Greatest Playsets You Didn't "Buy" - RetroBlasting
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- Опубликовано: 16 июл 2013
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RetroBlasting puts the play back into classic toys by exploring not just what we had growing up, but how we interacted with them.
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I had my 8 year old son watch this and immediately he created a playset and is now playing an escape with his action figures. Thank you Retroblasting!!!
same!
Casimir1100 lol did this also when I was younger now I am in junior high
Mr so am I and I don't give two 💩s. I play with mine all the time
Mr reclaimer 117 so did I with my 2 brothers. ..mostly with G I Joe , once back when I was in woodshop in 8th grade I made my own version of cobra headquarters, I wish I still had it to show Mike and Melinda....they'd be proud of me
Airsoft Gaming Studios Rude....
I used to get all the empty packing boxes that were stacked at the supermarket and glue them together and cut holes for ladders and doors to build a massive multilevel deathstar playset - I made it modular so I could use bits as a rebel base down the other end of the lounge room. It got pretty big before I had to disassemble it but the galaxy was saved and destroyed many times in that loungeroom.
I did that too one time!
But I only got a week out of it
Dude you litterally just took me back to being a child . i had a big Ginger cat that loved to roll around and play with me , i used to use him as the enemy of my toys i would shoot missiles at him and everything, when he would be in his bed i'd act like it was his lair and attack him. i mostly used my Visionaries toys and star wars . i also used Monster in my pockets and any toy he touched DIED they were out of the game. The good old days.
Gazz Cavalera your story has me grinning ear to ear!
What a cool cat, thanks for sharing that memory!
Imagining that gave me a laugh. Thanks for sharing.
That's probably why I'm a cat person. Our dog chewed up a couple of my toys.
To be honest, I wanna try this even though I'm 13. I still have fun with my imagination and toys!
same
Don't let age be a factor! Let loose and have fun! You're only 13, so don't worry about it. I'm 32 and I still break out my old toys from time to time just to recapture some of that old childhood happiness.
I'm 26 and recently rediscovered a love of action figures.
I'll tell you something: most collectors I know, me included, would KILL to be able to play with the toys they have now. So if you can still play, keep it up for as long as you can... and then some!
@@Guy117. Felt that
my mum's ironing board became an aircraft carrier.
tommy8ball2007 , specially after watching the movie- Final Countdown
Ohhh my gosh I did this too!
Awesome!
I never had the Ewok village as a kid because my backyard was the Ewok village!!! Great video!!!
bed-sheets and pillows were used to create Hoth for my star wars figures, our dogs were the AT-ATs!
@@jedi501spider6 lol
this is my 6th time watching this video and still, it brings that joyful feeling that somewhere out there, someone understands the joy of imagination put into play without that compulsion to buy or have those expensive playsets... mine was stones, soil and sand... and my action figures were either broken original toys that I repaired or cheap knock-off figures... now I customize toys and bring my old original characters back to life by recreating them in 6 inch scale clothed or armored form... :)
I had proper action figures but no real playsets either. I had a small spot in our garden where I could do whatever I wanted.
I made a deep gulch, a bridge, a river and waterfall (which got actual water by turning on the garden hose just a tiny bit) and grew cress there. (which became the jungle area)
Oh the avdentures I lived through.
I remember doing a lot with cardboard boxes too.
One "playset" I DIDN'T use, was the backyard garden, like they did on the tv commercials. It got things very dirty and these toys were hard to clean.
I used my grandfather's bookshelf. By pushing all the books in as far as they would go, and then pulling out a few to the edge of the shelf, I created separate rooms for my action figures. I then used Legos and Construx to add elements to these rooms.
When I was a kid action figure price was 32.5 and as a kid I was given 0.5 a day. So getting an action figure took long. Millenium Falcon price was 1000. So I took a piece of plywood and asked a friend to cut it with some shape. Then I went to grocery store to ask for those cardboard boxes that were used to wrap cigar boxes to make the walls and roof. I knew about geometry so I could build shapes and I used pen and color pencils to draw details on cardboard before using scissors and glue. and if I was lazy I used tape. My biggest playset was a cardboard made by me with plywood floor and cardboard. And it was free... except for all the work I put on it.
I had a homemade sandbox with was just 4 pieces of wood put together in square with triangle seats in the corners. This meant that if we put water in it, it would eventually drain into the ground. My friend and I used to make all kinds of neat setups for our toys. two decades later, when my mom dug it all up to plant grass, she found a couple of G.I Joe figures and a bunch of matchbox cars buried there.
