Which generation were you born in?

[Voros]

That was opposite of my experience. School was vicious.

I believe it, I’m often surprised to hear the stories of what others went through at school, it shows how much impact and difference there can be between regions as I know we’re both Canadian. I grew up on the West Coast among hippies so that probably explains a lot, I had a friend who grew up in a rich area of Vancouver and his experiences in High School sound Orwellian in comparison.

 

[Faylar]

I believe it, I’m often surprised to hear the stories of what others went through at school, it shows how much impact and difference there can be between regions as I know we’re both Canadian. I grew up on the West Coast among hippies so that probably explains a lot, I had a friend who grew up in a rich area of Vancouver and his experiences in High School sound Orwellian in comparison.

Surrey bc here. Mid 90s. Being a geek was hard.

 

[Faylar]

That all being said. I dont see that overall as generational. The parents are also more open minded.
Its almost like a societal inoculation against the bad that lives in the extremes.

Im just proud of what I see in youth today. I wish I grew up now.

 

[Mankcam]

That was opposite of my experience. School was vicious.

Same here. Queensland, Australia. Graduating in 2019 would be very different to doing it in 1989. Aussie high schools in the 1980s weren't exactly places of liberal expression...

 

[Nobby-W]

Same here. Queensland, Australia. Graduating in 2019 would be very different to doing it in 1989. Aussie high schools in the 1980s weren't exactly places of liberal expression...

Was Joh Bjelke-Petersen still running the show then, or had the corruption hearings started?

 

[Mankcam]

Was Joh Bjelke-Petersen still running the show then, or had the corruption hearings started?

Joh?



Yeah, that stuff certainly was alive and kicking bigtime in the News back in '89!



!!!

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[The Butcher]

First, and only, at 38. Damn right here. It’s getting better. There was a half decade in there that was painful

Close enough: first and probably only at 37. So far, so good.

 

[Endless Flight]

View attachment 14424

I'm also old enough to have inhaled large quantities of second-hand smoke in public (and private) places.

 

[Faylar]

I'm also old enough to have inhaled large quantities of second-hand smoke in public (and private) places.

I was that kid that had to leave his jacket outside at my friend's house because his mom smoked 3 packs a day in the house.

I can't even be around the smell of cigarettes anymore without feeling sick.
Thank god smoking in public is no longer a thing.

 

[Toadmaster]

View attachment 14424

In the early 90s when the public smoking crusade was really just getting going, I had a girlfriend who took a summer job in Texas. I drove out with her from California to San Antonio, TX and flew home, then flew out to Austin, TX at the end of the summer and drove home with her.
It was a memorable trip in many ways, but the smoking rules in different states was very interesting. Neither of use were smokers so it may have been more noticeable for us.
California had already banned smoking in restaurants, when we got to Arizona they were still at the segregated smoking / non-smoking sections. In either New Mexico or Texas, when they asked smoking or non-smoking, and you said non-smoking they just took the ash tray off the table. We found this quite amusing. The trip home was by another route, OK, KS, CO, UT. NV so not sure if it was just that the novelty had worn off or the differences less extreme, but I don't recall us paying much attention to smoking in restaurants. We did start to feel more at home when we hit Colorado and could actually get good coffee and then got to Moab, Utah and there was a restaurant with granola on the menu. Starbucks was still mostly a west coast thing then, so the availability of quality coffee and espresso type drinks was much less common. For a state with a large Mormon population that shuns caffeine, finding good coffee even then was not hard to do in Utah.

 

[Toadmaster]

I was that kid that had to leave his jacket outside at my friend's house because his mom smoked 3 packs a day in the house.

I can't even be around the smell of cigarettes anymore without feeling sick.
Thank god smoking in public is no longer a thing.

My grandmother smoked a lot until she was in her late 60s. Amazingly she was able to quit after 40+ years of smoking.

She also worked at a department store so Christmas presents tended to be clothes, blankets etc. We had to open them on the front porch because a cloud of smoke literally wafted out of the boxes when opened, and everything had to go straight to the washing machine after spending time airing out on the porch.

This was after being shipped 400-ish miles by the USPS.

