Reader Top Ten Greatest Toys of Childhood: Nowhere

A regular reader who goes by the handle “Nowhere” provides us our first reader top ten toys of childhood for this Friday (the 13^th!)

Nowhere writes:

1: LEGO - My number one choice and very non-specific. It's the one toy that stayed with me all my childhood and changed with my interests over the years to become just about anything I wanted it to be. LEGO was very basic with relatively few specialized parts when I got my first set (the early, clunky, all-blue Lunar Lander set) but even before the more sophisticated parts started showing up by the 80's we managed to make an amazing amount of things out of those blocks.

2: Dinky - Just Dinky in general as they made an amazing array of great toys. Well built, fairly accurate, they all did something (eg. fire missiles, drop bombs with caps in them, motorized propellers, functional swing-wings and retractable landing gear etc.) Being an aircraft nut I had many planes and helicopters but also had the blue Space 1999 Eagle Transporter and the Starship Enterprise. Always wanted the Klingon D-9 Battlecruiser too but never got one.

3: Corgi -  See Dinky. One that I owned was the Spy Who Loved me submarine Lotus Esprit but I coveted my neighbor's 007 Aston Martin DB-7.

4: Matchbox - I always preferred them over Hot Wheels as they included cars that were fairly unknown in North America as well as a range of aircraft and ships. They played well with Hot Wheels cars and accessories though! 

5: Estes model rockets. Especially once you got your hands on the D size motors! I used to put powdered water colour paint in the parachute compartment so that when the chute ejection charge fired there would be a cloud of red to make the high point easier to see.

6: Kenner large Star Wars vehicles - Already pointed out by others but worth another mention. These toys were really nice. Accurate and well made, all with some active feature. Only ever had Luke's landspeeder and the T-47 snowspeeder myself but a friend owned that awesome Millenium Falcon. The "hovering" feature of the landspeeder (accomplished by springs and tiny wheels) was surprisingly convincing.

7: Kenner small Star Wars vehicles - I still have most of a Millenium Falcon from this series. Die cast and plastic construction. The Y-Wing I had came with a droppable bomb and rotating turret, the X-Wing's foils worked. Much cheaper than the full scale ones so most kids I knew had many more of these little guys.

8: Skydiver action figure. I have not been able to find out who made this but it was a doll a little bit smaller than Barbie/Ken decked out in an Evel Knievelish-looking daredevil jumpsuit and equipped with a big nylon parachute. If you packed the chute up as per the instructions and threw it as high as possible the chute would open and it would descend gently to the ground every time.

9: The original big GI Joe.  I had one with the deep sea diver outfit and "Kung-Fu Grip!" One thing I liked about this era of Joe was that he was not given a particular character or story so you made up all your own when it was time to play. I was in Junior High by the time GI Joe was revived with the smaller figures and the TV show.

10: The little 60mm telescope my Dad owned but seldom used after we moved away from the seaside when I was five. it let me see the Sea Of Tranquility, the phases of Venus, the rings of Saturn, the moons of Jupiter and more despite the shaky tripod.”

Nowhere: I also had a lot of Dinky and Corgi toys as a kid…and I loved them too.  I also like that you included the little Star Wars ships from metal.  I had the small, Die-cast Star Destroyer, and I remember that the under-side docking bay door could slide open.  Inside was a tiny – and I mean tiny -- Blockade Runner.  I loved that toy (and wish I still owned it...).