pulled back a thingy to cock it and it blew out a big puff of air. I have no idea what it was called, but I still remember what it sounded like. Big, round and red with a pistol handle.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 10:00 PM (LUgeY)

973 Good job Cardinals, one thing in the Ob Bone Mac f-up dats awlrat rat now besides
buying gas in Louisiana for 1.87 and diesel for 2.19.

Posted by: rightlysouthern(aim low boys they ridin shetland ponies) at October 09, 2015 10:01 PM (KXjuX)

974 Toys of the 80s are retro? You, my lawn, dis-assembly required.

Posted by: Child of the 50s and 60s at October 09, 2015 10:01 PM (Mz/Zg)

975 I still swear it was Barky that made my heart explode.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 10:01 PM (u49WF)

976 Great. My idiot lib sister has just added to my anxiety/stress that doc told me is going to kill me.

Now I have to pull myself together to be sweet, calm, loving American mom to two young foreign males (one of whom is our "son").

That will teach me to check my fucking texts from my sister.

*suppresses rage headache that could kill me*

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 10:01 PM (FsuaD)

977 "My STUPID FUCKING LIB SISTER just texted me to find out how my appt. with the cardiologist went yesterday. When I told her my not-so-great results, she just replied the following"

Oh gosh. What's wrong?

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 10:02 PM (noWW6)

978 I think Odyssey had more memory or something. Their football and baseball was better. AND it had actual 8 way directional setting, instead of hoping you could get a worn out Atari controller to move diagonally by getting Up+Left to register lol.

I always wanted to play it at my friends house, but he was already over it and hardly ever obliged lol..

Oh and it came with Asteroids combined with Space Invaders all at the same time lol.. (just rocks falling at you that split when hit so you never lasted long)

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:02 PM (3+E+K)

979 >>>The X-Ray specs, I never once believed; I was enchanted, to use Jeff Zeleney's word, by the idea, and had a normal boy's curiosity about little girls' underwear

Ace, you loser. At that age, I already had direct access, not just to an xray image, but to the real thing. I was gettin some, while you were hoping for your magic glasses.

Posted by: Lena Dunham at October 09, 2015 10:02 PM (oZxN4)

980 Thanks, Lauren. I didn't realize it until I was an adult, but a lot of my friends parents knew what was going on and treated me as one of theirs. I guess God was looking after me that way.

If I ever make it Heaven, I want to speak with Management as to why that was considered in any way necessary.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy at October 09, 2015 10:03 PM (LUgeY)

981 OMG just saw Weird Al's CNR video. Mind blown!

Where the hell did that come from? The graphics were great! It sounds a bit like Iggy Thump, but Weird Al goes far beyond a simple parody.

Posted by: t-bird at October 09, 2015 10:03 PM (+c55T)

982 I definitely played KC Munchkin! My neighbor had it around 1982. I think it was on the Odyssey II, though. The original Odyssey was discontinued in 1975. I also remember playing Golf on there. The next year, he got a Coleco Adam, complete with daisy wheel printer.

Posted by: Chris M at October 09, 2015 10:03 PM (6RZos)

983 I wanted a trip to Cape Canaveral to see a space shuttle launch.

I got a Barbie Dream House. I couldn't let my disappointment show, and I played with it a lot more than I really cared to, so as not to seem like a spoiled brat.

Posted by: lab rat at October 09, 2015 10:03 PM (hAbrX)

984 969
Ugh, Ancient Aliens segues to True Monsters.

Posted by: logprof at October 09, 2015 09:59 PM (vsbNu)

The guy with the pinched leather Toby Keith hat would get his *ss kicked were he to appear in a place where people wore actual cowboy hats.

Posted by: Just some guy at October 09, 2015 10:04 PM (yxw0r)

985 Jarvis, it wasn't horrible, in fact the Odyssey was far better than nothing. But I admit me and my sisters were very brand-name oriented as kids.

We *did* get a lot of use out of the thing.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 10:04 PM (ntObR)

986 946 antisocial, I actually already have unopened copies of GT5 and 6 for PS3. 6 has been sitting for a year, 5 for almost two.

Gonna play 'em and enjoy 'em if it kills me. ;-)
Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 09:51 PM (ntObR)

Hey, GT5 *is* a great game! Unfortunately, in order to make serious in-game money to buy new cars and repair/modify current ones, one had to partake in online events. I was hoping that the discontinuation of the online portion would result in a patch that just eliminated that requirement. I don't think that ever happened.