Just like me
I used to use my mothers couch as a mountain. I would stack the throw pillows to make caves and different things. You have no idea how happy this video has made me. This is one of the best toy reviews ever.
I have fond memories of re-purposing old toys for new action figures.
I used a Fisher-Price Hospital and my sister's old dollhouse as COBRA bases when I played with my G.I. Joes...In my mind,it was like they were hiding in plain sight of normal everyday society. :OP
I also used the General Lee and the Robotech Armored Cyclone as COBRA vehicles.
My mom had this potted plant for decades and it grew in such a way that when certain fronds or portions of the plant died and dried out, they made what looked like really small bamboo groves. That wonderful potted masterpiece was Dagobah or Endor. Yoda, Jedi Luke and my Ewoks spent hours of playtime in that thing.
This was my childhood.
Best playsets ever.
What a wonderful video! The staircase to the second floor of my grandparents place were used as a mountain area for he-man or g i joes to attack cobra or skeletor. I must say, I wished I had a set of wooden blocks, those unlimited configurations would have been right up my alley.
back in my old school I used Jenga blocks as bunkers for my plastic army men
My bed was a great playset, blankets and pillows like you show plus the bed posts were like towers. Also, every year the enitre Christmas tree would became a playset.
I used my pillows as mountains
I remember getting in heaps of trouble as a kid at one point, because after going to a card shop where they had this awesome Hoth diorama set up, I took it upon myself to make my own, using some random rocks from outside... and powdered laundry detergent as snow. No idea why that one didn't go over well with mom and dad... In theory it should have made the carpet cleaner, right?
I dug a hole in the field behind my house to recreate the sarlac pit monster from ROTJ which my Dad accidentally stepped in.He was so pissed hahahah
I actually made my own Gotham City playset out of cardboard boxes and styrofoam. That thing was huge. It took up nearly half of my bedroom.
Joshua Obershaw i made the entire batcave out of cardboard
I made my bat cave by getting under my sisters bed when she wasn't home then put a calculator In there for his computer
You have just captured the SHEER BEAUTY of action toy figure playing in 255 seconds... I have spent countless afternoons and early evenings building alien worlds out of pillows, boxes, cassette holders, comic books (in Italy they were small, thick and had hard carton backing so you could pile up several layers of them into a ziqqurat or a pyramid) for my micronauts and robots and vehicles to climb upon, delve into, explore and fight on...:D :D :D :D
I used to drape a black blanket over my parent's dining room furniture. The dark maze of table & chair legs became a perfect "hive" playset for my Kenner Aliens figures.
As a kid I never knew what would make a good hive, your story would've made a hell of a difference if i had been more creative lol
Though I had Greyskull, we often used the couch and other furniture as big bases, mountains, plateaus, buildings, or alien worlds. The texture of the material would become different terrain types and blankets and throw pillows could be crafted into caves and hideouts. For a long time we had this recliner - that was the BEST secret base of all time - the entire front of the "mountain" would pop open and there was all this hangar space inside. I think Triclops lost his sword in there. :\
My friends and I were really into building "bases" for our action figures and their vehicles. At first we used a building set called Construx, but we just didn't have enough pieces to make everything we wanted to build. What we mostly wound up using was cardboard and poster board to build vehicle repair bays, and elevators that used a Stomper 4X4 to operate the pulley system. Styrofoam packing material sometimes got used if it had a particularly interesting shape.
Aww! I used to LOVE my Stompers! Very smart! I, myself, never thought to use them (all TWO that I owned! Ha! ) as you did. Very clever! I had the Ewok Village, and would set it up on top of my dresser, adding extra line for the elevator, so that it would reach all the way down to the floor. Using a Stomper would have saved a heck of a lot of winding time!
makes you think about how far your imagination used to take you
Sad that too many kids nowadays only know the places their video games take them.
My legos were always my playset, as I never actually had a real "playset", so I'd always just build whatever I wanted that way.
And I always had an integrated playroom with action figures as large, powerful giants and Fisher Price Little People, Lego figures, and board game pieces as more normal-sized people.
the couch, bathroom sink filled with water, the bathtub during bath time, VHS tapes configured into shelters and walls... just to name a few
First, I had an Ewok Village playset before I'd ever even heard of Star Wars. My mom bought it for me at a yard sale, because it was a cool treehouse toy, and I played with my plastic animals and stuff on it. Years later, I realized what it was, and only just this past week did I manage to find the accessories for it.
