My favorite home-made toy or game was made by Christian when he was in middle school or younger I believe. It was our own version of a trading card game like the pokemon or magic the gathering. He had spend many night and afternoons drawling out some characters on his own home-made sturdy cards with orange backs on them. The characters ranged from the manly Rambo type to the silly Mr. T, and to the just outrageous Darren card. Each character, of which I believe there were well over 30, had their own strength and weaknesses. Other cards later made use armor upgrades, magic cards, and the all power mass destruction cards that would kill all the characters in play. I think Christian had a lot of fun making all the magic or special cards that would just destroy other characters. There were cards that put them in a pit of spikes, have a boulder fall on them. His imagination was powerful and dangerous. Over time he or we made a board where each player had a base from which they defended and then attacked other bases. The game just kept on getting bigger and bigger. We may have even been grounded from it once or twice for playing it to much and not doing homework or cleaning out room which we all three shared. The game is still in existence, its in my storage self were it waits to be played by his kids one day. Along with the games nobody plays with me anymore so I wait for some nephews to play them with. Wink wink.
My favorite was the q-tip bow and arrow set. With a rubber band and three q-tips we would make tiny but deadly weapons that kaylene and I shot just about anytime or anywhere. I think mom pretty much hated them. We would even sharpen the little arrows to make it more dangerous. It was great. Along with that we would pull up some of teh wild onion sfrom the backyard and use the hollow shoots, after eating the onion raw and unwashed, as blow darts for the little pea shaped things that grew on one of the trees. The backyard made a great battle ground and we would be at it for hours.
Wharon and I with a couple of Adults were talking in the living room upstairs one evening and 17 year old Preston with his friends were laughing and yelling downstairs. Periodically it seemed like the entire house would rumble and shake. This happened several times and FINALLY I decided to investigate. I found Preston and his friends taking turns holding up a huge exercise ball in front of thier chest. One person turned off all lights and turned on a flashing black light then the other person with the ball ran accross the basement and into the door to the boys room. With the flashing black light, it was difficlut to know the timing of when you and the exercise ball would hit the door so it was always a suprise when you bounced off the door and landed several feet away on the carpet. It was wierd, fun, exciting and just about destroyed the house. We did replace the door but that was from cumulative damage.
Well Preston and Becca took most of mine (I distinctly remember being the one to discover q-tip bow and arrows). I know the character card game was designed to become a computer game someday but apparently that never worked out. There were other games though. I will leave "Tongue" to Christian. Tin foil men were great. With Ninja turtles costing about $5.00 a pop and weekly allowance at $2.50 it was taking a long time to gather up our ninja turtle army. So the next best thing was to make your own action figures. We would roll up tin foil into balls for a head then wrap them with more foil that was cut so we could form a body and legs. Arms were attached on later. They worked out pretty well. We eventually ended up with a football team I think. There was a persistent problem with limbs falling off but a little more tin foil solved that problem. We probably spent more time making the men then actually playing with them but it sure was a good time.
When I grew up, my favorite home-made toys were normal kid things like play dough sculptures, sand castles, or paper airplanes. I didn’t ever dream of making tin-foil men. But wow…that’s genius. I almost wish I was a kid again so I could try it. We’ll have to figure out a way to adjust the game so it’s ok for adults to play. Or maybe I’ll just have to wait and try it when we have kids. Either way… it’s got to happen! Thanks for the idea!
I think my favorite home made toy, made for Darren and I by mom, was the large GI Joe tents mom maid. I didn't play with them too much, but they still look so good. I took one with me to my new house and will keep it for my children to play with. I have made a lot of games in my day. The pictured tin foil men pictured were a lot of fun. Mostly because of the battle damage they could receive. I also made a bunch of cut out paper (I hate to say it but… dolls). They were all tough action heroes. It was tough to play with flat paper cut outs. The rest of this entry will be in list form. -Hit the Deck (only played outdoors in a lightning storm) -Bomb (Played with a football or any other ball) -Tongue, (Trampoline board Game) -Barricades, (In the basement with the bunk beds in the middle of the room.) -Water gun backyard night hide-n-seek. -and the card game Preston described.
After reading the rest of the posts, I too want to take credit for the q-tip bow and arrows. I may not have discovered them, but I remember leading a team of younger siblings to construct them. I it was I who first lit one q-tip arrow on fire and shot it.
Dad’s comment reminded me of another game in the basement that we played with our cousin Jacob, Rich Kunz, Aaron Moss, and Darren. It consisted of everyone but one person hiding in the dark basement. Then, the lucky one would run into the basement and slam the door shut, leaving them in total darkness. The goal was to get to the other side of the basement in the dark without getting beaten to a pulp by the group of teenagers lurking in the dark. It was a great way to really get your hear racing.
And someone needs to mention the nerf bow and arrows in the basement. One guy would run back and forth along the wall while the guy with the nerf bow and arrow would shoot him. That game began with the scouts at our house one night I think. During my mission, Darren and Preston evolved it into air soft guns with goggles and loud music from The Matrix. Then it further evolved into the nerf finger rockets.
"Lava" was a very popular game for me and Becca growing up. We would use the waffle blocks as stepping stones to ford the then lava-ized carpet in the house. We would start in the Basement in Preston's room, throw out a few blocks, and stealthily hop across them. The last one in line would pick up the blocks we no longer stood on to use as future stepping stones. The goal was to get to our beds in the upstairs bedroom on the other side of the house. It was a game full of anxiety and adrenaline as we were seconds away from being engulfed by a giant looming wave of molten rock. Luckily, once we made it to our bedroom the dirty clothes on the floor counted as saftey stones as well. That saved our hides many times in the attempt to reach the bed intime.
