The Thing You Wanted So Bad When You Were a Youngster

http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tnl/att...1&d=1342918944


Aside from the obvious (various video games systems and games), I would have done anything for a real stereo. Like, a legit piece of musical machinery with a turntable and pre-amp. Separate components. A working equalizer. I'd stare at pictures like the one above for hours. I'd draw pictures of mixers and turntables in my notebooks. To me, having one was a symbol of adulthood.

What about you guys? What was that thing you just had to have as a kid?

I wanted a real life Johnny Five. A Galapagos Turtle. A power wheel. To go to Disneyworld and/or nick studios (will never happen now). A scotty dog.

Toy grails were like Trypticon and Scorponok. There was just something so cool about those toys when I was 5

Kinda wanted the T-Rex and Bronto Dino-rider toys but I grew out of that.

Oh, I wanted a real ED-209 too. I'd watch his part of Robocop over and over again

I got Scorponok for my birthday at some point. I don't remember wanting Trypticon, so maybe that was after I stopped collecting. I had Fortress Maximus though! I wanted a Neo Geo. I finally got it in 1996, though it was the CD version at that point.

Scorponok is one of those weird made for TV moments in my life. My mom promised me one if I was really good for my booster shot. Well, they stuck me, and it hurt like hell and I freaked out and bent the needled and they ended up having to put me in one of those papoose strap down things.

Yeah. I didn't get that Scorponok.

EDIT: Googled it. It came out in 87. I'd been 4 or 5.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

I got Scorponok for my birthday at some point. I don't remember wanting Trypticon, so maybe that was after I stopped collecting. I had Fortress Maximus though! I wanted a Neo Geo. I finally got it in 1996, though it was the CD version at that point.

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I had a stupid red truck I just pretended was Optimus in non-transforming mode. Poverty, folks. Use your imagination!

I wasn't really poor, per se.

Edit: Btw., how did you feel when you finally got the Neo•Geo?

We didn't have much, but my parents were good about getting me that ONE THING at Christmas, even if it was the one and only present I got for 6 months. Or, if it was gaming related, I would buy it myself in adulthood.

*edit*

Actually, there was one thing I always wanted but never got as a kid, and that was a computer. My family couldn't afford one, and the pricing was so high that saving or getting the parents to combine birthday and Christmas presents was out of the question. They did eventually get me one when I was 15 or 16, which, in retrospect, was probably for the best. I'm not even sure what a kid me would have done with a computer pre-internet. I wouldn't even have been able to game since there weren't any stores that sold computer games in my town until around the time Windows 95 came out.

I really wanted a summer home in Maine. On my tenth birthday, my parents delivered.

I can can barely contain the "your mom" joke!

Your mom doex the can can. But that shoudnt surprise you. She does it all.

And by it, i am referring to hermaphrodites.

I dunno if I wanted anything REALLY badly. If I did, I would have eventually gotten it

http://www.kshs.org/cool3/graphics/ftballgameclose.jpg
http://www.powscience.com/store/stor...imemachine.jpg

What's the second thing?

A ball clock. The balls empty out once the arms are full, changing the readout.

I wanted a lot of toys. I could spam the thread all day long with that shit. The 80s was the period for awesome unattainable toys. MAXX and Omnibot robots. Ghost buster and GIJoe buildings. Robots, ninjas, dinosaurs, tank, jets, talking ponies, rock stars, you could have just about anything you wanted in toy form. Unless your dad was daddy war-bucks, there was no way you'd ever get all the awesome stuff there was to play with in the 80s.


I was always kind of pissed we never got Duck Tales toys. I always wanted a Gizmo Duck. Same with the toy Johnny Fives. I ended up making my own out of legos.

I also liked looking at the back of the box for my first gen genesis. It was fun to look at all the games and imagine what they might be about. The Sears catalog was also fun for looking at shit I'd probably not get.

