VH1's "I Love Toys".....
Mar. 11th, 2006 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1This past week, VH1 featured "I Love Toys", a 5-hour countdown of the top 100 toys and games of all-time. The rankings were apparently done by VH1 users who went to the VH1 website and submitted their results. (No, I wasn't one of them.)
The toys and games I had, remember fondly, and didn't make the cut:
Mille Bornes (Parker Brothers). Card game. Travel 1000 km while preventing other players from doing the same by tossing them pitfalls like accidents, flat tires, running out of gas, and speed limits.
Toss Across (Ideal). Floor game. A combination of bean-bag toss and tic-tac toe. The "board" had 9 triangular-shaped squares on it; each side of the triangle had an X, an O, or a blank. An old commercial featured the family dog dropping a bean bag on one of the squares, resulting in a win.
Electric Football (Coleco and other manufacturers). Table game. Little plastic men on a vibrating, buzzing Masonite board painted to resemble a football field.
Slot Hockey (various manufacturers). Table game. Control sheet-steel players with steel rods, pass and shoot the puck into the opponent's goal.
Snoopy and the Red Baron (Milton Bradley): Board game. Score points as Snoopy while catching white marbles and not catching black marbles that the Red Baron shoots down the chute.
Radar Search (Milton Bradley): Upright table game. Fulfill your assignment by moving your ships from one destination to another, without getting caught by the opponent. The game featured two dials that reported ship movement, and an electric buzzer that would sound when one player turned a gamepiece which resembled a "key".
Bowl-A-Matic 300 (Coleco, I think). Table game. A close-to-realistic bowling game with built-in pinsetter. Pins were held in place by magnets, and tied with dental floss or fishing line to a spring-loaded frame, operated by a platic lever at the front of the game. It took my dad 4 hours to do the threading and lacing of the pins.
Stratego (Milton Bradley): Board game. (Local friends had this one.) Rudimentary capture-the-flag wargame with two armies -- red and blue. Pieces captured each other based on numeric rank of the piece. Watch out for bombs, though.
Fascination (Remco?): Table game. Guide silver ball bearings through a handheld plastic maze. One side had a circular maze; the other had three square mazes. The winner had a light on a pylon light up.
Rebound (Milton Bradley): Table game. Think of shuffleboard with rubber-band banking. Ball bearings with plastic sleeves around them would be rolled toward the end with the rubber bands, and land in the scoring area....or the pit behind it.
Which Witch? (Milton Bradley): Board game. (This belonged to my sister.) Players reach being turned into mice and had to reach the Charmed Circle to win.
Bats In Your Belfry (Mattel): Table game. I think I picked this up at a garage sale. Game featured a plastic spooky castle (suitable for a Halloween decoration) where pieces move around it and plastic bats occupied the spring-loaded tower. The bats had point values.
Barnabas Collins' Dark Shadows (Milton Bradley): Table game. (This also belonged to my sister.) Hangman with a twist: skeletons made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Was lots of fun assembling the skeletons, turning off the lights, and throwing them at each other.
[Oops, I just thought of a few more.]
Trouble (Schaper?): Board game. Move plastic peices around an injection-molded plastic board. The game featured the "Pop-O-Matic" die roller, which was essentially a dome of clear plastic, over a sheet-steel spring, that contained a six-sided die with numbers on it.
Sorry! (Parker Bros.): Board game. (My cousins had this one.) Move pieces around the board. Cards were drawn for movements. Certain numbers (e.g. 11) had certain extra qualities or features associated with them.
Mystery Date (Milton Bradley). Board game. (Two of my cousins had this one. Boys didn't play these type of games. :) ) Is your next date gonna be a stud....or a dud? Open the pastic door in the middle and find out.
Trivial Pursuit (Horn Abbot). Board game. Originally came out in 1980 or 1981. Move pie-shaped pieces around the wheel-and-spoke-shaped board. Get pieces of the pie where the spokes meet the wheel. Numerous card sets have been released. (I'd love to see a comprehensive list.) Probably didn't make the list because it's more an adult board game than for kids.
Granted, some of these games were somewhat obscure, and didn't have widespread, long-term, or mainstream appeal. I wonder how much they'd go for. Maybe when it's time to clean out my parents' house, these may go up on EBay or into a toy museum.
The Lists:
100-81 (Hour 1): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98252/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
80-61 (Hour 2): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98253/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
60-41 (Hour 3): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98254/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
40-21 (Hour 4): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98255/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
20-1 (Hour 5): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98256/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
What games do you remember that didn't make the list?
The toys and games I had, remember fondly, and didn't make the cut:
Mille Bornes (Parker Brothers). Card game. Travel 1000 km while preventing other players from doing the same by tossing them pitfalls like accidents, flat tires, running out of gas, and speed limits.
Toss Across (Ideal). Floor game. A combination of bean-bag toss and tic-tac toe. The "board" had 9 triangular-shaped squares on it; each side of the triangle had an X, an O, or a blank. An old commercial featured the family dog dropping a bean bag on one of the squares, resulting in a win.
Electric Football (Coleco and other manufacturers). Table game. Little plastic men on a vibrating, buzzing Masonite board painted to resemble a football field.
Slot Hockey (various manufacturers). Table game. Control sheet-steel players with steel rods, pass and shoot the puck into the opponent's goal.
