Mrs. Hickman, Troy's Playing With Himself Again!

Some of my favorite childhood toys:

Rudy the Robot - Rudy was my bud. He could walk by himself, and when he'd bump into a wall or furniture, he'd turn himself around and keep going. You kids keep your Robosapiens and such. I'll take this bright orange and yellow powerhouse any day.

Major Matt Mason - He was "Mattel's Man in Space" (you may not remember it, but in the 1960s, NASA's biggest competitors were the toy companies; Hasbro practically beat us to the moon). I loved anything to do with astronauts, and I loved Matt Mason and his pals. I had four of the figures and various vehicles and such. I used to play with them with a couple of these guys:

The Colorforms Aliens - The same rubber-over-wire style bodies as Major Matt (that tended to eventually break and leave you with amputees), these guys were tops. I had the two on the left here, Xodiac from Saturn, and Orbiron from...yikes...Uranus. Orbiron is obviously an "homage" (cough cough) to the mutant from This Island Earth. They worked perfectly with my other spacey toys.

Aurora Monster Models - I had most of these, and I spent countless hours putting them together with my dad. In those days, I was gonzo for anything that glowed in the dark (and even today, I like to pour uranium in my housepaint).

Hot Wheels! - Numerous generations have played with these little guys, but I'm not sure anyone loved 'em more than we did in the 60s/70s. I had a whole carrying case full, and then some, plus a lot of that groovy orange track, which I use to clamp to our pool table and create a steep hill down to the floor so they could get up momentum. And must like all my other toys, when I played with Hot Wheels cars, they all had SUPERPOWERS.

Lincoln Logs - As a kid, I never had Legos (though I love playing with them these days), but I had Tinkertoys and these babies right here. There was a solidness to Lincoln Logs, a hearty quality, that I really respected. I'll bet we could thwart the Taliban with 'em now.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots - Oh, you loved them too. We all did. They were robots, and you could control them, and they'd knock each others blocks off. And yeah, after a while one of their necks would loosen up, and his head with shoot up into the air with no provocation (much like me!). But pound for pound, some of the greatest fun a kid could have in the days before video games.

Captain Action - The king of 1960s action figures. Cap had many different outfits in which you could dress him, and turn him into your favorite superhero! But the hell with that. I only had him in his original suit, and he was more than enough hero for me. Later as an adult I bought him some other duds (but kept the same old lovable Cap figure), and even bought an Action Boy and Dr. Evil to go along with it. If you ever get the chance, check out DC's Captain Action comic, too. It's a gasser.