Evel Knievel Toys For Sale

Since Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel's death in 2007, toys related to the one-time insurance salesman turned daredevil have become much more interesting to toy players and toy collectors. The Evel Knievel Signature Racing set available at Back to Basic Toys is very similar to the toy you may remember from the '70s. It includes Evel and Robbie Knievel action figures, chrome plated motorcycles, jump ramps, and two cycle launchers. Evel even comes with a cape and swagger stick. The set is individually numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Evel Knievel Signature Racing Set at Back to Basic Toys

Colorforms

The original Colorforms set from 1951 has been re-released for a new generation of sticker loving, vinyl applying kids.  In case you don't remember them, Colorforms are vinyl shapes that you use to make pictures by applying them on a special canvas or other surface (windows are common).  Kids who love stickers will enjoy them because they can be removed and reapplied repeatedly without damaging them (there's nothing sticky on them, they stay applied via static electricity... I think).  The kit comes with 350 shapes and a slick cardboard canvas.  It is also 40% off and is eligible for free super-saving shipping from Amazon.

I found this picture on Flickr to show you what can be done with a little imagination (that is a window not a canvas):

 

The Original Colorforms Setat Amazon.com

The Original Colorforms Set at ebay.com

MegoMuseum

I wasn't sure if this was a gag website at first or not, but it really is legit. The MegoMuseum is a website dedicated to the Mego series of products (mostly action figures). This includes some pretty obscure stuff including: action figures from the t.v. shows The Love Boat, Dallas, Happy Days, Space 1999, Starsky & Hutch, and Wonder Woman, as well as a few other more recognizable names: Star Trek, Muhammad Ali, and the Wizard of Oz. The depth of the collection is pretty complete, it even includes blank order forms from the '70s, trade ads and press archives, old catalogs, even some Mego knock-offs. There doesn't appear to be anything commercial about the site, it is more of an homage to Mego products. It's worth a look just to verify that they really did make action figures based on the Love Boat characters.

MegoMuseum

It's a what?

via amazon toy blog

Good chemistry sets are still out there

You may have noticed that I have an attraction to science toys. During my research I have come across several articles, blog entries, and rants about the decline in chemistry sets over the last generation from borderline dangerous home chemistry kits to ineffective, irrelevant, and overly safety-conscious home chemistry toys. Here is a smattering of the some of the more coherent examples:

"But say 'chemistry set' to a kid today and you're likely to get a blank stare or a snicker in response. While the sets still technically exist, they rarely contain any real 'chemicals,' thanks to safety and liability fears; they also characterize scientists as crazy and eccentric rather than respectable and intelligent. This may be fueling kids’ declining interest in science, as evidenced by the fact that the percentage of students pursuing college chemistry degrees today is down by two-thirds since the 1960s. Could the disappearance of the old chemistry sets be somewhat to blame? A lot of scientists say yes."

Via Wiredscience article "Dangerous Science"

"Home-based experimentation is essential to raising the next generation of science nerds. And to make the best nerds in the world, the home experimentation needs to be a wee bit dangerous."

Via the Openscience project

The lure of do-it-yourself chemistry has always been the most potent recruiting tool science has to offer. Many kids attracted by the promise of filling the garage with clouds of ammonium sulfide – the proverbial stink bomb – went on to brilliant careers in mathematics, biology, programming, and medicine.

After reading a book called The Boy Scientist at age 10, Vint Cerf – who became one of the architects of the Internet – spent months blowing up thermite volcanoes and launching backyard rockets. Growing up in Colorado, David Packard – the late cofounder of Hewlett-Packard – concocted new recipes for gunpowder. The neurologist Oliver Sacks writes about his adolescent love affair with “stinks and bangs” in Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood. “There’s no question that stinks and bangs and crystals and colors are what drew kids – particularly boys – to science," says Roald Hoffmann of Cornell University, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1981. "Now the potential for stinks and bangs has been legislated out."

Via Wired.com

The good news is there is at least one good chemistry set still available:

The CHEM C3000 Advanced Chemistry Experiment Kit

As you can see in the picture, it comes with a plenty of good quality equipment, a supply of chemicals, safety goggles, and a 178 page experiment manual. (one of the experiments helps you make a fire extinguisher, which might be helpful with some of the later experiments)

For anyone wanting a little more danger, and aren't afraid of a little copyright violation, follow the link at Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments from Make Magazine's blog

National Toy Hall of Fame Part 2

Kites have been around for at least 2500 years or so, usually for recreation but there have also been several military uses in the past, and even an aggressive kite activity called "kite fighting" in which the objective is to cut your opponent's kite string with your own. For an extensive history I suggest you look at this wikipedia article or Bob White's kite fan site.

Spying on your enemies and cutting your opponent's kite string using razor sharp wire aside, most people get and use kites for fun. Kite flying is an easy activity to get into, and there is plenty of room to improve on the basic kite when you are ready. I have purchased several kits from Into the Wind Kites in the past and recommend them highly. They have kites for the beginner up the expert, and prices that spread the whole range too. A good beginner kite for a younger kid is the mini-sled, which is inexpensive enough to include in a birthday party goody bag. A larger version of the mini-sled is the Konvertible Kite, which can be rolled up and put into a pocket or bag and used for those spontaneous kite flying sessions. Into the Wind also has a large selection of trick kites, as well as a brief how-to section.

