Stuff other Kids did and had that you did not have or do!

[bullets]

Weird title I know.

What did other Kids Have, and other Kids do that you could not have and do?
and vise versa?

Growing up, I had little understanding at just how tough my Parents had it,
paying bills, the Home loan etc. Back in the Day interest rates for some loans I think
somebody mentioned before were 14%!!

My Father Broke his back working night and day to Live in a "good area"
From what I am told before I came along into the world they had deck chairs in the house
and not even a sofa for a while!

Being oblivious to this as a kid I was sometimes frustrated when it came to
playing with toys and going places etc, I could never understand why the other kids
always had the best of toys and I got handmedowns from the neigbours next door or
had to wait till there was a bargain bin sale.

Burgerland/Mcdonalds:
The only time I got Mc'Donalds as a Kid was as a treat around my birthday or when
it was a friends birthday. Other Kids used to go once a week.

Chinese takeaway: One Chicken Curry was divided into 4 in our house. That was
normal, and I never questioned it until I stayed over in a friends place one weekend,
and they got a Curry Each.

Cinema: I only remember being taken about 3 times to the cinema under the
age of 13, Other kids used to get taken to the Cinema on Sundays, I was brought out
to a farm to pick apples in an Orchard full of nettles, wasps and bees. (sniffle)

Toys: My next door neighbours were fantastic. They had 3 boys who were a few
years older than me, so I got all their old stuff.

Star wars:
I only had star wars toys when Dunnes stores sold them off cheaply a year or two
after they were popular. Also from neighbours hand me downs.
The Kid around the corner had ALL the vehicles and nearly all the figures.

Battlestar Galactica:
I wanted these figures but only ever had a broken cylon and the imperial leader.
Other kids had Muffin the dog, cylons, adama and others.

Masters of the Universe: Nope too expensive for our house, I had to get a
subsitude which were power lords. (The Cheap mans he-man)
Lucky for me Dunnes sold these cheaply too.
http://www.virtualtoychest.com/p/pow...owerlords.html
I never had any vehicles only the figures.

My friends all had he-mans and of course the kid around the corner (you will be hearing a lot about him) had EVERY THING. Castle grey skull, Battle Cat, Not just one but two different He-mans.

Transformers: Had Jazz, and Ramjet both presents.
I had to settle for Go-Bots (the Cheaper version) I got a gobot shuttle for
my birthday once which I thought was great. Here it is:
http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Regular/SpayC.html
Other Kids had Octomus Prime, Megatron, and the kid around the corner,
had the Omega Supreme which was a space station!!! I had
some cheap insect like big transformer got in the January sales
after one christmas in Roches Stores. (A little late for a christmas present)

Robotech/Macross: The Holy Grail! Only one person ever in school had a Robotech
Robot....a Rarity. The Toy I wanted most but never had.....until I hit 30 years of
age and ordered one from Hong Kong. (still looking for a bigger and better one)
http://animeoltre.altervista.org/pers/robotech.jpg

Gi-Joe/Action Force.
Got these as presents on my birthday (I'f I was lucky)
Had about 3-4 Gi-Joe's most kids had loads of the things.
Dunnes sold them for 49p years later as action force.
(There were two Action force sets of )figures.
I always wanted this:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/G...Skystriker.jpg


Mask: I had NO mask toys ever.
and interestingly enough neither did the kid round the block! weird.
only new two people with Mask Toys, My Cousin and one Spoiled Rich Kid
from school. Who had them all.

Centurions: I nearly had one up on the kid around the block.
One year my father decided to spoil me. And I got Ace Mc'Cloud
and EVERY EVERY single add on piece that was out at the time for him.
http://www.dukenostalgia.com/Centurions/Cent_toys.html
While I only had one figure but all accessories and the Blue guy was the hardes
to get, I was very satisfied. The other kids in the neighbour hood had the yellow and green guys and the bad guys.

Dyno Riders. These were EXPENSIVE toys. Not every kid had them.
I remember my Grandfather giving me a boring old book voucher,
much to my delight one Book store started selling toys also, and bought
my self this beauty:
http://www.dinoriders.com/Toys/Toys(...anodon)DR.html

Marbles: Because of a Handmedown from nextdoor. I was the one kid on the block who
had the most marbles. I used to keep shopping bags of them in the boiler house beside
our home, until they were stolen one day.

Bikes. Everyone wanted a computer bike, there was a cheaper version that looked
like a computer bike but had a dummy computer that did not work. I got neither.
3-4 kids in the neighbour hood got them. Raleigh Vektar:
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/154...gh29647660.jpg

BMX:
At first I did not have a BMX I had this horrible old deathtrap of a red-bike that
was about 30 years out of fashion and was the laughing stock of the neighbourhood.
eventually I had a BMX mustang but the bike to get that I never got
was the Raleigh Grifter with 3 gears!!! Kid round the corner had a black and gold one.

