Puzzler time. 

Okay, here we go. When I was a young lad, many many years ago, I was given a toy by my brother. 

This was so many years ago, I'd rather not say how many...

This was a very popular toy back then. Remember we didn't have video games and cell phones and stuff like that. We had sticks twigs and marbles to play with. This toy back then was so popular, that I am willing to bet that 95% of the adult population had one and knows what this is. 

Now, I didn't know this at the time, of course. But later on in life, I realized that there was a mechanical connection to this toy. 

Here is the connection, and from there, you'll have to guess what the toy is. 

When World War II was over, there was this vast demobilization. And because the war effort was ending, tremendous amounts of material and machinery became available as surplus junk. There was among that pile of surplus material, something that some enterprising individual took and cut up to make this toy. So this individual cut these things up and actually sold them in this very form as the toy that we all have come to know and love. It was only later on that these things were refined, and eventually made out of plastic instead of metal. 

Note that there are a few origin stories about this toy. Another one involves a ship and an engineer who accidentally invented this toy. 

So, what was the toy?

Good luck.