Legos!
If my kids (whenever that might happen) show an interest in Legos, they are going to get Legos. Lots of them. Daddy might tag along, you know, because someone has to show them how things should be built.
Definitely Lego! I have quite a large collection. And it is good quality which lasts generations. The first wind-up Lego engine I got is over 3 decades old and it still works perfectly. Unfortunately my kids aren't very interested in Lego even though they got a bit spoiled. I could not resist myself when I saw this train set:
I had to buy it and I built it together with my youngest son.
Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Chemistry Set, Crystal Radio Set.
That was back when chemistry sets had "dangerous" chemicals and were fun. I drove my family out of the house one Saturday morning when I made hydrogen sulfide.
One thing that fascinated me about that Philips Electronics kit was the 125uF 16V capacitor as it came in a dark blue plastic wrapping (no idea why). As a tribute to that kit which started me off so long ago everything I build has a Philips 125uF 16v cap somewhere in the circuit.
Half a dozen lead soldiers, a knife, some pièces of wood, a magnifying glass...
Football ball, i loved all sorts of vehicles, really wanted lego but they were expensive.
I didn't have much toys and by the age of 6 I wasn't really into toys, then i started to play video games until the age of 15.
Through whole childhood I was really into mechanics, by the age of 13 i knew how to stick weld, solder, drill, tap a thread, fix everything on bicycle and it was probably most fun of everything I did. Still I don't understand why I got into electronics high school... luckly electronics are amazing, but high school education isn't.
Horseshoe shaped magnet, crystal set, home made electronics kit (thanks Dad) then Meccano - I still think its the best toy ever made.
Steam engine, assorted tools ( and permission from Dad to use his non power and non bladed tools unsupervised) and no toy or junk in the neighbourhood was safe.
Lego, a Kosmos electronics-set and PCs (DOS 6.22 - Spent hours configuring Config.SYS and Autoexec.BAT to get games running^^).
Does a Boat + Outboard-Motor count too?
NES, and SNES for sure. Still my favourite consoles to this day. Now everything is all cloud based embedded computers basically.
One thing I spent a lot of time playing with though was K'nex. I had tons of it, at least two roller coaster sets worth and then some. I built all sorts of interesting things including a wind powered crane, I used a fan to power it. I liked playing with the gears to give more torque and so on.
I also made "high voltage" transmission lines throughout the basement. Used foil paper as the wires, and 120v from the outlet for the power. I was probably like 10 when I got my first electric shock.
So many hours spent playing with K'nex... and electricity.
Thanks to some exchanges and trading programs between communist/socialist countries, I had an "Optik Cabinet" set from the Eastern Germany.
You can see it
here (not my site)
Rather nicely made and very instructive. Multiple versions have been produced if I remember correctly.
In my version, many of the set-ups called for a light source represented by a candle. My 5- years old self was very confused since a candle was clearly not enough even in the dark. In the later versions, they used a light bulb drawing (well, duh!)
Not a toy but this book led to many "toys"
I think it was 1975, when I got this book.
The book was printed in 1970
My first soldering iron looked exactly like the on on the book cover.
Title: "Radiobasteln für Jungen"
Freely translated:
"Tinker about radios for boys"
Today you could not publish a book with such a title in Germany.
This was more value than any "kids toys"
Computers, consoles, and Lego were all I really bothered with. All of the Transformers and He-Man stuff people got for me thinking I'd like them are still in their boxes, never opened lol
I was big into lego and never had a TV, never got loads of sets as they were expensive. I was also into 00 gauge railway. Apparently I was scared of the intercities that roared by near our house so my dad bout me an intercity train set to show me what they were and crush my fears. It worked and he got very into it as well doing repairs and a lot of wheeling and dealing in the stuff. We also had some scalextrics but not much, masinly played with it at friends.
In Spain we didn't have Lego but we did have Exin Castillos (Castles):
I loved my EXIN Castillos.
No, there was not LEGO but TENTE.
Do you remember?
I loved my EXIN Castillos.
Never heard of it but it seems you can build cool looking buildings with it:
IMHO Lego was very late to realise specially created blocks where necessary to create life like structures / cars / etc.
I did remember TENTE was from EXIN too.
This was my TENTE Saloon:
I don't have it any more.
But I remember all of that figurines.
My casttle form EXIN Castillos has a witch, a ghost and a wizard. Ahhhh, good times...
You probably mean a witch, I recall that figurine flying in a broom.
BTW I'm replying from Gran Via in Madrid Spain, going to visit my parents and going to Hondarribia via Burgos on a rental car later on. Taking my wife and in-laws, so we probably stop by the Cathedral where the Cid is burried.
Three toys which changed my life...
Wooden stick and a yo-yo, the stick was to hit my brother with if he tried to steal my yo-yo
I'd have envied your yoyo !! :-) First memories, mid 50s, stuck dead center of aussie. Had sticks and 100,000,000+ fire? ants. Bastids stung like hell.