for me it was meccano started me on the road to engineering and even astronomy wonder if anyone else made the model radio telescope

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PMS

Micronauts were way cool. But they were fragile. They ususally wound up being folded into my Star Wars universe, along with the SW figurines. But they broke, pieces fell off, etc...

I kept their vehicles for a long time, though. My SW figures always needed 'droids and speeders, so Micronaut stuff worked well for that.

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Angel of the Abyss
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"I am Ripper...Tearer...Slasher...Gouger. I am the Teeth in the Darkness, the Talons in the Night. Mine is Strength...and Lust...and Power! I AM BEOWULF!"

Yes! That's what it was called.

I still have a box of Major Matt Mason gear, rescued from my mom's attic. Other than that, it was too long ago to remember much detail...

I am surprised that no one has mentioned cars. I had several Tonka trucks (the jeep and a dump truck, IIRC), and a few Corgis, but I loved Matchbox. I would save my pennies and buy a new one every once in a while (I remember they were 50 cents in the mid 60s). I had (and still have) hundreds.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

I loved my Barbies. I suppose creating new outfits out of my mother's scrap material was what I really liked. Of course, my Barbies parachuted off the roof of the house, high dived off the shower curtain rod, rode in her car pulled behind my bike. She was a tough one.

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Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein

I always liked the little firguines/action figures... fond memories of Battle Beasts, though I had no idea what they were called until I did a google on "mini figurines, 80's, color chaning stickers" (and sorting out the transformers stuff ).

Also loved the Monster in My Pocket figures (though, that phrase now generally illicits a slap from the nearest woman).

I don't remember having any of the figures, but I remember the Centurions from a coloring book that I loved. I *think* I may have had the blue figure (first and second pic on that link)...but I can't remember for sure.

I do remember coloring in the book from a hotel room in south carolina, on our way down to relatives in Florida. My dad went out and got us subway for dinner. Itallian BMT on itallian bread...first time I had it that it ever came with pickels, and mayo AND mustard...and I loved it (I've ordered it that way ever since). I would have been about 7 years old (almost 20 years ago! wow)...isn't it amazing the random things you can remember?

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

M-80s and cherry bombs. Lots of great childhood memories with those.

My wife had an original Barbie, in the black and white one piece, which her mom has kept all these years. She reportedly also use to make clothes for her. My sister had Barbie and Skipper. They used to hang out with my GI Joe (back when Joe was the same size as Barbie, not the little ones they have now). You know how those GIs are. And, appropriate to BAUT, I had the GI Joe Mercury Capsule!

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

I was big into Matchbox cars. And model rockets.

Matt Mason stuff was a favorite, along with model spacecraft and other space themed toys. I liked erector more than legos (legos tended to fall apart) and my real chemistry set (not like the "safe" stuff today).

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Indoors - hot wheels/matchbox/corgi jr cars whizzing around on tracks. I still have some of the track sets, supercharger, hot rodder, speedometer, lap counter attachments. Mom made me give my collection of cars with matchbox case to a cousin. I managed to rescue three cars, that I still have: corgi jr Porsche 917K (gold colour), matchbox Mod Rod No. 1 with red wheels and "R" series No 55 Mercury Police Car.

Outdoors - tonka truck and pair of dune buggies. SSP rocket car (kids being kids, the ripcords would become weapons at some point).

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" The universe is running away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see..." - from Jimmy Buffett's What if the hokey pokey is all it really is about?

The 1999 Hess Space Shuttle!

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Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"The only way to explore the universe is to go and look." - Brian Cox
Well, the best way to find out is to go there and, find out. - Raven's Cry
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Lego
Action Man (original not the new 'eco warrior')
Airfix 1/72 Soldiers and their various 'Action Sets' I had the Roman Mile Fort, French Foreigh Legion fort, Coastal Defence fort, Gun Emplacement, Jungle Outpost, Pontoon Bridge and Forward Command post.
To go with them I had Romans, Ancient Britains, French Foreign Legion, Beduin Warriors on Camels and all manner of WW2 figures.

The great thing is my 8 year old hasexactly the same sets, they are still in production

My Space 1999 Eagles were good as well.

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'The eye can only see what the mind is prepared to accept'

Gen 1 Transformers.

I also had a Matt Mason set (dolls^W --- oops I mean action figures--, lunar rover and moon base) that I liked, and also a Lost in Space set that included the ship and the rover. But I think my favorite toy was a table-top ice hockey game (the kind where you control the players with sliding knobs).

Nick

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Nick Theodorakis

The GI Joe Space Station set. It was the one that mimiced the space shuttle with a crawler/launch paid, booster/station and shuttle.

I still remember the day my step-dad took me to get it. My friends were with me. It was a warm day, I think Wenesday, the week after Christmas, 1990. It was warm (70F) and sunny out. We had to search severl Toys R Us to find it. We found one at the one near South Coast Plaza mall. About nine months later, after we moved, I gave it to the younger neigbor kids.


I also liked StarCom and Air Raiders. Watching StarCom cartoons on Youtube, I didn't know how much science was sneaked in, such as life on Europa etc.

The StarCom base did have an encounter with an "Alien". Few survived.


When we were kids, my friend asked me once why our toys are fighting, I couldn't think of a reason other than to fight, now, I can think of many reasons to have a military conflict.

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Fields of Space

LOGIC, n.
The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

In the Year 2525.

"One small step for (a) man. One giant leap for mankind".

If an astronaut doesn't need good grammar, niether does you.

Host of Seraphim

i also had that GI Joe shuttle set- it was called the Defiant- it was really cool and detailed. but my favorite part of launching the shuttle was when i had it land on the 7.5 foot long deck of the USS Flagg aircraft carrier that took up 1/2 of my room.
both of them are listed here. and, no, the Flagg didn't float like the linked page says it did- it didn't even have a real bottom.
i might have grown up poor, but i got the coolest Christmas and birthday presents from my grandpa. i think i had every major GI Joe play set ever made- from the original GI Joe headquarters to the COBRA Terror Drome (which was way cool)to the oil rig looking platform thing. my room was full of lovely plastic toys that encouraged violence and posed choking hazards to small children..

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

NEVER call them dolls! These were action figures with spacecraft and guns and stuff!

Anyway, I found this amusing. From here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Matt_Mason

Not as funny, but an interesting bit from the same page:

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Tough question. I had a red bike that lasted me from 5 to 13. A set of blocks that my parents still have - it's been fun playing with them with my own son. A Monopoly game that's older than dirt. I think my Mom got it for her sixth birthday. It's the same one my son grew up with.

Model rockets and line control airplanes round out the list.

But those were all store-bought. I think the most fun I had as a kid was the product of whatever I and my friends could imagine between our left ears and our right ears, and how we went about putting all that imagineering into motion.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Mine: "Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that."

Heinlein's: "Staying young requires the unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods." "Freedom begins when you tell Ms. Grundy to go fly a kite."