GT6 sounds like GT5 with a little more polish but nothing else particularly substantial so I never bought it.

Be forewarned, though, that GT5's updates upon initial install took multiple hours to complete for me.

Posted by: antisocial justice beatnik at October 09, 2015 10:04 PM (EHU9F)

987 I got some fun stuff from the Johnson Smith novelty catalog as a kid.

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 07:07 PM (Mz/Zg)

I have a 1920-something Johnson-Smith catalog that my father had. They had several pages of rifles and pistols you could buy mail-order. Real ones.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2015 10:04 PM (0yhH4)

988 Sorry to hear about your heart problems Jane.

The other complications seem solvable.

Posted by: eleven at October 09, 2015 10:05 PM (rjtGa)

989 Jane, I think its time you block her for the interim.. You can get back later, but you don't need a Soul Vampire like that..

Geeze, some ppl..

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:05 PM (3+E+K)

990 Oh gosh. What's wrong?

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 10:02 PM (noWW6)

I'm dealing with high blood pressure brought on by high stress/anxiety.

In other words, I'm just now learning to say "no" to everyone who demands my time and energy. Including my fucking sister. I swore to our mother on her death bed, I'd take care of the needy libtard.

Gawd, I'm exhausted. If I were in the desert, dying of thirst, my sister and her fellow travelers would deny me water.

Well, gotta fix the hair and face and make nice for the foreign students.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 10:05 PM (FsuaD)

991 anti, will look out for that.

Now that Sony is probably going to discontinue and cut off support for it, I'm finding GT3 500gb consoles available for under $220 nowadays. I'm thinking it's worth it for me, who plays for fun from time to time but is NOT a hardcore gamer by any stretch of the imagination.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 10:06 PM (ntObR)

992 http://www.johnsonsmith.com/

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 10:07 PM (Mz/Zg)

993 Take care of your heart Jane. And don't let them crack you open without a 2nd opinion.

Posted by: GBruno at October 09, 2015 10:07 PM (u49WF)

994 I *would* get a PS4 if it were backwards-compatible, which I have learned is no longer going to be available as a feature with any brand or type of videogame system.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 10:07 PM (ntObR)

995 "I'm dealing with high blood pressure brought on by high stress/anxiety."

Yikes. Jane, your presence is much valued and appreciated here, but you may need to go off line again from the HQ for a while to calm down. Do not let a political ragestroke turn into the real deal.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 10:09 PM (noWW6)

996 ont

Posted by: davidt at October 09, 2015 10:09 PM (Mz/Zg)

997 1000?

Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at October 09, 2015 10:10 PM (yxw0r)

998 994 yeah, that was a HUGE minus to me.. I collected some broken BC PS3s that I was going to fix but never did so I tossed them in the move.. eh..

They were going to try to re-release them as a PSN thing,but that fell thru, so MAYBE there is hope for a PS5.. but then again its SONY, and they have always been about proprietary devices..

You'd think they'd have learned after the Betamax!!

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:10 PM (3+E+K)

999 BTW CNR is great but Al's Craigslist is genius.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 10:10 PM (BO/km)

1000 I had the Atari 2600, and it wasn't much better than the Odyssey II. The really cool games were on the Apple II, or Commodore 64. Looking back, the C64 was better, but the Apple IIe was more popular for some reason.

Posted by: Chris M at October 09, 2015 10:11 PM (6RZos)

1001 Jarvis, yup.

Chris, interesting to find out. Apple always had a 'cool kid' vibe to them. ;-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 09, 2015 10:15 PM (ntObR)

1002 Hawks Win!

Posted by: Garrett at October 09, 2015 10:15 PM (v86SL)

1003 1000
I had the Atari 2600, and it wasn't much better than the Odyssey II. The
really cool games were on the Apple II, or Commodore 64. Looking back,
the C64 was better, but the Apple IIe was more popular for some reason.

While I ran into an Apple ][ occasionally, I started out on the TRS-80 (Android Nim, anyone?) and then went to CP/M and minicomputers.

Posted by: Anachronda at October 09, 2015 10:17 PM (o78gS)

1004 Someone on this forum must have built a crystal radio?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 07:26 PM (OiFtZ)

Of course.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2015 10:17 PM (0yhH4)

1005 It's not the HQ tearing me up. It's the vampires in my real life.

My sister is sucking the life and energy out of me, and even my husband.

