Top 10 Weapons that Were Common for Gen-X Kids to Have as "Toys"
This list was inspired by the South Park episode “Good Time With Weapons”. My older brother came by my house to visit and as we were hanging out, that South Park episode came on the TV. My brother and I were laughing at the fact we, and most other kids we knew, had a lot of weapons as “toys” although none of us ever had a Chinese throwing star stuck in our eye. This list is on weapons that was common for Gen-X kids to have as “toys”.
It is much more common these days for now-grown-up Gen Xers to have one of these to eliminate birds that perch above their cars, or to punish neighborhood cats and dogs that enter their yards and leave souvenirs.
They used to give these out at baseball games as free novelty gifts. Almost every kid at the time had one of these. Kids would bring them to fights and brawls to use as weapons.
"Weapons from the Far East" were VERY popular at the time. Just like the South Park episode "Good Times With Weapons," kids would buy, or have their parents buy, these weapons to "play" with. We used to sharpen them and throw them onto wooden fences.
A lot of kids used to make homemade nunchucks at the time. I have seen so many kids smack themselves in the head or face (including myself) while playing with these.
It was surprisingly common for Gen-X kids to have these at the time. They were really easy to obtain, given that corner liquor stores used to sell them, and often they didn't care if they sold them to kids. For some reason, it was "cool" to own these at the time. I had a friend who sliced the back of his hand pretty well with mine.
Same as the butterfly knife, these were easy to get, as they were sold at corner liquor stores that would sell them to kids. These were cheap, though. I heard (not sure if it's true) that a real stiletto knife has a powerful ejection, while the ones we had could have the blade stopped with your hand.
Here's something common that Gen-X kids did that you youngsters may never have heard of. You know of, or remember, those switchblade combs? Well, we used to slide the comb out and replace it with a real blade by cementing or gluing the blade into the slide.
These were also sometimes sold at liquor stores at the time, though not as commonly as the knives. As common as they were, I can't ever recall them being used in a fight that I have witnessed.
Some decently powerful ones were sold as "toys" at the time. They were pretty dangerous. It didn't help that we used to sharpen the tips of the arrows to shoot them into trees and fences.
This was more of a Boomer "toy," but some of us Gen-Xers still had them. Honestly, it was probably one of the most dangerous "toys" on the list.
