AT-AT jungle gym from a lost and golden age

Anonymous

definitely an AT-ST

mrfantasy

You’d probably have sank the feet 2-3 feet in the ground, in large concrete footings. And, you probably shouldn’t put it on the hard grass–you should have wood chips or a similar soft surface beneath it.

cyg.net

A kid in my neighborhood had one of these when I was growing up. It would loom over the fence and taunt me with its coolness.

Anonymous

I don’t what you guys are talking about it being unstable. It’s held together by the “force”.

Feenicks

hahah, best comment!

I wonder if i can use inspiration from this and that AT-AT bunk bed to finally come up with a decent design for a back yard cubby house for my 2 boys…. hmmm

Anonymous

I wanted one of these so badly when I was a kid.

Anonymous

I had one of these. The best part was inside the AT-AT there was a console with buttons that made sound effects when pressed. The speeder bike was awesome but pinched finders. It was all surprisingly safe, though after years of desert sun and elements the roof did collapse. Also I sat on it. Eventually it was dismantled, but we kept the speeder bike around as a lawn chair, real classy-like. Eventually my parents moved out of that house, but I still have fond memories of laser tag battles with my sister (the only human near my age in at least 10 miles) and sleeping in the AT-AT until dawn.

Anonymous

Screw the playhouse! I want my REAL house to look like that!

Anonymous

My cousins had one and I loved going to their house to play on it. The sound effects were so sweet. Oddly, I remember it being a lot bigger than it looks in the ad.

SamSam

Really? Would you want your kid to have this? Yet another cheap plastic thing cluttering up the yard that is WAY less cool than it looks on the box? That the kids will bore of in a week?

You can still pretend to be Luke Skywalker with only a lightsaber made out of a stick… (curmudgeon curmudgeon…)

Anonymous

I was fairly old before I got tired of swings, and I don’t think anyone with an imagination ever gets tired of forts.
Anonymous

you’re just jealous, I had one and it did look that cool. Unfortunately I jumped off of it and broke my leg. I’d still buy one for my kids if they still made them.

IWood

loook it has a control panel ahhhhh hack that sucker

TJ S

The dog = four legged wookie.

Rick.

AT-ST. AKA the Chicken Walker!

Anonymous

You’re right, that is Wicket cool.

Michael Smith

Vulnerable to people tying its legs together and to big kids pushing the swing too hard.

Anonymous

That’s no moon.

oh, wait; yes it is.

cinemajay

Why are outdoor toys so lame today–we should have hover swings by now!!

arkizzle / Moderator

In before AT-ST.

MooseDesign

And the manufacturer is Gym Dandy. Awesome. That would also make for a great gay porn star name, I think.

Fett101

Scout walker is an AT-ST.

Anonymous

so dad dresses up as a wookie when drunk and stumbld out to backyard and knock it over
no big deal my brother will recover one day, yea its 30 years later but …..

Mark Dow

I like the inset photo of the console with 2-bit sound. Princess Leia it telling Luke that he’s doing it wrong.

phlavor

That dog totally wishes he had opposable thumbs so he could get up there and be Chewie.

robulus

Yes, enjoy your play gym kiddies… as we power up this FULLY OPERATIONAL DEATH STAR!

penguinchris

I wonder if any of these still exist, or if they actually were in production in the first place… the “command tower” part is pretty lame but the speeder bike swing is brilliant.

Anonymous

I assure you, this went into production. Ours finally bit the dust after a particularly fat SW fan insisted on climbing into it at my HS graduation party in the 90′s.

vinegartom

Oh, I can so see this thing falling over. And not because it resembles something that fell over in the movies. But referencing something that did probably wasn’t a bright idea.

Brawndo

The kid around the corner had one of these when I was growing up. I was jealous. Now that I’ve been reminded of it, I am jealous again.

Steve Schnier

I think it could be made fairly stable. My Dad had swing-set anchor spikes that he’d hammer into the ground. Attach those to the Command Tower and no way those pesky rebels could knock it over, Luke Skywalker or no Luke Skywalker.

PigLord

Wow, does this bring back memories. My brothers and I had this playset; it was awesome!

And to those questioning the stability, or lack thereof: that was half the fun. You could use the momentum of the speeder bike to rock the upper platform back and forth. We rationalized that as design feature though, as it made any kids in the top feel like they were actually lumbering about in an AT-AT.

Also, that single retaining bar on the upper platform allowed for some acrobatic exit maneuvers.

Pantograph

Little princess Leia looks like she has grave doubts about the structural integrity of the contraption.

