I think all the toys were cooler and better when I was a kid. Most of them were made out of metal instead of plastic like all of them are these days. I suppose even Tonka vehicles are now made of plastic. Alas, the end of a wonderful era, indeed. One of the coolest things I got one Christmas when I was around 10 or 11 was a swell helicopter from my grand parents (see photo below). It took a bunch of “D” cell batteries and had all kind of powered things on it. The blades would turn with a “Clickety Click” sound. It also had a key chain hoist line that was attached to an inside winch that was operational. With that I could “hover over” anything and lower the key chain with the electric winch and pick something up with the hook then “fly away” with the object attached! The object I most picked up was a jeep or tank, which I could quickly “fly” to the battle front lines of my massive plastic army men set. I could never understand why the helicopter was white instead of olive drab since being white made to easier for the “enemy” to see. I’m surprised I didn’t paint it olive drab with all the model paints I had.  My army set was a combination of several sets I had acquired over the years. I even painted a bunch of American army men tan to replicate “Japs”. As a result, all the “battles” I fought were in the Pacific and none were in Europe since I only painted “Japs”.  I suppose this was due to the fact that my Uncle Ned, who was a Marine in the Pacific Theatre in World War II, often would act as my “General” in setting my army up correctly. He taught me how to disperse the troops and set up a machine gun cross fire against the enemy. Hmmm, it’s ironic that having learned all about infantry techniques, that I eventually ended up in the Navy! I probably had a total of 200 or more plastic “army men” with tanks, jeeps, trucks, pillboxes, etc. I saved the day on many occasions for the U.S. Army with this large helicopter! Perhaps the coolest thing was that the rear wheels would also turn when the power was turned on. The wheels had tremendous torque. It could pull a metal Tonka semi full of lead! I had to fill the helicopter cargo hold with lead in order for it to get traction on the carpeted floor.  It always amazed us that it could pull that much weight, which was the result of it being geared so low. I wonder now if it was designed this way, or if I just used it that way by chance. We got the lead from our grandfather who used it for making sinkers. He got the lead from the Rotary Printing Co. where he worked. We would help him make sinkers with his little kiln and sinker molds. We had hundreds of sinkers at home, which came in handy if we needed a lot of weight to pull. When I got older, I would add to the realism of battles by using firecrackers and cherry bombs as “artillery” and “land mines”. (For a description of this and a pic, check out the story “Combat” Experience”.) Thus, was my first experience as a “combat” helicopter “pilot”.