childhood toys -because reminiscing is pleasureable

[Herbidacious]

We somehow got round to our teddy bears etc. on the 'things you'll never understand thread', and as Tezza pointed out, childhood toys are (generally) things we all understand. Although that said, other people's toys, espcially from earlier eras, are a little incomprehensible and scary even.

So if anyone would care to reminisce...

I had three stuffed toys who were special. Bluebell, a Wendy Boston teddy bought for me before I was born, Honeyball (!) a teddy bought in Sheffield's Redgates, when I was four, and Tigger an unimaginatively named tiger, when I was seven (and felt a little shamefaced for wanting a stuffed toy at such a great age.)

This is the also very unimaginatively names 'Donkey' when he still had ears, and before I was born. I don't remember him every having any, so I guess my sister pulled them off. I think thse might have been presents from her first Christmas. 1964. Looks like she was a bit spoilt!

[Herbidacious]

Sorry if this seems too self indulgent. I am genuinely interested in other people's childhood memories.

[Seatallan]

I had a large, pink rabbit called Honey Bunny. He went everywhere with me. I honestly don't know what happened to him in the end...

[StokeySue]

As well as the blue and pink teddy on the other thread (he came from America via Rotterdam) I had a little grey and white kitten called Pinknose and a very stiff terrier (Jack) full of wood wool it transpired when he finally did an alien style self disembowelling when dropped
Both passed on from cousins, the dog may well have been pre-WW2
I also had a doll called Wendy with long golden hair, I think most of the time she was the model for my attempts to make things with a toy sewing machine

[Ratatouille]

I had Hans a felt Dutch boy made by my dad when he was convalescing after being wounded during the war.
I also had a black scottie dog stuffed with wood wool It was unimaginatively called Jock and a doll called Wendy who, because my Aunt made all my clothes, had matching outfits.
Most of my wooden toys like my dolls'house and a dools bedroom suite were made by either my dad or uncle, both of who were demon woodworkers.

In 1950 a friend of Dads who was a rep for Chad Valley brought me a Brumas bear after the
bear cub born in London Zoo in 1949. I still have him and he sits on the day bed in my dressing room. He is apprently worth quite a lot of money these days but I wouldn't part with him.

The saddest story to me is that of Mr R's blue rabbit. It was bought for him when he was born by his garndmother and called of course, Blue. It was so loved that after many washes it became grey. When, aged 4 Mr R's father came home on leave during the war - it was announced that he was far too old for tatty toys and Ble was dully burnt on the fire, in front of his distraught owner. Mr R never forgave his father who was indeed a real control freak.

[TeresaFoodie]

I mentioned this to my mum earlier and she reminded me of a doll I used to take everywhere with me. In the seventies it was normal to see Gollies on marmalade jars and in doll form and mine was one. She was a head, a body and arms with a detachable skirt, no legs, just a stump at the end of her torso. Not sure what that was all about. Maybe she was supposed to sit on top of your nightwear.

My sister had a push along pale blue stuffed dog on wheels with a handle. He was called Arnie and she still has him, minus the wheels and handle. I remember when me and my sister used to argue and I felt I wasn't getting my way, my threat to turn the argument around was something like 'If you don't blah blah blah blah blah, Arnie dies!' What a horrible sister I was!

I'll probably think of some more later.

[Ratatouille]

When DS was born in 1970 in the Bahamas one of our older girls at school knitted a beautiful Golly for him. He absolutely loved it and still has it , though it is a bit moth eaten.

DD has a panda soft toy which has accompanied her everywhere for the last 50 years. It was called Syrup but since about 1990 it was renamed Fred Bear because he is bald.

[StokeySue]

I have been Googling to see is I can find a doll like my Wendy, I think she is an American Horsman doll, the Ruthie model, so probably came by the same route as Teddy, my aunt in Holland used to visit trade fairs there and her daughter is called - Wendy!