Later on when all the kids on the block started to get Raleigh Mountain Bikes
we had to settle for second best and choose from the Emmelle Brand a really
cheap poor mans bike.

~B

[Pop's Diner]

Good thread. I think I did ok when it came to toys as a kid. But naturally being a kid you were always oblivious to those who had less than you and focused on those who had more. Personally, remember there was two kids in particular who did considerably better than me when it came to toys and I always want the stuff they had. One was an American kid from my school and another was my next door neighbour. In retrospect those two getting all this stuff made sense tho. You see one was the son of a divorcee and the other was adopted. I think the parent/parents were just trying to buy thier respective sons love!?

TBH in retrospect I'm kinda glad I didn't get EVERYTHInG I wanted as a kid. It kind of kept me focused something and interesting. Without wanting to boast nowadays I pretty much have everything (tangable at least) that I want in life and as a result my life (and myself) are a lot more boring. I'm surrounded by stuff now and I feel like it owns me instead of the other way round.

[Larianne]

We didn't go on a sun holiday until we were teenagers. I just really wanted to go on an airplane. We camped every summer (twice every year). But looking back we got to see so many places - all round Ireland, England & Wales, France, Holland and Belgium. (All by boat)

We were never allowed Coke. Only when we went to visit my mothers elderly friend and we'd drink ourselves silly with it!

Our house isn't in an estate and I always felt I was missing out on something. But now I'm glad we don't have any nosey neighbours!

Not having Sky! Kids in school would talk about certain programmes and I wouldn't have a clue what they were on about.

I'm sure there's many more but I can't think of any.

[bullets]

Yeah I did pretty good thinking back on it, the Spoiled
Rich Kid that was living round the corner used to drive me mad,
He had everything, he also used to get "A's" in tests in school so my mother used to constantly be comparing me to him,
and nagging me to be just like him.

I'm in my 30's now, and still fight the urge to buy stuff I never had when growing up!
I know it will end up being left in a box or thrown in a wardrobe someplace after
the novelty value wears off! but

Forgot to mention a few others.

Holidays: When I was 12-13 went on a plane for the first time
to the Cannery Islands, where the sand was hot, the water was cold.
It was the one and only time we went abroad.

Breakfast cereals, we were only allowed porridge, Cornflakes, or weetabix.
For a treat were got rice crispies. We were not allowed the others.

Train sets. Had a Lima train set with green engine.
Did not have scalextrics racing cars until much later one
when they brought out clone ones for cheaper.

Zoids everyone had, and were cheap to buy and you could use parts from
one zoid on another. (Never had any of the later bigger super droids)
I used to chew on the rubber things that held them together.

Lego I never had, I had Tente?? (Spelling??) from the collecting 8 tokens from
the Cornflakes box.

Mechano I had a set and never appreciated it until years later.

Microscope for my 10th Birthday which was 37 pounds at the time.
365 in one Electronics Kit when I was about 12-13 (I'd love it it now)now)
Father gave me his own Camera when I was 15.
At 16 I had my own darkroom (well bedroom with black bags on the windows)

~B

[foxinsox]

My friend had Sindy's yellow bathroom set!!!

Yellow bath, toilet and sink!!

I was sooooooo jealous!

I think I had Sindy and a few clothes for her!

[unreggd]

Mr Frosty, and cocaine

[Pop's Diner]

Originally Posted by bullets

I'm in my 30's now, and still fight the urge to buy stuff I never had when growing up!
I know it will end up being left in a box or thrown in a wardrobe someplace after
the novelty value wears off!

Pfft. I'd say go for it. Over a year ago I spent over 2 grand on all the original 96 Star Wars figures and big a mirrored glass display case to put them. Then I mounted the thing to my living room wall. Best thing I ever bought. Gives me a big smile everytime I see it and when people come over and happen to see it (esp people who remember them) they just go "wow".

[willy wonka]

We didnt have games like Buck-a-roo, Guess Who, Mouse Trap, Operation etc
We had Monopoly,Connect 4, Downfall though

We never went abroad as kids but I didn't see this as a big deal. It was only the rich kids in school that went on sun holidays. We had a caravan out at the beach though and this was as good as a sun holiday, I remember the weather was brilliant as a kid and getting up at 6am and going for a swim

My parents didnt have a lot of money but we were never deprived. We always got the toys that we asked for but not the ones that were too expensive. Most kids I knew didnt get the really expensive ones. Like my brothers got loads of Star Wars figures and got some of the ships but an AT-AT or Millenium Falcon was just out of our league! I remember walking by a shop with the AT-AT in the window and coveting it but it was just too expensive (I think it was £20 which was crazy money in the recession 80s)

Originally Posted by foxinsox

My friend had Sindy's yellow bathroom set!!!

Yellow bath, toilet and sink!!

