I myself wanted one of those remote controlled air planes. I thought that’s the coolest thing ever. Once I grew up and had the money, I never bought it.
One memory that kept popping up occasionally over the years is of my mother lending my neighbor my favorite matchbox car. By the time I’d gotten to him, he’d crushed it. I don’t think he meant anything by it, and I don’t have bad feelings to either one of them, I just know how much that sucked. I do remember that nobody gave a shit, and I never got it replaced.
Late last year I decided I was gonna get it back, so I’ve spent a few hours spread over some months when I was bored at my pc looking at matchbox size red Dodge Vipers from the 90s. Most had the wrong color, or extra decals, or the wrong wheels, etc. Eventually I found it, ordered a copy, and it got delivered about a month ago. I don’t play with it, but it sits on my desk at home as a sort of fidgeting toy.
I’m sure it says some bad shit about my psyche but to me it’s a nice reminder of a time when I was much happier. Maybe I should get some beyblades.
Hey just wanted to say I think it says good things about your psyche that you’re being kind to you.
Thank you
Your story is why I always donate my old matchbox cars and stuff that isn’t precious to me. It might bring maximum joy sitting on someone’s desk, rather than in a drawer I am ignoring.
I think this says some good shit about your psyche.
Thank you
I do it all the time. Toys are super fun.
After years of my family saying I’m too difficult to buy gifts for, and me saying, “What the hell are you talking about? Just get me LEGO!”, one of my kids got the message and has been getting me LEGO sets for Christmas every year.
It might have started when I bought myself the Cinderella Castle set.
The only problem I have is I’m 53, not 13. Sitting hunched over a pile of LEGO bricks for hours leaves me in pain. I need to come up with a space where I can play without injuring myself.
Perhaps a low table or an office chair without arm rests to get a closer to waist level
Actually, now I’m thinking I’ve forgotten how it’s supposed to work. I’ve been trying to sit in a chair and use a table.
Maybe I should be sitting on the floor.
Might need some help standing up again.
Good, you got the clue! Now you gotta be his new best friend and get him just that.
A standing desk is magic. You’ll spend the day on your feet, playing with legos!
The one toy I wanted more than anything as a kid was the Jurassic Park Compound.
I see them on Ebay going for $100-200, but that’s just for the building itself. It’d be pretty pointless to have a big fence with no dinosaurs in it, so I’d have to buy some dinos too. And I need action figures to sit in the watchtower and watch over the dinosaurs, you gotta have that.
And then the realities of adulthood set in: I wouldn’t enjoy this toy as much as I would have when I was a kid. Kid me would probably spend hours with this thing crafting big elaborate stories about wrangling dinosaurs and stuff like that. Nearly-40 me would set up the toys, make sure everyone’s in cool poses, and then it would probably sit on a shelf. I’m not really sure it’s worth it.
So while I’m sad I never got the toy as a kid, I think going back and buying it nowadays would be kind of an expensive hollow victory.
My Grant figure lost his glued on hat and he always had an ugly boxy cone bead underneath 😭All I wanted was a new hat.
I never got that Gameboy I wanted, but that’s OK, I’m made up for it using emulators years later.
Emulators were a godsend as a kid. I was lucky and had a cousin who was way into that stuff and set me up with several burned cd’s with zsnes and tons of ROMS when I was around 12. I experienced so many more games than I would’ve otherwise!
People talk about needing the CRT filters and blah blah to have a realistic experience, heck. Sharp pixels, Save states and Fast forwarding through unskippable stuff have been part of the experience for me for 25 years! Fanmade romhacks and expansions (like for chrono trigger, which I would never have experienced without emulation) are awesome!
Also: Rewind is the coolest feature. Even better than save states, it’s like you can undo every stupid mistake without having to plan ahead. It would have blown my mind as a kid.
Yeah I’ll admit I keep rewind active and do use it, but I do start feeling a little cheat-ish-ness when I abuse that one lol.
Definitely has let me experience more games more fully though. So I think it’s a good functionality.
Maybe I should think of it as retro gaming on easy mode
Same here. Got one a Miyoo Mini+ and put a community OS on it and a curated set of ROMs. 10 year old me would love it!
But turns out as an adult I just don’t have much use for it. The down side of being much more in control of how I spend my own time lol
i finally got the gameboy and the screen was so dim it was unusable, and the batteries 4x AAAA lasted maybe an hour.