Snoopy and the Red Baron (Milton Bradley): Board game. Score points as Snoopy while catching white marbles and not catching black marbles that the Red Baron shoots down the chute.
Radar Search (Milton Bradley): Upright table game. Fulfill your assignment by moving your ships from one destination to another, without getting caught by the opponent. The game featured two dials that reported ship movement, and an electric buzzer that would sound when one player turned a gamepiece which resembled a "key".
Bowl-A-Matic 300 (Coleco, I think). Table game. A close-to-realistic bowling game with built-in pinsetter. Pins were held in place by magnets, and tied with dental floss or fishing line to a spring-loaded frame, operated by a platic lever at the front of the game. It took my dad 4 hours to do the threading and lacing of the pins.
Stratego (Milton Bradley): Board game. (Local friends had this one.) Rudimentary capture-the-flag wargame with two armies -- red and blue. Pieces captured each other based on numeric rank of the piece. Watch out for bombs, though.
Fascination (Remco?): Table game. Guide silver ball bearings through a handheld plastic maze. One side had a circular maze; the other had three square mazes. The winner had a light on a pylon light up.
Rebound (Milton Bradley): Table game. Think of shuffleboard with rubber-band banking. Ball bearings with plastic sleeves around them would be rolled toward the end with the rubber bands, and land in the scoring area....or the pit behind it.
Which Witch? (Milton Bradley): Board game. (This belonged to my sister.) Players reach being turned into mice and had to reach the Charmed Circle to win.
Bats In Your Belfry (Mattel): Table game. I think I picked this up at a garage sale. Game featured a plastic spooky castle (suitable for a Halloween decoration) where pieces move around it and plastic bats occupied the spring-loaded tower. The bats had point values.
Barnabas Collins' Dark Shadows (Milton Bradley): Table game. (This also belonged to my sister.) Hangman with a twist: skeletons made of glow-in-the-dark plastic. Was lots of fun assembling the skeletons, turning off the lights, and throwing them at each other.
[Oops, I just thought of a few more.]
Trouble (Schaper?): Board game. Move plastic peices around an injection-molded plastic board. The game featured the "Pop-O-Matic" die roller, which was essentially a dome of clear plastic, over a sheet-steel spring, that contained a six-sided die with numbers on it.
Sorry! (Parker Bros.): Board game. (My cousins had this one.) Move pieces around the board. Cards were drawn for movements. Certain numbers (e.g. 11) had certain extra qualities or features associated with them.
Mystery Date (Milton Bradley). Board game. (Two of my cousins had this one. Boys didn't play these type of games. :) ) Is your next date gonna be a stud....or a dud? Open the pastic door in the middle and find out.
Trivial Pursuit (Horn Abbot). Board game. Originally came out in 1980 or 1981. Move pie-shaped pieces around the wheel-and-spoke-shaped board. Get pieces of the pie where the spokes meet the wheel. Numerous card sets have been released. (I'd love to see a comprehensive list.) Probably didn't make the list because it's more an adult board game than for kids.
Granted, some of these games were somewhat obscure, and didn't have widespread, long-term, or mainstream appeal. I wonder how much they'd go for. Maybe when it's time to clean out my parents' house, these may go up on EBay or into a toy museum.
The Lists:
100-81 (Hour 1): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98252/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
80-61 (Hour 2): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98253/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
60-41 (Hour 3): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98254/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
40-21 (Hour 4): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98255/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
20-1 (Hour 5): http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/i_love_toys/98256/episode_featured_copy.jhtml
What games do you remember that didn't make the list?
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 05:49 am (UTC)Dark Tower. I played it by myself for HOURS at a time. It's still in my old bedroom closet at my parents' house and I can't wait to get it back!!!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 06:22 am (UTC)This was probably the inspiration for the name of John Kovalic's online comic about gamers: Dork Tower. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 06:25 am (UTC)Unfortunately all of my childhood board games are gone. I guess my parents tossed 'em at some point. They weren't much for doing garage sales.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 06:51 am (UTC)I think Hasbro has bought out nearly every toy/game maker except Mattel and Wizards of the Coast (who bought TSR). Hasbro has what's left of Milton Bradley and Parker Bros., but are at least still using the names.
Here's what I know regarding some of the toy companies. Fisher-Price (now part of Mattel) was based in East Aurora NY (southeast of Buffalo), Marx was based in Erie PA, and Kenner was based in Cincinnati OH. (I didn't know that until I moved here and saw Kenner's old Calcomp plotter at Mendelson's.)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 07:01 am (UTC)*sigh*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 05:09 pm (UTC)There was also a toy called a Mr. Bubble I think, I could be wrong. You poured bubble solution into it and turned a crank. Then lots of bubbles came out. Sort of a Do It Yourself Lawrence Welk Show kit. Of course, the crank always fell off so it didn't work very well. But I still liked it. Probably because my grandmother bought it for me.
There was a Cher doll too. Had a studio apartment complete with dressing room for all her clothes. The apartment came with a bunch of wigs for Ms. Cher.
I just skimmed the list, did Sit and Spin make the list?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-13 03:18 am (UTC)Never did care much for Mr. Bubble. That stuff used to give me rashes "down there". Ow!
I just checked the list and Sit and Spin didn't make it. :(
no subject
Date: 2006-03-11 10:04 pm (UTC)love that game...
no subject
Date: 2006-03-12 11:12 pm (UTC)