In the Photo a day thread we were talking about old toys and games, well mainly about jacks or fivestones or knucklebones. What games and toys did you like?
I say this because try asking some children here in Hong Kong what toys they have and they say they don't have any. No dolls, no lego, no cars , nothing, just playstations and iphones etc.That's all they play with.So sad.
I have such memories of rollerskates (the kind with a key, not rollerboots), dollshouses, paper cut out dolls, jigsaws, windup toys etc etc. What about you?

Skipping rope figured in many of my childhood play times, as did lego, dolls, paper cut out dolls, homemade karts made from buggy wheels and scrap wood, nails, and a bit of imagination, and I remember loving a tin spinning top we had.

My most precious 'toy' was a gold coloured china coffee set. It was the real deal as my mother had given me hers. From an adult's point of view I now realise the thing was hideous and I fully understand my mum giving it to me to play with, but as a kid I thought it was the height of luxury!

Board games and playing cards kept us busy on bad weather days, Cluedo, Scrabble, Ludo, chess and draughts, and I personally loathed Monopoly and refused to play.

Books from the library, or very rarely, actually bought for me, were (and still are) my favourites.

Over all, however, my three siblings and I stored all our toys in one toy chest between the four of us, about the size of a small blanket box.

Every Christmas one of us received a Compendium of board games so ludo, snakes and ladders etc. Paper cut out dolls for me too, jigsaws, knitting needles and wool were toys to me, and books! We used to make our own, things like making miniature gardens in a biscuit tin lid using mosses and broken china. We didn't really have many toys at all, we were very poor.

I was big on Lego and Barbies as a child. And jigsaws, too, but I still do jigsaws - I received a lovely set for my recent birthday, actually.

Sindys were always popular. I "inherited" a few dolls and some furniture from older cousins. And books - library books, "inherited" books, my own books. Even now, I'm not all that far away from a book
Legos - I spent literally hours constructing little houses etc. But my favourite "toy" would have been jigsaws. Mum taught me the joy of jigsaws from a young age - as she was one of 13, she also came from a family of jigsaw fans. I don't do as many jigsaws as I used to do, but I still get pleasure of doing one once or twice a year.
The beauty of "old toys" - jigsaws, legos, dominoes - they can be played with by the new generation. The two "Princes" love playing with dominoes at the moment

One of the toys I cherished as a young lad was one I received in our Christmas parcel sent by my Nan in England to us in Canada. My mum was a war bride and every year her Mum would send things that she missed from England, even a Christmas Pudding. One year she sent me a windup double decker bus. When you turned it on it would run for a few seconds,a bell would ring once, it would stop, then a second later, would ring twice and the bus would start again. Hours of fun. I wish I still had it.

Two toys have stuck in my mind.... At the age of about 4 I was given a train set known as 'Big, Big Train' and the other, which I had for my sixth birthday was a toy rifle called a 'Johnny Seven' which was brilliaaaaaant! Haha

Did anybody else make 'perfume' in the summer: rose petals and any nice-smelling flower petals, mixed with water in a jam jar with a fallen twig?

Another summer favourite was to have a competition: who could collect the most bees in a jam jar in an afternoon. The later the day got the more dangerous it became to manoeuvre the lid open enough to capture a new 'pet' without the irate inmates escaping and wreaking their revenge on you.

At the end of the day, or when you didn't feel brave enought to continue collecting, you would become 'bored' with the game and open the lid and let the hapless prisoners escape, keeping well out of the way yourself.

A magnifying glass was a fine thing to have on a sunny day: you could start fires in paper handkerchiefs, or pyrograve/etch scribblings in a piece of wood.

It really didn't take much to keep us amused. The great outdoors was our playroom, we hung out with the neighbourhood kids, played ball, chased and raced and played giant steps, I spy, red rover and heaps of other similar games. Actual toys were relatively few and far between, and we certainly never felt that we needed more than we had.

I did have an awful hankering for a Sindy doll (gosh, I had forgotten that). My best friend had six and I hadn't a single one, and I was sooooo jealous of her.

My favourites were Lego, Barbies and jigsaws.

My son now has all my Lego from when I was young (and then some!), and I have my own Lego now - although my kids aren't allowed to touch it!

My daughter has my Barbies but she's still a little young to play with them - maybe a few more years.

I still do jigsaws when I can. My kids love them as well, I think jigsaws soothing and good for the brain.

