Followers

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Childhood nostalgia time!

Most people won't admit it, but one of the very best parts of having a kid is the freedom to act like a kid again yourself. Other parents will gush about the feeling of total selflessness, pride in the child accomplishing everything from smiling to pooping regularly, & the security of care in their old age. Not me. Uh-uh. I'm all about snagging some of that Halloween candy, gleefully running down toy aisles with a Nerf gun in one hand & a toy shield in the other, & buying sugary cereal & fruit snacks of cartoons I've never even heard of. Keep in my mind, my son is only fifteen months old; I'm just getting started with my vicarious second childhood!

Let's be honest, who the hell wants to grow up once they're out of their emo-angsty 'I can't do anything!' mid-teens? Being an adult sucks compared to being a kid - you have to earn your own money, you can't eat whatever you want without getting heart burn & a fat gut, your 'playtime' consists of golf, video games, or gambling, & you're responsible for everything. I'm only 24, & I've realized its all downhill from here, baby.

So with that in mind, I'm regressing to provide my son the most awesome childhood I can, so when he's my age he can do the same for his kid/s. Its a circle of age-denial! And, not to sound shallow & materialistic, a huge part of my fond childhood memories involve the toys of my youth. Most everyone insists their generation had the best toys, & as a 90's kid, they might just have me beat (most everything to do with the 90's sucked). However, I know these toys still will kick most every other toys ass!



Nerf Guns & Supersoakers!

If you saw this on the opposite team, you'd
switch sides in hopes of getting a turn with it.

As I mentioned already, I love Nerf guns. I've always loved Nerf guns. The 90's was a pretty gender-neutral time, & that applied to kids as well - girls were as likely to take part in epic Nerf (& water) battles as boys, in my neighborhood anyway. However, our toy guns might of been more fluorescent, the weaponry of today throughly shames the guns I remember. Look at that damn thing, it has a clip. It shoots three darts per second.

Our Super Soakers were all the same, until suddenly a double-bottled one was released, then one with a freaking catchment backpack. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a Super Soaker with enough force to blow a kid's guts threw their spine these days.

This thing is equal to a Happy Meal toy in coolness
- and not McBoo pail coolness

The Cozy Coupe & Big Wheel


Look at that smarmy face. Ugh.

While 15-18-24-bajillion speed mountain bikes were the cool kid thing to have once we took off our training wheels, waaaay before we even thought about two-wheeled contraptions, Cozy Coupes & Big Wheels were the rides of kings.

The Cozy Coupe has changed significantly since I was a kid. I hate that stupid face (that smile is definitely a sticker, & will peel off in the first rain). The CCs of our days had actual steering in them, in these toned-down modern kiddy cars, they do nothing but feature a bleepy horn that will make a Korean-manufactured auto's sound mighty as a lion's roar. We also had pedals, rather than relying on Flintstone foot-power, or mom pushing you around with the built-in handle. That all said, I appreciate the beefed up front posts; the cool thing in our neighborhood was to tie a CC to a bike with some rope & see how loud you could make the little one inside it scream.
Can you believe these things cost $60 nowadays?
What the hell man, are we running out of plastic?

Dinosaurs, Army Men, Cowboys & Indians - Vinyl Combatants



Just think - today's kids don't clap their hands over
their mouths & do the doofy fake warcry.

Looking back on my childhood, I seem pretty damn bloodthirsty. I didn't play 'house', have tea parties with my friends, & I had an acute fear of dolls (still do, thank god I didn't have a daughter). Instead, I staged epic mock battles between tiny races - the cowboys versus the Indians (Native Americans, children aren't PC), dinosaurs versus other dinosaurs (& sometimes versus army men), army men versus the dog, whatever. I loved collecting those tiny vinyl toys, mostly because they were cheap, & back in the day it was all about who had the biggest army. Each little dude (or creature) had my initials lovingly written on the bottom of its foot, & they were all special - until they were lost in the sandbox, mud pit, at the beach, or devoured by the dog. Rest in peace, MIA toys.


Playsets
Damn straight I get to be the black knights, son.

My very fondest remember toys are of the playset varieties. I enjoyed building forts, castles & skyscrapers with Legos, then smashing them to bits, but the blocks just lacked detail in comparison to molded plastic. And far & away my favorite playsets were from Fisher Price's Great Adventures series, a castle & pirate ship. I proudly owned the castle & its eternally dueling retinues of knights & ruling kings, & my best friend owned the pirate ship & its band of surly seadogs. What I loved about this series of sets & their accessories were the details, like trap doors, cannons that fired with a good 'umph', figures with hack & slash action. Out of all my childhood toys, these sets are the ones I've been hunting for my son the hardest.

