The 5 Best Toys of All Time

[HuckleB]

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/all/1

"1. Stick

What’s brown and sticky? A Stick.

This versatile toy is a real classic — chances are your great-great-grandparents played with one, and your kids have probably discovered it for themselves as well. It’s a required ingredient for Stickball, of course, but it’s so much more. Stick works really well as a poker, digger and reach-extender. It can also be combined with many other toys (both from this list and otherwise) to perform even more functions.

Stick comes in an almost bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, but you can amass a whole collection without too much of an investment. You may want to avoid the smallest sizes — I’ve found that they break easily and are impossible to repair. Talk about planned obsolescence. But at least the classic wooden version is biodegradable so you don’t have to feel so bad about pitching them into your yard waste or just using them for kindling. Larger, multi-tipped Sticks are particularly useful as snowman arms. (Note: requires Snow, which is not included and may not be available in Florida.)

..."


------------------------------------


The other four are almost as awesome!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :applause: :applause:

[uppityperson]

1. We had many varieties of all these around when raising my child and as a child.

They are all very good toys.

[closeupready]

2. Rubik's Cube was the greatest toy of all time.

Bar none.

[HuckleB]

6. It's not even in the top ten.

You have these five, and then bicycles, balls, fallen leaves, crab apples, rocks, and so much more.

[immoderate]

30. Matches!

You can make little rockets from matches and foil.

Pliers can also be used in many ways!


--imm

[HuckleB]

31. +1

[KittyWampus]

79. I'd put in corkscrew along with pliers. I can STILL play with corkscrews for a good 5 minutes.

[immoderate]

87. That kind of corkscrew evokes puppetry.

Calisthenics, swimming, and some Exorcist inspired head spinning comes to mind.

--imm

[brooklynite]

8. But what do you do with it once you solve it?

[closeupready]

20. Give it to your older brother.

:evilgrin:

[frazzled]

3. They forgot wooden spoon

banged on pot.

Best baby toy ever. Because it's a toy that lets mom or dad cook dinner while junior plays on the kitchen floor.

Box and tubes work for somewhat older kids. String you have to be at least six to do anything interesting with it.

They forgot paper and pencil or crayon, though.

[HuckleB]

7. That can be considered a stick.

[mcar]

78. The pots and pans themselves were popular for my kids

I kept em in a low cabinet and the toddlers would take them out and put them back in all day long. In between banging with wooden spoons, of course.

[Whisp]

4. you sit in the yard with a fuckin stick and you dig a fuckin hole.

george carlin, bless ya.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sISBcItCBM

[Faygo Kid]

5. My dinosaurs, Tonka trucks, cowboys, wiffle ball, and my baseball glove.

I guess my toy guns would have to be included, too. Hey, it was the '50s.

Also my bicycle. Definitely have to put that one in there. Frisbees, too. And Slinky.

[HuckleB]

10. Those are all good toys.

But none of them are as versatile as those in the top 5 in the OP.

:hi:

[malthaussen]

9. Best toy ever: Imagination

it works great in other things, too, like sex.

-- Mal

[rocktivity]

27. Well, duh

Stick plus Dirt plus Tube plus String plus Box MINUS Imagination equals ZERO.

:headbang:
rocktivity

[gratuitous]

11. Number 1 with a bullet (so to speak)

Lawn darts. Now outlawed. Damn nanny state.

[HuckleB]

21. Those were fun.

But they lack the versatility of the toys on the list from Wired.

:hi:

[gratuitous]

32. You want versatility?

Jarts could be used for the originally-intended game. They made near-lethal (and sometimes even better!) projectiles for games of War, Alien Invasion, Pesky Kid Brother, Pesky Neighbor Kid, Pesky Random Passerby, and many, many more. Ancillary games arising out of the former ones included Stanching the Blood Flow, Tourniquet, Screaming Mother, Fainting Neighbor Lady, and of course the Ambulance Ride Against Death. I'll admit that Police Interrogation was less fun, but no less versatile from this all-time GREAT toy!

[HuckleB]

34. That's all mostly a lot of names for the same utility.

Besides, one can carve a tip on a stick and play Jarts with that.