As for self-made playsets, cardboard, cardboard, cardboard! Shoe boxes were ready-made buildings. Cereal boxes could be cut apart and folded and taped into anything I wanted. Flat pieces of cardboard could be roads or landing strips or landscapes onto which I could draw whatever features I wanted.
Furniture was wonderful, too! The space between my bed and the wall became a hazardous canyon, where enemies often laid in wait overhead. The coffee table in the living room could become a multi-story building if I moved my parents' magazines and such off of it. The recliner, with the footstool elevated, made a great cave or hangar.
Thank goodness for imagination!
That same Ewok playset was recycled years later for the Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie toys.
I remember helping my older brothers sculpt and paint styrofoam to make mountains, caves and other terrain for their dinosaurs!
Mine was an old brick barbecue in my back yard and an old dead tree stump a few feet away. We were fairly poor growing up and I didnt have many friends were I lived. So what toys I did have, I spent hours with them in my own little world. Recently I went back to that house from the 80s, and the current resident actually let me take a brick from that old crumbling barbecue. The stump is unfortunately gone. But that's just the way it goes with time. And that brick resides with my huge 80s collection. A very special piece to me.
When I was a kid in the mid 80's, we had a water line break in our yard. When the utility company finished, the left deep tire marks over the break area. This left good ruts and a little ravine. it was perfect for G.I. Joe vs. Cobra battles.
Wow this took me back. I’m 34 now. When I was 4-12, my Grandmother would take me to garage sales, and I collected so many toys from the 70s and 80s. It’s part of why now I feel closer to one generation over the other. My place of imagination was invariably my backyard. We had an apricot tree that I could climb and place action figures all over and pretend it was an alien planet or an undiscovered island where everything was overgrown and everyone was fighting for their lives against giant ants, dinosaurs, and the enemy around every corner. I had a blast day after day for years using my eclectic collection of toys and my imagination.
the uss flagg was too big and expensive for my parents to get it for me, so I took some Styrofoam inserts from my dad's new stereo and the speaker box and made my own air craft carrier. the uss pioneer ( pioneer stereo, get it?) the Styrofoam inserts we the con tower. good times!
When I was a kid My parents had a huge Chess Board and that board was the playset for most of my action figure battles.
I had the use of my Grandma's garden. It was sweet. I had almost everything SW, GI Joe and Transformers but still rather play in that garden. I was very fortunate as a kid in the toy department. GI Joe was my favorite with all the accessories and much more posable. Sometimes I wish we never had to grow up. Thanks guys for a wonderful channel!
This video speaks to me on a deep spiritual level! Haha!
Growing up in the late 80's through the early 90's, I was a BIG ninja turtle fan. I had all four of the guys (like Micheal, my first Turtle was Donatello with the "squishy" head), as well as a nice assortment of villains for them to fight and vehicles for them to use, but most of them came from birthday or Christmas presents. We never had a lot of money, so of course, we couldn't afford any of the playsets, so that's where my imagination kicked in! An ordinary cardboard box served as my Turtle Lair. With a little artistic talent, I was able to draw a bunch of scenery, taken strait from the TV show, and apply it to the box to create a perfect lair for my turtles. The TV in the corner of the living area, a training area with a mat and various ninja weapons scattered everywhere, doors that lead to each turtles bedrooms, and even functional trap doors and an added garage area for the Turtle Van! I also used various styrofoam inserts for the interior of the Technodrome. Fun times were had!
Grandfather clock was Big Ben and a coat rack was the Eiffle Tower for my GI Joes's.
7 years ago (I would of been about 9-10) I was gifted my older half brother's vintage Star Wars toys as I was a huge fan at the time, and after playing with them and be being enamoured with how old they were they quickly became the only toys I played with. I watched this video at the time and used the blanket idea many times to great effect. Thanks for great memories by the way. But it's crazy how an 18yo is having the same kind of nostalgia over the exact same thing as people that are atleast 2-3 decades older than me.
Haha, that duck blanket is awesome! Kids have wonderful imaginations.
