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Strange toys

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Went looking for a bit of nostalgia this afternoon and came across these. I had a Troll with white hair that was constantly groomed. These were small enough to sit in our school skirt pockets and could easily be brought out at break times for combing and styling. Seems so odd today, can’t quite see the point - we must have been 11 or 12 year olds at the time, about mid-60s.

The other ‘odd’ one was a Gonk. The one in the photo is supposed to be one of the Beatles - Yeah, Yeah ! I didn’t buy one of these but made my own out of felt in a character of my own making. It sat on my bed _ that’s about the fullest extent of its interest !

Finally, one other thing I made (for which I don’t have a picture) is a Dougal Dog (from the Magic Roundabout). Made it out of an old pillowcase, and threaded loads and loads of chunky knit wool onto it for its fur, Then two pieces of felt for the eyes. Voila ! Very cheap but again it just sat on the bed along with the Gonk. All harmless fun though.

Viv.

B72649F7-3161-4270-8E40-4925C7F7162A.jpeg
 
Went looking for a bit of nostalgia this afternoon and came across these. I had a Troll with white hair that was constantly groomed. These were small enough to sit in our school skirt pockets and could easily be brought out at break times for combing and styling. Seems so odd today, can’t quite see the point - we must have been 11 or 12 year olds at the time, about mid-60s.

The other ‘odd’ one was a Gonk. The one in the photo is supposed to be one of the Beatles - Yeah, Yeah ! I didn’t buy one of these but made my own out of felt in a character of my own making. It sat on my bed _ that’s about the fullest extent of its interest !

Finally, one other thing I made (for which I don’t have a picture) is a Dougal Dog (from the Magic Roundabout). Made it out of an old pillowcase, and threaded loads and loads of chunky knit wool onto it for its fur, Then two pieces of felt for the eyes. Voila ! Very cheap but again it just sat on the bed along with the Gonk. All harmless fun though.

Viv.

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Hi Viv,

I too was troll crazy in the 60s, a little bit later than you when I was at Junior school. We made up all sorts of stories and games featuring them, very odd! I can't remember how the craze started but they were featured in a comic I used to read called Princess Tina. I also remember that you could win them at fairs, don't know where we actually bought them from though. Unlike you I don't still have mine. Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing....

Lynn.
 
I had a troll on the end of my pencil! He had long purple hair and I groomed him so much it came out so had to put a bit of sheepskin the gap. (Yes I still have him!) I knitted my Gonk from a pattern in mother's Woman's Realm or some other magazine, I don't remember what happened to him.
rosie.
 
I am sure that they used to sell trolls at Gills toy shop in Sutton Parde where I worked as a Saturday girl.
 
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Clickers. Remember these. We had one. All it did was click when pressed. Think it might have been free with a magazine. I’m certain we wouldn’t have gone out purposely to buy one. These are 1950s German clickers. Viv.

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For my 9th birthday in 1955 I had a deep sea diver in a water filled glass tube. By pressing the button on the top the diver went down and when button was released he came back up. I've tried to find an image of this particular toy without success. However, it's based on the Cartesian Diver principal of which there are many variations on You Tube.
 
For my 9th birthday in 1955 I had a deep sea diver in a water filled glass tube. By pressing the button on the top the diver went down and when button was released he came back up. I've tried to find an image of this particular toy without success. However, it's based on the Cartesian Diver principal of which there are many variations on You Tube.
One of these?
diverN2.jpgdiver2.jpg
 
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Hi RobT, no, it wasn't that. The diver itself looked like your photos but had no attachments and was about 1 inch tall. He was also sealed in a clear plastic tube filled with water about 10 inches high. Couldn't squeeze the tube because it was hard plastic so there was a rubber button on the top. Here is a modern home made version. First time I've uploaded a video so apologies for not giving a proper link. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="
" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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I had one of these as a Christmas present when I was a lad ... much fun but sometimes painful ... :)
Hi Folks These two pictures show a shocking machine which would have been attached to a battery. My Dad bought it convinced it would help with his pains.
He would spent some time holding the 2 hand pieces and you would see his arm jumping.
Picture 2 was the trick he used to play on us as kids, he'd put a coin into a bowl of water and you would hold 1 hand piece and the other hand piece would be inserted into water which you had to put your hand in to retrieve the coin .
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But I wonder if that was just added for drama by the film makers Pete, did it really happen? I'm sure I can tell the difference having had use of both. ;)
true eric, i think that was just movies, my bolts don't sound like clicks more like clacks.....:)
 
Hi RobT, no, it wasn't that. The diver itself looked like your photos but had no attachments and was about 1 inch tall. He was also sealed in a clear plastic tube filled with water about 10 inches high. Couldn't squeeze the tube because it was hard plastic so there was a rubber button on the top. Here is a modern home made version. First time I've uploaded a video so apologies for not giving a proper link. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="
" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Super video Banjo, demonstrated the toy very well, never seen one of those before.
 
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