Girlie toys?

[Beverley Sims]

Trains and boats and planes.
Construction sets et al.
That was by myself at home.

I played with the girl next door and her friends, I liked being a mother, along with them and feeding and changing my dolls diapers.
We all played tea parties, I was five.
I was always wearing a dress loaned to me so as to "blend in".

[Angela Campbell]

Erector sets....yes I loved them. I have been a bit interested as I have met many crossdressers who are engineers. ( I am too) seems to go together well. Maybe they should include courses in college for makeup and fashion. Algebra, Trig, Calculus, eyeliner, fundamentals of DC, physics 101.....

[sometimes_miss]

I got my older sister's hand me downs. Dolls, ez bake oven, etc.. Sis also had lincoln logs, so that was fun, too. I got lionel trains when I was four I think, but was only allowed to set them up during christmas.

[Kalista Jameson]

I have a younger sister, so I often played with her Strawberry Shortcake dolls while wearing her leotard and tights. She wore the same. My mom once walked in on that but thought I was just being a dedicated and attentive brother. She just warned me to be sure to change before my dad got home.

Blueberry Muffin was my favorite.

Cheers,

Kalista

[Tracii G]

Erector sets were big when I was growing up so I played with those a lot.
Had a Schwinn Sting Ray bicycle too and rode it everywhere.I had a few flower stickers on it.
I hung out with the girls down the street so I played house with them a lot.Barbies and all the clothes were fun I admit.
One girl had a Ken doll and we would dress him up in Barbie's clothes.
Loved the Estes model rockets too.

[Sabrina133]

Erector set, books and model airplane kits, baseball glove, bicycle - pretty much the standard boy type toys.

[Alexis.j]

More soft toys/teddies that would fit on a king size bed. ..

[stephNE]

I had a tea set, and a box of jewelry in my closet (a pin, a couple bracelets and a necklace).

[Cheryl T]

Oh well I had a Betsy Wetsy doll and loved it. Had to change her often and keep her clean and it was great preparation had I become a mother.
I also had a Tiny Tears.
Ok, I know I'm showing my age and many will have to Google these to see what they were, but they were mine and I loved them.

[Dawn cd]

I asked for a dollhouse with tiny furniture. My parents were a little puzzled, but they bought it for me. I played with it for a couple of years.

[FrillyShelly]

I had an older sister that dressed me up & played "tea time"

[Leanne2]

Back in the 50s some of the dolls were made of a soft rubbery material that consisted of a torso, arms, legs, and the head. These parts could be removed and replaced easily and they would swivel to show different poses. My sister had a doll like this that I played with. One day I pulled all of the fine plastic hair off of the head. My sister got mad and said that without hair it was a boy doll now and I had to keep it. I named him Petee and played with him often. Leanne

[Briana90802]

I recall a study that found that the majority of engineers who graduated before the '80s had one thing in common: An Erector set during their childhood! I had one and it was so superior to the current crop of Legos and K'nex as it allowed much more creativity.

I had to look far and wide, but I made sure that my own daughters had an Erector Set!

I don't recall having any girly toys, nor did I have sisters or female friends.

I had both erector set and kinex. And I must say that kinex is superior. The limitations of kinex pieces allows for more inventive problem solving situations.

[Danielle_cder]

none to speak of boy toys for sure, bull dozers, dump trucks, backhoes, trackhoes, i played in red dirt.

[Lorileah]

My parents pretty much let us have whatever we wanted as far as toys so our house was a conglomeration of boys and girls things. My dad built my little brother a kitchen with table and chairs even. We had the GI Joes and a couple of Knights (don't remember what they were called). My grandmother taught me and my brother how to sew and cook. Does that count? Funny the brother who played with dolls the most is gay. The brother who played with cars is straight, and then there is me

[GothicEmily]

Strictly boy toys here. I was a junior geek who liked to build things: Legos, Erector set, Tinkertoys. Didn't really have any great desire to hold play tea parties, play with dolls, etc., but if you look at playing with dolls as a sort of rehearsal for parenting, and my lack of desire to be a parent as an adult, it's not a surprise.

[CynthiaD]

One of my very first toys was a doll that I insisted my parents buy for me. It disappeared after a while. I used to love to play house with the girls in the neighborhood. At first they didn't want me to play because I was a boy, but then I pointed out that every house had to have a dad (this was the 1950s) and they let me be the dad.

My younger brother and I had some girly toys that had once been my mothers, but we were a lot harder on them than a girl would be, so they didn't last long. I slept with a teddy bear until I was in high school. That's kind of androgynous, but I used to pretend it was my baby.

[Brynna M]

No girl toys but I had a tone of girl movies. rainbow bright unico, carebears, my little pony movies. all were favorites growing up.

[Jessica Who]

I had (and still have) action figures and played with them a lot. Sometimes, though, I would borrow my sister's Barbies so they could be the girlfriends of my Ninja Turtles or He-Man characters

[ossian]

Ok.... to add, because of my geeky side..... my brother and I did build an underground rather elaborate "bunker" slash "doll house" that involved electric lights. For the GI Joe's. It gave light even if the hatch was closed. It was great fun to build, kind of like a train set for GI Joe's but underground. When we buried it it was Fall and we imagined through the Winter, with many visits during warm Winter weather, what was going on. It was super fun. My bro later went on to a degree in engineering. I'm so proud of him.