What toys activate your childhood nostalgia?

51 comments:

  1. Toys were so great when I was a kid! When I look at my nephews toys I feel sorry for him :) and yes, i owned a supersoaker!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Super Soakers; always wanted one - never got one. My childhood was woefully unfulfilled.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm 27 and I'm already rolling downhill. Miss my childhood, now it's 5 days of working for the man and then 2 days of sleeping.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Damn I loved my transformers, this badbodys made my childhood happy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some pretty awesome toys haha, but lets hope I don't experience parent hood for another good 10 years

    ReplyDelete
  6. ITSA SUPER SOAKER fsdjglk xcgxgcxklg I remember that autralian guy who was soaking those kids in the ad.... sounds weirder than it was looking back on it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Used to have a super soaker that had a backpack you could fill up with water. Now THAT was awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  8. even though I had nobody to have waterfights with as a child, I still have fond memories of my super soaker 50.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ah supersoakers, I spent many a summer with one of those in my hands!

    ReplyDelete
  10. I wish I could have appreciated being a baby. Not in like a weird dress up like a baby kind of way' more like a, chilling in a bed and being and to sleep all day and get away with it' kind of way.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great post. The last pic with the castle made me all nostalgic, definitely played with one of those.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I had the castle and the pirate ship version of those.
    Ahhh, the memories. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. huh weird I cant exactly remember my toys... except my legos which now are quite helpful setting up battlegrounds for table top gaming with my friends haha :D

    ReplyDelete
  14. live fast die young... thats my moto

    ReplyDelete
  15. I wanted that big Super Soaker too, but I never get one! Fortunately I got to borrow my neighbors watergun occasionally.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Only good thing about growing up is more money.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I hear you. Just because you're grown up doesn't mean you're not a child anymore. Everyone has a child inside.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Black Knights were bad ass and always took the castle in my battles.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm a '92 kid and I'll concede that most 90s toys that I had do indeed suck. That said, I got all the video games I could ever want so I guess I don't have much to complain about.

    ReplyDelete
  20. oh so nostalgic mane i love them so much thanks for bringing back the wonderful childhood memories

    ReplyDelete
  21. i loved legoes, i play with them ALL DAY

    ReplyDelete
  22. sounds like you got good things sorted for them haha.
    Even know I still play with nerf guns and super soakers when I get my hands on them.
    Love the nostalgia, use to have that exact same play set

    ReplyDelete
  23. when I want to remember the childhood, I played in the Sega Mega Drive)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hawaii... i am sooooo jealous

    ReplyDelete
  25. omg i owned this castle thing how great:D thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  26. I saw "mom" and I was like "Aw man, its a blog about some woman bitching about her life." I love you. Thank you for being an awesome person. I'm so glad I was wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This is one of the many reasons I'd like to have kids someday. :D

    ReplyDelete
  28. The bad thing is, I am already feeling nostalgic about my nieces and nephews childhood! Time seems to fly so quickly once you get older. At least for me.

    ReplyDelete
  29. I did not know eve one of your pictures :D
    Anyway childhood was awesome !

    ReplyDelete
  30. You know, i've never really wanted kids, but i always thought, if i do by accident or chance, i'm gonna be the most rockin dad, a dad that i never got after age 6. The one who'd always be around, not be afraid to get dorky with his kid, maybe purposefully embarrass them. Just the one that all their friends would find awesome, but they'd be annoyed with.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Ohhh man that knight playset. That was the best damn thing ever. I might still have mine in the garage, probably not though. Just nostalgia'd so hard.

    ReplyDelete
  32. haha, I love these old toys. nothing like childhood memories.

    ReplyDelete
  33. What are you talking about? The 90's was the best decade. Maybe it's just because I'm a few years older than you.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Wow... I had all of those when I was younger! I recently gave them all to salvation army actaully a few months ago. I didn't play with them anymore so I wanted to give another kid a chance.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Wow, I miss those toys so much

    Sweet blog btw, I'm gonna follow you

    ReplyDelete
  36. your child must play crash bandicoot to have a happy childhood

    ReplyDelete
  37. I loved guns, dinosaurs and matchbox cars as a kid. Too bad I was a girl, though I did get my dinos, the guns and cars had to be taken from my fellow playmates at school. Fun childhood too!

    ReplyDelete
  38. Is there anyone who doesn't like nerf guns?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Oh, this is why I love Minecraft, you can basically play lego online :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. Nerf guns was so totally badass, I miss them.

    ReplyDelete