I was pretty spoiled as a kid. I was an only child and my father's serious drug addiction problems didn't manifest until I was around 8 or 9 and ended by the time I was 11 or 12. My parents never had a lot of money, but they'd always buy my some cool stuff. I wasn't hard to please. The things that I wanted and didn't have, usually one of my friends had it, so I'd make use of their toys. One thing I REALLY wanted as a kid (teenager mostly) was a broadband internet connection. I spent years upon years trying to convince my parents to get DSL or cable but I just continued to get owned in Tactical Ops because of my high ping. I finally was able to get broadband in 2004 (or maybe 2005) when I moved in with a friend of mine and his dad finally caved in (his broadband quest was similar to mine).

A Turbo Duo. And I snatched up one of those midway through college about 1998-9.

Otherwise as a kid? A black Trans-Am like Knight Rider.

I really wanted the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier and the big robot that was always in the Sears Wishbook,

A Neo-Geo. I just KNEW there'd never be one under the Christmas tree though, given its $600 price tag and the carts typically going for $250-300. Not that I had even bothered to bring it up, because I imagined my parents gagging at these numbers. PS1 & Saturn did somewhat make up for not having the Neo-Geo.

A CDZ did come along in 1999, and an MVS 1-slot followed a couple years after that. AES is out of the question still, with games like Neo Turf Masters and Metal Slug having appreciated to ridiculous amounts ($1500+) when the MVS counterparts are barely $100.

http://www.collectiondx.com/gallery2.../megazord6.jpg

more than anything. I also wanted one of those motorized cars like the Barbie or Jeep one. But mostly the megazord.

I remember one christmas when I was like 4 or 5, I was upset because I got Megazord but without the white falcon part which I really wanted. I don't know if it was that exact model or what.

For my brother and I, one of the things we would look forward to was September(ish) when the Sears Christmas Catalog would be delivered. We'd spend hours...HOURS paging through the toy section just gazing in amazement at all of the wonderful contraptions within those pages. While we were relatively poor, our parents would always provide wonderful Christmases....the sacrifices they made were something I never came to appreciate until I was much older.

I recently found this site that has a lot of the old Christmas catalogs scanned. Those page layouts instantly brought on a nostalgia rush.

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Originally Posted by Brisco Bold

Edit: Btw., how did you feel when you finally got the Neo•Geo?

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Pretty awesome. I've had a Neo on and off ever since. It's probably my favorite system.

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Originally Posted by DirtySouth

I recently found this site that has a lot of the old Christmas catalogs scanned. Those page layouts instantly brought on a nostalgia rush.

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Amazing! Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Yoshi

Pretty awesome. I've had a Neo on and off ever since. It's probably my favorite system.

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It is hard to describe the feeling you get as an adult when you finally get one of those childhood grails.

Something that approaches 'wholeness' or the feeling you get when you complete a worthwhile task or job. IMO, most collecting comes from this part of the mind.

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Originally Posted by Satsuki

http://www.collectiondx.com/gallery2.../megazord6.jpg

more than anything. I also wanted one of those motorized cars like the Barbie or Jeep one. But mostly the megazord.

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I remember one year, a toy store in Tupelo had an imported fancy version of the megazord. They wanted something like $100 for it. I wanted that fucker pretty bad. But it was gone the next time I went and I've never seen one again. I never really liked the show but fuck if that thing wasn't rad looking.

I was a HUGE G.I. Joe fan. I wanted everything they offered. I did have a pretty awesome collection, including The General and that one vehicle that looked like the JAWA vehicle from Star Wars, but I never got this. SO BADASS!

http://www.x-entertainment.com/artic...k/ussflagg.jpg

When I was in second grade I made friends with Ethan Cain (completely forgot about him till I saw your pic). He was a rich kid and had EVERY G I Joe and Transformer, including the aircraft carrier. I couldn't wait for the days he would invite me over to play. But as usual with spoiled rich kids, all his stuff meant very little to him and he always wanted to ride bikes or play kickball.
BUT THAT'S THE SHIT I DO WHEN I'M NOT INVITED OVER YOU ASSHOLE! LET ME PLAY WITH THEM TOYS!

I had that JAWA vehicle too. It just disappeared one day. I have a feeling my dad tripped over it in the garage and threw it away in anger / hide breaking it. He's never owed up to it.