The merchandise:

Go Fly A Kite 48" Jolly Roger Superflyer Kite at amazon.com
Go Fly A Kite Spongebob Nylon Diamond Kite at amazon.com

Kites at ebay.com

This is part of a series of posts on the National Toy Hall of Fame, see part 1 (marbles) also.

National Toy Hall of Fame - Part 1

In sleepy little Rochester New York there sits the Strong National Museum of Play. In a shadowy corner and up a spiral staircase of the museum hides the National Toy Hall of Fame. Here resides an area dedicated to thirty-eight toys that have been inducted based on their broad appeal and historical stamina. One of these toys is the subject of this profile:

Marbles have been around for a long time. By some authorities it was played in one form or another in the classical period by Eqyptians and Romans (the Romans called the game "nuts"), and continues to be played in various forms around the world. The most common in America is usually called Ringer, where a ring is drawn on the ground and the object is to use knock an opponent's marble out of the circle with one of your own marbles. Other marble games use small holes in the ground (divots in some games) and the objective is to shoot your marble into a specific hole, usually to move on to another hole to complete a circuit or course.

One the most interesting part of marbles is the jargon that accompanies it. There are dozens of names for different marbles, to name a few: Taw - the shooter marble, Aggie - an agate marble, or a glass one that looks like agate, Alley - marble made of marble!, Keepsies - playing for keeps, where you keep the marbles that you shoot out of the ring, Knuckling down - rule that a player must have at least one knuckle down on the ground when he shoots, Fudging - a foul when the player does not knuckledown.

If you think you are good enough, there is a National Marbles Tournament (more pictures here)and a British and World Marble Championship every year (March 21st this year - go mark your calendar).

A good website to check out for rules and variations is here.

There is even a PC game of marbles available!




Marbles at ebay.com

The "must have" toys of Christmas past

An amuzing article by James Grahame about some of the "must have" toys of the past.

"Atari Pong (1975): Atari’s home version of the early arcade hit Pong included
digital on-screen scoring, something the crude non-computerized Magnavox Odyssey (their stiffest competition) couldn’t offer. The scoring system was based on a
single chip, also something that no other manufacturer had managed up to that
point. They struggled to find a distributor until Sears & Roebuck took a
risk and purchased 150,000 units for the Christmas 1975 season. They sold out."

read the whole article: link (via http://www.ohgizmo.com/)

Outlook good for Magic 8 Ball

from Mattel Inc.

"Magic 8 Ball®, the prophetic oracular sphere from Mattel, is celebrating 60 years of predicting fortunes and providing answers to advice-seekers around the world. While the first iteration of the Magic 8 Ball®, sold commercially as the Syco-Seer and then the Syco-Slate, was cylindrical rather than spherical, the concept behind the toy has remained the same since 1946: advice-seekers find the answers to their future by asking the Magic 8 Ball® yes or no questions.

The Magic 8 Ball has remained popular year after year because it's many things at once – a conversation starter, a novelty item, a fortune teller. It can provide advice on everything from which route to take on a road trip to whether you should pursue your newest love interest," said Cynthia Neiman, vice president of marketing, Mattel Games. "While we can't guarantee the fortune-telling abilities of the Magic 8 Ball, we can guarantee that it will provide entertainment and fun for years to come.

Throughout the years, the Original Magic 8 Ball® has been a part of our popular culture. Famous advice seekers have included Bart Simpson, Woody from the movie Toy Story and Ross Geller, David Schwimmer's character in "Friends." From the book, "Inside the Magic 8 Ball® The Complete Users Guide, " author Miriam Zellnick wrote that President Eisenhower kept a Magic 8 Ball® on his desk, although it is unknown if he preferred the toy's paperweight-like qualities or fortune-telling abilities. "

If an 8 Ball was good enough for Ike, then it's good enough for me.

Mattel Magic 8 Ball

The most dangerous toys ever?

Radar magazine looks back at some of the most dangerous toys ever. I remember playing with the Creepy Crawlers, but I don't remember ever getting hurt doing it.

link

Vintage toy info

All this talk about toys has me wondering about my own lost toys of childhood (and my lost childhood for that matter). If you ever wondered about some of those vintage (it hurts me to use that word) toys there are places that collect the minutiae. For example:

"This 13" all hard plastic goliath, with red underwear, was created with some of the neatest toy innovations ever. He had a "see-thru" Bionic eye that made everything look far away, and the creepy "realistic" skin that rolled up on his bionic arm to reveal clear "Bionic" circuits. And the Coup the gras - the button on the back that, when his head was turned to the right, allowed him lift up to 2 lbs with the mechanical bionic clicking sound. (The legs were nothing special they were actually the same for all figures except Bigfoot) He came with a red "NASA inspired" jogging outfit, socks and red sneakers. This thing had a collar that would make Elvis cringe, and was cut just as low (hey it was the 70's). He also came with a car motor to show off his fantastic strength. All packaged in a hideous bright pink box. But this was just the tip of the iceberg! "

"The premise behind Simon was quite simple. It was based on the old game Simon Says. You would start the game and one of the four colored panels would light up and sound a tone. Your responsibility was to press the panel that lit up. Simple enough. Then Simon would repeat lighting that panel and add another. Now your job was to press the two panels in order. The number of panels would continue to increment until you could no longer remember the sequence which would cause Simon to issue a harsh buzz."

If you want more, follow the links:
http://www.toynfo.com/
http://bigredtoybox.com/