Connect Bridgeport
Ad
FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeRSS
  • Home
  • News
  • Sports
  • Community
    • Community News
    • Anniversaries
    • Announcements
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Calendar
    • Churches
    • Clubs & Organizations
    • Directory
    • Farmer's Market
    • File Complaint
    • Greeting Cards
    • Library
    • Lost And Found
    • Obituaries
    • Parks & Recreation
    • Sponsorships
  • Trading Post
    • For Sale
    • Local Deals
    • Services
    • Yard Sales
  • Visitors
  • Relocation
  • Education
  • Jobs
  • Alumni
Ad

ToquiNotes: Recalling Fondly the Toys of My Youth

By Jeff Toquinto on December 14, 2019

Forgive me for waxing nostalgic in a pre-Christmas Christmas blog. But I have a hard time not thinking back to when I was a kid every single time I've been out shopping, looked at a catalogue, online advertising, newspaper inserts and anything else in that genre during this most recent holiday season.
 
Kids today have so many choices that I can't imagine how any child can just pick a handful of gifts they want under the tree from their parents or even Santa. And let's be honest, a lot of the toys kids will be getting for Christmas are far from what I would consider a toy. A lot of it is simply high-tech games and gadgets that I can't figure out and easily reach triple figures in the price range.
 
Times have changed.
 
During the big toy years of my youth, there was one thing I wanted every single Christmas, and that was an action figure. You remember them, don't you? Well, they still exist today, but the action figure is more of a stocking stuffer or a secondary gift as opposed to next generation Playstation 5 (or whatever number it's on now) or some other device I’m certain I couldn’t figure out.
 
For me, nothing made me happier than the action figure. It could be a superhero out of a comic book or some other small hand-held doll that my friends and me could use in some sort of imaginary battle.
 
I had a bevy of them. My favorite ones were all part of a collection known as "Big Jim" and his friends. Big Jim was a small doll that was part of the Mattel collection. When you moved his arms, it made his muscles bulge. Pretty cutting-edge stuff for the 1970s. On top of that, Big Jim wasn't alone. He had friends, or as they say today, a posse or crew.
 
Part of the posse/crew consisted of my all-time favorite action figure - Dr. Steel. Dr. Steel probably wouldn't make it to the shelves today because someone would consider him to be a bit politically incorrect.
 
The good doctor was a bald man who had a bit of an oriental or southeast Asian look to him. He also had a big dragon tattoo on his chest and a silver hand. When you flexed his arm, his muscles would also ripple and when you pressed a button on the back of him, his silver hand would do a chop.
 
How cool was that?
 
The best thing was that you could co-mingle guys from the Big Jim collection to dolls in the G.I. Joe group. I also mixed in some of my others, including some of the D.C. Comic book heroes such as Aqua Man and Batman.
 
I had two other action figures that I would put in my favorite category. There was my Col. Steve Austin action figure, which was one of the first to come with an optional accessory. Col. Steve Austin, for those not old enough to remember of for those who aren't from my generation, was the Bionic Man, or from the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man. I not only had the good colonel - whose bionic eye feature was simply a hole you could look through in the back of his head - but I had Austin's rocket ship that he crashed in that eventually led to him becoming bionic.
 
Often, when pairing up my action figures for battle, I joined Col. Austin with one of the most creative action figures of my youth - Kenner's Stretch Armstrong. Good old Stretch was a rubber, blond-haired figure that wore nothing but a pair of briefs. As his name suggested, you could pull and pull on Stretch in a million directions and when you were done pulling, he would go back into his regular shape.
 
Stretch Armstrong does have one thing over all my other action figures. To this day, I can remember his demise. While the other action figures may have been given away, broke or simply thrown into the basement, Mr. Armstrong sprung a bit of a leak. It seems his skin wore out as he aged, and mom and dad didn't think having an action figure oozing its insides was a good thing.
 
That was a sad day 40-plus years ago. Today, though, it's cause for me to smile. And it makes me wonder if we didn't have it better then as opposed to the kids and all their gadgets today.
 
Editor's Note: Top photo shows the Col. Steve Austin Bionic Man doll, while Stretch Armstrong is shown in the mddle. Below is Dr. Steel from the G.I. Joe collection.
 

Share

Leave a Comment
Login or register

Leave a Comment

Log in or create an account to post a comment.

Sign up/stay connected

Create your profile to start adding photos, posting comments, and more.

SIGN UP

Ad
Ad

Blogs [ view all ]

  • Photo

    From the Bench: BHS's Latest D-I Athlete...

    Any parent who has siblings who are close in age knows what Bridgeport’s Chris and Julie Knight were going throu...

    Posted by Jeff Toquinto

  • Photo

    Time Travel: Decades Ago with City Pop W...

    Although the exact date of this photo is unknown, it is showing a Bridgeport Pop Warner youth football team from deca...

    Posted by Dick Duez

  • Joseph Earley

    The Cyber Beacon: Friendly Wi-Fi Turning...

    We’ve all done it — loaned a Wi-Fi password to a neighbor or left our network open “just in case.”...

    Posted by Joseph Earley

  • Photo

    The Grapevine: Celebrating an 86th Birth...

    We are going to play a little guessing game this week in The Grapevine. When you look at the above photo, what do you...

    Posted by Rosalyn Queen

  • Photo

    ToquiNotes: Landen Jaggie's Battle with ...

    About four and a half months ago, in this very blog, I told you the story of 19-year-old Landen Jaggie. At that time,...

    Posted by Jeff Toquinto

  • Photo

    Why Bridgeport? How do you Measure a Man...

    Editor's Note: Jon Griffith formerly wrote this blog as a member of Bridgeport City Council. The majority of Griffith's de...

    Posted by Jon Griffith

Calendar [ view all ]

Tue
14

NARFE CHAPTER 1579 Meeting

Tue
14

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Wed
15

AWANA Clubs

 

Which ABB Scarecrow is Your Favorite?

Old Colony Realtors
Ford Funeral Home
Cava & Banko
Advantage Tech
Della's Deli
Nova Rubber
Best Western Bridgeport Inn
Freedom Bank
Marquette Insurance
C&C Signs and Graphics
WIC
About You Monograms
EagleBridge Wealth Management
Target
Stretch Zone
Steptoe & Johnson
Venture Real Estate
United Security Agency
NS Electric
Dan Riggs Towing
The Dugout
Landmark Realty
Winnie's Cafe
Almost Heaven Desserts
Dairy Queen
Pike Street Tattoo
Bridgeport Visitors Center/Connect
Bridgeport Parks & Recreation



Bridgeport, WV
Editorial Board Advertise Privacy Policy Contact Us
FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeRSS

©2014 Connect Bridgeport.