I was sooooooo jealous!

I think I had Sindy and a few clothes for her!

I had Sindys and Barbies but never had any houses for them and when a classmate brought in a box that opened up into Barbie's bedroom, with wardrobe and sink and little clothes hangar i was so jealous!

Thank God for TV programmes like Blue Peter where you could make houses and rooms out of cardboard!

[strangeloop]

Great thread this!
I'm 34 so I remember being a kid in the bad 80s. Mum used to buy my toys in Roches stores. Most of my toys were ex display models. They were either broken or had lots of bits missing. That's right, I was the poor kid in school.

My friends had everything - I mean everything. I remember one lad showing me return of the jedi on his new video recorder - I was amazed. My parents couldn't afford to let me see it in the cinema, nevermind buying a VCR. Then he started taking out all his star wars toys...Sweet mother of Jesus, I nearly cried with envy. We're talking about top drawer stuff, millenium falcons, x-wing fighters, the lot. The icing on the cake was when he plugged in his zx spectrum. I had never seen a computer game before...my jaw literally dropped to the floor....this was incredible.

I went home to enjoy beans on toast and kicking a punctured football against the wall. Being a hand-me-down kid in the 80s recession was a miserable eye opener.

[kelle]

I was jealous of other children who had clothes that were bought in Penneys or Dunnes Stores - mine were all handmade from psychadelic print material cut out of paper patterns made in Germany, and machine knitted cardigans and jumpers made with 2 or 3 different colours.

One girl in our entire school would go on a foreign holiday every June (she was the only one who had both parents working). The teacher would go on about the place she was going to and it's culture. And she went on a plane too. How jealous we all were. Nowadays, her parents would be told off for taking her out of school!

I was envious of my friend who was an only child, had everything she wanted and lived in a quiet, tidy house - complete opposite to me. I longed to be an only child, but I'm glad now I'm not.

[Ruu]

I never went to the cinema as a child (not once), we were too far away from a theater and it was too expensive anyway (the cinema thread is breaking my heart) ;_; We always got electronic items either second hand or years after the release date when "everyone else" had long played them.

[xanthor]

Originally Posted by willy wonka

.....but an AT-AT or Millenium Falcon was just out of our league! I remember walking by a shop with the AT-AT in the window and coveting it but it was just too expensive (I think it was £20 which was crazy money in the recession 80s)

I remember the Millenium Falcon being more like 50??? I may be wrong, but whatever the cost was, it seemed like more money than i could ever possibly obtain as a child. Had a few Transformers, some Star Wars etc. Anything past around 15.00 quid just wasn't going to happen, but i did okay, and soon learned to play on my grandparents affections. Trips to McDonalds and the like were uncommon. The cinema was a rarity.

In later years, things were a little more slack and the toy count multiplied quickly. For several years i had pretty much every G.I.Joe/Action Force toy released, and most of the M.A.S.K. line too.

[BillyGoatGruff]

I remember all the kids with their Nike runners slagging my Dunnes 5th gear runners. I was like " It means I can run faster than ye cause i've got FIVE gears".

[Morlar]

Never had the holidays in the sun as a kid, wexford, cork and kilkenny etc were as far as we went. The first plane I was on was to london at 18 next one was the states. I had a neighbouring kid who had lots of cool toys and we used to gamble soldiers & jeeps and tanks on marble games so I made up for it! Did anyone else have a black maria and RUC van dinky toys ? I had an aunt who took me to the cinema the odd time - I think I went with my parents maybe twice throughout my entire childhood, but used to make up for that by going to the green with some mates of mine or sneaking into harolds cross through the fire exit. I think toys were mostly for rainy days the rest of the time was spent running around playing soldiers and throwing muckballs at each other to simulate grenades or climbng trees or playing in the forest, horses etc.

I think parents today go way the hell overboard trying to compensate for their own un-privileged childhoods by buying their kids a ridiculous amount of expensive toys. They get opened and put aside on the same day which is a total waste imo.

[shqipshume]

Hahahahahahhaha oh my god funny thread

I remember my moms best friend and her kids growing up.We would literally beg to go stay at her house,they had everything Atari first one out on shelves all the computer games,my sister and i wanted one between us but weren't allowed.
I only went to cinema on my birthday,went on holiday three time down the country one time butlins( i was in heaven) lol ,
First time out was when i was fourteen my sis paid for that second time was when eighteen i paid for all the family.
But i havent been on holiday in sixteen years barr two weekends away down the country.
I never got barbie or cindy's or anything like that growing up.I played with busy bodies and i mean i had two.
They always had better Clothes then me and god i got some grief for that.
Going to funderland i had a tenner and would get to go once,and they all had fifty to hundred pounds and got to go all time.
Funny now with this freakin recession i can afford anything anymore either.
Although in saying all that i think made me better person and more kind because i didn't have anything growing up.