I wanted the micro machine van that opened as a town with the little mini cars.
i have that! come over and play mega man x with me and we can take turns with the micro town.
wait nvm its at (my daughters) grandmas house
Ooh I had that. Now my kids play with it. I hope you get one eventually. It’s still awesome!
Nah. a 2.5 meter aircraft carrier is not really any more practical today than it was in 1986.
Oh man that’s amazing!
Have you considered a 3 meter aircraft carrier?
rctestflight seemed to have some fun with it
That’s pretty cool, TBH. Not sure the GIJOE USS Flagg model was quite that seaworthy, LOL.
I had a Commodore 64 as a kid but we couldn’t afford the disk drive (it was as much as the computer). I had to settle for a cassette drive. About 15 years later, I was at a garage sale and saw a C64 with disk drive but no cords. I asked the seller if it still worked. He said “For a dollar, does it matter?”. Still have them.
Yeah that drive was $200+ if I recall correctly. I had to live with the tape drive for a year or so, was not fun. Then my mom bought me a Blue Chip drive because it wasn’t so expensive. It did not work well and she still wound up buying the 1541 drive. Thanks mom.
And the disk drive was still slow as shit. I always wanted an Apple //e and we couldn’t afford it. Biggest mistake my parents ever made imo, if they’d’ve sprung for it I might have gotten into tech 10 years earlier and I’d be filthy rich rn.
Anyhow, I got one, with Duodisk drive and everything. I regret nothing.
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
I wanted a Tyco RC car as a kid. My parents actually got it for me after waiting nearly a whole year for my birthday, and it was one of the most expensive birthday gifts I’d ever received.
Turns out it uses a proprietary battery that wasn’t even included in the package! We’d have to go out and buy that separately, which made the thing like 50% more expensive.
We couldn’t afford that so I agreed to return the RC car and pick something else.
I’ve decided to boycott them for life. Stupid Tyco for running my birthday with a stupid toy that doesn’t even include the battery.
Yes!! I bought a Lite-Brite.
They must be lot less bulky now right? When I was a kid they were these heavy steel boxes that got quite hot because they used an incandescent bulb.
YES!!! I swear it’s not the same size surface area too.
Nice! Hi res lite bright would have blown kid me away
I had a plastic one but it was still an incandescent bulb and a black paper that absorbed all the heat.
I wanted a Sega Genesis for Christmas one year but I already had a Super Nintendo that I played all the time and my parents didn’t want to pay for another console. When I was in highschool, a used game store opened in my town. Back then game collecting was a lot cheaper than it is now, so I was able to get a Genesis for like $30 and I enjoyed it.
I have the exact mirror story to yours.
The used SNES that I bought absolutely lived up to the hype, and beyond. Both those systems are fantastic, and I’m glad I took the effort to explore the games I didn’t have access to as a kid.
I always wanted a cool Voltron toy with all the lions, but I never got one. When Lego released theirs I bought it straight away.
The giant metal one that broke down to the 5 lions and could transform was the pinnacle of childhood toy wants.
Yes, this apple puzzle. I wanted it sooo bad and I got it in my late 30s and it’s awesome. And they make a bunch of other ones now. I’ve done the skull, shark and pirate ship too. But the apple man… the apple.
https://3dcrystalpuzzle.com/products/apple-red
I did. Bought myself a Traxxas Slash 4x4 and got to drive it a bit before my SO at the time took it upon herself to tell me how much of a man-child I am for wanting/owning one and it took the wind right out of my sails. Only thing I have now it a Traxxas Bandit that I have no idea if it works. Have no batteries. Sold my nice Transmitter when I was forced to sell my Slash. Don’t know if I will ever get into the hobby again even though I am single now.
She was wrong. Live your only life your way.
True story. I was in a comic store and saw a statue of a character I loved as a kid. He wasn’t an action figure when I was young, so technically I’d never wanted it as a kid. Anyway, I saw it and wasn’t going to get it, but then I realized if I didn’t buy it I’d be kicking myself for years.
I brouhgt it and it sits on my shelf. I seldom think about it, but when I do I’m happy i have it.
What was the character? Don’t leave us hanging!
Bwah-ha-ha!! Suffer! Suffer!