I had a cart that I loved, the sort of shallow tray on wheels with a long handle to pull it along with, usually comes full of wooden bricks but this one was made by my dad with the retired carpenter who lived next door; cobalt blue with pillar box red interior and wheels, very smart. They also made my rocking horse, a dapple grey. I had a doll's house home made and handed down by someone, possibly my cousin.

And I had an embroidered felt duck in a hat, probaby made by great aunt Mabel

[aero280]

Us boys mostly had Meccano and Hornby trains.

But while reminiscing is fun, going to a toy museum is depressing. All the toys that survived the period of your chilhood are usually "rare" and locked in cabinets.

[TeresaFoodie]

Board games were very popular in our house. My favourite was and still is Cluedo. I could also spend hours on Electronic Detective. That game must have cost my mum a small fortune in batteries! Just a simple pack of playing cards would often be enough to keep the whole family entertained, especially when we spent time at my grandparent's caravan at Walton On The Naze where invariably we would get rained in.

I was in my element when me and my sister were given a Girl's World one Christmas. While my sister grew and styled the tresses, I chopped all the hair off mine and pierced her ears with as many holes as I could fit in.

Up until my mum moved out of our family home eleven years ago, her cupboard at the top of her stairs housed every single toy or game that we'd ever owned and played with. She had a clear out and binned the lot as she was down sizing. I dread to think what gems she might have got rid of.

[Ratatouille]

Aero, I had Meccano and a train set too because Dad thought it was very important not to make me too girly, I loved the train set but wasn't wild about the Meccano. I loved the spirit driven steam engine though. How can you tell Dad was hoping for a boy? I actually think he was extremely forward looking in the 50's. I was he who bought me my first trousers - or slacks as they were called in those days.
Sue I have a photo of me and my Wendy I haven't a clue how I could post it here but I'll bring it with me when we meet up.

[Herbidacious]

My mother's mother gave her teddy away, Rats, when she deemed my mother to be too old for it. Not sure how old this was. It was given to a poorer child. My mother's parents didn't have electricity...!

My father made us/my sister a doll's house. I wish I had a picture. Not sure if it still exists. My sister took it with her when she left home. It was chunky workmanship, typical my father, but the insides were wall papered with really wall paper - bits left over from decorating the Victorian house they had at the time - one had flock wall paper - and they managed to get roof tile paper for the roof. The staircase was detachable, and he'd wired the whole thing, so when you pressed the 'chimneys', lights came on - one 'chimney' lit up the upstairs, and the other the downstairs. The battery lived in the attic!

There was lots of Meccano in the house, as my father still mucked about with it. He had an ongoing project to make a pendulum clock which he did, but he could never get it to keep good time. There are some 1940s sets from his childhood in the house somewhere and boxes of the Meccano Magazine. I made up a few things from kits - bizzarely (?) an army ambulance and a lorry. Not quite as domesticated as the lego kits we had.

[aero280]

Aero, I had Meccano and a train set too because Dad thought it was very important not to make me too girly, I loved the train set but wasn't wild about the Meccano. I loved the spirit driven steam engine though.

I have plans along those lines for my granddaughter!! Just waiting until she's old enough to know not to eat the nuts and bolts!!

[liketocook]

I had one of the original "Tiny Tears" with a more sponge like body than later versions. It had been a relative's and passed to me when she grew out of it. I also had a very non PC black doll called "Topsy", I absolutely adored her even after our pup chewed off her hands and feet. Other favourites were Pippa, Sheena & Sindy dolls, I did love my dolls. My favourite however was a simple dollshouse my Papa made for me whose front was a replica of the "Playschool" windows. It was a simple affair, basically a wooden box divided in 4 with a roof that lifed off, but it had real carpets and wall paper and my Gran made lots of furniture from it from matchboxes, cotton reels etc. It was a real labour of love but sadly I've no idea what happened to it.

[Busybee]

The white teddy is mine, he resurfaced as we cleared the loft in the garage ready for the move. He has been through the washer today and is drying on the washing airer. He will be kept.