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My favorite home-made toy or game was made by Christian when he was in middle school or younger I believe. It was our own version of a trading card game like the pokemon or magic the gathering. He had spend many night and afternoons drawling out some characters on his own home-made sturdy cards with orange backs on them. The characters ranged from the manly Rambo type to the silly Mr. T, and to the just outrageous Darren card. Each character, of which I believe there were well over 30, had their own strength and weaknesses. Other cards later made use armor upgrades, magic cards, and the all power mass destruction cards that would kill all the characters in play. I think Christian had a lot of fun making all the magic or special cards that would just destroy other characters. There were cards that put them in a pit of spikes, have a boulder fall on them. His imagination was powerful and dangerous. Over time he or we made a board where each player had a base from which they defended and then attacked other bases. The game just kept on getting bigger and bigger. We may have even been grounded from it once or twice for playing it to much and not doing homework or cleaning out room which we all three shared. The game is still in existence, its in my storage self were it waits to be played by his kids one day. Along with the games nobody plays with me anymore so I wait for some nephews to play them with. Wink wink.
My favorite was the q-tip bow and arrow set. With a rubber band and three q-tips we would make tiny but deadly weapons that kaylene and I shot just about anytime or anywhere. I think mom pretty much hated them. We would even sharpen the little arrows to make it more dangerous. It was great. Along with that we would pull up some of teh wild onion sfrom the backyard and use the hollow shoots, after eating the onion raw and unwashed, as blow darts for the little pea shaped things that grew on one of the trees. The backyard made a great battle ground and we would be at it for hours.
Wharon and I with a couple of Adults were talking in the living room upstairs one evening and 17 year old Preston with his friends were laughing and yelling downstairs. Periodically it seemed like the entire house would rumble and shake. This happened several times and FINALLY I decided to investigate. I found Preston and his friends taking turns holding up a huge exercise ball in front of thier chest. One person turned off all lights and turned on a flashing black light then the other person with the ball ran accross the basement and into the door to the boys room. With the flashing black light, it was difficlut to know the timing of when you and the exercise ball would hit the door so it was always a suprise when you bounced off the door and landed several feet away on the carpet. It was wierd, fun, exciting and just about destroyed the house. We did replace the door but that was from cumulative damage.
Well Preston and Becca took most of mine (I distinctly remember being the one to discover q-tip bow and arrows). I know the character card game was designed to become a computer game someday but apparently that never worked out. There were other games though. I will leave "Tongue" to Christian. Tin foil men were great. With Ninja turtles costing about $5.00 a pop and weekly allowance at $2.50 it was taking a long time to gather up our ninja turtle army. So the next best thing was to make your own action figures. We would roll up tin foil into balls for a head then wrap them with more foil that was cut so we could form a body and legs. Arms were attached on later. They worked out pretty well. We eventually ended up with a football team I think. There was a persistent problem with limbs falling off but a little more tin foil solved that problem. We probably spent more time making the men then actually playing with them but it sure was a good time.
When I grew up, my favorite home-made toys were normal kid things like play dough sculptures, sand castles, or paper airplanes. I didn’t ever dream of making tin-foil men. But wow…that’s genius. I almost wish I was a kid again so I could try it. We’ll have to figure out a way to adjust the game so it’s ok for adults to play. Or maybe I’ll just have to wait and try it when we have kids. Either way… it’s got to happen! Thanks for the idea!
I think my favorite home made toy, made for Darren and I by mom, was the large GI Joe tents mom maid. I didn't play with them too much, but they still look so good. I took one with me to my new house and will keep it for my children to play with.
I have made a lot of games in my day. The pictured tin foil men pictured were a lot of fun. Mostly because of the battle damage they could receive. I also made a bunch of cut out paper (I hate to say it but… dolls). They were all tough action heroes. It was tough to play with flat paper cut outs. The rest of this entry will be in list form.
-Hit the Deck (only played outdoors in a lightning storm)
-Bomb (Played with a football or any other ball)
-Tongue, (Trampoline board Game)
-Barricades, (In the basement with the bunk beds in the middle of the room.)
-Water gun backyard night hide-n-seek.
-and the card game Preston described.
After reading the rest of the posts, I too want to take credit for the q-tip bow and arrows. I may not have discovered them, but I remember leading a team of younger siblings to construct them. I it was I who first lit one q-tip arrow on fire and shot it.
Dad’s comment reminded me of another game in the basement that we played with our cousin Jacob, Rich Kunz, Aaron Moss, and Darren. It consisted of everyone but one person hiding in the dark basement. Then, the lucky one would run into the basement and slam the door shut, leaving them in total darkness. The goal was to get to the other side of the basement in the dark without getting beaten to a pulp by the group of teenagers lurking in the dark. It was a great way to really get your hear racing.
And someone needs to mention the nerf bow and arrows in the basement. One guy would run back and forth along the wall while the guy with the nerf bow and arrow would shoot him. That game began with the scouts at our house one night I think. During my mission, Darren and Preston evolved it into air soft guns with goggles and loud music from The Matrix. Then it further evolved into the nerf finger rockets.
"Lava" was a very popular game for me and Becca growing up. We would use the waffle blocks as stepping stones to ford the then lava-ized carpet in the house. We would start in the Basement in Preston's room, throw out a few blocks, and stealthily hop across them. The last one in line would pick up the blocks we no longer stood on to use as future stepping stones. The goal was to get to our beds in the upstairs bedroom on the other side of the house. It was a game full of anxiety and adrenaline as we were seconds away from being engulfed by a giant looming wave of molten rock. Luckily, once we made it to our bedroom the dirty clothes on the floor counted as saftey stones as well. That saved our hides many times in the attempt to reach the bed intime.
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