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Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

BUT THAT'S THE SHIT I DO WHEN I'M NOT INVITED OVER YOU ASSHOLE! LET ME PLAY WITH THEM TOYS!

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This reminds me. Did any of you have the "stupid" friend that really had no idea how to play with other people's stuff? I mean, like the guy would be 11 and he'd still bang toys together and want to blow your toys up with fireworks?

I had like 3 friends like that growing up. One of them split my metroplex in half at the waste. I think I eventually had to stop letting him into the apartment because he "just couldn't have nice things." The other one was a stupid demoniod that liked to bust bricks with hammers and put kittens in bags and lower them into a pond. Lord, what a fucked up child. Little shit was stupid too. He hit a plastic bottle with the cap on with a hammer, and it through the thing back into his head.


Oh, and the lying kid. I remember this one kid, Stephen something, who claimed to have everything. He had every game console and every game. He had all the transformers and gobots and dinoriders. Oh and lake by his house with sea turtles (in north Mississippi). We called him on his bluff one day and said we were coming over. Oh, amazingly enough his mom gave all his toys away and they got rid of the sea turtles because they were tired of them....

Was it a three-level beige thing that folded out?
My mom picked it up from a yard sale one weekend.
I'm not sure what became of it, but I put my war toys through hell.
Some of my stuff had actual bullet holes from my dad's .22.

Mine was a dark tan and it folded out into like three steps/floors

I bet those large sets floated around to a lot of garage sales. Parents hate them, they took up a lot of space.

You jerks made me skim yojoe.com. Reminded myself of some things I forgot I had. I always liked setting up my own bases more than using their stuff, but my grandma did get me the Mobile Tactical Transport one christmas. I always picked up multiple pac rats and shit like that to bolster the natural defenses created by couch cushions and camo painted shoe boxes.
Looks like I got out of it in 1989. The last vehicles I recall getting were the Mudfighter and Darklon's Evader. I would have been 13, so that sounds right. Games were all I wanted after that point.

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Originally Posted by kedawa

Was it a three-level beige thing that folded out?.

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Yep. Almost looked like a big tackle box/tool kit when folded out. I would set up epic battles in the basement between cobra and g.i. joe forces. I was such a nerd, but I had so much fun.

Also, SSJN, I feel you. My cousin's family in NYC is unbelieveably loaded and he had everything as well, including the aircraft carrier. He would also complain about not wanting to go to Switzerland for summer camp (which he did almost every year).

I don't remember anything that could fit this thread. Either I got much of what I wanted (plausible), or I killed most of my childhood memories with beer (also plausible).

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

IMO, most collecting comes from this part of the mind.

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Chasing the first high IMO.

Well, that does sound kind of lame. I don't know if I'd want to be in cabins in the woods with a bunch of Augustus gloops

I had a lot of stuff as a kid but it was always on my dad's terms. I rarely got full retail toys. He'd take me to a Sears Surplus store in memphis for most of it. Sears would always clear a lot of shit out at 1/3-1/4 retail because their inventory system sucked in the 80s and they would over stock for the christmas season. I think I got my first Gen there for 50-80 bucks.

One of the coolest things he did was buy me and my little sister our own school bus at an auction for $100-200. He pulled all the seats out of it and set up some tables for us to use.

Looking back, its actually kind of amazing how much he did for the three of us without spending a whole lot more than other parents.

I was a big GI Joe fan as a kid and didn't get the USS FLAGG. My friend had it though and I got to play with it whenever. I was pretty awesome. Thing was 7ft long!

My favorite Cobra set that I did have was the Terrordrome. Just look at it!

Attachment 66443

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Originally Posted by Diff-chan

Chasing the first high IMO.

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Possible. But you could say that for most of what people do. You feel good, you do more of it. You feel bad, you try to avoid it.

But I've actually experienced the opposite, personally. I stopped buying toys almost completely after getting Scorp and Trypt. I've moved almost entirely to radios, guitars, and antique vehicles. It doesn't hurt that toys are stupid expensive now and a horrible investment. There is no reason to run out and buy a new toy at full retail. Its not going to go away. There are thousands of collectors. There will always be one out there to get if you want it.

