Trying to remember the name of a toy we played with in the 70s.

September 9, 2011 7:31 AM

I am looking for the name of a toy that we used to play with a lot when we were growing up.

These were toys that we played with in the late 70s and early 80s. There were ALL sorts of these toys and basically they consisted of a small container of water and you had two (usually) buttons at the bottom. Once these were pressed, it caused water pressure to move and the premise of the "game" was to move things (rings, balls, etc) onto sticks or in holes.

For the life of me, I can't remember the name of these games. I found one exactly what I am looking for here, and they call them a "water game - triangles". This is what I am looking for, but I want to know a more generic name so it will help me do some online searching.

If anyone knows the names of these toys and when I might be able to source some new ones online, it would be great. My brother has a birthday coming up and it would be great if I could get him one of these as a gag gift.

posted by dbirchum to sports, hobbies, & recreation (11 answers total)

Google for images, and you'll find some.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:35 AM on September 9, 2011

Waterfuls?
posted by vacapinta at 7:35 AM on September 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

You can buy them from Amazon.
posted by vacapinta at 7:38 AM on September 9, 2011

Yup, Vacapinta has it: Wonderful Waterfuls
posted by hamandcheese at 7:39 AM on September 9, 2011

I had a Wonderful Waterfuls basketball game as a little kid, and I would use it as a canteen.

I was a little kid and didn't know any better.
posted by Lucinda at 7:43 AM on September 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

I had a couple of the smaller round Waterfuls as a kid - now that really takes me back. Those were the days of really simple toys, like the Little Professor and MERLIN.
posted by Telpethoron at 7:46 AM on September 9, 2011

For nostalgia's sake: The evolution of the Tomy Waterful 1970-2009.
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:53 AM on September 9, 2011

Note that Waterful appears to be Tomy's name. You'll find a lot more searching Amazon simply for water games.
posted by Georgina at 7:57 AM on September 9, 2011

Definitely Waterfuls, but I'm also throwing in Mego Sliksilver (where you guided a blob of water round a Teflon-coated maze) for the collective memory.
posted by scruss at 8:44 AM on September 9, 2011

And we can't forget the similarly-named Quicksilver, made with actual mercury. Very safe!
posted by Georgina at 9:47 AM on September 9, 2011

We might even have some Wonderful Waterfuls in the garage somewhere, our kids loved them (and so did we, some of them took some real skill).
posted by tommasz at 10:02 AM on September 9, 2011