My brother and I had tons of toys, but zero playsets. Our favorite alternative playsets were different locals in the great outdoors. I loved playing with my G.I. Joes in the snow, Z-Bots in the sandbox, and TMNT and Battle Trolls on the lawn.
there was an old rocker/recliner that I would flip over. it became a mountain lair or a secret base. the spinning leg assembly became a satellite dish that had to be sabotaged or protected. I would put it up against the couch that became a mesa in the desert and the flipped over chair became a system of ancient tunnels... and yes, I included blankets as well, the same way you did in the vid. It's awesome to see how creative we were as kids, unknowing having a shared experience
I showed this to my 7 year old and he was inspired. He just built Tatooine in our living room for his Lego star wars figures. This is one of my favorite videos of yours!
I too used blankets for "special worlds" as well as coats, my entertainment center for my 80's stereo also served as Jabba's pa;ace and a Cobra weapons lab. Oh and the cocktail swords my mom bought for dads bar were perfect substitutes for light-sabers and some of my sisters facial soap containers were great for escape pods and burial sarcophagus. Let us not forget the old pile of dirt in the garden, oh many hours of adventure there.
OMG I did the same stuff! My favorite was our loveseat. It had a dark brown, blotchy texture that worked perfectly as mountains or valleys. Sometimes a playset would sit on it as ruins to be discovered. Towels, pillows, you name it, I used it all. Also unused fishtank accessories (sunken ruins, skeletons, etc.), large potted plants for jungles complete with dirt to bury stuff in, and on and on. Wow, I could go on forever about this and I'm sure I'm not alone. Great video concept!!!
one ting i remember a lot was using a this rolling chair that you could kneel on, i pretended that was an At-At all the time. ahh good times
Blankets, yes. Bed and pillows, yes. But one of my favorites was the window sill ledge with half drawn curtains. Always great lighting and an outdoors world composed of the backside of bushes as an unforgettable backdrop.
I used to pour out the entire toy bin into the middle of my room and between all the ships and vehicles (all genres) I would have a futuristic junkyard that also created many nooks and crannies for my secret base. Bookshelves made great flying ship hangars and garages. My favorite was in fair weather to just go outside and let nature provide all the locations I could dream of.
I love this video because I know I wasn't the only one doing this stuff as a kid!
No snow where we're from so we used every bit of white linen to blanket the lounge and make it a vast tundra. Audio cassette tapes and VHS tapes were quick sources of walls to create internal building layouts. Cardboard boxes with windows and swinging doors cut into them made for great small houses. But our best playsets comprised of large pieces of polystyrene from appliances. The various hollows gave them many different configurations. They could be individual space colony buildings, or could be stacked to form a multi-story building. We even painted them grey and still have a number of the better pieces in cupboards as additional shelving.
glass of water = bacta tank for luke skywalker,plastic bubble that covered your star wars figures= carbonite chamber for han solo..coffee table with drawers = hanger for the voltron lions..being a kid in the 80s was the best ..
I was that kid who had a little town tucked away in my room. My closet had small built in shoe shelves that became my dolls apartment buildings and the floor of the closet was covered in shoebox " houses" that I built for my polly pockets/pet rocks. I was also lucky enough to have a medium sized cabinet with a door that was built into the wall ( there was a big pipe in there so it was probably an access panel actually) this closet served as my secret hiding place and the most luxury appartment for my dolls.
My favorite was this huge palm plant my mom had off of the living room. The base of it was in a 3 ft. diameter planter and the planter stood about 3 foot tall with the plant itself going to the ceiling. It was great making little creeks and rivers in the dirt (plus my Mom figured I was watering it, too lol). When we moved about 10 years later she planted it outside and found about half a dozen GI Joe figures that had been buried after "dying" in battle.
One of my favorite RetroBlasting videos! The sentiment of childhood imagination is captured perfectly in the duck blanket and blocks!
When my dad gave me his old kenner star wars toys my grandmother brought out all of the blocks and etc... that my dad used to play with and i still do today!!
I made all sorts of playsets out of cardboard, LOTS of shoe boxes, packing tape & magic markers. I, too, did the blanket thing. Oh! and I used to make one-man fighters out of Nerds candy boxes. I rarely ever got playsets or ships/vehicles, because my family was on the poor side, so I had to get creative.
My brother and I used blankets when we were on the floor, and wood/plastic blocks when we played in the basement. Blocks were better than any playset! Thanks for the video!
My god this video really took me back, I lived with my grandparents since I was born till I was 15 and their apartment was my whole playset, my grandfathers bookshelf was a building their bed usually was either the sea or a snow territory, their coffee table was the batcave or some other kind of command center and the couch was usually rocks or mountains, what agreat time that was.
