So as a kid I had one T.H.I.N.G.S. toy, and that was Sir Ring-a-Lot. My neighbor had one called Grabbit. I know it was a simpler time but I loved playing these simple little wind-up games. I still have my original Sir Ring-a-Lot (minus his rings though), and was lucky enough to get a boxed one through a trade online.
Then I found a plastic Tomy game called "Kid Kong" at a thrift store. It was a cool looking piece which I initially intended to try and re-sell to make a few bucks. I pulled it apart and fixed the broken mechanism inside, and decided it was too cool to get rid of just yet.
At a garage sale not too long after I found a "Strolling Bowling" game by Tomy, and after I played with that for a while that collector's flame was ignited. I've become very interested in all the old wind-up and battery operated Tomy games from the 70's and 80's. Not so much the arcade and digital stuff they made, but the plastic kinetic games with moving parts and cool characters. I went on a little bit of an ebay bender (I'm very susceptible to these which is why I abandoned Paypal for a year, and may have to again) and purchased several more in the next couple days. I've had to stop myself from that moving forward, but I'm sure I'll be keeping a better eye out for these from now on.
I think the Tomy games and T.H.I.N.G.S. share that same simple, fun spirit, so I'm clumping them together in one post.
My collection so far:
Milton Bradley T.H.I.N.G.S.:
Sir Ring-a-lot in box
Sir Ring-a-lot loose
Flip-O-Potamus in box
Flip-O-Potamus loose
Grabbit in box
Grabbit loose
Astro-Nots in box
Astro-Nots loose
Eggzilla loose (assembled)
Eggzilla loose (unassembled)
My collection also includes an incomplete and non-functional Dr. Wack-O game.
TOMY Games:
Starcades Rocket Tower front
Starcades Rocket Tower rear
Strolling Bowling in box
Strolling Bowling in case
Strolling Bowling set up
Bumbling Boxing in box
Bumbling Boxing in case
Bumbling Boxing set up
Goof-Around Golf in case
Goof-Around Golf set up
Homerun Home in box
Homerun Homer set up
Kid Kong sprung
Kid Kong game in progress
Turn The Terrible Tank box
Turn The Terrible Tank game set up
Original Mr. Mouth box
Original Mr. Mouth
Newer "Frog" Mr. Mouth (distributed in the US by Milton Bradley)
"Frog" Mr. Mouth
Flippopotamus box
Flippopotamus
Bolt n Stein box (not yet opened, will be doing so soon)