The Five Best Toys of All Time (according to Wired)

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http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/all/1

They came up with some pretty solid picks here, imo.

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Box 14
Cardboard tube 8
Dirt 8
Stick 4
String 3


Johnny Fever, Sunday, 4 December 2011 16:35 (fourteen years ago)

tough to beat cardboard tube imo, though I did always enjoy a good box.

Johnny Fever, Sunday, 4 December 2011 16:40 (fourteen years ago)

box only if its a giant box

HUSTLA DA =:3 (dealwithit.gif), Sunday, 4 December 2011 16:41 (fourteen years ago)

Box

Mordy, Sunday, 4 December 2011 16:50 (fourteen years ago)

You can play with dirt well into adulthood and senescence.

Sanpaku, Sunday, 4 December 2011 16:56 (fourteen years ago)

Box http://vimeo.com/12470044

Billy Dods, Sunday, 4 December 2011 17:51 (fourteen years ago)

I was pretty obsessed with Maniac McGee as a kid, and I would ask my dad to tie the most tangled and complicated knots he could come up with so I could sit around untying them. Voted string.

not uplifting (Abbott), Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:53 (fourteen years ago)

And now I KNIT and knots are my enemy but I am considering "string" the same thing as yarn.

not uplifting (Abbott), Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:54 (fourteen years ago)

Kids + sticks = school holiday classic

Julie Lagger, Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:54 (fourteen years ago)

Cardboard tube is the obvious choice for all the dwarf hamsters voting in this poll.

not uplifting (Abbott), Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:55 (fourteen years ago)

http://www.hamster-palace.com/images/hamster-sleeping.JPG

look at how happy this hamster is with his balls hanging out of a cardboard tube

not uplifting (Abbott), Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:56 (fourteen years ago)

once asked for "big box" for christmas. Got it, too.

stet, Sunday, 4 December 2011 18:56 (fourteen years ago)

Cardboard tube indoors, stick outdoors. They both convey immense powers upon the wearer/wielder.

Michael Jones, Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:18 (fourteen years ago)

Bah, what is this, the 20th century? All the kids want a multitouch iBox(tm).

yes this is the real (snoball), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:20 (fourteen years ago)

no ball no credibility

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:23 (fourteen years ago)

I remember when you could kick a ball in the street. Now you need a proprietary ball, a special 'ball kicking' street zone, a ball kicker's license from the council, and a special pair of steel toecapped ball kicking boots.

yes this is the real (snoball), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:25 (fourteen years ago)

fuck's sake even at the weekend there's some sod blamin the council for his woes on ilx

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:27 (fourteen years ago)

All I'm saying is that the ball kicking exam could do with being a bit less stringent. I mean, when are you ever going to have to kick a ball into a rectangular space 8 yards wide by 8 feet tall? Not even England's professional football kickers could do that!

yes this is the real (snoball), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:28 (fourteen years ago)

itsa football zing there innit

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:32 (fourteen years ago)

More like exasperation disguised as comedy.

yes this is the real (snoball), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:33 (fourteen years ago)

Maybe football wouldn't be such a minority sport in England if we were better at it.

yes this is the real (snoball), Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:34 (fourteen years ago)

I voted dirt. It is so freeing to have an expanse of dirt to play in.

Aimless, Sunday, 4 December 2011 19:34 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

We play in it when young and continue to look for it the rest of our adult lives. Dirt ftw.

lebateauivre, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:21 (fourteen years ago)

I don't think you can really know joy until you have beaten your siblings with a cardboard tube.

Nicole, Monday, 5 December 2011 00:33 (fourteen years ago)

or yr children tbf

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Monday, 5 December 2011 00:37 (fourteen years ago)

I still use cardboard tubes as telescopes.

milo z, Monday, 5 December 2011 01:22 (fourteen years ago)

Dirt!

William (C), Monday, 5 December 2011 01:36 (fourteen years ago)

A single cardboard tube is great. With multiple ones you could literally construct the world.

Osoby, Monday, 5 December 2011 12:23 (fourteen years ago)

literally

Sad Banter (p much resigned to deems), Monday, 5 December 2011 12:30 (fourteen years ago)

yeah but look what happened to the ilx server

dayo, Monday, 5 December 2011 12:35 (fourteen years ago)

Voted stick

Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Monday, 5 December 2011 12:37 (fourteen years ago)

paper got robbed

remy bean in exile, Monday, 5 December 2011 12:59 (fourteen years ago)

Scissors is all cut up about not being included. Stone should have been covered.

yes this is the real (snoball), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:03 (fourteen years ago)

I gave up and let my little baby roll around in the dirt a bunch last weekend. She loved it so much that she tried to kiss it. It went very well with stick.

