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Generation X Discussion (Born 19651979) - We actually played with toys!
- Thread starter DarkJediKnight
- Start date
Oh god, Consumers Distrubiting. I remember pouring over the catalogue. Fuzzy, do you remember Bargain Harold's and Biway? Probably a good portion of my clothes as a kid came from one or the other.
My brother had the Castle Greyskull which was super clue. He'd play with the He-Man figures and I'd bring She-Ra.
My Little Pony was more my thing. I had a ton of those. Probably my prize possession was a hand me down 3 floor Barbie house that was taller than me and had an elevator.
Xyrmellon
Member
I had this, and it was indeed awesome.
Funny (at least to me) story time. In July 1989 my family and my grandmother went to Portugal for a month. My father bought an 8mm camcorder earlier that year for that trip and recorded A LOT of footage during that vacation. One of the videos is my grandmother talking on the phone with my uncle here in Toronto on a pretty bad connection so she's talking kinda loud. The part that always cracked me me up is when she repeated the news that my cousin got a summer job at Bargain Harold's and how funny it sounded with her accent. When we got home my brothers and I all called my cousin Bargain Harold for a VERY long time. :lol
SonicMegaDrive
Member
I still have many of my old Transformers and GoBots.
You got Rocklords?
Smiles and Cries
Member
If you're on the later end of Gen X, you know this was the holy grail of toys.
man I wanted one of these and could not even afford one of the planes
1973 representing
SonicMegaDrive
Member
A long time ago. I had most of those old toys. Sadly, I was terrible at keeping my room clean as a kid and my father would routinely throw my toys in the trash whenever they were left out. For over a decade the only Ghostbusters toy I still had was the Firehouse. Probably because that was the only one that cost a hundred bucks! That's probably also the reason my Transformers were spared a surprise visit from the trash collector. Even back then those things were expensive.
I loved Childrens Palace. We had a huge one near Houston that I would wander around for hours in. It was about 3 times bigger than the local TRU
cj_iwakura
Member
'81 here, way more Gen X relatable. I saw the golden age of arcades.
Stalactite
Member
I still have a bunch of my old Transformers, half a dozen He-Man figures, and some other 80's gems in storage, like Madballs.
Hate to be "that guy" but ^ that is the Classics version of the Castle, released a few years ago on a now dead Mattel owned website.
The original version is more of a rectangluar mint green blob, with jawbridge and badly airbrushed black paint over the eyes and nose of the skull.
It was, for the microphone alone.
I remember my Castle Grayskull being dope AF:
Hate to be "that guy" but ^ that is the Classics version of the Castle, released a few years ago on a now dead Mattel owned website.
The original version is more of a rectangluar mint green blob, with jawbridge and badly airbrushed black paint over the eyes and nose of the skull.
It was, for the microphone alone.
I thought gen y were millenials and z was the generation after that
I was besotted with this.
damn what a flashback!
spent dozens of hours with that set.
acheron_xl
Member
He-Man sucked. Transformers and GI-Joe were where it was at.
fluffydelusions
Member
1979 here. I'm in there boys!
One Eyed Willy
Member
fluffydelusions
Member
cr0w
Old Member
oh my god SOMEONE ELSE REMEMBERS CHILDREN'S PALACE
A toy store filled from top to bottom with every toy imaginable that was also a FUCKING CASTLE.
I loved that place.
Remember candy cigarettes? I felt cool as hell being able to ride my bike down to the corner store and walk out with a can of Bubble Yum soda and a packet of candy cigarettes.
Oh, and I was born in 1980.
acheron_xl
Member
I thought that haircut made him look lame. But then I've always veered hard toward sci-fi on the sci-fi/fantasy continuum, and robots and laser guns fit in there nicely.
Orko was ok though.
That was a magical, magical time. Saturday night, a roll of quarters.. man..
*tears*
This thread doesn't have enough Radio Shack references. Disappoint.
Got this for Christmas when I was a kid. 1974 here.
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Well indeed. I am the same age as you and remember neither of those things. My mom's secretary had a typewriter for envelopes.
1980. Generation It Varies Depending On Who's Drawing The Line.
Ok, Saturday morning cartoon were goddamn awesome, even if they were toy commercials.
But almost better than that were the cereal commercials! Which sometimes had storylines and you had to go SAVE CAPTAIN CRUNCH WE NEED TO BUY CAPTAIN CRUNCH MOM THE SOGGIES HAVE HIM. Good times.
I pointedly will not think about how many of my memories of my childhood are essentially marketing campaigns.
Ok, Saturday morning cartoon were goddamn awesome, even if they were toy commercials.
But almost better than that were the cereal commercials! Which sometimes had storylines and you had to go SAVE CAPTAIN CRUNCH WE NEED TO BUY CAPTAIN CRUNCH MOM THE SOGGIES HAVE HIM. Good times.
I pointedly will not think about how many of my memories of my childhood are essentially marketing campaigns.
chromatic9
Member
Perhaps more for us European heads
Ulysees 31
Mysterious Cities of Gold
Ulysees 31
Mysterious Cities of Gold
It was the future when I got that for Christmas. Fully 360 degree rotating arm, articulating shoulder, elbow and wrist, 360 degree wrist rotation and open/closing the pincers. All mechanical. Noisy as hell though.
^ lol literally went down an 80s theme tune rabbit hole on youtube yesterday. Did they ever find the cities of gold?
acheron_xl
Member
This was my most prized toy ever.
It really bugs me that the colors in the chest emblem doesn't match the colors of the different limbs.
