Toys of your youth

The Playmobil pirate ship used to be better than this:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/08/playmobil-racist-toy-pirate-slave

While I can understand the idea that an escaped slave might sail as a crew member on a pirate ship (I don't think pirates in the Caribbean were implicated in the slave trade, although I could be wrong), and the idea that the ship's hold is a 'dungeon' is nonsense, this is still totally maladroit.

And, frankly, Playmobil was only good while it kept to Hans Beck's relatively simple original vision (as ever, I don't like the adult-lack-of-imagination-driven over-complication of plastic system toys).

Amazing. But Playmobile always was a poor quality Lego anyway.

.

Had tonnes of this stuff, just chucked a load away actually, the springs were borked and the plastics don't seem to have aged well

Found this bad boy when I was clearing out...

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Winning.

Had Shadow Force tank (bottom left) Star Wing and single seater fighters (good n bad)

Finally radiators had a purpose.

Wow.
Nostalgia moment. I had one of those. I do remember it being good for about a week and then Evil passed away from one too many "ambitious" dining room table to floor jumps. RIP.

Was all about Construx in our house.

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Evil passed away from one too many "ambitious" dining room table to floor jumps. RIP.

He died due to jumping down the stairs for me. :(

Was all about Construx in our house.

If you didn't have Lego then it meant your parents hated you.

We had Lego as well..

Starcom

Yes, loved this stuff. Still got some of it in my parents' loft I think.

^ we had those in our wedding goodie bags, along with:

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smooth,

^^ @edmundro @prevailrob I recall both of those. The plans occasionally worked. The parachutes never did.

and then later on in my youth:

My first caravan holiday with my parents and sister in 1968-ish led me to flying this exact model in our Brockenhurst camp-site. It was utterly brilliant and made me want to be a pilot as well as my first choice of career, a vet (neither of which happened).

There are several companies around now that make non-LEGO versions of LEGO. I think they've been able to do this since certain patents have expired. Strictly in the interest of scientific enquiry, I'm planning to get a bag of them for myself for my nephews to see if they're any good.

http://www.q-bricks.org/en/

I'm mainly attracted by this because they do simple packages of assorted bricks rather than those completely useless models LEGO does these days. (Judging from recent experience, they contain far too many flat bricks and not enough of substance to enable proper building.)

You can buy 'normal' brick selections and packages from the lego website. Tends to be more £€$¥₩ though.

You need this then:

Lego for a good long while put about rumors and horror stories of other bricks made with lead and stuff in them, since online reviews of everything became a thing the smaller brands aren't getting killed off as fast as they did before since people can buy more confidently. I also think the majority of lego now being tied in with films and video games is alienating the people who "just want bricks".