My nephew is enthralled with the Slinky! He brought one over the other day and was laughing hysterically as it went down the steps. While working in the shipyards in Philadelphia, Richard James, a US Naval engineer decided that a torsion spring would make a great toy. He received a $500 loan in 1943 and made 400 toys. His wife came up with the name. He set up a display in Gimbels Department Store and sold his 400 Slinkys in just 90 minutes.
A factory was built in 1948 in Philadelphia and then relocated to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. The line expanded an other toys were added. The Slinky was actually used as a mobile antenna during the Vietnam War. It is also the official toy of Pennsylvania.
Richard James decided to join a evangelical religious sect in 1960 and relocated to Bolivia. He left the company to his wife who took over as CEO. She got the company out of debt and introduced the new jingle that you can hear in the commercial below. Richard James died in 1974 in Bolivia. The company, James Industries, was sold to Poof Products, Inc. in 1998.
Skittle Bowl was one of those games that I wanted as a kid, but we never did get. The game consisted of a triangle piece of wood with 10 wooden pins. Attached was a pole with a “bowling ball” on a long metal chain. The object of the game was to use the ball to knock down the pins. You can buy the game on eBay now for about $10.00 to $15.00.
Before the Commodore 64 appeared on the market, there was the Think-A-Tron, the first computer toy. It is not like any computer that you see today. There was no mouse or big screen or Cat5e Keystone jack. This computer ran on two “D” batteries and came with punched cards which had questions on it that you wanted answered. After feeding the card into the computer, the answer would appear on the screen. There were even flashing lights. The toy retailed for only $10 in 1967 and you can still find them at auction sites for $30-$50.
Odd Ogg was a strange toy from the 1960s. It was made by the Ideal Toy Corporation in 1962. Odd Ogg was half frog and half turtle. The object of the toy was to roll plastic balls toward it. If you rolled a ball right under its belly, Odd Ogg would roll forward. If you rolled the ball off to one side, Odd Ogg would roll backwards, open its mouth and stick out his tongue.
If you have this toy somewhere in your closet, you can sell it for $250 – $500!
Barky Puppy was a toy made by Fisher Price in 1931. This was one of the first toys that Fisher Price ever made. The puppy was on wheels and when you pulled it, the puppy crouches down on its front legs and then it tilts its head upward. The puppy actually barks.
My son just watched Alien vs. Predator (the old one) on television. I let him watch it because it was very edited with much less violence and blood and gore. Good thing he doesn’t know about the Alien toy they use to sell. I just found the old commerical on YouTube. I figure if this country ever gets too populated and real estate is at a premium, we could unleash of few of these beasts!
Before there was such a thing as elliptical trainers, we kids use to get our exercise walking around the yard in Romper Stompers. Remember these? Big plastic yellow cups that were turned upside down and had rope attached? You would put your feet on top of them and use the rope to help you walk around the town!
Here is a pic of the new, redesigned ones. They are not nearly as tall as the old ones.
We had one official pair at our house and then my resourceful mom made additional pairs out of tall metal juice cans and rope. We had a blast!
If you were a geek in the 70s and 80s, then you played Zork. Zork was one of the first interactive fiction computer games. There were no pictures, no fancy graphics – just text. The game was programed by four guys from MIT, three who went on to found Infocom in 1979. The original Zork started out:
West of House
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.
You are then able to enter keyboard commands such as: examine mailbox. That command would return: The small mailbox is closed.
It was a matter of trail and error to figure out which commands worked.
I made my own maps to figure out the game and finally finished the first one. I was never patient enough to try and finish the other two in the series. Other Zork games followed the original three and eventually graphic games were introduced. You can still download (for free) the original three games!
When I was little, I had a Tip Toe Turtle. I think every little kid had them. The turtle had a wooden cut out head and a blue (aqua) shell. When you pulled on the string the feet would click and chimes would play under the shell. I think they were manufactured in the early 60s. I remember pulling this toy around. I think it might still be out our house somewhere!
There back, but are they better? I remember as a kid in the 60s, my brother getting this gift for Christmas. This game was released by Marx toys in the 1960s. Marx was later acquired by Tyco Toys, which was itself acquired by Mattel in 1997.
The game consisted of two boxers (Red Rocker and Blue Bomber). The boxers were inside a yellow boxing ring. By pushing buttons outside the ring, you could make your robot “box” the other robot. The object – pop up the other guys head! In the television commercials and on the box, the phrase “Knock his block off!” was frequently used.
The Robots had great success. In the late 1990s, Mattel reissued the toy but is was almost one half the size and not as well made. There was also a time when the blue robot’s color was changed to a darker blue and renamed to “Bolt Crusher Bob” and the red robot’s color was changed to silver and renamed “Gear Grinder Greg.”
There is even a Gameboy Advanced Game featuring the robots.