[RobinA]

72. Rocks

can do all those Jart things, PLUS make huge splashes when thrown in the creek, resulting in Douse the Youngest Kid, Who Can Make the Biggest Splash, Make the Dog Bark Maniacally, Piss Off the Girly Girls. Plus, their numbers are unlimited and always available. Try finding a Jart when the big kid is saying mean things. Plus, no one can ban rocks. They might try, but they will fail.

[bvar22]

69. Sticks were the prototype for Lawn Darts.

Ever throw a stick?
Who never played Javelin or Spears or Harpoon with sticks? :shrug:

Lawn Darts is just a Commercialization of Sticks.

[gratuitous]

84. Aerodynamics, my friend

Even the straightest stick can be unpredictable. Jarts had large plastic fins that guided it straight and true toward one's intended target. Breezy days could play havoc with Jarts, but the same held true for sticks. A big improvement, those fins. And steel tips.

[bvar22]

85. Sticks were STILL the prototype.

No matter how improved,
Lawn Darts are still just a Commercial For Profit Spin Off of the original.

[NRaleighLiberal]

12. I was thinking of this over the holiday. For me - a Chemistry Set,

Kenner's Girder and Panel Hydrodynamic plant kit, Tinker Toys, a kit where I could assemble all sorts of electrical experiments, and the 64 box of crayons were probably my favorite toys/presents through my childhood years (yes, I was a science geek!)

And I had very cool parents - esp my dad - who really keyed into my interests and encouraged me (yes, I became a chemist!)

[HuckleB]

29. +1

[NRaleighLiberal]

38. Anyone remember the Superball? The real, dangerous, hard as hell, one that you lost

nearly immediately because when you went outside to bounce it, it went so far and high that it just vanished into someone's yard, never to be seen again (or even better, hit one with a baseball bat)....

Now THAT would put your eye out, kid!

[w8liftinglady]

55. sometimes,we'd wrap ours in a sock...

it didn't bounce as high....but you wouldn't lose it on the first bounce(yes,I've done that)

[lpbk2713]

13. I loved it when we got a new appliance.

That meant I would have a big sturdy box to play in.

[HuckleB]

22. +1

[ProdigalJunkMail]

14. Stick and Dirt

Dirt : use it with Stick as a large-format ephemeral art form.... I LOVE THAT LINE!

sP

[csziggy]

47. Especially when you add water!

MUD - a new version of dirt! I remember spending a lot of time playing in and with mud, learning a lot about fluid dynamics and gravity. Of course, at four I made up my own names and didn't use the adult terms.

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. HEY!!! That's my favorite joke, except...

.
.
.
... to make it sublime, you have to add one word.
.
.
.
What's brown and all sticky?
.
.
.
Adults AND kids love that joke, but kids are apt to SHOUT (never just "say", but SHOUT) "POOP!!!!"
.
.
.
Then when their Mom or Dad reproaches them, they invariably point at YOU and say, "He/She MADE me say it!!!!"
.
.
.
Good times! Good times!
.
.
.

[SouthernLiberal]

16. My favorite as a kid was Box

Box could be anything. Also, sometimes other neat stuff came inside Box (sometimes, though, it was just underwear) I got a few new Boxes for Christmas nearly every year, and sometimes one for my birthday.

[HuckleB]

19. Yeah, BOX ROCKS!

Fire truck, bus, house, fort, race car, time travel machine. It can be almost anything!

[Ikonoklast]

76. Don't forget Transmogrifier!

http://www.lovine.com/hobbes/comics/transmogrifier.html

[HuckleB]

89. +1

[Motown_Johnny]

17. I would have ranked dirt much higher, no lower than #2.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. I love it. And so true.

[WinkyDink]

23. I'd put "ball" in the Top 5.

[HuckleB]

24. Indeed.

I'd move cardboard tubes down to number 6 and replace them with ball, myself.

[blogslut]

33. I would eject cardboard tube from the list entirely

"Rock(s)" belongs on that list.