Typical entitled, spoiled (by our mom) liberal bitch.

She's going to kill me, bit by bit.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 10:17 PM (FsuaD)

1006 I`m waiting on ps4 price to come down, most if not all of my games downloaded into ps3, I can down `em into ps4.

Posted by: rightlysouthern(aim low boys they ridin shetland ponies) at October 09, 2015 10:18 PM (KXjuX)

1007 I had the Apple II then the Apple IIc. you could plug it into a TV with an RCA jack! It was practically a laptop and I could sit in bed playing all the above games mentioned on a lil 13" BnW tv lol.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:19 PM (3+E+K)

1008 I wanted all the ninja shit in the back of martial arts magazines. Wall climbing hand and foot spikes, elaborate spears and giant carving knife things that just looked badass. All for 19.99 or less.

And in Boys Life, of course, the $6.99 instruction manual to build a levitating machine out of vacuum parts.

Posted by: ElKomandante at October 09, 2015 10:19 PM (bfxj8)

1009 Anyhow, the ONT is up, and I have two fine young fellows from foreign countries who I want to make feel welcome in our home the next two nights and mornings. They'll be arriving in the next half hour.

And I am, and hopefully, always will be the Hostess With The Mostest.

Dammit.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 09, 2015 10:20 PM (FsuaD)

1010 Oh yeah, had a TSR-80 for a short time too.. still have Adventure cartridge for it in the same place those 2 Atari games are.. I should dig that crap out sometime and try to sell em lol..

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:21 PM (3+E+K)

1011 Kalsomining?

Whitewash. Evidence of racilisim.

Posted by: freaked at October 09, 2015 10:21 PM (BO/km)

1012 As a child, I always won at Monopoly.

Whenever I ran out of money, I'd just use a stack of looseleaf paper and a magic marker to make more.

Posted by: Ben Bernanke at October 09, 2015 10:22 PM (oZxN4)

1013 Take care Jane!

I too have a bit of a HBP prob, so I know it can be bad.

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:23 PM (3+E+K)

1014 1012 As a child, I always won at Monopoly.

Whenever I ran out of money, I'd just use a stack of looseleaf paper and a magic marker to make more.
Posted by: Ben Bernanke at October 09, 2015 10:22 PM (oZxN4)

Piker.. I just confiscated it and their properties from the other Jewish kids I turned into the Nazis.

Posted by: George Sorus at October 09, 2015 10:24 PM (3+E+K)

1015 My mom kept getting me baby dolls for Christmas.

Then I'd take them and sneak into my dad's woodshed and look for the power tools...

Posted by: Deborah Nucotola at October 09, 2015 10:25 PM (oZxN4)

1016 Oh yeah, had a TSR-80 for a short time too.. still have Adventure cartridge for it in the same place those 2 Atari games are.. I should dig that crap out sometime and try to sell em lol..
Posted by: JarvisW

---

No, no, no. TRS-80, not TSR-80.

Know how you remember? It was such crap, people referred to it as the TRaSh-80.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 10:28 PM (oZxN4)

1017 lol, ours was from a dyslexic Chinese knockoff firm

Posted by: JarvisW at October 09, 2015 10:29 PM (3+E+K)

1018 My understanding is that if you live in the Bible Belt, it produces enough of a racket to cause the entire neighborhood to fall on their knees in supplicating prayer, figuring that the Rapture has suddenly arrived.

Some ridiculous decibel figure. Equally ridiculous power to weight ratio. No one will be able to hear what you're saying afterwards but they will be able to see the enormous grin.

Posted by: torquewrench at October 09, 2015 07:52 PM (noWW6)

Golly, I have that same magazine!

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2015 10:31 PM (0yhH4)

1019 Jane D'oh, Thank you for being a host family.

Posted by: Kindltot at October 09, 2015 10:32 PM (3pRHP)

1020 Posted by: torquewrench (noWW6)

I don't think we're going to survive WW3, so no need to worry about WW6.

Posted by: Caitlyn Jenner at October 09, 2015 10:38 PM (oZxN4)

1021 The ads for Sea Monkeys with the human faces were creepy. But they are kind of interesting biologically. The kind of brine shrimp sold as "Sea Monkeys" is a hybrid between two species. Genetic engineering back in the old days! They went into space with John Glenn.

As a small child, I visited a place on the shores of the Great Salt Lake where a guy packaged and sold little bitty brine shrimp as food for aquarium fish. You could either get eggs or frozen shrimp. Fish love those little shrimps. They look kind of feathery.

