Friday, October 10, 2008

Hula Boy's Top Ten Childhood Toys

I feel like my list will differ greatly from most other's lists. I had only one action figure as a kid. I never had any toy trucks or cars or anything of that ilk. I don't even remember who would of played half of this stuff with me, and everyone must of thought I was a weirdo...so without further ado...

10. Trivial Pursuit Jr.
I don't ever remember playing against anyone. I remember playing with my parents, but they couldn't have really been playing, or else it wouldn't have been any fun. I do remember playing three different versions of myself, redself, blueself, and greenself, and seeing which was better.


9. Beetlejuice Action Figure
I had the exact same action figure above. You would pull the head off of the figure and a slithery snake like Beetlejuice head would pop up. I never saw the movie growing up, but had plenty of nightmares about this action figure. Not the action figure, but the life form of the action figure. Maybe since this scared the bejesus out of me and was my first action figure, I decided I didn't want any other ones?

8. Clue Jr. Books
These books had three page stories, and then you had to solve the riddle to them at the end. I was addicted. They kept me up through all hours of the night. I would awaken in the morning with bloodshot eyes from reading these stories. It was like eight year old crack, I will keep my kids away from these.

7. Chip 'N Dales Computer Game
The game was like a shitty version of Mario and ran on MS-DOS. But I remember playing it and never getting past the third level as a kid. It led to me playing another computer game, which will come up later.


6. Pogs
This had to be the stupidest fad ever. Who thought they could cash in on creating little sheets of cardboard that you would through metal coinlettes at? And more importantly how did it work? I remmeber the collecting of these being better than the playing. Oh, and the mascot, how was that a viable mascot?



5. Creepy Crawlers
This was a special toy. You didn't play with it all the time, only on those special occasions. I'm not even sure I remember what the appeal was, because it really wasn't fun to pour the goo into the little cookie cutters. And the crawlers themselves always tore apart before long. Maybe it was the fact that it was only be allowed to play with on a limited basis.


4. Koosh Balls
Koosh balls were awesome. They were safe, couldn't hurt anyone, couldn't break a window or any furniture, and could be played with in the pool. Why aren't more child's toys thought out like this.

3. Solitaire
My dad would always play solitaire on the computer, which made me want to do the same thing. This was when I was six years old. Yes, I played solitaire as a six year old, and this is one of the few skills that has carried over and proven advantageous to this day and age. You would think with how far computers have come, they could think of some other game other than solitaire to put on them.


2. U.S. Puzzle
I had this exact puzzle pictured here. Oh, how it brings back memories. There were rumors that I could complete it by three years of age. And 50 of my first 100 or so words were states. Did I mention I was a weird kid?


1. Marble Tower
I never had this toy. But my cousins did, and I could not wait to go their house to play with this as a child. You would build a track from various plastic pieces and then allow marbles to drop down and circle through the tower. This toy was amazing!

2 comments:

Daniel said...

I kind of want Marble Tower now. And I loved those Clue Jr. books, I still remember one where they found out a person cheated because he claimed he left a bookmark between two pages that weren't consecutive. Ever read the regular Clue ones? I think each one ended with Mr. Boddy being murdered.

Josh Camson said...

I'm sorry to hear you had what sounds like a very lonely childhood. But I also had that Beeteljuice action figure, and it scared me as well.