I had a bunch of the bigger playsets growing up, thanks to garage sales and layaway... but I still used whatever I could get my hands on to expand the environments. I used bedsheets on top of the Technodrome, and used it as an underground base. I also loved my mom's handweights. They worked great for making simple pillared structures.
I used a globe as the death star.
My mom worked at a grocery store and they were throwing out white, styrofoam packing inserts that had been in the shipping boxes and she just grabbed a bunch and asked if I could use them. I turned those into massive Hoth bases. Whenever one wore out or broke, she had no trouble bringing home replacements.
My dad was a painting contractor, along with blocks, he gave paint sample strips. Not the paper one you see in the stores. He got these 1 1/2" x 4" wood strips that were used so show stain options. My dad was awesome.
Our staircase, replete w brown carpeting, was my go-to landscape for anything from mountain ranges to the bog of Dagobah.
Our white carpeting throughout the living room was often the ice planet of Hoth; when I got the Kenner Tauntaun through a garage sale as a kid, I remember mimicking the helicopter shot that reveals Luke Skywalker in the opening of The Empire Strikes Back.
I just remembered this while I was watching this video, but nearly every Christmas when I was really young, I used to get my Star Wars figures and battle the Rebel Alliance defending the Christmas tree from the Empire. It's also how I lost my brand new Obi Wan figure for over 6 months.
Don't underestimate the power of water, sticks and dirt once the parents kick you outside. Also, that blanket makes some magical kid sized forts when draped over upside down kitchen chairs!
by the way Michael, I truly enjoy your videos especially these kinds of videos that has a certain topic... my only complain was the long intervals of you uploading your videos... I really wish that you could find more time to make and upload regularly co'z I really do enjoy your topics... seriously... Anyway, more power and thank you for creating this awesome channel!!!... :)
Now I’m probably too young to comment here but I’m 16 and still collect and play with action figures and I never had any playsets growing up. What I use is cardboard boxes that were for either shoes or large items like an outdoor grill. I always cut up pieces of cardboard and tape or glue them together and make a playset out of it. One playset I made was a scenery to put my Lego model and I can use it as a battle field for my LEGO figures.
Terrific video again Retroblasting. My favorite playset was the 4 foot wide circular sandpit that my grandmothers small above ground pool sat on. Every winter, spring and fall I had my own private Tatooine or dark hemisphere of Eternia or any desert battlefield for GIJOE. Amazing fun.
I always played outside in the dirt. When my parents built a new house, I used cinder blocks and sand to make quick sand traps. I still remember when my older neighbor and his friend came over (uninvited). The friend threw my marine dress blue gung-ho against the wall, shattering him. Then laughed while I was hiding the tears. My mom threw him away. I think about it all the time, I could easily fix him today. I never did get a replacement.
Never get tired of watching these videos.
Very creative imagination wish I thought of that. Our playground was outside in a huge garden. We'd create roads hills with the soft soil for hot wheels and battlefields for our action figures. Our toys took a beating, we enjoyed every single one. Hey... we didn't know anything about nostalgic collectable value back then.Nice video👍
I had an outside dog. He had a corner of the yard he would dug to stay cool in the summer. With a couple cinderblocks, Lincoln logs and a garden trawl. I converted these dug outs into massive firebases for my GI Joes. One Cinderblock at the back half filled with dirt to create elevated machine gun positions. the other turned side ways and buried to make bunkers for ammo and equipment. Lincoln logs were used to make defensive positions for the cannons. shore up walls, and make a communications hut. Every couple weeks the base be different as my dog Ollie would create new holes and fill in old one. There is still prob a bunch of forgotten Joes buried out there.
I love this video , you guys are the best!!! I had nearly a full set of star wars figures as a child - in response to your question, I did have a couple of non Star Wars play-sets but mainly used the stairs in my childhood home as cliffs that had to be climbed and rebel bases that had to be escaped - I also used pillows and styrofoam packing from TVs or other large items) to recreate Hoth. Sometimes I would fill the bath slowly, after building dams with wash cloths, to create flood setting. Outdoors in the garden and yard was always Endor. Thanks guys - keep up the good work!
Digging into your archives, only to realise, you guys rocked always!! Keep creating!
This brings back so many memories. Tinker toys and blocks were some of the best fort builders ever. My uncle came out to stay with us one summer and we used clay to make an amazing generic playset complete with glued down sand and actual foliage.