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[Faylar]

My grandmother smoked a lot until she was in her late 60s. Amazingly she was able to quit after 40+ years of smoking.

She also worked at a department store so Christmas presents tended to be clothes, blankets etc. We had to open them on the front porch because a cloud of smoke literally wafted out of the boxes when opened, and everything had to go straight to the washing machine after spending time airing out on the porch.

This was after being shipped 400-ish miles by the USPS.

I beleive it. I got a nce stormtech jacket for my oldest this year at Value village for 18 bucks because it smelled like smoke.

I have experience getting that smell out and it's fine now though.

 

[Mankcam]

View attachment 14435

Crikes, my sister had that!
(I used it with my Star Wars figures)

 

[3rik]

I used it with my Star Wars figures

Heck, I used everything I could get my hands on with my Star Wars figures.

 

[3rik]

Remember Fisher Price Adventure People? My cousin had a lot of those, I owned a small number myself.

link: The Adventure People - The Fisher-Price Collectors Club Official Webpage

 

[Bunch]

Remember Fisher Price Adventure People? My cousin had a lot of those, I owned a small number myself.

link: The Adventure People - The Fisher-Price Collectors Club Official Webpage

I still have some. I remember them all extremely fondly. What I love best about them is their durability.i still find the vehicles at thrift stores and they are just as good as new

 

[3rik]

I didn't own that many. Two vehicles and a couple of action figures. The space-themed toys were very cool, but I never got any of those, except the Clawtron action figure.

 

[Toadmaster]

Remember Fisher Price Adventure People? My cousin had a lot of those, I owned a small number myself.

link: The Adventure People - The Fisher-Price Collectors Club Official Webpage

I had quite a few of these, the boat, green ATV, float plane and helicopter for sure. That site says 1975-84, I was 8 in 1975, my brother 4 years younger so that put us at a prime age for these toys.

I still have some. I remember them all extremely fondly. What I love best about them is their durability.i still find the vehicles at thrift stores and they are just as good as new

I don't know how they are now if F-P is even still in business, but Fisher-Price toys used to truly be child proof, and these action figures were no exception. My youngest plays with a Fisher Price parking garage made for the earlier "peg" people. I think it was second hand when I got it as a child. My younger brother played with it, as well as my older son. It is over 50 years old, with at a minimum of 4 small children playing with it extensively. There are some chips, dents and dings for sure, but it is fully intact, with almost all of its stickers and still fully functional including the crank powered elevator. We were rough on these toys and I can't recall any breaking, not even the airplanes which I am sure had at least a few attempts at free flight (As god as my witness I thought turkeys could fly. They have wings, but for some reason they don't use them).

 

[TristramEvans]

This is one of those things I completely forgot existed but the minute I saw it memories flooded back in

 

[EmperorNorton]

I had my first at 40 and 4th at 45. I'm right there with you that kids are a young man's game. In seven years I think I've got six hours sleep more than a dozen times and even then rarely straight. I'm crankier than I'd like to be.

I went the opposite direction >_> I'm on the older end of millennial, but I had kids very young. My older son is 18, my younger son is 13. I'll admit that having to fight and work to provide at such a young age was hard, but hey, when they are both adults and out of the house, hopefully I'll still only be in my early 40s.

(Also I laugh at how much people don't seem to understand generations much. My mom was complaining about "Millennials" at one point and I was just like "You know I'm a millennial right? And that the age group you are complaining about isn't?" I mean, it was a sidepoint to the thing that she was wrong about what she was saying on a more fundamental level, but it just amuses me how many people don't know what the terms mean).

 

[3rik]

Does anyone remember The Other World, a line of bendable lost world/swords & sorcery-themed action figures by Arco? I never owned any of them but I remember checking them out at the toy store all the time and finding them extremely intriguing.

links:
The Other World
Little Weirdos: Mini figures and other monster toys: The Other World: '80s fantasy toy gold from Arco

 

[Toadmaster]

Who needed drugs when you grew up with Sid and Marty Kroftt. The guy in the flying hat used to scare the crap out of me.

 

[3rik]

Who needed drugs when you grew up with Sid and Marty Kroftt. The guy in the flying hat used to scare the crap out of me.

