Monday, December 20, 2010

The 7 best Christmas presents I ever received as a kid

Robotix

Robotix are a criminally underrated toy from the 80s. My parents got me the big set which came with like 5 motors, a huge battery pack and the switch pad you see above. You could make all kinds of crazy toy eating robots with one of these.

GI Joe Killer WHALE

If you really wanted to get the most out of your Joes you needs some kind of huge vehicle or playset. The one I had was the Killer WHALE, it held something like 9 figures, and had all kinds of cool moving pieces. The only thing I hate about it now is that if you want to buy one now it's like 200 dollars on ebay.

Zaxxon

Kids these days don't know how lucky they are with their DSIs and Sega Game Gears (they still make those right?). Back in the day this Zaxxon table top arcade game was the coolest thing in portable gaming. It had an LED display that was pretty craptastic but was still a huge upgrade from those black and white tiger electric handhelds that were everywhere in the 80s.

A-Team Rough Riders

Sometimes a simple toy is the best toy. Rough Riders were little cars that ran on a single AA battery. Most had two exciting modes of action, forwards and stop. The real fancy ones like the A-team set I received had a reverse. The best part about Rough Riders is that with them anything from a bathroom floor to a kitchen table became a sweet rally course.

Bard's Tale III

Ok so technically speaking I bought Bard's Tale III myself at a Babbages in Joplin Missouri, but I did it with Christmas money so it totally counts. The thing that was so memorable was that I bought it while I was on Christmas vacation 2000 miles away from my beloved Apple II. By the time I actually got to play the game I had memorized the instructions and the map front to back.

TI-99

Again not technically a gift for me, this was a gift for the entire family. The TI-99 was my Dad's last grasp at staying ahead of the technology curve. It was pretty much all blinking 12:00s on the VCR from this point on.

As far as I can remember my dad never rocked a yellow headband but I'm positive I had that pink sweater.

Lego Space Buggy

This was the most elaborate Lego set my parents ever bought for me. I remember that it felt like it took weeks to put together right, which probably meant it took like 20 minutes. This space buggy set became the base for all my Star Wars and Star Trek lego adventures.

I can't believe how spoiled kids are these days with all the officially licensed stuff Lego makes. I think I'm going to teach my kid some kind of crappy lesson by making him watch me play with his new Lego AT-AT.

0 comments:

 

Tags

90210 advertising wizards alien amazon anne hathaway arkham city art awesome parenting awesome tv shows bad ideas bad ideas? batman battlefield 3 Beastie Boys bioshock boobs books call of duty captain america cars cartoons cats catwoman cheerleaders christmas colbert report comic-con comics commercials community computer games computers conan o'brien cosplay crazy people cute animals cute kids deadpool diablo III dinosaurs diora baird disney doctor who dogs dungeons and dragons e3 espn failure fake trailers food funny things futurama game of thrones george lucas gi joe google gratuitous use of babes guns half life 2 halloween hard ticket to hawaii harry potter hbo hip-hop horrible tv shows I'm out of ideas idiots internet meme iron man it's always sunny in philadelphia japan is awesome jersey shore Jimmy Fallon justified kevin smith legos lingerie football links lists local news lord of the rings lost marvel math mc chris megan fox michael Bay michael jackson monkeys movies music nbc nerdcore nerdery nerds nfl ninjas nintendo obama old computers olivia munn parks and rec people that need to shut it pin-ups piranha 3d pirates planet of the apes playboy playstaytion politics poor decisions porn prometheus prostitution? protesters random picture random simpsons reference red dead redemption robots ron swanson rumors sad nerds science seattle seinfeld sharks snow soccer spider-man star blazers star trek star wars super mario bros superman the apocalypse the avengers the blurst of times the daily show the future the interwebs the muppet show the simpsons the walking dead thor tmnt top gear total recall transformers tron tumblr tv shows twitter usmnt video games wags watchmen wish list wolverine wonder woman world cup wrestling x-box x-men xbox live zombies

DevilDinosaur: classic geek Copyright © 2012 Community is Designed by Sacha Blogger Template

CSS done by Link building