I get a kick out of the face that my kids are playing with my old toys (my daughter also has my oldest doll, it's her favourite), and adding their own to them. Hopefully their kids will also get many hours out of enjoyment out of (what will be) nanna's old toys!

Being an only child I probably had more toys than most of my contemporaries, but nowhere near the amount that children today seem to have. My mother worked for a man who imported toys so my mother could get them wholesale (not that she went overboard with indulgence).

I had more books than anything else and spent many hours reading. Collecting comics was also very popular. We didn't watch TV because broadcasting didn't start until late in the afternoon.

I did have lots of friends and when they came over, we played board games - my favourites were Sorry and Chinese Checkers. I had Monopoly but never played it - I hated it too, Santana. I still have those three board games.

My dad built a cubby house up the back yard and my grandfather made some furniture (doll's cot and table/chairs) so we played house with our dolls and our tea sets. We used the "nuts" from the jacaranda trees as "money" and concocted mud pies and soups and stews using sand, pebbles and leaves. You got bonus points if you could con somebody's little brother or sister to taste test it.

I always wanted a Sindy doll but my mother wouldn't buy me one for some reason. I really envied the girl over the back fence who was the only one in the neighbourhood with a Sindy doll (some had Barbies but most of us didn't have either doll).

I inherited a Barbie doll from a friend of the family but it just wasn't the same. I passed it on in turn to my younger cousin. As Barbies go, she was superior to the type you get today. She had rubbery, rather than plastic, skin and she had internal joints (which didn't show) so you could sit her on a chair with her legs crossed, and fold her arms. Her hair was also much thicker and you could not see the hair plugs like you can with today's dolls. By the way, I never did get a Sindy doll!

I still have several of my old dolls as well as my teddy bear. My mum used to sew and knit clothes for them.

We also had paper dolls, but they weren't that popular. Other toys I remember included French knitting dolls (if your parents couldn't or wouldn't buy them, you could make one with a cotton reel and four nails), frisbees (using the lid from an icecream container), and yoyos (the ones with the Coca-Cola logo were the "cool" ones to have). Lego wasn't around in those days but Meccano was popular with the boys.

We have a Museum of Childhood in our town. I don't know what it costs to get in there these days but when coolcat90 was little, it only cost $2.00 and the children were allowed to play with most of the exhibits. We used to go there every school holiday. The place was full of the types of toys mentioned in this thread. Coolcat90's favourites were the dress-up drawer full of costuming, the puppet theatre and puppets, and Snakes and Ladders. Lones, your children would probably love this place.

Mum used to make my Sindy dolls new clothes every Christmas, and seeming I had about 20, it was a good way to keep her knitting needles/sewing machine busy.
I forgot the Fisher Price toys too. I really did have hours of fun with those, especially the tree house and the school house

Gosh, French knitting, yes I spent hours with a cotton reel and scraps of wool.

I was way into Barbies. Polly Pocket but not like today's Polly Pocket. The ones I had were teeny little things that went inside a little home that looked like a makeup compact. Spirograph and various Crayola and similar craft/art kits. My favourite was Speak N Spell

I was born into video games. That was my main play-thing for most of my memoried life...

And Beanie Babies.

Hot Wheel cars and tracks, Tonka Trucks,( those things were indestructible), a set of six shooters with the belt,wore those things everywhere, and something called a Barrel of Monkeys, where you tried to lift all the monkeys out of the barrel at once by hooking them together, and one of my favorites, Crokinole,am i spelling that right?

Wow, that really is sad. Mine does have an ipod and other electronic things but it's on limited time and he has lots of proper toys and could probably build an entire house with lego and other bricks lol

The toys I remember back in my day were the knuckles .. we played them a LOT. Anyone else do elastics in the playground? I had lots of teddy bears when I was younger too

Rollerskates and skateboards and lots of time in the backyard playing cricket or hockey.

Yes, it's true, Jill . The excuse is that parents are always working and do not have time to play with their children; electronic games, presumably do not need input from an adult. Have you heard the one about not letting children play with bikes and skates, it is dangerous. I quote one mother:
"I took her ice skating, but she fell down so I didn't take her again!!!" (seriously).
Children here have choices. They do homework or they go to extra tutorial lessons.If they want to go swimming, they have swimming lessons, ditto with football, running or any sport, they play instruments(not for enjoyment, for diplomas), art... ditto, in fact name any activity and it is rarely done for sheer fun, more for status.I sound bitter and twisted, but it is a fact.
As a consequence there are very few children who actually play for playing's sake, therefore toys are not a priority. The kindergartens are fighting a brave battle, but the fact is it is hard to motivate a child to play imaginary , pretend games when an electronic gadget does it all for you.
End of grumpy old rant.