Its kind of like collecting games. It is stupid to be a completionist now. You could ebay every single game you have and there is a good chance that you will be able to rebuy them later at the same price or lower, with few exceptions. And if you've already had the game a few years, you already know which games in your collection are going to go up in value.


An aside. People tend to collect their youth. Which usually translates into collectables having a life cycle of 60 years. People hit 30 and 40 and prices sky rocket because the kid's are (hopefully) moving out and people have the maximum income to spend on things they could not afford in their own childhood. Then when they hit 60 and 70, prices plummet because collectors start to die off and their children give their stuff away to a thrift stores or sell them at an estate sale. There are a few exceptions like historical items or brands that constantly rejuvenate. Transformers, for example, will be worth something so long as new shows and new toys are released to bring in new collectors.

I always thought the terrordrome was gay as hell, but again I liked designing my own bases. My playing with gi joe was all about setting up a battlefield. Like what those fags do with their civil war figurines. I never grabbed two figures and pew pew pewed at each other. Cobra was at one end of the room and Joe was at the other. Sneaky fucks like Firefly would be halfway through the joes defenses, making his way through the landmines that Tripwire had strewn along the front line. The fun was in setting up the battle. I always felt gay trying to act a battle out.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

I remember one year, a toy store in Tupelo had an imported fancy version of the megazord. They wanted something like $100 for it. I wanted that fucker pretty bad. But it was gone the next time I went and I've never seen one again. I never really liked the show but fuck if that thing wasn't rad looking.

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I'm actually really surprised that I haven't found the majority of the pieces at thrift stores - I have only found the t-rex dude and he was broken. Outside of lego sets (which i also really dug when I was younger) most of the "MUST HAVE TOYS" of my childhood are pretty much just chilling on the shelves, I mean not in great condition or anything, but that doesn't bother me. I find tons and tons of TMNT figures from the 80s, old barbie dream homes, etc. etc....but never the megazord. damn that guy.

I actually knew a kid that had that GI Joe aircraft carrier when I was in grammar school. That thing took up about a third of his parents' living room.

This was my holy grail when I was a kid:

Attachment 66445

Sadly, the damn thing was recalled because of lead paint before I had a chance to collect all the lions, so I had to be content with a Voltron that had one arm and one leg. I think I made Lego lions to fill in the blanks.

I also really wanted one of those badass yellow sports Walkmans in the late 80s and finally got one for my birthday. Riding my bike in the neighborhood became doubly awesome when Iron Maiden was added to the equation.

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Originally Posted by No One

I actually knew a kid that had that GI Joe aircraft carrier when I was in grammar school. That thing took up about a third of his parents' living room.

This was my holy grail when I was a kid:

Attachment 66445

Sadly, the damn thing was recalled because of lead paint before I had a chance to collect all the lions, so I had to be content with a Voltron that had one arm and one leg. I think I made Lego lions to fill in the blanks.

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I could have helped you out with this. I was trying to make one from buying random lots on ebay last year. I had some extra limbs but sold them on tfw2005

One year I thought my parents got me an N64 and it turned out to be a printer.

I was pretty fucking bummed

Sorry, but that's pretty funny.

The printer sounds more fun.

Fuck yeah, it was YEARS before I had a proper Voltron. I had a random lion here and there, and my mom got that big plastic one that you could stick the action figures in, but it wasn't the real, metal lion Voltron.

I've still got the metal one, but it's in piss poor condition.

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Originally Posted by Some Stupid Japanese Name

I always thought the terrordrome was gay as hell, but again I liked designing my own bases. My playing with gi joe was all about setting up a battlefield. Like what those fags do with their civil war figurines. I never grabbed two figures and pew pew pewed at each other. Cobra was at one end of the room and Joe was at the other. Sneaky fucks like Firefly would be halfway through the joes defenses, making his way through the landmines that Tripwire had strewn along the front line. The fun was in setting up the battle. I always felt gay trying to act a battle out.

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I did the same thing, but acting out the battle scenes was the best part! That's how I perfected my sound effects (thank you Michael Winslow).

