Shrinky Dinks

[Abraham Smashington]

I still have some colorforms plastered on my first guitar. Good stuff.

[Ingrid]

I usually played with Legos, Play-Doh and Micro Machines. And Barbie. 'Cause I'm a girl and that's what we did. What were colorforms?

[Lisa]

Colorforms were kind of like paper dolls, but their clothes were cut out of these vinyl sheets that just stuck onto them. So let's say you had Barbie Colorforms. The doll would be like your basic paper-doll, undressed in her underwear. But it was cut from heavy die-cut cardboard, and the front of it would be coated with a shiny, glossy surface, almost like a vinyl coating. Then you'd have a dress for her, and that would be cut out of that vinyl sheet material. So you'd lay the dress on the front of her, and it would just stick from the shiny, glossy surface of the doll, and the dress being made out of vinyl. To undress her, you'd just peel it off like a sticker. It was great, because unlike a paper doll, you didn't have to worry about the stupid tabs, and the clothes falling off and tearing. Let me hunt around and see if I can find pictures.

Edit - can't find any pictures other than the fronts of the boxes, which really don't show you. But it was pretty much the principle of if you took two slick pieces of vinyl and put them together, they'd stick.

[Ed Hocken]

All of this stuff proves that kids are entertained by the simplest things. It explains why ball and cup are still being sold in drug stores.

[Matt]

Light Bright and Spirograph...I had those instead of shrinky dinks, colorforms, and that other stuff.

But my toys of choice? HOT WHEELS. I had cases FULL of cars, and I had miles and miles of orange track. We'd spend hours making wicked jumps in my basement, laying out the track over the furniture to develop the maximum amount of speed.

Good times.

[Ari]

I hated the spirograph. Stupid spirals. I loved my Light Bright though. Well, I did until I got to the pages with no picture. Just plank pages to make your own pictures. Fuck that, I wanted to make Kermit, not use my imagination!

[Lisa]

See, I had a TON of toys, even though my parents tried very hard not to spoil me. But, one of my uncles was still single at that time - he didn't get married till I was out of the toy phase. So, a young, single, childless uncle with a disposable income, and a little niece who's fun to buy for - lemme tell you, I got a shitload of toys from him! And he got me the greatest STUFF! I mean, my parents got me great toys, but I knew I could count on my uncle to really bring the goods.

Anyway, one of my favorite dolls that he got for me was Beautiful Chrissy (oh, I'm showing my age, I know). She was the doll who's hair would "magically" grow from short to long, and she was awesome! You'd press a button on her tummy and pull her hair, and it would grow long, all the way to her butt if you wanted it that long. Then she had a little dial crank in the shape of a daisy on her back - you'd twist that, and her hair would grow shorter again. The only drawback was after you brushed her hair a few times, the little "flips" at the ends would just get all frizzy, but aside from that, she was the best.

Oh, and the daisy shaped dial on her back? That was a standard in any doll from the early 1970s that did stuff. Dial on her back to make her hair change lengths? Daisy shaped button. Doll that talked? Daisy shaped pull on the string in her back. Any kind of button or lever for your doll that did stuff was designed like that.

[Ed Hocken]

I just had matchbox cars, an Arimtron, stuffed toys, duplos and tinker toys.

[Abraham Smashington]

You had a weird childhood. I'm still baffled by the lack of PB&J as child. haha

[Ed Hocken]

*Shrug*

It's just how it was. I never got PB&J as food. Not to mention we never had milk with dinner.

Oh and I had an NES. I remember it was 1989.

[Abraham Smashington]

ROBOT

[Ed Hocken]

You find it weird not to have milk with dinner? Perhaps it was one of the few jewish practices my folks had.

I'm sure Ari could attest to this.

[Ari]

Milk was(is) for cereal and chocolate. Tang and iced tea was with all other meals.

[Ed Hocken]

You heard the King.

[PHEDG]

Some childhood fav's...

Garbage Pail Kids
Hit Stix
Linkin Logs
M.A.S.K.
Micro Machines
M.U.S.C.L.E.
Pogo Ball
Pound Puppies
Lance Mountain Powell Peralta
Skip-It
Roller Racer
Slip 'n Slide
Pick-up sticks
Super Soaker
The Animal
Army Ants
Battleship
Knight Rider Big Wheel
Care Bears
Connect Four
C.O.P.S.
Spacewarp
Domino Rally
Crossbows and Catapults