I do not like the sound of that music so typical of seventies tv shows.

 

[TristramEvans]

Does anyone remember The Other World, a line of bendable lost world/swords & sorcery-themed action figures by Arco? I never owned any of them but I remember checking them out at the toy store all the time and finding them extremely intriguing.

links:
The Other World
Little Weirdos: Mini figures and other monster toys: The Other World: '80s fantasy toy gold from Arco

Yep, loved those Still have the awesome 2 headed dragon. Tried to buy the castle playset again on eBay a while back but it goes for goofy money now. I think was cheaper than Han back in the day though.

 

[TristramEvans]

 

[3rik]

Yep, loved those Still have the awesome 2 headed dragon. Tried to buy the castle playset again on eBay a while back but it goes for goofy money now. I think was cheaper than Han back in the day though.

I see the whole line was actually quite limited. This is something you should be able to still collect in its entirety... Pity about the prices. I read especially the later additions to the line go for ridiculous amounts of money nowadays. More expensive than some vintage Masters of the Universe products, for example.

Actual quality or durability probably isn't that great. How's your dragon holding up?

I especially like the bad guys, very sword & sorcery/primordial lost world, rather than Tolkien-like.

 

[AsenRG]

Close enough: first and probably only at 37. So far, so good.

My first was at 31, I'm at the third now. He's probably the last one, too. Well, it depends, but most likely.
You just get used to the lack of sleep, for a time.
I plan to make it past the sleepless nights and then have a good night's sleep, though!

 

[TristramEvans]

Actual quality or durability probably isn't that great. How's your dragon holding up?

They were all that kinda bendy plastic with thin wire frames underneath, the kimd with 2 little air holes on the lower back.

Gaifand, the dragon, is in good shape, but I don't play around with him much, doubt he'd stand up to much twisting or manipulating these days, but the colours haven't faded I think these were pretty sturdy toys back in the day

 

[Toadmaster]

They were all that kinda bendy plastic with thin wire frames underneath, the kimd with 2 little air holes on the lower back.

Gaifand, the dragon, is in good shape, but I don't play around with him much, doubt he'd stand up to much twisting or manipulating these days, but the colours haven't faded I think these were pretty sturdy toys back in the day

I literally had a bucket full of DC and Marvel superhero figures like that, maybe 4" tall. I really don't want to think about what they would be worth in decent shape today, but I did have a lot of fun playing with them and that is what toys are for.

Here they are Mego Bend N Flex

 

[TristramEvans]

Here it is, Castle Zendo playset,. Got it for my birthday, couldn't been older than 5 0r 6. So much great stuff. It came with a vinyl playmatt and even though the "castle" was basically just one wall, it had a bunch of scaffolding for the back that really upped the play value

 

[Toadmaster]

Here it is, Castle Zendo playset,. Got it for my birthday, couldn't been older than 5 0r 6. So much great stuff. It came with a vinyl playmatt and even though the "castle" was basically just one wall, it had a bunch of scaffolding for the back that really upped the play value

View attachment 14466

Never seen that, it's all in French so maybe not something that turned up in US toy stores.

 

[Dumarest]

I grew up on the West Coast among hippies so that probably explains a lot...

It certainly does!

 

[TristramEvans]

Never seen that, it's all in French so maybe not something that turned up in US toy stores.

I think Arco was a French or Italian toy company, but that pic is just French because it's the first that popped up in my google search, the one I had as a kid was in English. I don't know about the US though, as I was living in Canada at that age.

 

[carpocratian]

I literally had a bucket full of DC and Marvel superhero figures like that, maybe 4" tall. I really don't want to think about what they would be worth in decent shape today, but I did have a lot of fun playing with them and that is what toys are for.

Here they are Mego Bend N Flex

I had Batman, Superman, and Aquaman. I still have Aquaman, sitting in a display case by my desk. He is a little bit worn, but I love him.

 

[3rik]

 

[Picaroon Jack]

The only toy I have left from the 70-80s is a donkey made out of some weird resin that tastes funny.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Behold the artifact:

 

[Bunch]

Behold the artifact:

View attachment 14534

Jackass. My spirit animal.