DarkJediKnight
Member
not my pic, but also had all of these ...
born '75
I remember the lunar monorail in the Lego catalog! I wanted it so bad.
s_mirage
Member
Perhaps more for us European heads
Ulysees 31
Mysterious Cities of Gold
I remember watching and liking these as a kid, but I'll be damned if I can remember much about them. To be fair, I would have been about 4 - 6 when they were on the BBC.
PastorOfMuppets
Banned
The dividing line isn't simply being alive for events or using certain technologies. The guideline is that if you understand the significance of certain generation defining events at the time they happened you are a part of that generation.
Generally speaking the biggest difference between Gen-X and Millennials is that Gen-Xers were the last generation to understand the significance of the Cold War. Most older Millennials - 85-ish babies and maybe Younger GenXers (81-82) were too young to understand the significance of of things like the Berlin Wall coming down or Tiananmen Square or the collapse of the Soviet Union at the time they happened even if we were alive to see it happen live.
For me Gen X is defined by the following events:
The Collapse of the Soviet Union and communism
The early 90s recession
The Golden Age of Hip Hop
The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock, Kurt Cobain's suicide.
The beginnings of the digital age.
The Clinton Years
Most GenXers were around and had an understanding of the significance of all those things as they happened.
For Millennials, even those of us who were alive were too young to understand many of those things at the time they happened. I remember - vaguely, watching live news footage of the Soviet Union becoming Russia again, but I was five at the time. I had no idea what actually happened. Our thing is:
9/11
Late 2000s Recession
The Maturing of the Internet
Generally speaking the biggest difference between Gen-X and Millennials is that Gen-Xers were the last generation to understand the significance of the Cold War. Most older Millennials - 85-ish babies and maybe Younger GenXers (81-82) were too young to understand the significance of of things like the Berlin Wall coming down or Tiananmen Square or the collapse of the Soviet Union at the time they happened even if we were alive to see it happen live.
For me Gen X is defined by the following events:
The Collapse of the Soviet Union and communism
The early 90s recession
The Golden Age of Hip Hop
The Rise and Fall of Alternative Rock, Kurt Cobain's suicide.
The beginnings of the digital age.
The Clinton Years
Most GenXers were around and had an understanding of the significance of all those things as they happened.
For Millennials, even those of us who were alive were too young to understand many of those things at the time they happened. I remember - vaguely, watching live news footage of the Soviet Union becoming Russia again, but I was five at the time. I had no idea what actually happened. Our thing is:
9/11
Late 2000s Recession
The Maturing of the Internet
Temeculan3000
Member
I had the one in the middle
Also had this, but left it out in the street one day and a car ran over him decapitating him. Years later I learned of its worth
Also had this, but left it out in the street one day and a car ran over him decapitating him. Years later I learned of its worth
70's Gen X checking in. I spent my childhood playing with stuff like Lincoln Logs, GI Joe, Micro Machines, LEGO, and the Atari 2600. I was also an avid sports card collector. Oh, and eating candy cigarettes. I think you can still buy these things, but they aren't just sitting on store shelves in the candy aisle these days.
Perhaps more for us European heads
Ulysees 31
Mysterious Cities of Gold
I definitely remember Mysterious Cities of Gold since my brother is named Esteban, and we constantly called him the "Son of the Sun."
As for Ulysses 31, I remember watching it in Spanish in El Salvador when we went there a couple of times for summer vacation. I didn't quite catch everything as my Spanish is limited, but I remember liking it.
Definitely. And I couldn't care less about the G.I. Joe characters, but the vehicles were radical. I still am sore that I never was able to get a Soundwave toy. It was sold out every single damn time that my parents took me to the store to buy one. My mom finally got fed up, and demanded that I pick something, and in a panic I picked Dirge.
I never was happy with that choice.
Just_myles
Member
If you're on the later end of Gen X, you know this was the holy grail of toys.
I was born in 81 but I know G.I. Joe when I see it. I would have been your friend for sure.
Temeculan3000
Member
You had to remove it or at least spray paint it.
Hades Hotgun
Banned
Dumbed down cartoons?
What cartoons are we talking about here? Because the realest cartoons in history were 90's Saturday morning shows.
X-Men and Exo-Squad would have been under investigation by the Reagan administration.
If you're on the later end of Gen X, you know this was the holy grail of toys.
Good fucking Lord, to be the rich kid that actually had this.
Darth Pinche
Member
This thread doesn't have enough Radio Shack references. Disappoint.
Born early 70's here. I had and loved this thing! To really appreciate it, you have to know it was entirely MECHANICAL. It had only one motor that would chug along and as you moved the joysticks, different gears and transmissions would engage and move the arm or claw in different directions. It was very complex (and slow moving) but amazing. I am sure a modern equivalent would just have separate motors or servos at each joint.
Edit : found a cool video showing the workings : https://youtu.be/zCiyR8s1vCo?t=84
I had this!
This castle/fort/whatever got knocked down and rebuilt so many times!
I was one of those Lord Business types who only built Legos to the specifications in the box, and then left them that way forever...
But this castle was too big to store... And my jerk little brother liked to smash it to pieces....
shawnbuddy
Member
I'm sorry, but the original Jetfire was the ultimate toy.
What's this about Millennials not playing with toys? They didn't do butt stuff with them, did they? Seems like everything with Millennials is butt stuff.
What's this about Millennials not playing with toys? They didn't do butt stuff with them, did they? Seems like everything with Millennials is butt stuff.
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