I got something very similar for Christmass from my uncle around 1862. I owned it for approximately 5 mins. The rocket was spring loaded and my uncle demonstrated how it worked, He hit the launch button , the rocket hit the ceiling at high velocity and took a chunk of plaster out of the ceiling in the living room. While my grandmother screamed , he picked up my gift, took it out to his car , never to be seen again !!! The hole stayed in the ceiling for quite a while until we repaired and painted it a decade later.
Ok, I want to make sure I get this all straight. 1) You got a. nice, and not cheap toy for Christmas. 2) Your uncle, who gave it to you, "demonstrates" it and puts a hole in his own ceiling. 3) A toy plastic rocket making a little hole in the ceiling was enough to get your grandmother screaming 4) He took away the gift he gave you, because HE made a mistake 5) That hole was such an awful family tragedy that they waited 10 years to fix it My goodness, I feel so bad for you!!!! Me, I would have laughed, told you not to play with it in the house like your goofy uncle, and after Christmas show you how a person fixes a hole in the ceiling so you get a practical lesson on working on a house. And then taken the launcher outside with you to the patio and launched more rockets.
The house was new that year and owned by my grandparents. The reason we waited to repair the ceiling was that it required painting two large rooms as there was no breakpoint. This was my new uncle through marriage (he had just married my mothers sister) trying to look good and make points with his in laws on Christmas. It is really not a painful memory for me. The expression on my uncles face was priceless. Many of the toys available to us back then would never pass safety standards today. The rocket actually took out about a 6in chunk of plaster. It actually was not the best choice for a 4 year old. We still have that house and the only area that does not need a refresh is that ceiling. That uncle is 92 yrs old now.
I had a similar toy made by the REMCO Toy Co. called Project Yankee Doodle that came out in 1959. There is a clip of that toy available to see on TH-cam. It worked about the same as the toy on this clip. My favorite toy was American Brick Building Blocks made in Chicago. I never was a fan of LEGO. Anyway, I'd build buildings using the American Brick building blocks then when my mom would tell me to take everything down and put everything away, I would pretend I was dictator Nikita Khrushchev and knock down the buildings with the rockets aimed at the buildings!!! Perhaps I was I ahead of my time, the way things are going these days.
Thank you Stanley for the great comment. I actually have had a Project Yankee Doodle, functioning but not quite complete, for many years. A few years ago, my wife got me a MIB version. They really are cool. I remember the American Brick Building Blocks but never played with them. My building sets were, first Tinkertoys, but then when I was about 9 my parents gave me a set from Mattel called Tog'l, and I got major hooked on it. I will at some point do a video on that set, I have a pretty good sized collection of it.
@@ToyKingWonder I don't recall Tog'l but will Google it to see what I missed and will look for your future clips. I did own a set of Tinkertoys but I really enjoyed the American Bricks the best because they were rather authentic looking when comparing modern buildings of the 1940s-1960s, also the bigger sets had some additional fancy items, moving doors and windows, etc. If you have spare time and research/Google American Brick Building Blocks enough, you'll find lists of what these sets contained by the manufacturer.
I was just thinking that myself. I have only launched indoors at the maximum of level 2 of 5. I think they would go a little higher, and maybe fasten something on the end that would deploy when the rocket is nose down from drag. Pretty interesting thought....
@@ToyKingWonder When I was thinking of a parachute I immediately thought of the ones on the large plastic paratroopers that we used to throw by hand in the air. I'm sure you remember those!
@@StudioPluche Semi-related toy fun. When I was about 10 my dad went to Mexico City on business, brought me home a Mexican TV guide, which was fascinating. He also brought me home two, made in Mexico helicopters that were about a foot long, you connected a handle to the bottom of them and pulled a string and they would really take off. Mexican kids in the street would demonstrate and sell them. I learned with a friend that if one guy held onto the handle with both hands, and another guy yanked on the string hard, you could get about twice the altitude than just doing it yourself. Again, such simple great fun.
I had one that was handed down from a cousin and I handed it down to a younger cousin. Very cool. Around 1964 I received for my birthday which I asked for was a water rocket system from the Sears Robuck Catalog. The toy had a launching pad with 10 ft of yellow small hose connected to a control box which was blue. You would fill the control box with water and then pump it up. The toy also had a manual timer for launching the rockets. One was the Mercury Redstone with a parachute the other rockets I think were the Gemini one piece. They would fly a good 75ft or so. I have never seen another one or even heard about others owning one. I remember sending away for extra rockets which were about 12". Anybody remember the toy?????
@@ToyKingWonder Thank You so much. Yes, that's it. Wow brings back some cool memories. On a hot day, we would all get drenched from the rockets they really put out some water. I always feel lucky that my generation had some of the best toys and which were hands-on. Thanks again.
I believe a neighbor of mine down the street had one of those water rocket systems you mention. They had a small swimming pool in their backyard doing the launching there. As we all lived in Chicago, the backyards (as well as the house lots) were not very big so one really had to watch what they were doing, otherwise the rocket would land on a house roof top making recovery difficult without using a ladder.
Imagination needs a comback!
I got something very similar for Christmass from my uncle around 1862. I owned it for approximately 5 mins. The rocket was spring loaded and my uncle demonstrated how it worked, He hit the launch button , the rocket hit the ceiling at high velocity and took a chunk of plaster out of the ceiling in the living room. While my grandmother screamed , he picked up my gift, took it out to his car , never to be seen again !!! The hole stayed in the ceiling for quite a while until we repaired and painted it a decade later.
Ok, I want to make sure I get this all straight.
1) You got a. nice, and not cheap toy for Christmas.
2) Your uncle, who gave it to you, "demonstrates" it and puts a hole in his own ceiling.