[Alana Wests]

Mostly He-man and other awesome classics like that. Though, my cousin brought over a large doll once that I instantly fell in love with, when she left in the morning , she gave it to me because I was so enamoured with it. That lasted for a few weeks,m then it broke(I carried it everywhere). after that, no more dolls or girly toys.

[Cheryl Ann Owens]

It was A. C. Gilbert Erector Sets that launched my fascination of mechanical things. I went from a machine operator to a highly paid management position from what I learned. I also enjoyed the Kenner Girder & Panel sets. I owe a lot to those early toys to have gained a mechanical sense that has carried me through in many ways. I do have a bride Barbie that is very special to me though!

Cheryl

[tall2826]

I personally never had any but my sister and I would always play with our toys together.

[Sometimes Steffi]

I had all kinds of different building sets.... engineers are genderless.....

"I had all kinds of different building sets.... engineers are genderless....."

Oh right on, Sister! Great line!

Agreed, Legos, erector sets, micronauts and those girder things with the plastic windows were the best!

I was an Erector Set kid as well! But I have been building to "full scale" since that start..lol!

Tinker toys, Lincoln logs, Gilbert brand erector set, You might have guessed I became a mechanic.

I recall a study that found that the majority of engineers who graduated before the '80s had one thing in common: An Erector set during their childhood! I had one and it was so superior to the current crop of Legos and K'nex as it allowed much more creativity.

I had to look far and wide, but I made sure that my own daughters had an Erector Set!

I don't recall having any girly toys, nor did I have sisters or female friends.

Lincoln logs, girder and panel set, trains, slot car, one doll

Right on, Eryn -- the classic Erector sets were the best building toys ever made. I had a composite of about three of the larger sets plus a variety of additional parts that you could order individually from A.C.Gilbert back in the day. I could build anything my skills and patience would allow. Heck, even for many years after I got to college and into the professional world, it was common to see various kinds of laboratory rigs and prototype machines built with Erector girders, motors and gears for the mechanical foundations. I had Lego stuff as well, but creative as it was, that was clearly a toy, while working with the metal Erector parts felt (and was) a lot more like real world engineering.

I also used a lot of basic craft supplies to build my own fantasy toys, usually with an aviation or space connection. Also G.I. Joes (the classic 12" ones with elaborately crafted clothing), model railroads and plastic airplane kits. I finally settled on model rocketry as my lifelong hobby obsession and have accomplished a fair amount in that field.

But my folks never discouraged me from playing with "girl" toys, either. I had lots of stuffed animals and a couple of dolls that clearly did not come from the boys' side of the toy aisle, and they got plenty of play attention from me as well. I credit the fact that I can't cook worth a darn now to the fact that I never owned an Easy-Bake oven, though.

- Diane

Erector sets....yes I loved them. I have been a bit interested as I have met many crossdressers who are engineers. ( I am too) seems to go together well. Maybe they should include courses in college for makeup and fashion. Algebra, Trig, Calculus, eyeliner, fundamentals of DC, physics 101.....

Erector sets were big when I was growing up so I played with those a lot.
Had a Schwinn Sting Ray bicycle too and rode it everywhere.I had a few flower stickers on it.
I hung out with the girls down the street so I played house with them a lot.Barbies and all the clothes were fun I admit.
One girl had a Ken doll and we would dress him up in Barbie's clothes.
Loved the Estes model rockets too.

Erector set, books and model airplane kits, baseball glove, bicycle - pretty much the standard boy type toys.

Strictly boy toys here. I was a junior geek who liked to build things: Legos, Erector set, Tinkertoys. Didn't really have any great desire to hold play tea parties, play with dolls, etc., but if you look at playing with dolls as a sort of rehearsal for parenting, and my lack of desire to be a parent as an adult, it's not a surprise.

It was A. C. Gilbert Erector Sets that launched my fascination of mechanical things. I went from a machine operator to a highly paid management position from what I learned. I also enjoyed the Kenner Girder & Panel sets. I owe a lot to those early toys to have gained a mechanical sense that has carried me through in many ways. I do have a bride Barbie that is very special to me though!

Cheryl

Wow. There are a lot of engineers here.

I had no girlie toys, and the only time I "played" with girls was to throw sticky burrs at them.

These are some of the boy toys I had

I had an Erector Set, Legos, Girder and Panel, Tinker Toys an HO race set, American Flyer trains, Creeper Crawlers, all sorts of model planes, tanks and other vehicles, a whole bunch of Tonka trucks, a chemistry set, a microscope, butterfly nets, fishing poles, a sled, toboggan, baseball equipment, football equipment, hockey equipment, a basketball, numerous frisbees, bee bee guns, bow and arrows, toy guns and rifles. My dad bought us everything he didn't have as a kid, and he had nothing.

I also used to make home-made marble works courses with lumber that was, ah, liberated from the lots where they were building new houses.

I didn't get to play with barbies until I had a daughter.

[Eryn]

I had both erector set and kinex. And I must say that kinex is superior. The limitations of kinex pieces allows for more inventive problem solving situations.

K'nex, which limits you to 45 or 90 degree angles does require the builder to be more inventive in solving problems.

Erector, with a virtually unlimited range of angles, was superior when you were trying to build something. Engineers, even budding ones, need materials that are versatile. With Erector you could even bend the pieces if needed.

Another member mentioned Sting-Ray bicycles. The designer of the Schwinn Sting-Ray, Al Fritz, recently passed away. The girls' version was called the "Fairlady" and was in production for 18 years.