Also, when I got older, I would get red marker and bloody up my figures to make the battles even more realistic. I changed up who would survive and who would die. When the rubber band in the torso of a character would wear out (or corrode due to playing in the jacuzzi my parents had), that person would suffer a terrible end a la Bishop from Aliens (yes, I was 6 when I first saw it).

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Originally Posted by GohanX

Fuck yeah, it was YEARS before I had a proper Voltron. I had a random lion here and there, and my mom got that big plastic one that you could stick the action figures in, but it wasn't the real, metal lion Voltron.

I've still got the metal one, but it's in piss poor condition.

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my mom found a whole set of the big plastic ones, new in teh box for me at a flea market 5 years after they stopped selling the toys in stores. It was pretty fucking awesome.

Yeah, the metal one is more pleasing to hold and look at. But fuck, when she showed me that full set, I was like "O M G"

I broke mine :(

the big plastic one goes pretty cheap on ebay. Everyone wants the metal bandai one

Link? My search-fu is weak. All I see are the green and yellow lions, CIB for $$$$$.

If you want a whole bot
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-World-E...item4605e7fb0a
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pano...item564b754277
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-80s-...item19d34ead86

If you just need parts to fix yours
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage1984-...item41685ad639
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-World-E...item257373641d
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Voltron...item1c29581ea6
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Voltron...item1c295823b5
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Voltron...item1c29582c18
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1984-Voltron...item1c295832e6

Thanks, I must not have been using the correct search terms, and simply typing "Voltron" yielded too many results.

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Originally Posted by Type Ryan

Also, when I got older, I would get red marker and bloody up my figures to make the battles even more realistic. I changed up who would survive and who would die. When the rubber band in the torso of a character would wear out (or corrode due to playing in the jacuzzi my parents had), that person would suffer a terrible end a la Bishop from Aliens (yes, I was 6 when I first saw it).

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A screwdriver would send those figures back into service! I would send the "dead" characters to Dr. Mindbender's lab and have him reanimate them with different body parts to attack the Joes. I had a tackle box filled with spare body parts, and my friends wondered what the hell I wanted with their broken figures until they saw what I was doing. Then EVERYONE wanted to make their own "zombie Joes."

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Originally Posted by GohanX

Thanks, I must not have been using the correct search terms, and simply typing "Voltron" yielded too many results.

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eh, the visual part of my brain is pretty powerful. All I did was type voltron into toys and scroll really fast.

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Originally Posted by Melf

A screwdriver would send those figures back into service! I would send the "dead" characters to Dr. Mindbender's lab and have him reanimate them with different body parts to attack the Joes. I had a tackle box filled with spare body parts, and my friends wondered what the hell I wanted with their broken figures until they saw what I was doing. Then EVERYONE wanted to make their own "zombie Joes."

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You can fix old Joes with a small black rubber gasket set from Lowes or Home Depo. Some walmart might have them too, in plumbing or automotive.

Looking back, the only thing that I coveted were go karts. I remember three friends in elementary school who had them; one raced them in a league, another had a two-person kart, and a third had a yard kart at his dad's house in Georgia; I would tag along every opportunity that I was afforded.

Oh man, Go Karts. One of my neighbors had one of those. We drove it all over the place and sometimes I'd ride around on the back. I stopped that after he hit a rock and it popped me up, and when I came back down my leg came down through the whole between the frame and engine. Got my leg dragged down a dirt hill.

Go Karts, Dune Buggies, 3-4 wheelers, and dirt bikes were the best. One cousin had a retro style dune buggy and he would take me ripping ass through old corn fields. And my dad would take me on Jeep/3wheeler/dirt bike rides through the country side and the woods. The best was probably creeping through the smokey mountains in the CJ.

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Originally Posted by Melf

A screwdriver would send those figures back into service! I would send the "dead" characters to Dr. Mindbender's lab and have him reanimate them with different body parts to attack the Joes. I had a tackle box filled with spare body parts, and my friends wondered what the hell I wanted with their broken figures until they saw what I was doing. Then EVERYONE wanted to make their own "zombie Joes."

