Friday, September 11, 2009

More Reminiscing: 10 Toys I played with as a child

Here are the 10 Toys that I loved as a child (some as an adolescent) (again, none of the picture are mine)

10. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: I was a turtle foot all the way. In a previous post I talked about how I used to bring my indoor toys outside; well these were my favorite. I used to have them in a TMNT bag, and I saved the cards that were on the back of the figures' and vehicles' boxes. I had the Turtles, Splinter, Shredder, Craig (The Brain), Bebop, Rocksteady, Several Foot Soldiers, April, KC Jones and about a dozen other random turtles (like Shogun Leo). I had the Turtle Van and boats and pizza shooters. These were some of the few action figures that I would play battles with.

One random TMNT thing I had was a 3D Sticker book (and if you ever had one of these books, you know how amazing they were). But the most random part of it, was/is that I actually can't see 3D, but I would still wear the glasses and pretend I could!

9. Power Rangers. Ok, if you've been to my apartment, you know that I love PR. From 93 - 98 they consumed my life. I loved the idea of transforming and saving the day from Rita. I have almost all of the zords from the Zordon era (but stopped watching the show when the Ranger cast would switch each season).  I did not play Power Rangers with these toys though (at least not the whole time). Most times I would play house or the zords would have to solve mysteries that would require them to come together. (In addition to all the zords, I have all the Auto Morphing Rangers; the Collectible 3'' figures; some weapons, and the Command Centers (yep, both of them))

8. Pogs. They were huge in early middle school. What's really funny is my cousin, Tim (5 years younger than me) would usually introduce me to a lot of these things on my list. And after a visit with him I became obsessed! This is most true with Pogs. And this, I would play and battle and Win! These were so much fun, I probably had 1000 of them and would collect them from anything that they came "free" in.

7. Disney Toys. This was my big collection. I have/had toys from most of the major Disney cartoons. I have hundreds of them and every time a new movie would come out, my mom and I would got scouring the city looking for the versions I preferred. (I didn't like the rubber ones, nor the actual action figures, but rather hard plastic, non-movable ones with no seams!)

6. Stretch Armstrong. (Actually his dog). I went through like 5 of these toys! They were great.

5. Monopoly. Particularly with Tim, his brother and sister and my brother. Every time we got together we would play. We'd start right after dinner on friday night and then around 3 or 4 we'd close out! I don't think I ever won, because if you fell asleep, you lost!

4. Barbie. OMG I loved playing with Barbies. Luckily I had 4 girl cousins (The Penny Club) and we would routinely play with them. My favorite this was to dress them up in gaudy outfits and have them go "out" on the town looking for Ken (who was usually topless!).

3. Dolls. More "House" and dolls. Again, my cousins and I would get together and when not playing other make believe games like "work" and "school" or "traveling" we would play house. Most of the time we would pretend we weren't related (meaning I wouldn't have to be married to any of them), and all of our spouses were elsewhere at the time). I remember though, than many times I would be a single dad! I would also always choose the youngest Cabbage Patch Kids! (I know, I loath babies now, but I always wanted the babiest of the baby dolls). One of my Aunts had given me my own cabbage patch doll (she's actually my great-great aunt on my mom's side - her only living relative other than her brother).

2. Littlest Pet Shop. OMG, these toys would amaze me. I loved that they used magnets to make them work. I had the entire 90's collection, including the actual pet shop! I used to carry the petshop around like a brief case!

1. Ironing Board. I know, weird right. But I loved to pull the ironing board out and play all the toys listed above on it. It would be extend the counter space where I played and give me a 270 degree playing area while I sat on the kitchen stools!


0. Bonus. A toy I had but never knew why? Thundercats! I never liked this show, never really played with the toys. I think I inherited these from my brother.

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