The Micky Mouse was in the loft with teddy, but he wasn’t mine. I thought he was Mums, but she thinks he belonged to her older sister who was born in 1935. I’m not really sure what to do with him, he is filthy but I dare not wash him as he feels quite fragile. Any ideas?

BB

[Busybee]

Micky

[Zosherooney]

I had a teddy, I have it somewhere, the ears are almost non existent due to my chewing them as a kiddie. I remember asking for a doll with golden hair just prior to Crimbo, the nearest Mum could get was a doll with silver hair. I loved her, and called her Annabell. I had a golly but I now understand they are not kosher...... I was given a baby doll with a china head and sold her in my 20's at an auction - think she was german and I got £30 for her.

I inherited a large suitcase of dinky cars from my brothers. I had a lot of fun with them. At 13 I was given a Spirograph, it only came out on high days and holidays. I had Leggo, a trolley with wooden cubes, a dolls pram and a dolls pushchair.

I still have some books from my childhood, Bengo about a mexican dog. A book of fairy tales and a Rupert album....

[TeresaFoodie]

I had a Tiny Tears but couldn't be doing with all the hard work involved. Sure sign that I was never going to be maternal as an adult.

[earthmaiden]

I still have Mopsy, a rabbit in a pink and white striped dress made as a present when I was born and Daa Bear, my teddy given by an uncle on my first Christmas. I loved my dolls and had nice things for them given by relatives over several birthdays and Christmases. They were Jane, Ann, Anita, Janice and Helen (does that date me or what!). Janice was a huge surprise on my 9th birthday from my grandmother. She was taller than most dolls and had a beautiful dress, high heeled sandals, real stockings and pearl earrings. I still have a lovely patchwork quilt my mother made for my dolls pram - hugely sentimental for obvious reasons but also because it was made from scraps from the rag bag, each of which is a memory of its own. My grandmother also knitted dolls and soft toys. My GD now plays with one of the dolls. The mouth is a little circle of red leather which came from an old purse.

Ex OH had a Brumas. It was at his mum's. I wonder if he kept it or knew it had value.

[Herbidacious]

I had a lot of dolls - many bought second hand from a giant toy fair that was held at the school every year. Sindy - a really old one with curly hair and another that I had new with blond hair. Not much in the breast department! I was bought another new one when I was about 8 (?) which was quite bust and had luscious long wavy dark brown hair. They were all bigger than the later ones though. We also had American Barbies which my Aunt who lived in American sent. They were wasp waisted and DD cups! Mine lost a leg in an attempt to sit on the blue donkey in my photo. I suppose she should have tried side saddle. I did have PIppa doll(s?) too and a second hand action man, and action girl, who wasn't as good as action man. She had ginger hair and bendy arms. Also had a Sascha (sp?) doll.
We had a lot of cars and tracks to run them on (bright orange plastic - very 70s). Now what was that called...? Hot tracks? You could loop the loop with it. i longed fro a train set, but there wasn't the money or the room to put one. My parents' friends children had a big house in Scarborough with a playroom which had a whole (albeit quite small) room coming off it devoted to the tarains (althugh mioght have been the father's?!)

[Herbidacious]

Hot Wheels! You can still buy it.

[TeresaFoodie]

I just remembered I had a Bionic Man and I think Bionic Woman. I can only remember that one of them had a flap on their arm that opened up to reveal a small computer. I found that sort of stuff dead exciting.

I also loved my microscope complete with dead fly and my telescope. For some reason I couldn't quite get to grips with the telescope. I was probably looking down the wrong end. Still, hours of fun anyway!

[Herbidacious]

That was my favourite tv programme at one point. We used to ‘play at it’ a lot.

[Busybee]

If I’m remembering correctly I also had a Sasha doll - was she the one with pull out hair and button on her belly to wind the hair back in again?

