Throwback toys...why don't they make 'em like they used to?

We had to take advantage of the "warm" weather this morning, so before I handed him off to EB (a friend of SM's who has been helping out with taking care of wee-man while SM starts a new job), CR and I went outside to play for a bit. After a couple of laps around the block, intermittently stopping and going for "red light, green light," I decided to break out a mini box of fun for the little guy.
Flashback: For our anniversary last August, B and I took a trip to P-town. Of course I had to hit up the penny candy store, and I happened upon a childhood favorite - snap crackers. The ones I found were called Party Snaps, but they are the same that I had as a kid...little paper balls filled with explosive powder, that when hurled at the ground, make a loud POP.

CR loves the things - we went through the entire package this morning, running after the "duds" and trying them over and over again

This got me thinking about my childhood toys and amusements in general. I compare the toys that are on store shelves today, to those I found in my closet in the 70s and 80s. I never had an abundance of tangible pieces...much of the playtime that I recall stemmed from my own imagination. I stuck slips of lined of paper inside of my books, and played library using my parents' teacher stamps. Making something out of nothing was a common method of entertainment, but there were a few favorites that I remember that today's toys don't stand up to. Not because they were intricate pieces of machinery, or because they were expensive items...they were just practical toys that served their intended purpose. Period. Here are a few from my childhood memory bank:

Fisher Price Airplane

(image from here)
Tonka Pound Puppies

(image from here)
Ollie the riding banana toy

(image from here)

Fisher Price Record Player

(image from here)

There are so many more to list - I may even come back to this excerpt and add a few others after I am through. The point is that often a toy is not just a toy today. It requires batteries, assembly, detailed instructions...what happened to 1) open box 2) play?