[csziggy]

48. Cardboard tubes make great musical instruments

They left out that use. And when you hit your kid sister on the head with one it makes the most fantastic BONK.

I grew up in Florida - we didn't have a lot of rocks.

[HuckleB]

54. Absolutely!

Not only that. A little of that string, a couple pieces of that box, and a little glue, and one can make a guitar!

[csziggy]

60. I always thought of those as banjos!

[HuckleB]

62. Them's good, too!

:hi:

[treestar]

49. Precisely

Ball and stick are 1 and 2!

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

25. Nintendo® beats all five of those "toys".

Would you rather have "Stick" or "Game Console"?

While Atari came before Nintendo, the latter is what really sparked the fuel for gaming console generations to come.
While there are better gaming systems, Nintendo gets the gold due to it's influential patriarchal status.

The list should be full of things like "Bicycle, Video Game, Legos/Kinex/Erector, GI Joe & Barbie, BB Gun"

[HuckleB]

26. ROTFLMAO!

:rofl:

[uppityperson]

57. Stick. All Game Console is good for is a light anchor.

Let's do a trial, my stick against your game console. 2 rounds. Then let's see which is the better toy.

[dtexdem]

28. Lo-og, lo-og, it's big, it's heavy, it's good. Lo-og, lo-og, it's better than bad, it's good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7mNr5WMjA

And here I thought that the best toy of all time was pepper spray. ;-)

[AverageJoe90]

41. Ren & Stimpy FTW. xD

[TBF]

35. Love it! My 8yr old had all the requisite electronics listed on her

Christmas list this year - iPad, iPhone, Xbox, new computer, etc ... but this is a girl who never saw a big box she didn't like. She gets out her markers and turns them into cars, boats, airplanes, etc...

[white_wolf]

36. Sticks are fun.

When I was a kid I used to pretend I was a Jedi, and the stick lasted longer than the cheap plastic toy my parents bought me.

[HuckleB]

46. Ain't that the truth! -eom-

[pipi_k]

37. Paper cup. Mashed potato balls. Dirty socks....

Mom's giant lilac bush (it was a forest...a jungle...and with our kiddie chairs in the middle, an airplane)

Snow. We piled it up to a height of three feet and skied down "Mt Everest".

Such great memories... :7

[HuckleB]

45. Great list!

[pipi_k]

52. Thanks! I was thinking maybe people wouldn't quite "get"

the mashed potato balls, but I guess you do...

:7



PS...we tried tuna fish balls too, but the mayonnaise left oily stains on the wallpaper

[HuckleB]

53. Oh, we had plenty of unsupervised time when I was a kid.

Mashed potato balls were the least of it!

:hi:

[RobinA]

73. Snow

is a great toy, as well as a school-killer, but too many kids can't have it for it to be on the Top Five (or Top Ten) list.

[NNN0LHI]

39. My dad told me the first Frisbee he had was a cat that had been ran over and flattened by a truck

He said it flew real good too.

Don

[ThoughtCriminal]

40. Tinker Toys

It was one toy that could be used to make just about anything you could imagine (I was big on spaceships and ray guns).

[underpants]

42. Football, basketball, soccer ball, wiffle ax, swim trunks

this thread is OVER

[cherokeeprogressive]

43. Frisbee

It also made a great tray for cleaning seeds out of our smoke and rollin' spliffs back in the day.

[sarcasmo]

44. Rock M Sock M Robots.

[Scurrilous]

50. K & R

:thumbsup:

[msanthrope]

51. They forgot Happy Fun Ball. Just don't taunt it. nt

[Solly Mack]

56. I loved boxes. The bigger the better.

[HuckleB]

65. Absolutely! -eom-

[-..__...]

58. Bag 'o' glass...

greatest toy ever...

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/irwin-mainway/1185611

[BoWanZi]

59. Great list! In all seriousness, my favorite all time toy has to be Legos.

I LOVED Legos and still do to this day.

Nothing beats being creative with a tub of Legos on a rainy day.

[ZombieHorde]

61. PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, computers, and music players. nt

[HuckleB]

63. Huh? What?

Come on outside an play!

