The geektastic toys we wanted for Christmas when we were young. - Warped Factor - Words in the Key of Geek.

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The geektastic toys we wanted for Christmas when we were young.

Oh the things that were on our Christmas wishlists when we were kids. We never did get a 'real' lightsaber or full sized TARDIS, but there were some amazing geektastic treats sat under the tree on Christmas morning. These are the kind of things that if we'd kept unopened in the box they'd be worth some real cash money nowadays, but we couldn't wait to get our grubby little hands on them!

Here are just a few that we either got, or really really wanted...

Talking K-9
From the moment he muttered his first "Yes Master" we loved K-9, and this talking version of everyone's favourite robot dog was happily received one Christmas.When you pressed the button on his back he said several different phrases, "Danger Mistress, Danger!" was a favourite. You could even flip over the small plastic 'record' that was inside inside to get more classic phrases. The thing we remember the most about this is the batteries ran out really quickly causing K-9 to slur his words! Hysterical when you are 10.

The Six Million Dollar Man
The Steve Austin toy doll made Action Man look like Barbie! He had a bionic eye that you could actually look through, an arm that would lift items when you pushed the trigger on the back and roll-back skin so you could see the bionic elements. On our one the roll back skin quickly broke and we managed to get the end of a pen stuck in the eye socket.
But it was fun whilst it lasted.

Atari's Pong
We never did get that Atari console, so we had to go round to a mate's house to enjoy some paddle related shenanigans instead. Not only did our friend Mark have Pong, but he also had Space Invaders and Tank. No matter how immersive gaming gets nowadays in will never match how absolutely engrossed we were by Pong. Losing hours and hours, never taking our eyes off that little white dot blip blip bliping it's way back and forth across the screen.


Rubik-ish Snake
There was a time when it was compulsory to have a Rubik's Cube. A universal toy that every single child in the country had some form of, most of which were actually cheap market imitations, not that that mattered one bit. You could still peal the stickers off and re-apply them so it looked like you'd completed it.
We had the cube, but then one Christmas we received a Rubik's Snake type toy. This was not an original Rubik's item, although we think there was an official version, and what puzzled us the most was that there didn't seem to be any puzzle to it! You just simply made shapes out of it. Mostly we made a long thin stick and hit things with it until it broke!

Crossfire
We always wanted this game but Santa never brought it. It was the idea of shooting ball bearings across the table at each other that appealed so much. It's probably quite lucky that we didn't get it otherwise it's likely Boxing Day would've been spent in A&E!


Nintendo Game & Watch
Long before the 3DS or PSP, there was handheld video game action to be had in the form of Nintendo's Game & Watch range. We remember having one called Fire. In Fire people jumped out of burning building whilst you controlled of a couple of characters (presumably Firemen) who were holding a trampoline. It was your task to bounce the escapees into a nearby ambulance. Oh, the realism! Hours of fun, until the batteries ran out. A few years later we remember having a Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong. This was a double screen with a nice burgundy red padded case.


Spider-Man Webmaker
There is no way this toy would be legal today! One Christmas a very nice Aunt gifted this bit of 1970s pre-safety standards madness. Basically you could make your own 'real webs' using the tube which contained some kind of chemical fluid glue-ish concoction. You could then hang the very very tiny Spider-Man figures from the web. This seemed absolutely awesome at the time, but that may be because we were as high as a kite from the glue in the tube. By the time The Queen's Speech came on the tube was empty, we'd run out of 'web', someone had swallowed the incredibly tiny Green Goblin and everyone in the house was hallucinating.
Great days!


Escape From Colditz Board Game
You can keep your Monopoly or Cluedo, Escape From Colditz was our go to game of choice. Basically you had to roll dice to move around the inside of Colditz prison and complete an escape kit. You'd need food, a disguise and some forged papers, and then depending on which route you wanted to take to escape you had to find a tool like wire cutters or some keys. You could control various different prisoners at once, all desperate to escape from Colditz. There was only one drawback with the game, one person HAD to be The Germans! And if they caught you then you were off to solitary confinement, or even worse, they shot you dead!!

What were you favourite toys you got at Christmas when you were young?
And which ones did you long for but never get?

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