Wow! memories! I bought this from a charity jumble sale sometime in the late 1970's (my neighbour often held sales in her house, or in the local church hall for cancer charities). I loved it, and played it a lot! Simpler times!Stephen wrote:Funny this thread has been revived because only last week I was reminiscing with my sister about the old toys we used to have as children. I was especially pleased to remember the name of this one...
...where you have to repeatedly flick your marble up and bring down your four cars in their respective lanes before your opponent. I think I was only about five myself when I got this, but I see the suggested age goes up to 14. Can you imagine the average 14 year old today enjoying this?
Toys and Games
- Rob Houghton
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Re: Toys and Games
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
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hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
Society Member
Re: Toys and Games
Does anyone else remember Puzzletown?
It was very American orientated (I didn't even know what a town plaza was), but I used to play with this particular set for hours on end, making all kinds of weird and wonderful layouts.
It was very American orientated (I didn't even know what a town plaza was), but I used to play with this particular set for hours on end, making all kinds of weird and wonderful layouts.
- Darrell71
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Re: Toys and Games
I'm 16, and still love to play games like these from time to time. As do most of my friends.Stephen wrote: Can you imagine the average 14 year old today enjoying this?
You can call me Sunskriti!
- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Toys and Games
I never had any Puzzletown sets, Stephen, but I like the look of them as they're cheerful and chunky. My sister and I used to build houses out of Lego, arrange our farm and zoo animals in "fields" around them and then make our little toy cars drive around the "roads" - i.e. around any spaces that were left between the buildings and fields. Toys that can be set up in different ways provide hours (and years!) of fun.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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- Machupicchu14
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Re: Toys and Games
Same! I still play with my playmobil and dolls. This is something I will never grow old of doing. And since I was 4 playmobil have been my favourite toys ever. And this fascination and pastime shared by many people around the world, both young and old!Darrell71 wrote:I'm 16, and still love to play games like these from time to time. As do most of my friends.Stephen wrote: Can you imagine the average 14 year old today enjoying this?
"All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."
(все, что я понимаю, я понимаю только потому, что люблю)
Lev Tolstoy
You can call me Machupicchu14 or María Esther
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(все, что я понимаю, я понимаю только потому, что люблю)
Lev Tolstoy
You can call me Machupicchu14 or María Esther
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- Rob Houghton
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Re: Toys and Games
I never had any Puzzletown sets either - but I did have plenty of Lego, which was probably my favourite toy between the ages of about 4 and 9, as well as Meccano. I also had Play Mobil but only a few figures. Lego was definitely my 'thing'. My favourite was a house set which was built on two square boards. The walls of the house were hinged so the boards would swing apart and you could open the house. It was the first lego set I had with the miniature Lego figures, which are now standard. Up until that time I'd only had the larger lego figures which had to be made from lego bricks.Anita Bensoussane wrote:I never had any Puzzletown sets, Stephen, but I like the look of them as they're cheerful and chunky. My sister and I used to build houses out of Lego, arrange our farm and zoo animals in "fields" around them and then make our little toy cars drive around the "roads" - i.e. around any spaces that were left between the buildings and fields. Toys that can be set up in different ways provide hours (and years!) of fun.
Old-style Lego figures - I had a set just like this one. It was great because the 'hair' could be removed and fitted on different figures heads!
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
Society Member
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
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- Fiona1986
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Re: Toys and Games
I had, and in fact still have, a lot of lego. Some I inherited from older cousins others were bought for me. I liked the soldiers/pirates stuff the most.
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
World of Blyton Blog
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"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
World of Blyton Blog
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- Courtenay
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Re: Toys and Games
Ooh, Lego! My sister and I had pirate ships (our favourite), knights and Robin Hood, and a few spaceships and other things.
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
- Rob Houghton
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Re: Toys and Games
I would have loved the castle sets and pirates etc, but unfortunately none of them were about when I was into Lego as a kid.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
Society Member
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
(E. Blyton, Sunday Times, 1951)
Society Member
- Courtenay
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Re: Toys and Games
Too bad, Rob. Lego was going through a real heyday in the mid-late 1980s and early '90s when we were playing with it — there were lots of different themes and it was all heaps of fun. Nowadays it all seems to be based on film tie-ins (Star Wars and the like), or else that ghastly pink and purple heavily simplified "Friends" range that's supposed to be for girls. When I was little, all kinds of Lego were for girls or boys or whoever wanted to play with them!
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
- Daisy
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Re: Toys and Games
We got a lego set for my elder son when it first came out in the mid to late 60s - he was given it for Christmas and we couldn't wait until he had gone to bed, to have a go ourselves! Just plain bricks then, no figures or any of the great additions there have been since.
'Tis loving and giving that makes life worth living.
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- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Toys and Games
As a child, did anyone else feel envious of a toy which belonged to someone else? When I was at infant school in the 1970s, there was a boy who regularly used to bring in his wind-up Fisher-Price Music Box Record Player and play it outside at playtime. The fact that it could play quite a few different tunes seemed like magic to me and I found the colours of the records and the sturdiness of the box appealing. I don't know whether it was that record player that gave the boy his love of music, but later on in secondary school he became an accomplished violinist and I remember him playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee on the school stage in an assembly. Here's a link to a YouTube video showing the Fisher-Price Music Box Record Player:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF64du0B2H0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF64du0B2H0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
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- Fiona1986
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Re: Toys and Games
I was deeply envious of my friend's collection of Sylvanian Families and of her array of Barbie clothing and accessories! I had plenty of Barbie stuff myself, just hers always seemed better. I remember particularly liking a towel/dress for after Barbie took a bath or shower that had little straps and a stud fastener, and a picnic table...
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
World of Blyton Blog
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"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
World of Blyton Blog
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- Courtenay
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Re: Toys and Games
Aww, that's so cute! We had something similar when I was little, a Tomy toy train with colourful plastic records that slotted into the top of it and played nursery rhymes as the train ran along the floor (it was battery powered). I've just found a video of it, but the sound quality is awful (either it's distorted somehow or the "Alouette" record is horribly out of tune ). It's definitely the same sort of train as the one we had (I'm sure the box for ours was different, though), but I can assure you the music sounded much nicer than that in real life!Anita Bensoussane wrote:As a child, did anyone else feel envious of a toy which belonged to someone else? When I was at infant school in the 1970s, there was a boy who regularly used to bring in his wind-up Fisher-Price Music Box Record Player and play it outside at playtime. The fact that it could play quite a few different tunes seemed like magic to me and I found the colours of the records and the sturdiness of the box appealing. I don't know whether it was that record player that gave the boy his love of music, but later on in secondary school he became an accomplished violinist and I remember him playing Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee on the school stage in an assembly. Here's a link to a YouTube video showing the Fisher-Price Music Box Record Player:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF64du0B2H0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I can't remember anyone whose toys I was jealous of when I was little, at least off the top of my head — all right, I was a little jealous of my sister for having a bigger Lego pirate ship than mine, but we shared them anyway, so that was OK. And I was also a bit jealous of my cousin for having near-complete sets of the Noddy books and Beatrix Potter books. But I've finally, in just the last year, got complete sets of both for myself (only 30 years down the track, but it's never too late).
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It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
- Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Toys and Games
The Tomy train looks fun, Courtenay.
Oh yes, some of the Sylvanian Families sets are exquisite. They weren't around when I was a child, but I've seen them in shops as an adult and I was particularly fond of a traditional-style caravan set I once saw in Hamleys.Fiona1986 wrote:I was deeply envious of my friend's collection of Sylvanian Families...
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Society Member