On the 11th Day of Christmas:A Few of My Favourite Things
December 22, 2007
Filed under Activities & Holidays, Parenting & Family Posts
When I were a lad, oh matey, did I ever love Christmas day!
Of course, I still do. These days, it’s a shear joy to watch my kids’ delite as they open their own presents while later I revel in the tastes of Christmas food. 
But as a kid, it was all about my presents.
Here’s my five favourites, the ones I remember giving me the greatest joy and the ones that also I played with the most…
1. The Six Million Dollar Man doll action figure, complete with bionic eye (you looked through a hole in the back of his head and objects far away looked slightly closer).
2. The slide that miraculously appeared in the backyard when I was five. Wheeeeeeeeeee!
3. The Star Trek (TOS) phaser. Unfortunately in late 70s’ Australia, Klingon disrupters weren’t available, but a Federation weapon was nearly as good.
4. The spud gun – you know the pistol sized ones where you shoved one end into a potato, gouged out a bullet and fired it at your sister or the dog. The difference between winning or losing a neighbourhood battle could often come down to who’d brought the most spuds with them.
5. But the piece de resistance [French for best present ever] was the Super-8 movie camera I received in 1980. This black aparatus (with the screw-on handgrip) got one hell of a workout over the next few years. My friends and I made some of the wierdest films ever made – which were made all the better by the 1981 addition of a projector which we could use to actually dub sound onto them. Can you believe it? Home movies with sound?! The wonders of pre-video technology…
How ’bout you? What were some of yours?
Hmm… Pete loose with a Super8… the mere thought of it excites me! Do we get to see the evidence of said films (with/without soundtrack)?
They’re sadly lost in the archives and I don’t know that I’m willing to locate them.
On a sad note I had a great idea for a video with Slingshot MOnkey but my current camera has died. Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Maybe in the new year …
Oh, I’m looking forward to THAT!!!!
Christmas blessings to you and yours…
Excellent topic. The toys I most remember enjoying from my youth in the 70s:
- A pair of Space:1999 walkie-talkies. These were frickin sweet. They worked and came with little photos I could swap out of the top to use as a visual commmunicator.
Status: Lost
- A Dinky Toys Star Trek TOS die-cast metal Enterprise that shoots little orange discs from the saucer section and a tiny shuttle craft that comes out of the bottom.
Status: Still got it! A prized possession.
- Matchbox car collection. I lovingly beat the snot out of those things, indoors and out.
Status: Lost
- A green projector that let me play View Master discs (stills and audio versions). Status: Lost
My kids now have a smaller, portable, modern version but don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I did.
I didn’t have action figures or comic books when I was a kid. Not sure why. Don’t think it was intentional by my parents. Now I have a “collectable” Captain Kirk in his TOS dress uniform. (Ok, I’m a geek.)
Woo hoo – I’m not the only one who remembers 1999! I haven’t found anyone else who even knows what I’m talking about…
Oh man, Space 1999 merchandise! Now that is cool! There was one kid in my neighbourhood who had an Eagle (is that what they called their shuttle/fighters?). I was soooooooo jealous. Bad Dad you just revived that jealousy!
Mich, you’re obviously among friends now. Although…
I did hire out 4 episodes on DVD this year … and was very disappointed. Wasn’t the cool show I remembered. The handguns and Eagles still did it for me but the acting, storylines and sets sucked.
As I write, Youngest Son is up on top of his “cubby” house with HIS new spudgun, shooting caps and spudpieces at the neighbours.
Oh Pete, I’m sure the show is not as good as I remember from my youth But I have fond memories nonetheless. I recently saw an episode of “HR Puff’n'Stuff” – used to scare the pants off me but now it’s just good for a giggle!
Refresh your memories with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMEZuaguuCU
Sad thing is I stumbled across an episode of Space 1999 a few years back and thought it was horrible. Think it was final season with weird alien girl who shapeshifted into stupid-looking Hanna-Barbara creatures. Totally ruined the fond memories of my youth.
[For some reason, Wordpress wouldn't post all of Roland's comment, so I've had to break it up here...]
Roland wrote (about Space 1999):
The pistols they used were awesome too:
http://www.thisnext.com/item/0296DC7E/Space-1999-stun-gun
I’d run around with my father’s hand exercise thingy pretending it was a stun gun.
Check this stuff out:
http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/merc/vmmcomlock.html
[The rest of Roland's comments...]
The “Eagles” we’re very cool ships. Even by today’s standards, to me they seem very practical:
http://www.eagletransporter.com/
I remember putting together a model kit of an “Eagle,” an attack version called a “Hawk,” and the “Moon Base Alpha” set.v
That stungun-waterpistol looks sweet.