Tools. Take stuff apart. Break stuff. The bigger the hammer the better.

LTG : )

I bought a Toshiba "walkman" after I completed basic training in 1983. I think it was a pretty big expense at the time, about $100 I think. The radio tuner was shaped as a cassette, you took that out to play cassettes.

Found a pic of one on ebay - $125. About 30 people watching...

s-l400 (resized).jpg

Remember the "Mechanical Servants" vending machines? I occasionally saw one in the rest room of a bar or restaurant back in the 60s. The machines usually sold items like aspirin, combs, nail clippers, etc. But sometimes there were a couple of little toy items in there. I remember persuading my Dad to buy me a much-needed pair of magnetic Scottie dogs.

s-l300 (resized).jpg

vintage-mechanical-servants-magnets-black-and-white-dogs (resized).jpg

For many years, My Father Drove from Texas to Indiana, and NC to Florida, All over the South East.
When I traveled with him, Many of the Stops had Mechanical Servant Vending.

Perhaps, this is why I started collecting Puzzles! (That and the little animals that smoked little cigarettes....Loved those!)

pasted_image (resized).png

pasted_image (resized).png

When I was about 8 years old a neighbor who was now about 16 gave me a brown paper bag full of these models. He was too old now.

Years later I discovered this book. My point. I like books.

And also I can easily put the book on my shelf. I get great joy just looking through this book and this post.

07620341-227C-4209-9A86-18004923B3DE (resized).jpeg

Thanks, first time I saw this. Just ordered this from Amazon, looking forward to reading it!

Smoking Monkey's! I had several of those.

When I was young we would often drive up to Richmond to visit relatives. There was a Stukey’s along the way that we would stop at. They had the Mechanical Servants machine in the men’s room. Out in the store proper, they had a rack that had stuff like smoke bombs, sparklers, ‘snakes’, and other assorted items to separate a boy from his money. I remember buying some Mexican Jumping Beans on one trip.

Christmas morning my Johnny Reb cannon took out the kitchen window.

Don C.

Hell yeah!

pasted_image (resized).png

You sure spent a lot of time looking at the ads in the back of the comic books, etc. :-

Here's my favorite prank of all-- The trick ketchup squeeze bottle with the red string in it.

s-l640 (resized).jpg

We had one too. You could play it hard to win or just bat it back and forth while chatting. I think my dad put it in because frankly it was cheaper than the basketball hoop and court he put in when we were older. We thought we hit the big time when that went in - we had something like below with a red white and blue net, mounted on a pole and a 1/4 court concrete slab poured in the back yard.

hoop (resized).jpg

Hey Dirk I might be out of line here but you may want to add this to your toy chest. I find it’s always a good idea to have a roll or two handy just in case...well you know, so you don’t have to shit in your hand : )

0454DE75-2C29-41BE-86B0-DFEA111F6C46 (resized).jpeg

Lol. Fake poop trick only works once or twice but always good for a giggle.

Same with fake lotto tickets. We've gotten a few friends and family over the years with them.

9k=(1).jpg

Hope this isn’t too political... But I had a big “Snoopy For President” flicker button which I wore pinned to my shirt for the 1968 election.

0E503CE9-32CE-42A9-8C1A-72D44419E87D (resized).jpeg

4AB7D750-97A5-44DA-A2E7-1C6B53CEA2BF (resized).jpeg

Hey ! I won !! I won !!

Huh ?

You bastard

Here's some up for auction this weekend. Hope to add a few to the collection.

38801320_1.jpg38801342_1.jpg38801433_1.jpg

This was one of my favorites 38801372_1.jpg

They made Madballs into movies?38801299_1.jpg

A few more from upcoming sale.

Didn't realize Heavy Metal made it into the 2000s39044661_1.jpg38801850_1.jpg38801849_1.jpg

Two millennium Falcons and no bids yet? Hopefully it stays that way38801724_1.jpg

One of the NHLs toughest, if not toughest SOBs, Dave Semenko card. He became a realtor after his career ended and sold our house in 1989.