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Reminds me: One time a friend and I were tossing my Joes around and one of them fell on my stone patio and broke. However, what broke was the pillar that's in the middle of the chest and it snapped so neatly that I could just put the figure back together and he looked and worked good as new. The neat part was that all I had to do was put a fingernail into the seam of the shoulder and the rubber band inside would make him explode into body parts, turning him into the default guy that was always shot because he could have Mortal Kombat deaths. I think it was Tele-Viper.

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Originally Posted by Melf

A screwdriver would send those figures back into service! I would send the "dead" characters to Dr. Mindbender's lab and have him reanimate them with different body parts to attack the Joes. I had a tackle box filled with spare body parts, and my friends wondered what the hell I wanted with their broken figures until they saw what I was doing. Then EVERYONE wanted to make their own "zombie Joes."

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HA! Awesome Melf! I did the same thing!

My mother's parents always had Service Merchandise catalogs in their house, and whenever I was over there for a visit, I would always find one to open up and look at the watches. No, I wouldn't open up to the back to get to the toys, I would open up to the front and skip past the jewelry to get to the watches.

I particularly wanted calculator watches. In the mid 1980s, this was the closest thing to having a computer with you at all times. I distinctly remember the Casio calculator watches as being something I'd want. I never got one then, and even if I did get one now, it probably wouldn't work for long.

Those are the only kind of watches I wear, when I wear a watch.

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Originally Posted by Type Ryan

I did the same thing, but acting out the battle scenes was the best part! That's how I perfected my sound effects (thank you Michael Winslow).

Also, when I got older, I would get red marker and bloody up my figures to make the battles even more realistic. I changed up who would survive and who would die. When the rubber band in the torso of a character would wear out (or corrode due to playing in the jacuzzi my parents had), that person would suffer a terrible end a la Bishop from Aliens (yes, I was 6 when I first saw it).

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I would spend days sometimes building up elaborate lego bases complete with entire star fleets to go along with them. I'd then spend about 45 minutes destroying said bases and starships in epic battle sequences and then start it all over again.

A friend of mine and I came up with this game called "Lego Black Market", where we'd build up bases and form alliances and fight wars and stuff. I don't know why we called it Lego Black Market, but we had a bunch of fun playing it.

The only toy I ever really wanted and was told flat out by my parents that it'll never happen was the USS FLAG. When I finally saw one in person as an adult I understood, that thing would have taken up more than half of the floor space in my room.

dog$, thanks for reminding me of something else I really wanted (I got one)

A thermometer/world time watch

I wanted label makers and label maker tape: the old ones that worked by pushing plungers into the thick plastic tape, warping it to take the shape of the letter. I had an obsession that bordered on fetishism. I still really like the way those raised letters feel.

yeah, thats kind of odd

There was never a question as to which 'tindo tapes were mine and which were my sister's. This I can assure you.

Well, at least you didn't write on the back with a sharpie.

I've never understood that about thrift finds. CDs, movies, games, written on with sharpie. Like, did that household have 3 copies of TMNT on dvd? Was there some confusion?

I think it has to do with lending out/showing off - kids will take weird things with them to school to trade/show off/etc - and the name on it prevents the bully from saying "oh no this game is mine, i don't see your name on it."

Yeah. Marking stuff with urine was more fun than it was effective.

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Originally Posted by Satsuki

I think it has to do with lending out/showing off - kids will take weird things with them to school to trade/show off/etc - and the name on it prevents the bully from saying "oh no this game is mine, i don't see your name on it."

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Our school dealt with that by banning all outside toys. They also wouldn't let us bring crayons and shit that didn't meet the class requirements list.

Something about it not being fair to other students.

(probably more like there was no way to make fatty jealous Pudgy Lumpkins pay for the shit he broke out of jealousy. No one can have nice things just to avoid dealing with Mr. and Ms. Lumpkins)

An NFL Starter Jacket. I ended up getting one way after they were popular and it was the Panthers :yuck:

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Originally Posted by Satsuki

I think it has to do with lending out/showing off - kids will take weird things with them to school to trade/show off/etc - and the name on it prevents the bully from saying "oh no this game is mine, i don't see your name on it."