I have never heard of this place MotherGoose. I will have to do a search to find out where it is. You are right, my kids (especially my daughter) will love this place!


Edit: Oh, I just searched for it and all the items have been donated to the WA museum (from the previous owners at a university) and are in storage waiting for the new museum - I think due to open in about 5-10 years time

Re elastics - yes, elastics was extremely popular at school when I was a child. Funnily enough, though, we never played it at home, only at school. We made our own using ordinary elastic purchased in the haberdashery department. However, now you can buy it in a kit with an instruction book and the elastic comes in bright fluoro colours.

Re Spirograph - I'd forgotten that one. I spent hours playing with my Spirograph. It was a good toy for an only child.

Re danger. We frequently played in the playground at our school on the weekends, playing on the monkey bars, jungle gym and swings, shooting goals on the netball court, or playing tennis on the tennis court, or just riding our bikes around in the quadrangle. Kids can't do those things any more because of liability issues. Also, vandalism has meant that a lot of schools are now fenced in instead of being open.




What a shame it's not open right now. When we used to go there, it was located at the old Claremont Teacher's College which now belongs to UWA. It was lots of fun and at only $2, it was a cheap treat for the school holidays.

It's like that here too, Ren. When coolcat90 was in school, the mothers would get together and brag about how many extracurricular activities their kids were involved in. They would complain about having to drive the kids to all these activities but you knew that they were mentally patting themselves on the back for being a "good parent".

When I was a child, I really wanted to do some of the those activities, like Brownies, but wasn't allowed to, partly because it wasn't affordable and partly because transport was difficult. So when coolcat90 was little, I wanted her to have the opportunity to do those things that I wasn't able to. However, I never pushed her into anything - I only encouraged her to follow her own passions.

I also put a limit on activities - no more than two extra-curricular activities at a time. If she wanted to try something new, she had to decide which current activity was going to be dropped. We also had a rule that if she chose a team sport, she wasn't allowed to drop that sport in the middle of the season. She had to see it through to the end and not let the team down.

Her passions turned out to be swimming and dance. However, she tried her hand at a number of things, including gymnastics, archery, teeball, netball, karate, horse-riding, piano and guitar.

Now I work in developmental paediatrics and I am amazed at how many kids have extra-curricular activities every day after school, and all weekend too. As Ren mentioned, there is also tutoring at home, and/or having access to an educational aide at school for one-on-one assistance. We even get pressured by parents and schools who want the doctor to diagnose some kind of specific learning disability or psychiatric disorder because government funding can be obtained if you can get particular diagnoses.

There's also a host of medical terminology to go with this. You've probably heard of dyslexia (difficulty reading). But if a child has difficulty with maths, it's called dyscalculia, and poor or slow handwriting is dysgraphia. When Johnny is naughty he is suffering from ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) or emotional dysregulation - I am NOT kidding! I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Never heard of Crockinole but the monkeys were a regular. Still have some somewhere. And pick-up-sticks.

Yes! That was a fun game. And no such thing as a kit needed! But how weird, now you say it, I think we only played it in the playground too rather than at home. Maybe at home there were better things to do than jump over a piece of elastic, lol!

(Or maybe it was the lack of girls on my street...as I was writing the next post that suddenly dawned on me...)

YES! That's mandatory, I thought? It was mostly a waste of time though, the concoction never smelled anything like perfume did.



You cruel things, lol! That's hilarious, I never heard of such a game but it sounds dangerously fun. The kids of my age on my street were all boys so I was forced into Tomboyism and there was nettle-clasping, throwing stones under cars and cutting up worms - but no bee charming.

I really prefered Sindys.

Did you buy a Sindy when you grew up?

The toy I remember most fondly was called "Showboat". It was an actual pink showboat that had all the little pieces, characters, backdrops to change and stage props to put on plays. The ones I remember are "The Wizard of Oz" and "Heidi". It even included the scripts! I wish I still had it because I saw it a Toy memorabilia show for $300.00! The other things I played with were hula hoops, jump ropes, jacks, and cars with my brother. Of course we were outside all the time. I was not a doll person!

My daughter is 18 now and only last October got an iPhone for her birthday. I've made sure she spends time outside by affording her horseback riding since she was 8!