38801176_1.jpg

Stuff from the other auction Saturday. I'm going to be busy.

The A-Team van. When I was a kid living in Winnipeg we drove down to North Dakota for a weekend in a blizzard. I remember getting that van and also the A-Team helicopter.

How did they mess up the art so bad on the Dukes board game? Look at Daisy. Ughh.39030014_1.jpg

39030093_1.jpg

39030105_1.jpg

39030107_1.jpg

Loved my Ateam toys!

20200715_182543 (resized).jpg

20200715_182751 (resized).jpg

My younger self always enjoyed a box of Cracker Jack with a prize inside. Although most of the prizes were crappy, I got a few good ones. I liked it when I got a whistle. My favorite of all was the disc that would spin when you blew on it. I could get that thing to spin really fast.

27231181-E550-4C7B-BC07-3B52EC9D53AD (resized).png

172DE13C-50CA-4C2C-AF47-D53E91E2845F (resized).jpeg

LOL, the spinning disk and the little books were the only prizes I ever seemed to get. I used to get a box whenever we went to the movie theater when I was young, I haven’t seen them selling it there for a long time now, too noisy I guess.

The tattoos were what I got pretty excited about.
pasted_image (resized).png

Of course this was the preferred way to find tattoos, but they seemed to be rare. I remember it was a big deal when I found some of the nicer slide-off style ones.
pasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).pngpasted_image (resized).png

Also Topps monster stickers/cards were awesome! I specifically remember "Emma" was stuck on my closet door for years.pasted_image (resized).png

This kept me busy for a while....Still have it, and it works!

pasted_image (resized).png

Who remembers all of those model cars with the oversized super chargers from around 15-20 years ago? If I had been kid when these things hit the market I would have a wall of them in my house. But they were after my time. Ridiculousy cool.

Screen Shot 2020-11-13 at 11.10.31 AM (resized).png

When I was about five my aunt bought me a full box of mighty Mavericks stickers. I remember it was five dollars. I Covered the inside of my closet door with the stickers.

I met a guy who still had his door. Literally. He had took off the door a kept it for decades.

I never forgot my love of opening packs and such. It must have started right there.

Awesome!

while looking for something else, came across this . . . you would feel them nibble and then you would have to hook up with a quick flip, and then reel them in and no lose it IMG_5182 (resized).JPG

I was intrigued by Art’s post (#2534) of the old burning horse race papers, so I bought some to try out. Not sure if the 70 year old paper burned as originally intended. But it sort of looks like the first horse won, ridden by Lorne Greene.

60FFA205-F7FF-4976-A228-A5A816A8EA5C (resized).jpeg

AE46D9A8-63A7-44D9-905A-0E8C13A75230 (resized).jpeg

02A638CE-924E-4829-A2D0-82D71AAECCD6 (resized).jpeg

AEA5236E-19E1-46FB-9C35-C67A044403AF.gif

Glad you tried!
When you light the star or start, there is a squiggly trail of light burning powder, between two sheets glued.
All cross the finish line, but one gets there first.
In other versions, only one burned past the finish line.

I tried to get them reproduced overseas, but I couldnt reach anyone to understand, or accomplish.
All my "70 year old" onesburn like yours, and not correctly.
I dont know what the powder was.....

Ill try to find mine for some pics....

Not a toy, but I’ve always enjoyed some s’mores around a fire.
I found this stainless washing machine barrel and chair in a clean up pile on the side of the road.
I made it shine with some mothers polish.

01E6A5DA-F94E-4EDB-9DE9-32B16805C418.jpeg4F9FF0AF-0833-4EB6-9661-35BE6566959C.jpeg

That's cool. What do you do with it?

It’s a fire pit

Spin it round manauly, for handwash only

Cool, love the fire pit idea.

The view from the yard with the palm trees looks exactly the same as any generic yard down here in SoCal. Maybe we aren’t so different after all