Being a kid in the ’70s and early ’80s rocked.
Bring back dangerous toys!

Tim

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/07/lets.php

FTW!

Anonymous

We had one in my backyard! My dad cemented it into the ground so it wouldn’t tip, but that didn’t stop us from getting injured. My brother fell out while re-enacting the “bridge hangoff” from Annie and I fell off the ladder whilst carrying an armload of neighbor-kid-fight ammo.

Anonymous

my dad got rid of mine when i was away at college 2 years ago and everything worked. too bad it might have helped me pay my student loans. if you want it you can search the landfill cause i did

rattis

I had one of these as a kid. It was awesome. The instructions for putting it up, was to do it in stages. About 12 to 18 inches of the bases were sunk in concrete (I know I got to pull them out when I was an adult).

the plastic was actually pretty sturdy. I used to hang off the sides. Climbing up the poles, and then climbing over the sides was way more fun then using the ladder.

The opening in front with the bar across it, was meant for a slide. However I never got one. I was told the insurance company said no. I did see one with a slide when I was a little older. I don’t know if it was original or not. Didn’t seem to be as sturdy as the tower itself.

It lasted in a Michigan backyard for about 12 years or so before it rusted through and fell apart.

And mine was on hard grass. I feel a few times, but that was half the fun.

Anonymous

Oh my trash that is sweet. Dad get’s on the swing and we are all dead…

WalterBillington

One giant leap from that canine and system fail.

Anonymous

My best friend had one of these when I was a kid. It was indeed as fun as it looks. Since the bars that hold the swing part of it are in the middle, unlike a swing were the supports are to your sides, it prevented you from swinging to far without compensating your center of gravity with it in each direction. It never tipped on me or threatened to and I sincerely believe if it was going to I would have made it happen.

Ahh Nostalgia :-)

opensource

You guys are a bit slow to post this. One of the video games blogs posted it last week.

dculberson

Do you think the ad is new or something? Is a delay of a week an issue for something that’s 26 years old?

@arkizzle: Excellent timing.

Glossolalia Black

I see a lawn scattered with teddy bears and a kid throwing apples and yelling PEW PEW PEW… and that little kid is ME, dammit.

lewis stoole

you can still get these at your local landfill!

Anonymous

My brother and I had one of these. It was sturdily anchored into the ground with concrete. Which is why it didn’t get dug up until we were well into high school. But damn, what memories this brought back. Lots of dangerous unrecommended swinging on that speedster!

lewis stoole

dog: “christ, what an asshole”

RedMonkey

WANT

Anonymous

Actually guys, I had one of these in my very own backyard!! The thrill of having your very own AT-AT was reduced only mildly by it’s lack of movement! If you were up top and someone was swinging the entire thing swayed with motion. The command center had sound effects and blinking lights. My brother and I enjoyed it for years! I guess we really were the luckiest kids on the block!

Anonymous

I had one of these as a kid or, rather, still have one of these as it’s still standing in my parent’s backyard– quite solidly so. And before you ask if I lived in some beautiful, humidity-free climate, I’ll answer with a resounding no– I grew up in Buffalo, New York. This thing has handled 2+ decades worth of Northeast winters and, up until about 5 years ago, the sound board still worked! My daughter will herself soon introduced to it. Only thing I never understood was why there was a chute built for a slide attachment but one was never made available, leaving us kids to simply fling ourselves out of the opening at some 10 feet from the ground. Actually, I wouldn’t have had it any other way….

–Marcus

cowtown

As a kid in the 80s, I saw one of these in a Toys R Us once. It haunted my dreams, like a white whale, for years thereafter.

Anonymous

The kid down the street had one of those and let me tell you. IT WAS AWESOME! Except when it tipped over because someone was riding the bike too hard which was all the time. I’m sure it’s tiny but it seemed gigantic to six year olds and we loved it.

ohnatrz

I could see this as part of an America’s funniest home videos reel. Cue the fat kid on the speeder bike bringing down the tower! Still want one cause its awesome!

Stefan Jones

Several seconds after the photo was shot, Simon the golden retriever (AKA “Chewie the Second”) lost his head in a tragic speeder bike collision.

Anonymous

I too saw one of these at a toy store as a child. Since my only goal in life as a 5 year old was to own a speeder bike, I was devastated when my dad installed a normal swing set. Then I went down the slide (or garbage shoot on board the death star) and forgot all about the speeder bike.

Brainspore

Just wait until the neighbor kid brings it down with a tricycle and a tow cable.