I had a few "playsets" my parents helped me make out of cardboard boxes and once my dad (who was a contractor) helped me refine the concept by building a GI Joe fort out of 2x4 trimmings.
I was a little wuss back then, So I mostly slept with my Dad, My Room was pretty much used for Storage with all sorts of random things all over mixed in with my figures and an Unused Bunk Bed, I called it "The Wasteland" And lots of epic battles and exploration took place there....Good times..
I used to only play with small figurines too, Made the environments feel much more massive.
We had a lot of snow every winter, and a big cave would always form by the dryer vent because of the heat. I had a lot of fun in that cave!
I remembered me and my sister played with the Littlest Pet Shop toys, Bakugan, and her blanket to create a fort of sorts. On another time, I used my old Lincoln Log set and used it to build a village of some sorts.
Anytime I was at my grandparents' house, I'd dig out their old tower-collapse game called Careful! from 1967. I'd set up my figures on this massive tower that was slightly taller than I was. Of course, the tower always got destroyed as the big finale of the adventure.
yeah blankets and Styrofoam packing blocks.that was my hoth playset.
I've recently discovered the channel and let me say that I not only love it, but this may be my favorite episode. Why? Because it spoke to something I used to love doing as a kid! When you showed the blanket trick, it took me back to when I was a kid and had to get creative with where my figures fought and hid. Playsets were expensive and you HAD to use your imagination. Dressers and bookshelves became tall buildings and the dishwasher of my sister's kitchen playset became both a Batcave and Danger Room. But my favorite of these personal creative playsets was the one I made myself.
I was lucky to get some Ninja Turtles figures when I was younger and always wanted the sewer playset. Sadly, it was expensive and rare in my area. I wanted a place for my turtles to hang out and occasionally fight villains. It had to have a manhole cover and a pipe just like in the real playset. So I took a shoe box and turned it on it's side. With scissors I carefully cut out a circle at the top wide enough for my turtles to come through when needed and a bigger hole on the side for the pipe. I didn't have access to PVC, so I had to get creative. I waited for my mom to be done with the paper towels and asked for the rolls. When I had two, I cut them in half and taped both together to form a big enough circle that I could insert it into the hole I cut. And that was my sewer playset. It didn't have all the bells and whistles of the actual playset but it was something I made. I got compliments on my ingenuity (especially with the pipe)
As you can tell, I loved this video. What you did with the blanket and the wooden blocks (seriously, I could never have come up with those configurations when I was a kid!) was amazing. Thank you for sharing your memories and also, thank you and Melinda for all the content on this channel. I started with a few, then binged, then subscribed. I can't get enough!
I'm sorry for your loss.... So glad it brought back some happy memories!
Had the Raiders of the Lost Ark playset, but that got far less use than: a bean bag turned in to a contoured hill; tall cut grass along our fence turned in to miniature grass huts and forts; and the best (during winter in Idaho) -- roll a giant snow ball, pour water through it, let it refreeze overnight, and the next day you'd have ice caves for your action figures as good as Hoth (perfect for the Empire Strikes Back figures).
My man, the blanket mountain brought back suck robust memories of hrs of play! Thank you for turning the light on in the darkest corners of my memory lane!
The Strangest thing Guys whilst watching the vid, I started to think through about my 'imaginary/improvised' play sets and the clear winner for me was my Dad's rockery in our back garden nice weather permitting it became much like yours the headquarters for soldiers the rebels secret base where Luke and Han would hatch a plan to defeat Vader up! My Dad passed away 12 weeks ago (it's very raw for me still) but this vid was a rare moment when I could think of Dad and smile, thank you. Cheers Fuzz.
Such an incredibly heartwarming video. Takes me back to when white sheets were Hoth, my folks brown rug was a battlefield for my Action Force. And the boxes stuff came in? There’s your new base Z Force.
Thank you Retroblasting
I can see an emotional connection between man and blanket. It's inspiring.
Oh so many improvised playsets in my house in the late 70s and early 80s. I used corrugated cardboard so much I eventually started designing and building vehicles out of it. A van for Action Force, a starfighter for Star Wars and a replica Pursuit Craft for my Action Man pilot.
