Old Toys of Yesteryear

[CoMoChief]

Pretty much like the Restaurants of Yesteryear Thread. But this involves toys you grew up with that may not be in production anymore, or at least to the best of your knowledge.

I'll start.

Tinker Toys

I had a HUUUUUGE set of these and ended up selling them in a garage sale.

[cdcox]

Heh, Dartgod grew up the same time I did.

[RJ]

Originally Posted by Psyko Tek

It was fort apache
it came with 2 guard towers
about a dozen horses for the calvary and indians

It fell aproximately twice a week to a terrible redskin masscre
only to be rebuilt on custers bones for the next time

yeah that was a blast
don't remember the vikings

Psyko, the name Fort Apache sounds right but I'd have sworn it was metal.

CD, did your Fort Apache look like that picture?

[cdcox]

Christmas, somewhere around '69.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by RJ

Psyko, the name Fort Apache sounds right but I'd have sworn it was metal.

CD, did your Fort Apache look like that picture?

Very, very close. The brown walls of the fort, the guard towers, the ladders, are all exact.

All the accessories (teepees, totem poles, campfires, etc) look right.

I don't remember the cowboys and indians having so many different colors.

I don't remember the buiding of the fort. If it was made of cardboard it may not have lasted very long, so my memory may be vauge.

[cdcox]

Hey RJ, I think I found your castle.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-MARX-TIN...QQcmdZViewItem

FWIW, the Fort Apache came out in tin too, before they switched to plastic.

[Dartgod]

Skittle Bowl and Skittle Poker

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/SkittleBowlBox.jpg

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/SkittlePokerBox.jpg

[Adept Havelock]

Originally Posted by RJ

When I was I believe 9 y/o - 1968 - there was a toy I wanted so bad I just thought I would die. It was a case that folded open to be a fort. There were two versions. One was an old west army fort and of course all the figures were cowbys, soldiers and indians. That one looked pretty cool. But the one I wanted, no, the one I ached for, was an English castle filled with knights and their attackers, the Vikings. There was a Viking ship and a catapult and dude with axes and swords and bow & arrows and battering ram.....in short, everything a boy needed for a good time.

Every day after school the commercials would come on advertising (I thought of it as taunting) these things. Of course I asked for one for Christmas but from there I could only hope. I snooped around the house for a couple of weeks, looking in the closets and such but the stuff was well hidden that year. On Christmas Eve I couldn't sleep, I just laid in bed waiting. I could hear my mother in the living room putting out toys and I heard something that sure sounded like a metal case being opened. From that point there was no way I was sleeping and my mom could hear me tossing around. Finally, about 4 AM she hollered, "Oh, all right, you might as well get up. Merry Christmas".

The great thing about it was that this toy completely lived up to my expectations. The figures were all in great poses (the little green army man shooting from the prone position was very dull), the castle had great details, the Viking ship really looked like a Viking ship. The most fun toy I ever owned and probably my most fun Christmas until I had kids of my own.

I've tried over the years to remember the name of those forts. I've looked online but have never come across it. Any of you guys as old as me remember that thing?

I remember those. I also remember one that was based on the "Guns of Navarone". That's what I spent many happy childhood hours with...until the day I blew up the guns with fireworks.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Dartgod

Skittle Bowl and Skittle Poker

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/SkittleBowlBox.jpg

http://www.samstoybox.com/toypics/SkittlePokerBox.jpg

I was a skittle pool kid.

[RJ]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Hey RJ, I think I found your castle.

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-MARX-TIN...QQcmdZViewItem

FWIW, the Fort Apache came out in tin too, before they switched to plastic.

Damn, the face of the castle looks right to me - 40 years later of course. I notice there are no Vikings, which is odd. But that makes sense that maybe the toys were originally made of tin and then changed to a safer or cheaper material.

Thanks. Not sure if that's it but it's definitely on the right track and I do think it was a Marx toy. I gots to ask my mom if she remembers anything else about that toy. I doubt she would, it wasn't near as important to her as it was to me

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by RJ

Psyko, the name Fort Apache sounds right but I'd have sworn it was metal.

CD, did your Fort Apache look like that picture?

this was mine
All metal for the fort itself

put marx toys in google the vikings, medeival, and all sorts of cool old playsets come up

[RJ]

Oh, ok, I see. That's it then, CD is right. I didn't notice it was tin. Thanks guys! Now I have to figure out where the vikings went.

I've looked for this thing several times over the years to no avail. Should have realized my best informational resource the whole time was ChiefsPlanet.

[cdcox]

My dad had a circa 1940 Erector set with an electric motor when he was a kid. I used to play with it growing up. I just looked on Ebay and you can pick up similar sets today for under $50. I would have guessed they would be selling for 3 or 4 times that easily. I guess there were too many of them and that they held up well, being made of metal and everything.

[RJ]

Heh, just ran across Johnny West, another of my favorites. And I'd like to visit that Marx Toy Museum.

[Dartgod]

Anyone remember these?

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5...d3a5905787.jpg

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by RJ

Heh, just ran across Johnny West, another of my favorites. And I'd like to visit that Marx Toy Museum.

Just went to that web site and saw a couple more old toys that I had forgotten completely about that either I or my brother had growing up.