Remember when toys where toys, you actually had to have some imagination, and you DID stuff with them? One of my favorites was Spiro-graph. I loved all the intricate lines and patterns, but just when you were about done, the pen would slip or you'd tear a hole in the paper - boo. What toys do you fondly remember?
My erector set would win, hands down; one of the metal ones that came with a small electrical motor that could be used on things that were built. Next would be Robbie the Robot. "I'm Robbie the Robot, the mechanical man. I walk and I talk, and I do what I can." However, it wasn't long before Robbie wouldn't walk anymore but he kept lying to me about it.
I was fond of my spirograph, too. And the Lite-Brite that came out about the same time. I also loved the loom thing that came with the stretchy bands that you made pot holders with. I know for a fact that my grandmother had a lifetime supply of those ugly things. I asked her once, long after I'd grown up, why she didn't just get rid of them and buy herself some new ones, but she said she thought they were better than what she could buy. Well, maybe they were. I don't know. When I was very small I always liked wind up toys, slinkies, silly putty and play dough. And then there was the Wonder Horse, which my grandfather tried very hard to motorize. That didn't go too well. Everyone told him I'd be the first kid thrown by a rocking horse. As it turned out, I liked it just fine without the motor.
My favorite all-time toy was a turquoise metal car I could actually ride in. It was powered by the petals and my 'foot power'. I would set up stop signs fashioned by pieces of wood and explore new destinations every day. It brings a big smile to my lips as I write this.
I purchased that rocking horse for my daughter was she was a baby. She enjoyed riding her horse, I don't know but I think I had as much fun as she did when we played riding the horse together.
I'm not sure if I still have it, but when I was about 5, my babysitter was moving out of town, so she gave me a wooden dog which had strings in it. The strings were connected to a button, and each time you pressed the button the dog moved and distorted its limbs in a funny way. That toy was by far my favorite, not so much because what it was, but because it reminded me of my babysitter, which I absolutely loved.