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That's one nice bully. "Oh, you're name is on it. Nevermind. I'll leave you alone so you enjoy playing with your toy/game/etc."

Girl bullies say that, then convince all the other girls you're a slut and have ugly hair.

I know people who do it in case they get stolen. I had a couple come in and the woman told me how their son had a bunch of his gba games stolen and she put his initials on the back of the game. She pointed out five or six games in our case and wanted to see the back of them. There was the kids initials. She said she would like them back and though i didnt have to give them to her without a police report, i told her of course i would let her have them and its so pathetic that people have to steal things from kids and then she got into it and said loser this, piece of garbage that.
Meanwhile, i am looking at the guy the entire time and he refuses to look at me. Most likely because he was the guy i bought them from.
Sometimes i feel like i should have told her, but i like to think that experience taught him a lesson. In any case, she continued to shop with us, but he never came in.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

Girl bullies say that, then convince all the other girls you're a slut and have ugly hair.

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Very true.

Maybe the lady was in on it too and the guy was stupid enough to go in with her

Thats possible, but even though this was a few years ago, i had been doing it long enough to tell if someone was sincere or just putting on a show.

Wow. I would have ratted the guy out before giving the games back. Hopefully you didn't take too much of a hit on that.

I consider myself to have been pretty fortunate with toys as a kid. That said, there were a few things I never got for various reasons.

First off- MEGATRON. I mean, he was a robot that transformed into a giant realistic gun. I wasn't allowed to have guns at the time so I just had to stare at the amazing box. I got my revenge with Soundwave, who was pretty freaking cool too.

Another was Jabba the Hut. I had a pretty serious boner for that one, and just never got it. At some point I got some Star Wars shampoo in the shape of Jabba the Hut and held onto it for dear life. I had the Rancor though, which was one of the best toys I ever got.

Finally, SLIME. I was never allowed any of the myriad slime-related offerings in the 80s. In retrospect it makes perfect sense. What parent wants to buy their kids a bunch of eight or ten dollar toys only to watch them dip them in slime and ruin the carpet? The ultimate insult was when I had to buy the "Slime-Pit" for another kid's birthday. :(

I had maybe two or three cans of the ghostbusters slime growing up.

When we moved to the south after my dad finished medical school, one of the moving ladies knocked a can of it off on herself from the top part of the shelf my mom had it on to keep me from playing with it in the carpet.

My mom still remembers this because she's never seen a woman scream and run that fast to get out of a house.

Wat?
Did she think it was real ectoplasm?

Maybe. Or the spunk of satan

You saw ghostbusters 2. That shit is bad news

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Originally Posted by cigsthecat

First off- MEGATRON. I mean, he was a robot that transformed into a giant realistic gun. I wasn't allowed to have guns at the time so I just had to stare at the amazing box. I got my revenge with Soundwave, who was pretty freaking cool too.

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Megatron was a big one for me too, and then I finally got it, and it broke in like 3 minutes and obviously no one ever got me another.

I grew up fairly poor, but I had almost everything I wanted as a kid, because we went to the flea market every Sunday at like 6:00 AM, and back before used game stores fucked everything up, you could get games for like $1-$5 and lots of used toys and other shit cheap. I got a $2 a week allowance, and that meant I got a new game like every other week, pretty much. I was taught to be excited about getting a deal on stuff, too, so the hunt was part of the excitement.

Particularly with regard to games, too, I had a habit of picking the losing horse, too, which made it easy to find stuff for cheap. No one wanted Sega Master System or Atari Lynx games.

Yeah, flea markets were a part of my toy childhood too. An odd part, now that I look back on it. My dad would take me to this huge outdoor flea market called "first monday" that was filled with not only people hocking their old shit, but livestock and some exotic pets (for the late 80s), tools, government and military surplus, antiques, etc.

It was pretty awesome digging through boxes for transformers and other toys I'd never seen in stores, and then get one for a buck. Or getting an old genesis game for 5 bucks. One time there was an old man selling new in the box MASK cars for 5 a pop (maybe less). I got one of everyone he had. It was like Christmas.

