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| It was a different world back then |
Growing up in the 1960's wasn't that different then growing up in any other era.
Kid's rode their bikes, built tree houses, played with dolls and toy soldiers just like the kids for generations before us had done.
Probably the only major difference between my generation and the generations of children who came before and who came after was that in the 1960's our parents were actively trying to KILL us.
Oh not straight out mind you, and not in any way that would convince a court to convict, but that doesn't change that our parents were setting us all up for all sorts of mean nasty life threatening injuries, suffocation dangers and just plain threat of being shot down by the police.
Mattel Tommy Burst Machine Gun
The Mattel Tommy Burst Machine Gun was a over built toy gun that allowed a kid to load an entire roll of caps and fire them off all at once in a sudden burst of pretend gunfire. Every kid could be a G-Man or Gangster, while having every chance to scare the hell out of neighbors, relatives and jittery cops in a mad mood from dealing with the local anti-war protest.
Now personally my favorite toy gun ever, if only because of it's overwhelming versatility and "firepower" was the Johnny Seven O.M.A. gun that was seven guns in one...
Another great toy gun set was the Dick Tracy 38 Snub Noise Revolver, which a young Bill Mumy demonstrates on his dad.
By the way, wouldn't it be great if the Sunday funnies were still that large?
Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't just a case of guns that our parents were trying to wipe us out with. Probably the most dangerous toy of the entire 1960's was Mattel's Thing -Maker
With it's lovely combination of portable furnace, lead molds and molten plastic, the Thing-Maker is responsible for many lovely scars carried by more then a few people in their early 50's walking around today.
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| Jimmy owned a Thing-Maker as a kid |
And I haven't even begun to talk about Chemistry Sets yet.
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| Death: Thy Name is Science |
It's a wonder that any of us made it out of childhood alive.
The worst thing about the goddamn Thing-Maker was that, after burning yourself however many times and getting that bottled goo all over the kitchen table, the blasted machine never really WORKED. I think my success rate at completed Things was something like 1 out of fifteen. We especially sucked at getting the tab-and-slot bits to come out for composite, multiple-mold Things.
ReplyDelete...yeah, still a little bitter, I guess.
Great toys!!! Few of the things I could make with the chemistry set could explode, but a few would burn and make pestilential smoke.
ReplyDeleteAs for toy guns, aaaaah... Those were the days.