I also had a Pippa and Skipper dolls. My Sindy was a hand me down and had a beehive hairdo! When my Gran went to Los Angeles in the 70’s she brought a Barbie aeroplane, but the best present were white leather boot roller skates which we used for years. As me and my sister were the youngest of four granddaughters, and we all got a pair of skates, we had use if correctly sized boots for years

BB

[StokeySue]

I think the one with the growing hair was Tressy?
Sasha dolls were the character ones, as much collectables as toys, still traded it seems
https://www.sashadolluk.co.uk

I had Jaco skates that tied on over my Clarks shoes, and stilts. Hula hoops were a big thing but I didn't have one, and never got any good at them

[TeresaFoodie]

Me and my sister had roller boots; she was agile on them, I always used to end up in a heap. We also had wooden stilts handmade by my granddad. The best present I ever got was a second hand bicycle with what seemed at the time massive wheels. My granddad painted it blue, silver, gold, red. My poor mum's back lawn had a huge circle of worn out grass round the edge where I'd go round and round and round....

Swing ball!

[liketocook]

My Sheena doll had "growing" hair, I had such fun winding it in and out. She also had a very trendy purple trouser suit. My Great Aunt made me one just like it from Crimpolene, I thought I was the bees knees

[Seatallan]

I always wanted one of the growing hair dolls. A friend of mine had one and I was green with envy. I expect the novelty would have worn off pretty quickly (which was probably why my parents were deaf to my protests ).

The other two things I wanted and never got (and I'm still sour about it as you can probably tell ) were:

(a) A train set. Would have killed for one but my parents thought train sets were for boys.
(b) Clackers. Mum wouldn't buy them for me because of all the horror stories about them injuring people. I was gutted.

[liketocook]

Oh Clackers, I so loved these and was so peeved when the school stopped us taking them in to play with a break time. They were lethal though which was half the fun....
An older relative's Dad had floored their loft and built up train sets and scalectrix in it. I used to love visiting them though never had a hankering for my own. For someone who grew up to be disinterested in fashion, bling etc. I was definitely a girlie girl when it came to toys, though I did love lego and Meccano.
Did anyone collect scraps?

[TeresaFoodie]

This has been a really enjoyable trip down memory lane. Things keep popping into my head making me think how lucky I was to grow up in the seventies where the simplest things often kept us occupied for hours. For example, where my grandparents lived, just up the road from us, was where we did most of our playing out because my mum was usually at work. All of us kids had huge containers full of marbles, all different sizes and colours, some most prized and collectable. A small patch of grass verge on the corner of the cul-de-sac was turned into an area where we'd all 'do battle'. I can't really remember the rules now, only that you had to roll your marble in a hole in the ground first? Something like that. I have a vague memory that one type of marble was called a bonk? One of the bigger ones I think....

[suffolk]

Ma so wanted to give me dolls but I didn't want them ... I did have a walking talking one for Christmas one year ... she had a red raincoat, sou'wester hat and wellie boots ... I cut her hair and then put her on a shelf and left her there ... my children always called her Scary Marion ... she went to a car boot sale a few years ago.
I have a teddy bear ... very worn and falling apart ... a Steiff but I got Pa to take the ear tag out because the cows on the farm had ear tags and I didn't want my teddy to have one.
The bestest present I ever had was a toy farm that Pa made ... it had a pond and barns and pig sties and a field and some Britain's farm animals ....... I think it's in Bro's loft now on the farm ... I don't have grandchildren so his can have it.

[Herbidacious]

If I’m remembering correctly I also had a Sasha doll - was she the one with pull out hair and button on her belly to wind the hair back in again?


BB

I had the one in the middle in the checked dress. Mys sister gave her a 70s hair cut They had real human hair.

https://www.sashadolluk.co.uk/


Clackers were banned at my school too.

[Herbidacious]

I had a doll whose hair you could make grow. Her hair was flame red and she was called Cinnamon!

[Herbidacious]

[Herbidacious]

Anyone remember Sweet April?!

[Zosherooney]

I had roller skates not boots. I was not allowed to use them on grass but the road was too dangerous and there were no pavements...... They did not get a lot of use......