Ebay's kind of ruined those kinds of outings. That and cheap import shit Last time I went 1/3 of the vendors were selling new cheap Chinese shit. Fake dragon swords and knives and that kind of garbage.

Anyway, I put together a whole devastator through flea markets.

I've really racked my brain about what I wanted badly as a kid. Computer, TV, and the hardcover color run of ElfQuest. All three I saved up to buy, but I ended up getting the ancient computer as a hand-me-down (no internet, but I could play Monopoly solo on it), the ElfQuest as a gift (when I asked my Mother how I would go about mail ordering something) and I bought the TV.

Truly though? When I was younger, I really wanted to move out so I could get away from my sister. I saved up all my allowances and gift money for years in preparation.

haha, that's so sad. Was it just normal kid stuff that you wanted to move away from or did she like, actively make your life a living hell?

The later. I'll pm you details and examples if you want. There's a reason why I no longer talk to her.

Did you live in a house with big trees in front? Did some of those trees have roots that came out of the ground and then went back in? Did your sister think it was great fun at your 9th birthday party to slam your head against said roots repeatedly and laugh and laugh as your friends watched you cry?
I don't speak to my older brother either. That was one of his more mild cases of "just fooling around". I've a few physical scars thanks to him. Numerous emotional ones.

It never dawned on me until right this second the reason I felt I identified with Andrew Wiggin so much when I was a kid reading those books.

I can't rep you again, SSJN.

Your brother sounds like my sister.

The bulk of her abuse was mental and verbal. Ever have someone refer to you as Worthless, Useless, and Retarded instead of your name for a year? Convince you that you are stupid, that you are pathetic and unwanted. Hold you down and bend your toes until they crack? Put you in a leg lock, suffocating you, over who controls the remote, for up to an hour? Digging her nails into my inside wrist, playing music? Pretending to be nice to get ammo to go tattle on you? Tell you the "truth" that your adopted and that's why no one loves you. Break open my first diary and reading outloud to her friends. The list goes on and on. She'd laugh the entire time. Her smile terrified me.

I really identified with the first Harry Potter book because no one even tried to stop her. No one noticed.

Jeez. I'm so sorry you guys, that's really awful. I don't blame you for wanting to move out, or never talking to them again. what a terrible childhood thing to happen :/

Lol, its ok. You gotta let that shit go or it will really fuck you up. I couldnt control what happened back then, but i do my best to not carry it with me anymore.
Another favorite thing of his was to throw a blanket over me, then wrap it up all tight so i was in a suffocatingly hot wool womb. A few minutes of that and youre sweating like mad and you cant breath. To this day i cant stand being entangled in sheets or blankets.

wtf

What did your parents do? These people sound like they needed to get their asses beat

Holy God, guys.

I'm sorry.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

wtf

What did your parents do? These people sound like they needed to get their asses beat

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I can't speak for them, but my parents never believed me when I told on my eldest sister.

She was a bit physical abusive but stopped that in her teen years. But her lasting bit of torment was exaggerating, lying and using information to get me in trouble or to get her way.

It was pretty common for me to get my ass ripped up because she would tell them an exaggeration of something I called her. Poopyhead would often become shitface. I'd tell them every time that she was lying as I got my spanking, but they never believed me. I was clearly lying to save my butt.

My siblings were thankfully very nice to me, and I think a lot of it was due to them knowing better than to fuck with me, because I had a hell of a temper.
I have twin cousins that used to gang up on me and rough me up. That all stopped when I stabbed one of them through the arm with a welding rod and choked the other one unconscious. I was about ten years old at the time, and they were a few years older, so I didn't get in any trouble, but my aunt grounded them for picking on me and told them it served them right. To this day, she's still one of my favourite relatives and I won't even talk to her kids.

http://www.retrogamerooms.com/images/Picture%20039.jpg
I still want one, actually. If I ever win the lottery, the first thing I buy is going to be the sitdown Ms Pacman arcade cab. I will eat breakfast at it every morning while I ponder the meaning of life and also how to spend my millions.

Srsly.

Pizza place near where I am with one.

I was obsessed with swords and keys and wanted them badly. Even before Zelda, which was an amazing experience. Freudian?