Toy Soldiers One of the great toys of my life was a set of toy soldiers my Daddy gave me when I was about 7 or 8. Daddy was an FBI agent and was often away from home, usually just 2 or 3 days, but on one occasion he was gone for a couple of weeks. I was thrilled to see him when he finally came home, but he brought me a special present, a set of lead WWII toy soldiers. There were about a … [Read more...]

Looking back at some great toys, one that stands out was Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots. They were introduced after my childhood, so I didn’t get to play with them as a kid.  But I sure did as an adult. My kids got sets for Christmas and when they did, I was down on the floor, duking it out with Angelin and Jimmie. It was a 2-person game, and the object was to “knock his block off.” The toy … [Read more...]

Spinning Tops It wasn’t a very exciting toy, but if you were a child in the 50’s, you probably had one or two. It was a spinning top, made of tin with elaborate and beautiful painted designs. None of us knew how they worked, but if you pushed the top handle down multiple times, the top began spinning faster and faster and when you released the handle, the top would dance and spin merrily around … [Read more...]

Lives there a single child of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, who did not get a Mr. Potato Head for Christmas? It was a fun toy, not a very sophisticated toy, but one that was easy to assemble and one that offered a chance for creativity. How often are you allowed to stick a nose where the ears should be? The toy was invented by George Lerner who initially came up with the idea of inserting small, … [Read more...]

Lincoln Logs I would venture to say that every child of the 50’s and most in the 60’s had a set of Lincoln Logs, one of America’s most iconic toys. I was never much on Erector Sets, but I enjoyed stacking the little brown logs, end on end and building cabins and forts. It really helped if you had two sets or one of those giant boxes, allowing more elaborate designs. Lincoln Logs came into … [Read more...]

A Wham-O Sling Shot It was one of the top 5 of my favorite toys and possessions as I grew up in the 1950’s. It was a Wham-O sling shot. I bought my first one for a dollar at Al Cohen’s Pawn Shop in Beckley, WV. My sidekick, Freddie Arnold, and I saw them on display in the store on our way from a Tarzan movie and we each had a crisp dollar bill in our wallets. We spent hours and hours with what … [Read more...]

Duncan Yo-Yos If you look closely at the middle finger on the right hand of an average Boomer, you may see the feint shape of a ring imprint deeply embedded in the skin. That likely came from the ever-tightening string of a Duncan Yo-Yo, one of the most popular toys of Boomer-hood. But yo-yos were more than just toys, they were instruments of wonder, so much so that … [Read more...]

A Genuine Radio Flyer One of the greatest toys ever made was a red wagon – a genuine Radio Flyer to be exact. Only one was needed, because they were built to last forever and for kids in the 50’s and 60’s, they were in the must-have category. Radio Flyers were perhaps the most versatile toy of all. You could haul stuff around, naturally, but you could also sit in one, use the handle as a … [Read more...]

Tudor Tru Action Football Set One of the great toys of my life was a Tru Action Electric Football set. I spent countless hours on hands and knees lining up my running backs and lineman, hoping for a score. Sometimes I had a friend over, but often I played by myself. The set featured 11 men on a side, 7 down linemen and 4 backfield pieces. The early sets had metal players with metal razor … [Read more...]

I remember one of the earliest toys I got for Christmas was a View-Master, a gadget that looked much like a pair of binoculars. A View-Master reel held 14 film transparencies in seven pairs, making up the seven stereoscopic images. The components of each pair were viewed simultaneously, one by each eye, thus simulating binocular depth perception.   If you held it up to a light, … [Read more...]