But the best playset I had by far was given to me by my friend at the time, wee Tony. His ma and da had just got a Teasmaid (a combination alarm clock and tea-making machine - weird) and Tony brought the box to my house. I was mystified at first until he showed me the two moulded styrofoam halves inside the box. Lay them flat next to each other and you have a pretty serviceable Echo Base from Empire Strikes Back! The moulding was such that you got two flat areas, perfect for my X-Wing and Snowspeeder. And four smaller round areas with divots round the edge that figures fitted in perfectly, great for tactical areas, rec rooms, all that jazz.
Wow, that blanket idea is GENIUS! I can't believe I've never thought to do that!
Holly cow Bat Man !!! I did the same thing with towels and blankets. Good times.
We had a giant pile of dirt in the backyard left over from when the septic tank was dug. That "mountain" was the best G.I. Joe battleground ever. It even had grass growing on parts of it for jungle action. And if you buried a tupperware bowl in the dirt and filled it with water, you had a lake. Good times.
I too did this an loved it!
I was a hole in the back yard kid. You find a patch of dirt with no grass so your folks wouldn't get mad at you for tearing stuff up, and You'd dig a hole. It could be a fort or a cave, with careful introduction of water you could sculpt walls and other such defensive structures. (This took time and patience however as you would need to let a section dry) Then when you were done, you fill up the hole and when you're ready, you dig a new and different hole in the same spot. I loved playing in the yard, the grass was a jungle, the retaining wall was a massive cliff, the large flat driveway leading to our backyard garage was an ocean or a desert. This was a dangerous play style however, accessories could disappear forever, and if you forgot to pick up your toys, all of their adventures could be ended in one fell swoop by the lawnmower.
A few things spring to mind. A bean bag was an asteroid. An old desk (given away by the local school) with two book compartments and fold-up lids was a headquarters complete with two spaceship docking bays. And a whole lot of random bits of household cloth and junk become a jungle for some Other World toys to explore.
Incidentally have you ever considered reviewing The Other World by Arco? It was delightfully crappy.
I was lucky enough to grow up in an army base, my dad was stationed somewhere in borneo so i have a big hill and a forrest as my backyard, so i used that to my advantage. Its amazing what a few twigs and leaves + a shovel and those wood building blocks can create for my little green and grey army men and also my little indians and cowboys toys. I can remember there were a few MIA, KIA. I think i lost a couple of starcom guys too out in the backyard. Ahh good memories
Ah, there are some memories, right there. I did the exact same thing with our living room couch blanket and my blocks. Good video.
Great video! I used a blanket in that way as well, and Lincoln Logs the way you used the blocks. Also used empty boxes constantly (created buildings by cutting holes for doors and windows, otherwise they were usually landing pads for starships haha), and stacks of books were great for recreating Cloud City's many levels and stairways!
The coffee table was Cloud City, the stairs were a mountain the heroes had to fight their way to the top of, and cardboard boxes were buildings.
This brought back so many memories, Me and My Brother did this with our quilts .Each one a mountain pass or usually Hoth. We also used to use boxes we would cut out and use with the quilts to make bunkers and other constructs. It was always something different.
EXACT box of blocks when i was a kid! I had a bunch of the 80s playsets. Everything from Star Wars ,He Man, and especially GI Joe. The Flagg aircraft carrier, the Defiant, Terordome..........but yet those blocks were used in concert with all those to expand the adventure. Great video sir!
I used to use some footstools of different sizes as platforms or mountains. Then, I had a couple large sets of generic legos that I would make other structures out of...walls or forts etc. The only hard part was getting the legos in scale sometimes. My dad was a plumber and he used to let me play with his leftover fittings when he would clean them. I made a handgun out of a small T joint and a straight pipe of pipe and used that for a few years. Our basement was Carpeted so my dad got me some large flat cardboard pieces to set stuff on. I would make Lincoln Log forts for my plastic Army Men. So much fun and not that pricey...
I also used the blanket! I would set pillows down and cover them with a white sheet to recreate Hoth battles. I would make buildings from cardboard boxes. The couch was a great playset too. The row of hedges by my yard was a complete forest. Before the official speeder bike toy was released, My Cousin and I built a speeder bike from an old metal clip we found, attached a rock with electrical tape, and the biker scout sat perfectly on top. And the best part is I still have it!
My grandfather said that when he was little they used to build bases and bunkers for army men and their models out of rocks and they used to take turns throwing rocks at each other spaces and there was one kid who always spell the most extravagant basis but was always destroyed within one or two rocks because they decided to put a bridge over an airfield causing the bridge to fall on top of the aircraft