Josh's Favorite Childhood Toys

I had a great time putting this list together. Tons of great memories. If you're as nerdy as I was, I suspect it will be a walk down memory lane for you as well.

10. TIE: Monopoly/Risk
Despite how unbearable these games are today, I played the shit out of them as a kid. I recall one summer where me and a few friends played a game of Monopoly almost every day for several weeks. I'm not sure if it's the Jew in me or what, but I was always able to make great deals and win triumphantly. Unless I was playing against my brother, who cheats.

9. TIE: Plastic Light Sabers/Wooden Swords
My brother and I, even more than board games, loved sword fighting the hell out of each other when we were younger. Everyone knows what a plastic light saber is, and they were OK fun. The problem was, they were such cheap plastic that you couldn't really get into battles that were too intense. Then my aunt and uncle totally saved my childhood. They went to a Renaissance Fair and brought both of us back a wooden sword and shield. Holy. Shit. These wooden swords were about three or four feet long, which for a kid is quite big. And they were quite sturdy. We spent many a day battling for domination of our back toy room, often with me being the victor. Of course, that is mostly because I am four years my brother's elder.

8. Superman with Krpytonite Ring

This toy harkens back to my REALLY young years. At that point I found this thing super cool, because it came with a kryptonite ring. The ring had a magnet in it that somehow magically made the toy fall down when you brought it near Superman. The way I figured it, as a little kid, this was the most realistic thing ever, besides the Banshee toy below.

7. Banshee with Whistle

Who was Banshee? He was a member of the X-Men that could yell really loud. Based on what I remember, he may or may not have had some sort of gliding ability. Who gives a crap. When I used to play with this toy, I could use the whistle in his chest to simulate the super-sonic sounds capable of destroying buildings and wreaking havoc on bad guys. However, there were many battles where Banshee became a bad guy. That damn whistle was so powerful, it took a whole team of meta-humans to put him in line.

6. Ewok Village

Obviously, all my awesome action figures needed somewhere cool to hang out. As you will see after the break, they had more than one option. The Ewok Village was a pretty sweet hideout. It had secret entrances in tree trunks, a basket for lazy pieces of crap like Professor Xavier who couldn't be bothered with the stairs, and a boulder to drop on unsuspecting intruders. Essentially, everything one would want in a hide-out.




5. Voltron Black Lion

One of the most frustrating and enjoyable parts of my childhood was a result of the Black Lion. Why was this toy awesome? Five little words: And I'll form the head.



Unfortunately, I never acquired any of the other lions. I thought of just asking specific friends to get specific lions, thus allowing me to make Voltron, but I had seen that method fail in the past.



To this day, when I see the full Voltron set somewhere, it takes all my willpower to not buy it.

4. Ghostbusters Firehouse

While the Ewok village is a pretty sweet hideout, the Ghostbusters had a much better thing going. Multiple floors and great advertising outside. Plus, a WORKING FIREPOLE. That's right. It is not pictured here, but there was a firepole in this thing, with a little stand. You could use the holes in the bottom of the toys' feet to stick them to the platform, and down they went, on their way to fight bad guys.

3. Millenium Falcon

I frequently ran into a big problem when I was younger. A good number of my toys were on Endor at the Ewok Village, while others were in New York at the Ghostbusters Firehouse. There was only one way to go back and forth quickly. I needed a ship capable of going really fast. So I found this bad boy, capable of making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Good enough for me.

2. Ghostbusters Equipment

I LOVED the Ghostbusters. So much so, that I of course wanted to be one. So, I acquired a proton pack, a ghost trap and even a little sensor thing to detect the ghosts. Until I saw this site, I thought I had everything a potential Ghostbuster could want. Oh how wrong I was.

1. Jedi Luke Skywalker

Clearly, "Return of the Jedi" is the best Star Wars movie. Based on that, it should be little surprise that the action figure of Luke from that movie would be my favorite. Let's also not forget that this toy was highly poseable, meaning namely that his knees bent, which was not often the case back then. Plus, since he was already a Jedi at this point, he could do all sorts of badass stuff. I won't lie though, when I was running the show Luke dabbled with the dark side a little bit, mostly in the form of lightning and choking the shit out of bad guys. It happens.