Back in ancient times when I was a child there were no such things as politically incorrect toys. Consequently one Christmas morning little Rat Man got a missile base.  It had all of the missiles of the day on spring loaded launching platforms.  Little Rat Man was ready to conduct thermo nuclear war.  That Christmas my sister Susan, rest her soul, got a very elaborate doll house, a triple decker, loaded with all of the furniture and trappings a  girl could ever want.  You can probably figure out what I declared war on. 
     Another toy I had was a Remco's Bazooka.  It was a big plastic spring loaded bazooka which shot these fairly substantial  plastic fake rocket  projectiles.  Their fronts were rounded but they still had enough weight, velocity, and range to bring a tear to your little sisters eye if you caught her in the forehead. 
    You can't buy toys like these today.

Probably my meccano set.
I used to make fighting 'robots'. Very basic but functional.
And they and actuion man would have fights.
Guess that says a lot more about me than the toys

I more or less switched from toys to books around 11 or so.

NES and rollerblades. Good times!

My parents were always against me having anything too... for want of a better word... weapon-like. Very 90s parenting style. For some reason I loved anything weapon-like, even if I was always a very peaceable kid (still do, and still am  )

Luckily they left me alone with my granddad for a morning and I returned from an army surplus store with a knife and a slingshot (yes- actually a slingshot, not a misnamed sling). Still got them, and I used the knife to craft javelins and other things.

had use of the family air pistol from a very early age
Well as soon as I was old enough to hold and cock it.
A 1960s german made 'original' .22
I had the spring changed about 20 years ago and it's still around factory spec.
Lets put it this way, wood pigeons at the end of the garden, in the ash tree (about 40 metres) don't hang around. With a 22 pellet it won't penetrate at that range, but it will give them a bruise to remember

That thing is only a few years younger than I am. Knowing my dad he'd have bought it new.

I did have my spud gun confiscated when I tried to take my sister's eye out with it

That was a great bit of kit. Rather than air pressure it actually used those red plastic caps to shoot the potato pellet. Basically an actual Firearm.

Yeah catapults we used to make, crappy bows, spears etc.
Mind you, even as a sprog I always preferred a club

Or chinese firecrackers, I've never been subtle - explosives and clubs, all day long:-)

Morphy wrote on Oct 8^th, 2019 at 9:36am:


NES?

The original Nintendo. All 8 bits of glorious gaming. I also didn't have one till later. My older brother got one and I would watch him play it. Eventually I got my own and loved it.