:hi:

[ZombieHorde]

64. I think that requires wearing pants where I live. nt

[watrwefitinfor]

66. Old corn cobs and cowpies.

Anybody else old and rural enough to have participated in a cowpie fight out in the pasture? (The corncobs were best left to the older kids, since they could hurt so bad.)

The cowpies, though, lent themselves to every battle game you can imagine, no matter your age or sex. Sometimes a spur of the moment lobbing one over at your little brother during a boring walk across the pasture to Aunt Nezzie's house. Sometimes target practice with visiting kids, snatching and lobbing the pies on the run, hoping it was a dry one, often stepping in one that was not.

Best of all was getting a whole bunch of cousins together at the family reunion, picking sides, setting up elaborate defense structures (a piece of old tin propped up with the ever popular stick was a good one), stockpiling masses of pies on each side, which involved hours of combing the pasture for just the right, perfectly dried ammunition. Then the rest of the afternoon spent hurling and ducking.

Some smart ass cousin would always find and lob over a pie that wasn't quite dry inside. Instead of shattering into dozens of small pieces when it hit it sort of clung to you.

Haven't thought of those games in years. Now I'm sitting here smelling the smell. Ah, sweet nostalgia

Wat

[HuckleB]

67. +1

[RobinA]

75. Never Did Cowpies

(no cows), but you're right about corn cobs hurting. We used frostbit tomatoes, which made a god awful mess but didn't stink. Normally they would explode when they hit something. So not only did you get hit by a tomato, but the mush would fly all over you. Also, they didn't hurt, they just made a huge mess.

[yesphan]

68. my first toy and still my favorite

is the dangly thing between my hips.

[RobinA]

70. Boxes

When I first saw this post I immediately thought "box," and was glad to see that was included. I have to add rocks, overripe fruit, matches and pen knife. With Stick and Pen Knife alone, weeks of fun can be had. Add matches, and the sky is the limit.

[bvar22]

71. Bye!!... Have Fun! .... Don't put anybody's eye out.

Don't cross the Railroad Tracks,
and be sure to Check In when the street lights turn on.

[TwilightGardener]

74. Having raised boys, would have to agree on the stick.

It took them several years into adolescence to grow out of the impulse to find the biggest sticks and menace each other with them. Having big gnarly bur oaks in the yard that dropped branches constantly made it easy. Myself, I preferred boxes. Appliance boxes, in particular. Ones that you could fit inside and roll down the hill in.

[librechik]

82. one of my grandsons had a thing for sticks like some kids have a thing for blankets

he had to be holding a stick of some sort or else he'd get agitated. One time the stick he was holding was a large heavy french whisk. He lost his temper (he was 2) and launched the thing at me and it flew 8 ft across the room, clocking me in the forehead. Quite an arm. He's grown up to be a great kid (18 now)dependable and not at all hostile.

[Sabriel]

77. My wrapping paper is missing all of the tubes

Apparently Tube is still a hot toy around here. I find shreds of Tube and Box once in a while.

[Sabriel]

80. These are all rather gender-oriented

I'd have to add Piece of Fabric (a.k.a. Blanket) to the list.

Blanket is useful for:
capes
forts
doll carriers
ghost costumes
robes of royalty
peekaboo
improvised leashes

The list goes on.

[uppityperson]

83. Piece of fabric indeed. Blanket, scarf, whichever. All are for both genders though

I agree, a piece of fabric of some sort should be on the list.

[librechik]

81. box expensive toy came in: Priceless

#1 on my kids' list, when they were under 5.

[HuckleB]

86. +1

[Arkansas Granny]

88. And every one of them kid tested!

Thanks for the laugh.

[gkhouston]

90. Picked my kid up from school yesterday, to find she'd been playing in dirt with a stick.

:rofl:

[T S Justly]

91. whammo, whammo, whammo, whammo and whammo...

Whatever happened to them? I heard there was a buy-out.

1) Silly Putty
2) Frisbee
3) boomerang
4) Superball
5) Creepy Crawler?

all Toxic (to produce) as a fofa, but I loved them. Yes, loved them. Simple, innovative
and fun.