Stuff from the 70s. An all that.

[gintonic]

Yes remember you had to stick the foils onto the underside of the cars and trim the plastic sick up with a scissors for the cars to engage with the track.
Matchbox cars - 19p each, Swansea Market!

yep thats the one. You had to thread the track with a giant spring - which joined together with a clip

here is the accessory pack

https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Plastic_prong_Accessory_Pack_(Matchbox_Motorway_X1)

 

[chiily]

I always wanted one of them...

My parents stopped buying me Christmas presents when I was about ten, as I would promptly take them apart to see how they worked. They did substitute with boxes of meccano and a little, static steam engine which kept me happy for years.

 

[irons1965]

yep thats the one. You had to thread the track with a giant spring - which joined together with a clip

here is the accessory pack

https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Plastic_prong_Accessory_Pack_(Matchbox_Motorway_X1)

Blimey, forgot about the threading of the spring.....Remember the noise of carefully pushing it through the track so as to not kink it

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Then there was "Empire Made" which was also "Made in Hong kong" but without the quality.

I remember cheap plastic toys made out of a hard plastic in sort of multicoloured swirls. I presume just random colours of leftover beads melted down together. Utter tat, all of it.

 

[Andy Stephenson]

Another 70's favorite was watching Brian Walden on Sunday mornings prior to nipping off to the pub. It was quite entertaining hearing about USSR invasion scenarios and where all the nukes would land and how it might all escalate from the use of tactical weapons to complete armageddon. We've come a long way in 50 years.

Weekend World

I loved the theme tune Nantucket Sleighride by Mountain

Andy

Just seen i was beaten to it

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I always wanted one of them...

My parents stopped buying me Christmas presents when I was about ten, as I would promptly take them apart to see how they worked. They did substitute with boxes of meccano and a little, static steam engine which kept me happy for years.

I had one, it was a bit rubbish actually. Johnny Astro was miles better.

 

[gintonic]

i had a Thomas Salter chemistry set. My Dad was a research pharmacist before he left to do other things. He insisted i study chemisty to O'Level, and made me retake until i passed at the third attempt - having got a D, then an E, and then a C.

what is really weird, is that i cam across the original test tube racks from the set a few days ago

when i found the test tube racks, i also found these (mostly from the 1970s)

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

i had a Thomas Salter chemistry set. My Dad was a research pharmacist before he left to do other things. He insisted i study chemisty to O'Level, and made me retake until i passed at the third attempt - having got a D, then an E, and then a C.

what is really weird, is that i cam across the original test tube racks from the set a few days ago

I had one of those too! It came with a small burner fuelled by methylated spirits that took ages to heat stuff up. It made setting light to the magnesium ribbon a bit of a bind, but it was worth it when it caught.

I can still remember the smell, I used to set up on the kitchen table.

 

[gintonic]

I had one of those too! It came with a small burner fuelled by methylated spirits that took ages to heat stuff up. It made setting light to the magnesium ribbon a bit of a bind, but it was worth it when it caught.

I can still remember the smell, I used to set up on the kitchen table.

it had a small plastic "petri dish" (saucer) that i accidently melted on the meths burner (for some reason i thought it was glass, and I was doing some off piste experiments)

My Dad used to top up chemical supplies from the labs he worked in, i also got some full size glassware (gas jars, beakers, flasks etc) from him. IIRC i gave all the glass and left over chemicals to my secondary school when i left. I think i was a perpetual academic disappointment to my Dad because the only thing that interested me about chemistry was the smells, and bangs.....

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

it had a small plastic "petri dish" (saucer) that i accidently melted on the meths burner (for some reason i thought it was glass, and I was doing some off piste experiments)

In the sixth form at school, our form room was in the chemistry block. You could tell our form room from outside by the great gouts of black smoke emerging from the fume cupboard chimney, at lunch times.

 

[gintonic]

this was much more interesting - i think it was 1970s

more here https://medium.com/@rxseger/electronic-project-kits-hands-on-with-a-vintage-160-in-1-eea39e6193f4

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

I had one of those too! Though mine was smaller, an 80 in One, from memory. I still have the wooden case, with some aeromodelling tools in it, though the innards went in the bin decades ago. It failed to stimulate an interest in electronics, alas.

 

[Bob McC]

Stop fannying about with Matchbox.
This is what you really wanted…

 

[chiily]

In the sixth form at school, our form room was in the chemistry block. You could tell our form room from outside by the great gouts of black smoke emerging from the fume cupboard chimney, at lunch times.

In the sixth form, A level Chemistry, the teacher used to pop off to the Staff room for a fag half way through a triple lesson. He would leave the chemical room unlocked. We robbed so much Sodium, lithium and magnesium strips, for experiments at home

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Stop fannying about with Matchbox.
This is what you really wanted…

Recently clearing my parents' attic when they moved house, I found my old Aurora set. Smaller than Scalextric, so you could get an interesting track in a smaller area.

 

[gintonic]

I had one of those too! Though mine was smaller, an 80 in One, from memory. I still have the wooden case, with some aeromodelling tools in it, though the innards went in the bin decades ago. It failed to stimulate an interest in electronics, alas.

i took the innards out, although i think the box went along time ago.......

 

[Bob McC]

Recently clearing my parents' attic when they moved house, I found my old Aurora set. Smaller than Scalextric, so you could get an interesting track in a smaller area.

I believe it was called HO scale.

 

[gintonic]

i had one of these. Out the back of the house i was brought up in was a wood yard, and they used to give me a bag of offcuts. I was always making stuff. this must have sparked an interest as I did CDT A'Level, and went on to become a CDT teacher - mainly teaching woodwork and electronics!!

I still have and use some of the original tools

 

[Dinovector]

i had one of these. Out the back of the house i was brought up in was a wood yard, and they used to give me a bag of offcuts. I was always making stuff. this must have sparked an interest as I did CDT A'Level, and went on to become a CDT teacher - mainly teaching woodwork and electronics!!

I still have and use some of the original tools

I had the exact same tool kit, I think I still have the G clamp, flimsy but useful in small spaced sometimes

 

[Andy Stephenson]

When I used to be more easily amused ...

I had the Corgi version - Corgi Rockets The track came as one coiled length and you cut the track into sections of whichever size you liked.

Andy