Ah, the nostalgia... I am the youngest of four, so I had a lot of hand-me-downs. Matchbox cars were always my favourite, and whenever I got a new one it was THE best thing. I also loved trains, and had a wooden train track where you could build the circuit, and also had a small collection of trains to go with the set. One was battery run, so it went around automatically, and a few other manual ones where you pushed them around. I had a HUGE collection of stuffed toys, a lot of them hand-me-downs, and most of them dogs, birds or bears. I also had numerous toys from various tv show, movie etc franchises, and LEGO. I wasn't great at building LEGO, but I loved playing with the finished product. Nintendo GameBoys and GameBoy Colours were pretty big when they came out as well. And then there were the sticks we used as make-believe swords, and plenty of trees to climb. And reading of course, which I still thoroughly enjoy.

Great memories everyone. Did anyone have the case of matchbox cars made like a big plastic matchbox car box with a handle? My daughter did and it was full up and still is. Some great old models in there. I loved my clockwork crocodile that snapped as it chased across the floor. The height of wickedness was when I took it to school and let it run under the teacher's desk. My first doll (I was 7, sob, I know, it was the end of the war) was sent by a GI called Harry after he returned to the US. Harry and my Mum had established very good Anglo American relations. She was gorgeous, had open and shutting eyes and a frilly dress. Her name was Evangeline Marie Josie after various Aunties.
Matchbox carrying case

Wow, this thread is a walk down memory lane!

I had a spirograph (which I had forgotten about until I read it above!). I spent a lot of time playing with that.

A Lite-Brite brought out the artist within. Using a black piece of paper, it was molded onto a frame with a light behind and you'd put colored see-through pegs in the paper to create a designs that would light up.

A rag doll was my favorite. My grandmother gave me an ugly witch-looking doll that I named Penelope Witchepoo. My sister got a Raggedy Ann. I remember I was so offended by my doll, I was sure that grandmother liked my sister best. But Penelope became so loved that I still have her. A photo of her will be going up in the Photo Threads.

We grew up in the mountains so we played outside every day, even in the winter where snow sledding was great fun! Toys and games were for playing with at night after dark. Many days were spent on our horses exploring the countryside and taking mountain trails through the forest. During the summer months, we'd wake at daybreak, grab the horses, and head up the road to pick up more friends on their horses and ride for miles and miles and get back at dark. Ages ranged from 6 years old to 13 years old. When we became adults, we used to tease our parents that they must have not cared about us to let us be gone like that and not know where we were. It was such a safe and innocent time. I can't imagine allowing a child to do that nowadays.

And don't forget the reliable "Etch-a-Sketch"! Hours of fun. I never had Spirograph (probably because of the fiddly pins!) until I was much older, but I did have "Dial a design", based on the same lines, but no pins.
There was also Stickle bricks (before you were old enough for Lego) which were plastic bricks with "teeth" which stuck together, and also Fuzzy Felts. Great fun with designing pictures with fuzzy felts.
Finally, there was "Weebles" with the memorable tag-line "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down". Plastic characters with weights at the bottom of them. Try as you might, you couldn't keep them to lie down!
As my nieces grew up, they had the more "modern toys" mentioned above, which I enjoyed playing with - Polly Pockets, Slyvannian families etc.

Following on from the Sindy-envy confessions, although I had a Sindy I did not have an Etch-a-Sketch so that was what I longed for. And going to other people's houses to play was essentially just an excuse to find either an Etch-a-Sketch or a piano to play with.


Edit: Oooh, or a swing! Or a kitten.

Why was it that friends with a swing, piano, etch-a-sketch or kitten never wanted to spend all afternoon watching me play with said items? I'm not saying I was a "cupboard-love" sort of friend but looking back I seemed to have an agenda when choosing whom to visit...

I never did get a Sindy, sadly ... and while my daughter had several Barbies (nowhere near as good as a Sindy, hehe), she never played with them. It kind of took the shine off the toy for me.

I was a bit of a tomboy and usually played with my brother's pals. Snail races, stone fights (we really were horrible The street kids would split into two teams and fire stones at the opposition for a good part of many an afternoon), and other non lady-like activities were part of my everyday activities.

We also played tennis in the street once Wimbledon started, scutched apples from the neighbour's trees, collected butterflies, played Swingball and football, did gymnastics from the goalposts, swung on a rope tied around the street lamp and generally never got bored! I don't think we had time to miss not having actual *real* toys!