3) A toy plastic rocket making a little hole in the ceiling was enough to get your grandmother screaming
4) He took away the gift he gave you, because HE made a mistake
5) That hole was such an awful family tragedy that they waited 10 years to fix it
My goodness, I feel so bad for you!!!!
Me, I would have laughed, told you not to play with it in the house like your goofy uncle, and after Christmas show you how a person fixes a hole in the ceiling so you get a practical lesson on working on a house. And then taken the launcher outside with you to the patio and launched more rockets.
The house was new that year and owned by my grandparents. The reason we waited to repair the ceiling was that it required painting two large rooms as there was no breakpoint. This was my new uncle through marriage (he had just married my mothers sister) trying to look good and make points with his in laws on Christmas. It is really not a painful memory for me. The expression on my uncles face was priceless. Many of the toys available to us back then would never pass safety standards today. The rocket actually took out about a 6in chunk of plaster. It actually was not the best choice for a 4 year old. We still have that house and the only area that does not need a refresh is that ceiling. That uncle is 92 yrs old now.
Awesome demo!!
Thank you sir...
I had a similar toy made by the REMCO Toy Co. called Project Yankee Doodle that came out in 1959. There is a clip of that toy available to see on TH-cam. It worked about the same as the toy on this clip.
My favorite toy was American Brick Building Blocks made in Chicago. I never was a fan of LEGO. Anyway, I'd build buildings using the American Brick building blocks then when my mom would tell me to take everything down and put everything away, I would pretend I was dictator Nikita Khrushchev and knock down the buildings with the rockets aimed at the buildings!!! Perhaps I was I ahead of my time, the way things are going these days.
Thank you Stanley for the great comment. I actually have had a Project Yankee Doodle, functioning but not quite complete, for many years. A few years ago, my wife got me a MIB version. They really are cool.
I remember the American Brick Building Blocks but never played with them. My building sets were, first Tinkertoys, but then when I was about 9 my parents gave me a set from Mattel called Tog'l, and I got major hooked on it. I will at some point do a video on that set, I have a pretty good sized collection of it.
@@ToyKingWonder I don't recall Tog'l but will Google it to see what I missed and will look for your future clips. I did own a set of Tinkertoys but I really enjoyed the American Bricks the best because they were rather authentic looking when comparing modern buildings of the 1940s-1960s, also the bigger sets had some additional fancy items, moving doors and windows, etc. If you have spare time and research/Google American Brick Building Blocks enough, you'll find lists of what these sets contained by the manufacturer.
Beautiful toy so much imagination would have to be used to "power" it on its amazing but the selve with all those great toys made my heart jump ❤️❤️❤️
I am glad!
Cooooool how did you get one
love this !
My parents wouldn’t let me have this toy as my mom read somewhere it was “too dangerous!”
That was fun, thank you!
I am glad you enjoyed
they had some fantastic toys back in the day. not cheap, though, but ideal was on top of it.
Cool toy. If I would have had that when I was a kid I would probably have tried to attach a small parachute to the rocket.
I was just thinking that myself. I have only launched indoors at the maximum of level 2 of 5. I think they would go a little higher, and maybe fasten something on the end that would deploy when the rocket is nose down from drag. Pretty interesting thought....
@@ToyKingWonder When I was thinking of a parachute I immediately thought of the ones on the large plastic paratroopers that we used to throw by hand in the air. I'm sure you remember those!
@@StudioPluche Yes I do! We had a deck on the 2nd story of our house, and we would go out on that, and heave those up into the air. Such simple fun.
@@ToyKingWonder I think I still have one in my collection, somewhere.
@@StudioPluche Semi-related toy fun. When I was about 10 my dad went to Mexico City on business, brought me home a Mexican TV guide, which was fascinating. He also brought me home two, made in Mexico helicopters that were about a foot long, you connected a handle to the bottom of them and pulled a string and they would really take off. Mexican kids in the street would demonstrate and sell them. I learned with a friend that if one guy held onto the handle with both hands, and another guy yanked on the string hard, you could get about twice the altitude than just doing it yourself. Again, such simple great fun.
Awesome toy!
I didn't have this. Wonder how my parents missed it.
I had one that was handed down from a cousin and I handed it down to a younger cousin. Very cool. Around 1964 I received for my birthday which I asked for was a water rocket system from the Sears Robuck Catalog. The toy had a launching pad with 10 ft of yellow small hose connected to a control box which was blue. You would fill the control box with water and then pump it up. The toy also had a manual timer for launching the rockets. One was the Mercury Redstone with a parachute the other rockets I think were the Gemini one piece. They would fly a good 75ft or so. I have never seen another one or even heard about others owning one. I remember sending away for extra rockets which were about 12". Anybody remember the toy?????
What a cool item! Here it is Andrew: www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1964_Sears_Christmas_Book/files/assets/common/page-substrates/page0178.jpg
@@ToyKingWonder Thank You so much. Yes, that's it. Wow brings back some cool memories. On a hot day, we would all get drenched from the rockets they really put out some water. I always feel lucky that my generation had some of the best toys and which were hands-on.
Thanks again.
I believe a neighbor of mine down the street had one of those water rocket systems you mention. They had a small swimming pool in their backyard doing the launching there. As we all lived in Chicago, the backyards (as well as the house lots) were not very big so one really had to watch what they were doing, otherwise the rocket would land on a house roof top making recovery difficult without using a ladder.
@@stanleykijek6983 LOL I had more room but the dang rockets would hit the tarmac driveway and crack. I had to re-order the rockets a few times. lol
Cool!
I had one of these and I lost the big rocket. My sister stole it to be spiteful. I found it in her bedside draw hidden under some cloths! 😊
Hmm was it just for spite? How old was your sister?
Lol the best !!
False advertising. That rocket got nowhere near the moon!