Adult Toys

Everything else
1

Can anyone suggest fun toys they still enjoy playing with as an adult? Not games, toys.

Right now the magnetic ball toys like NeoCube and BuckyBalls appear to be extremely popular, especially since there seems to be a new off-brand version of this toy added to Amazon.com every time I look around. But, besides these magnetic ball toys I’m not seeing much besides “hobbyist” type of fair aimed at adults (trains/remote controlled cars helicopters and planes, plus guns & other weapons).

Kites can be a ton of fun, but are also very weather dependent, and aren’t something you can just screw around with at home (the actual act of playing with it anyway, improvements and maintenance is definitely done at home, and for some folks can offer as much or more fun than the actual act of flying/showing off the damn thing). These can also be considered a bit of a hobbyist interest, since the good ones are often custom, hard to maintain, or cost hundreds of dollars to buy, tweak and enjoy.

Yo-Yos seem to be a bit of an acquired taste, mostly for folks looking into practicing trick moves, but also not something that works well indoors in a tight environment.

I think puzzles (not the jigsaw type) would qualify as more of a toy than a game, but once they’re solved they sort of lose any value.

Building and construction type toys offer varying degrees of fun, since everything from Legos to Lincoln Logs to twiddle sticks fall into this category, but the entrance fee to get a good set going seems astronomically high because of the way these all seem to be doled one only a few pieces at a time now days. But if anyone knows of a great set that doesn’t cost a couple hundreds bucks to get going I’d be interested in hearing about it.

I’ve also enjoyed stuff like rock tumblers, but there isn’t much ‘playing’ involved. Chemistry sets can be fun, if messy, as are electronic kits. But it seems hard to find quality versions of this type of stuff any more.

Any suggestions, stuff out of left field, unpopular toys that deserve way more attention? Off the wall stuff you won’t usually find unless you go looking for it? New products the masses might not have heard about yet?

2

You might just want to add “NSFW” to the subject now.

I predict great things.

3

I was er… expecting something different based on the title.

4

This thread does not deliver.

5

As was I. Sigh.

6

Ditto. I know a lot more than I would be comfortable sharing here about the topic we all expected.

Plus, shit, my favorite toys are virtual. Supreme Commander 2 kicks the crap out of Legos, man. Call me an imagination-challenged cybertwit, but that’s exactly why I play video games: they are awesomer than physical objects, entertainmentwise, for me personally.

EDIT: HOWEVER, I would be quite happy if this thread turned up some toys that reach right in and change my mind for me, as, you see, I have kids.

7

I’m good with it. I still actively buy and play with Transformers and Legos, and I’ve recently been in a bit of a habit of spending any extra cash I have on Gundam models.

Models seem to be the big thing that “adults” “play” with.

8

So anyway, I’ll get started. This thing is awesome.

The first time I saw it, it took a minute to figure out what it was for. It’s called “the wedge”.

9

I tried to play with a model once, but she screamed and ran away.

10

Well then you’re doing it wrong.

11

One of my goals here is to start taking a lot of my game playing ‘offline’ so to speak. I love video games, and I’ll play them forever, but much like board games, which offer a certain type of gaming experience that video games haven’t yet been able to duplicate, and though video games offer certain experiences that board games can not duplicate, I anticipate that good solidly built toys will offer unique experiences of their own. I am really trying to try new things here, challenge myself in a few new ways that just seem a little more tangible.

One of the most attractive things about actual toys, to me, is the physicality of the act of playing. When I play a game like “The Incredible Machine” it makes me want to do stuff like this (essentially solving puzzles with rube goldberg machines) in real life, because getting the right results would require so much more skill and attention to detail. The fun would be trying to get the physics and math right the first time, instead of repeatedly moving objects around in an attempt to make sure they were placed the right number of pixels from each other. The game comes as close to replicating an ‘anything goes’ lab environment (for some of the more complex puzzles), but it doesn’t replace the experience of actually building a Rube Goldman machine.

But, like you mentioned in regards to perceptions about imagination, or lack thereof, of video game players… although video games can probably be a lot more fun than physical toys for those folks that are lacking a bit in the imagination department, by no means does this mean I think that people attracted to video games (and uninterested in toys) are all lacking in imagination… quite the contrary. It’s just that I’m in a mood lately to start going out and trying new things, and this is something that simply buying a new board game or video game will not be able to satisfy. I’m also trying to resist the urge to go full on hobbyist and potentially blow hundreds of dollars on a whim just because it ‘looks fun’, whether it be shortwave radios, trains, wood working or you name it.

12

I just bought some military action figures because they looked so cool at the store. I got them out of the box, put their little helmets and accessories on, checked out the guns . . . and then thought . . . man, videogames beat this. I guess it’s hard to go back. They do look neat though I’ll probably put them on a shelf in the man cave.

13

I was hoping for more of this

14

Do you really need more (adult)toy then your H.O.T.A.S.?

15

Depending on how geeky you want to get, I’ve seen some fun looking robotics kits out there. Lego has some very simple kits but a quick search shows them to be in the hundreds of dollars so I’d imagine the more advanced ones will be even pricier :(

16

Here’s some weird model building using a special type of mortar that dissolves in water in case you fuck up. Kit prices seem pretty cheap.

17

What about the 5x5 Rubik’s Cube?

18

The only thing that comes to me is a riff on the games thing. Lots of people are really into making and/or painting models, as well as all the scenery for them. I always come across people who say they loved Warhammer and 40k but never played a game. Instead they just painted them and made fantast worlds with them.

Similar to that, although I don’t know how “adult” it is are things like airfix models. Putting them together is a nice way to spend a nerdy evening, and then you can paint them and hang them from your (kid’s) ceiling. And it doesn’t have to be airfix, I used to make model cars and I’ve seen boats and all manner of things. You can even go down the making a working electronic car/boat/helicopter route.

I’m not sure what you’re really looking for though. To kids a lot of the toy aspect is getting down on the floor and imagining stuff with cardboard toilet roll thingies. Adults limit that to modelling the scenario’s or the pieces of that and turn it into a hobby.

19

Ooh, that looks interesting – I especially like that it dissolves, because I expect I’d fuck up quite a bit.

The clay and play doh type stuff didn’t even occur to me, because as a kid I was never allowed to own that type of stuff. My parents were convinced (and probably rightfully so) that I would merely grind it all into the carpet at some point, or force feed it to one of the dogs (or eat it).

If I ever get the time (and money) to get into table top war gaming (with miniatures and stuff) I could see this being especially useful for that too – creating (and re-creating) certain scenery objects and stuff.

20

http://citygirlblogs.com/blog/category/product-reviews

hehehehe