Posted by: KT at October 09, 2015 10:40 PM (qahv/)

1022 Does anyone own either a Evinrude or Mercury miniature electric outboard motor from the 50's?

Posted by: Doctor Fish at October 09, 2015 08:16 PM (OiFtZ)

Yes. A model of a V4 Evinrude 75 horse. On a hand-made model of a 20' SunRay cabin cruiser built by my father. The plans were published by the Vancouver Sun newspaper, back when newspapers still made useful contributions to their communities.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 09, 2015 10:58 PM (0yhH4)

1023 As a kid (an impossibly long time ago) I once saw an ad for a rocket in a comic book for a ridiculously low price. I ordered it and it actually exceeded my expectations. You had to fill the rocket with gasoline and light it. It really worked! The thing took off and accelerated at an incredible rate. Fortunately it was hooked on to a line so that it went in circles. It had flames that extended from the rear of the rocket for two or three feet. It must have traveled 50 or 60 miles per hour, or more. It's a wonder I didn't set the entire neighborhood of fire. At the time I was a very satisfied customer. Today I'm sure the producers of this device would go to jail.

Posted by: foolishman at October 09, 2015 11:21 PM (AQb4E)

1024 Aren't these sleazy comic book ripoffs really the story, of Obama?

Posted by: George Orwell de Leon at October 09, 2015 11:31 PM (0vsws)

1025 1012 As a child, I always won at Monopoly.

Whenever I ran out of money, I'd just use a stack of looseleaf paper and a magic marker to make more.
Posted by: Ben Bernanke at October 09, 2015 10:22 PM (oZxN4)

Wow! The real Ben Bernanke commented here!

Posted by: rickl at October 09, 2015 11:32 PM (sdi6R)

1026 1023.
You are talking about the Minnesota Engine Works MEW-601 ramjet.

Worked like a charm.

Posted by: koblog at October 09, 2015 11:52 PM (LaCNP)

1027 Re: Raiders of the Lost Ark for Atari 2600
I remember playing that game a lot as a kid but I can't remember ever solving it. So you guys just inspired me to google the answer. Oh, it turns out that you needed to use both controllers to play that game. Childhood mystery solved.

Posted by: noone at October 09, 2015 11:53 PM (nl16W)

1028 MEW-601 ramjet on ebay is now going for $155.

Posted by: koblog at October 09, 2015 11:56 PM (LaCNP)

1029 What time is it?

Posted by: Drtaka Byambadorj at October 10, 2015 05:06 AM (kIvpz)

1030 Over a thousand comments on the Sea Monkey thread? You people are surely fucked up.

And the Sea Monkey King was REAL!

Posted by: Uncle Jed at October 10, 2015 06:02 AM (OmBeX)

1031 My big brother and his pals immediately came over to play with my new Army jeep with authentic rocket launcher. Dad never ponied up for toys, but for some reason this one came out of the blue. All that, and the big kids were playing with me too. Then they broke it, started laughing, and took off. I was wrecked. Don't think I've ever recovered from that one.

Posted by: Doctor Henry Metzger at October 10, 2015 08:13 AM (6YdFV)

1032 Parents gave me a crystal radio kit for my 10th birthday, it got me hooked and I started checking out the "Boys Book of Electronics" over and over from the public library. Anyone else remember those books? Great stuff. Long out of print, used copies on Amazon are expensive.

Posted by: Bigsmith at October 10, 2015 09:20 AM (m4vcY)

1033 When I was a kid (maybe 9 or 10?) some guy from the local fire dept came to teach us CPR. He promised us up and down we'd all get an official certificate that we'd gone through the training. For some weird reason I really, really wanted that little certificate and looked forward for weeks to its coming. He never sent it to any of us, the asshole. Never forgot it.

But one good thing: because of that guy, I've never broken a promise to a child. They take seriously what adults say, and they remember.

well this is a dead thread but now I can die having gotten that off my chest, on the everlasting interwebs no less. Heh.

Posted by: just me at October 10, 2015 10:55 AM (whMsz)

1034 Biggest disappointment was a flying model airplane from Johnson Smith and Company that was a plastic plane attached to a string. Youhad to swing the plane around your head, but if you did that, you were rewarded by the thrill of having the propeller turn.

Posted by: Elwyn Darden at October 11, 2015 12:42 AM (ByqdO)

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