I was the same. Had loads of books with cross sections of battleships and tanks and castles. Real photos of ancient arms ans armour. Lots of stats. The only kids book I had was Full Moon Soup and that was a cross section of a Hotel so that checks out. There was something about thia stuff that perked my brain up and made me want to indulge for hours.

i always hated when my toys were made to look "kid like".

if you give me a toy tool box, there better be a toy hammer that looks like a real hammer that adults use. it better not be multicolored with a big smiley face on them. i'm pretending to be a big strong adult doing a cool job. do you really think i want to show up to the pretend worksite looking like some sort of baby?!

i'm pretty sure all my friends also wanted the "real" thing, so i have to assume that the cute whimsical angle is just to help sell it to adults.

It's because if some Karen sees your kid with a real looking hammer anywhere near actual work, (s)he's gonna rat your ass out to CPS faster than you can snap your fingers.

Similarly for toy guns. The weird look ain't for the kids, it's so some passerby doesn't see the "gun" and call the cops (no matter there is no regulation in most states from making a real gun to look like a toy gun so it's a totally bogus presumption).

> no matter there is no regulation in most states from making a real gun to look like a toy gun so it's a totally bogus presumption

It's a federal law.

> each toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm shall have as an integral part, permanently affixed, a blaze orange plug inserted in the barrel of such toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:15%20section:...

The law says that toys have to look like this, but there's often no restriction against painting an orange tip onto an actual firearm.

Growing up in Los Alamos, we didn't have a toy shop. There was one when I was very young, but it had closed by the time I was old enough to remember it.

We did have an incredible hardware store, however. Pocket hammers, mini-maglites (in any color you like), little brass screwdrivers that could come apart into 10-15 different (tiny) tools, garden sprinklers, and more, were the bread and butter of birthday parties and any other gifting event.

Sure, your parents could drive you to Española for Wal Mart, or to Santa Fe for a Toys Я Us or Target, so we weren't completely missing out on things like super soakers or lego. But nothing could really beat Metzgers Hardware.

Daycare and similar also typically had a workbench somewhere with a hammer, some nails, boards, and other bits and bobs for kids to play with. Sure, sometimes you'd bop your finger, but you learned not to do that

I grew up in a construction family. I didn't have this problem. I was given a real hammer and real nails and scrap wood to nail together. It was a shite hammer but real. It was probably only a light 8oz hammer, but I was at the real worksite with my pretend project. I'm sure some OSHA rules were broken, but it was weekends only and most of the crew was off, but it was real enough to kid me then.

But yeah, if someone gave me a red and blue smiley face toy tool, I'd be like WTF is this? Then again, my dad would have said the same thing without the cutesy internet acronyms.

Lol, right on! I grew up on a farm in an area where the economy centers around Ag. There used to be an annual fundraiser dinner in a nearby town (population 309) with various games for kids. One of the more popular games was to see who could hammer a nail into a board first. Good times.

I hear Shite Hammer are playing Bloodstock this year

Scrap wood to nail together? Luxury. Try, "take the nails out of these boards and straighten them, so we can reuse both"

Depending on things, manufacturing your own cut nails in your backyard from free scrap metal may be more efficient and significantly easier than pulling nails. It doesn't help much if you want to reuse the lumber, though.

My dad bought exactly one pound of roofing nails when replacing an entire asphalt shingle roof thanks to child labor.

Did he at least buy new shingles?

They were unused and in the package and they were new to him. They weren't new to the world. And he didn't buy them he bartered for them.

oh, i had my share of that project too. way back then, i found busy work fun. i think it is the true source of my absolute frustration with busy work now. thanks doc, i think we just made a break through!

For many tools, the real McCoys are cheaper than the kid versions. So, buy the kid some real tools, and file away sharpness and cushion mass as required ?