[StokeySue]

I went on a schools trip to Yugoslavia (Slovenia) in 1970
On day 2 Cathy did herself a very nasty fracture of her left wrist playing with Clackers

I seem to remember that someone tried to reintroduce them a while back, but few shoos would stock them

[TeresaFoodie]

I didn't know what Clackers were. I found them listed here amongst others as a banned toy.

https://www.burlingamepezmuseum.com/bannedtoy/

[Busybee]

I meant to add Herbi - I had a dolls pram the same as the one in the first photo, I was adamant that when my baby sister arrived she would be wheeled in my pram not a new carrycot/pram affair. Very modern compared to the huge silver cross coach pram I had been wheeled around in.

BB

[Amber]

This makes me quite sad remembering the beautiful dolls house my dad made for me. I have no idea what happened to it .
I also had a ‘Wendy’ doll (possibly still in the loft) in the late 50s, the skates that fastened over ordinary shoes, and I have a tiny pair of ‘clackers’ - free from McDonald’s.

What else? A cuddly panda, a golly I knitted for my younger daughter, and I still hula hoop most days, weighted, but only for about five minutes before I get bored.

[Ratatouille]

I've still got some of the original furniture from my doll's house including a mini Radiation gas cooker which Mum bought in a sale room and a claw footed bath, pull handle loo and wash basin, ditto. The cooker lives on a shelf next to my real one and the bathroom suite lives in the bathroom.

[StokeySue]

If you go to the Bethnal Green Museum of childhood (now called V&A Museum of Chikdhood), which IMO is not as dxciting as it sounds, but worth popping in if you are in the area, there is a Rachel Whiteread installation called Village, made of old doll's houses she has found and scrounged and refurbed, and it's rather spooky and wonderful
https://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/exhibitions/placevillage/

[TeresaFoodie]

That link is great! Dolls' houses are fascinating! I never had one as a child as I was never really a doll person, but the idea of anything miniature like that now really appeals. My mum always did and still does want a dolls' house and it would be a good reason for me to pull my finger out and make one, something I have wanted to do for a while. I only got as far as buying books on how to make food and furniture in miniature though. A future project I hope!

[Grasshopper]

I used to have a thing about toy cars as a kid. I used to have one of those 'Hot Wheels' type race tracks. Lengths of plastic track were joined by little red joiners, and there was even a loop-the-loop too. Other favourites were toy horses, a farm set & lego.
But no dolls!

Grasshopper

[Herbidacious]

Yes I loved hotwheels. We had what were then boys's and girls' toys. We had a lot of those little plastic animals and a toy farm. We had a lot of toys thinking about it, but this was because they were mostly bought cheaply, second hand.

I had forgotten we had Big Panda and Little Panda

We always had a big bag/box of containers to play with and make things with too.

And 'dressing up' of course too. A lot of the dressing up would have been 50s and 60s stuff from jumble sales that I would love to get my hands on now. I have a couple of items still, one falling apart, not surprisingly.

Oh and the hobby horses! My father made about 20 (?) of these in the end - hardboard heads shaped like horses and painted, each one different, different sizes and attached to sticks. They all had names. We had stables (the shed) and my sister, who was horse mad, held court as riding school mistress.

[Seatallan]

That's lovely Herbi!

I liked hobby horses too. I made mine (head was a stuffed sock but I forget what I used for a mane).

[Grasshopper]

I spent 2 years at a residential school in Keighley when I was a kid. They had loads of lego, board games and playing cards.

Grasshopper

[FoodMary]

Stokey - I had a terrier too, sent by my Father, who at that time was overseeing the building of a new runway in Iceland (during the war) so that American planes coming too and from Europe had a re-fuelling point. He, (Scotty) was made out of a white Army blanket with two bootbutton eyes and a red tongue, it was stuffed with some kind of straw and had a collar made of black leather. I kept him for many years until the blanket became holy and straw was being strewn everywhere!

I loved him with a big love!

Mary J

[Herbidacious]

We had 'Scotty Dog' (probably my sister's.) He was white and there was something tartan about him. Possible a sewn in coat?