All of these toys and games in this part go back a little before my time, but some of them were still hugely popular when I was of age to start whining for the stuff I saw on TV.

My friends and I were happy enough to use sticks and rocks and our imaginations to play "army", but this would have been appreciated:

     




Pretty cool... of course, if only one kid on the block had this setup, he'd just get his butt kicked, despite being heavily armed...

     




I did indeed have one of these- one of the greatest toys ever designed!!

     




Incredibly durable, although my brother or I managed to destroy it eventually.

     



Never saw one of these, but it was about four feet long and had working missiles and plane launchers, etc.... rolled along under its own power, too.
I'm sure many boys tried to put them to sea, with tragic results...

     




And ah yes... Creepy Crawlers... I think I had one of these. do-it-yourself rubber bugs, perfect for scaring girls... mwuhahaha...

     




Speaking of girls: despite the well-known fact among preteen boys that they are just crawling with "cooties", their presence would be tolerated sometimes, especially if they were willing to supply the gang with Sno-Cones on a hot day.


     




But beware: linger too long in the enemy camp and you might get suckered into a round of "Mystery Date" (shudder)... only thing worse than that was getting a "make-over"... run away!!! Run away!!!




Next- part 5: recognize them?