My 7 year old has not quite grown out of sticks. I have several in my car. A few stacked by the front door. Several in a bin in his room along with actual toy swords and guns that we bought for him.

rusty flathead screwdriver, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:12 (fourteen years ago)

Stick's the only one I could imagine still having some fun with. String's the only one I don't really get, string's just boring isn't it? Rubber bands on the other hand...

Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:14 (fourteen years ago)

Cardboard tubes are fun, but voted boxes for sheer versatility.

thejenny, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:15 (fourteen years ago)

Oh could still have a lot of fun with a cardboard tube, now I think if it

Tony Hart land (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:15 (fourteen years ago)

Manny: "All I needed was a... was a breezeblock. And... and a bit of an old bone."
Bernard: "I bet you could make whole worlds with just those."
Manny: "Oh, I could! One minute I'd be laying siege to a castle with a bit of an old bone, and the next minute I'd be setting sail on a Spanish galleon towards a breezeblock."

yes this is the real (snoball), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:16 (fourteen years ago)

String's the only one I don't really get, string's just boring isn't it?

Have you talked to any cats lady?

not uplifting (Abbott), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:22 (fourteen years ago)

Or to Mary Everest Boole, who made string AND math fun...together?

not uplifting (Abbott), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:25 (fourteen years ago)

I can thank her for all the groovy thrift store string art I have on my walls.

not uplifting (Abbott), Monday, 5 December 2011 13:25 (fourteen years ago)

Scissors is all cut up about not being included. Stone should have been covered.

― yes this is the real (snoball), Monday, December 5, 2011 8:03 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

hmm, I heard scissors was pretty crushed by its exclusion

dayo, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:27 (fourteen years ago)

Voted box. Stick = things in the universe, while box = the universe.

NotEnough, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:31 (fourteen years ago)

my 3 year old son had so much fun with a huge cardboard box this weekend it made me wonder why I even bother buying regular toys for him

silverfish, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:36 (fourteen years ago)

See: Calvin and Hobbes

Number None, Monday, 5 December 2011 13:40 (fourteen years ago)

hmm, I heard scissors was pretty crushed by its exclusion

No, it just went and got blunted.

yes this is the real (snoball), Monday, 5 December 2011 14:02 (fourteen years ago)

Meanwhile, stone went out and got hammered.

yes this is the real (snoball), Monday, 5 December 2011 14:03 (fourteen years ago)

if i had to pick which one to give to my 2-year-old son to play with, it'd be a box. he loves containers, of any size, anything he can put or pour inside them, or put on his head, etc. he likes sticks too but he'll just start wacking everything with one, string and cardboard tubes he might get bored with by themselves, and dirt is well too dirty.

i already regret not just being 'some dude' again (Mr. Stevenson #2), Monday, 5 December 2011 14:16 (fourteen years ago)

Boxes offer up so much possibility.....

Everything else is secondary, Monday, 5 December 2011 14:41 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rlOSjpIbFs

Bela Lugosi's Derrida (MarkG oo la showaddywaddy), Monday, 5 December 2011 14:45 (fourteen years ago)

Historically I have had the most fun with dirt and boxes, but string was my accomplice in what could have been the crowning achievement of my childhood. I took the kitchen twine and wound it decoratively around all of the trees in our backyard -- a lot of trees, we lived right over the Cuyahoga valley -- and then attempted to set it on fire so I could watch the fire zing around the string. Biiiiig trouble.

recently deposed application inspector for the (league of women voters), Monday, 5 December 2011 14:55 (fourteen years ago)

my childhood was more about testing electric fences and jumping off high things and throwing water at each other

judith, Monday, 5 December 2011 15:00 (fourteen years ago)

lol xp

Johnny Fever, Monday, 5 December 2011 15:00 (fourteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 00:01 (fourteen years ago)

Cardboard tube in with a decent showing, but it was always gonna be box.

Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 00:25 (fourteen years ago)

Best toy of all time is a slinky, no ifs ands or butts!

realness, just realness, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 03:33 (fourteen years ago)

sorry, buts

Todd

realness, just realness, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 03:33 (fourteen years ago)

nintendo is better than a box

Jeff, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 12:26 (fourteen years ago)

Last weekend, one of my kids' friends brought over a Samsung laptop that he made out of a cardboard box.

rusty flathead screwdriver, Tuesday, 6 December 2011 14:16 (fourteen years ago)


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