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Our childhood toys

  • Thread starter Thread starter angeleyes
  • Start date Start date
nice photo,s Michale i,ve a photo of my father in-law on a bike that was my kids, just like that one,and as for the Indian clubs i think you,d get arrested, now with them, only joking:)
happy days regards dereklcg.
 
Have found yet another photo out this time of myself with my teddy bear named Johny. It belonged to my brother when he was a baby. He still has it in his cottage in Tenbury wells. TTFN. Jean.
 
Who remembers the Dan Dare ray gun ?
The first one I had, as well as being a torch, also had a buzzer that went off when you fired.
The Mk2 model had coloured plastic covers that could be turned to cover the bulb and give you red or green light.
My mate Kenny Coombes & I used to signal to each other from our bedroom windows.
Such innocent pastimes !
 
tn
I used to love hoola hooping. Good for keping fit too.
 
Me too Jean. Remember them hanging up outside shops, not just toy shops, but grocery stores and sweet shops too. Think everyone wanted to get in on the craze. I had an orange one. The surface was ridged. We must have had tiny waists then Jean - sadly no more! Viv.
 
We even ended up with them in our skirts Viv. Oh my goodness walking up the stairs on a bus with one of those on!!. Jean.
 
can remember making lots of different toys to play with even from paper.my 2 brothers and sister used to make hats out of old news paper and play pirates all day. or get dad to make a hole in an old cocoa lid, we would thread string through and spin and then pull ,it would make a whirling noise. the boys would make go karts out of old bits of wood and wheels, they were great fun but we used to get through our shoes quickly, because they had no brakes. i also used to play with cutout dolls and make more clothes myself. we used to send all our old toys to Dr Bernado's
 
My friends and I built a trolley, it was mainly the parts of a pram and a plank of wood, steering was by rope. We used to hurtle down the hill at quite a speed, our braking system required a 45 degree turn onto a path leading into a little grove,usually resulting in the trolley tipping over onto a patch of grass. No one seemed to get hurt.
 
glassalli said:
My friends and I built a trolley, it was mainly the parts of a pram and a plank of wood, steering was by rope. We used to hurtle down the hill at quite a speed, our braking system required a 45 degree turn onto a path leading into a little grove,usually resulting in the trolley tipping over onto a patch of grass. No one seemed to get hurt.
Click to expand...
What you describe there glassalli is what we would've called a Cronk !
 
Chocks is teaching me to post photos but until I learn....I have a treasured book handed down from Nan to Mum and now me bought at Lewis's Bull St B'ham in 1913, for Nan's 7th birthday. Called In The Chimney Corner a compilation of stories and rhymes. Beautiful colour plates. Have several hand me down old books inc. Christmas Carol, Christies Old Organ, Her Benny etc. Mum and dad payed on tick to buy me a model farm with relaistic animals, smaller in scale than they do now. Britians I think they were. A 2nd hand scooter all the kids made fun of and a big three wheeler yet they all wanted a go on them. Proper 2nd hand roller skates. I joined a roller skating club.A sponge hen which sat on a 'nest' full of powered chalk, you pulled this 'thing' up and down a string hanging from the nest and the chalk made it schreech. Dad got it from a chap on a corner selling them in town. He thought it was natty at 1st.....!
 
Also liked the nodding animals for car window ledges. And animals with elastic joints. They stand on a cup you push the bottom up and they contort. My friend had like a mushroom shape with a wooden girl and chickens on the top, you swung the pendulum underneath like a olumb bob and the chickens pecked and she threw grain. Had a weather house too.Jackin the box and a wind up monkey that played cymbals and an elephant that played the drums.
Collected Dinky cars for my garage. Loved playing in the entry which nan called the jitty. Writing in the dirt, go carts. Marbles. Hide and seek. I remember to cardboard discs cut out, mum drew round a cup, and threaded string or elastic between them and you spin them. We made woodoen flat boats at school twisted a rubber band to propel the paddle.
 
My cousin had Bayko, I had Lego which was just becoming popular, I've still got some of the original bits that my son used and the grandkids too. My brother still has some Meccano. He put his Trainset in the loft "out of the way" and it warped with the heat....check your loft treasures if you have any!!!
He had some little metal cannons and we used to fire matchsticks, how dangerous!
We made spinners from big coat buttons from Mom's button-box, but they were lethal when the cord went threadbare and broke!!
rosie.
 
I feel like I should remember Bayko? I had stickle bricks. I made aeroplanes out of them rather than build with them. I had a black one dad said it was a Black Meg? Had airfix kits and Lego. Grandad enjoyed them more than me. Sailed the boats in the bath and the glue melted. What was that stuff a bit like lego but it was metal I think with holes punchedin and you could make things that move like mini pistons and things? Made pipe cleaner animals. Loved my farm the best though. Grandad made me a stable. Used to swap zoo or exotic animals with my mate. Had a mould kit for making plasticine circus animals. I just loved animals. Swapped cigarette cards from the tea maybe PG tips. Had a carpentry set dad ended up using it. Made pastry worms and kept them for months in my little oven. Had a Noddy car books and a puppet. Sooty glove puppet. My mate had a set of building peices and little balls all magnetic. Never seen one since.
 
Nico, do you mean Meccano? My brother had that and my son has had it more recently.He also has a set of Magnetix, which sounds like the set you describe - they will stick to anything metal, including radiators and bed frames!
Sue
 
Thinking back I had a toy electric 'Shocking Machine'.
It had two metal handles connected by wires to a coil to which a large battery was connected. The level of shock was adjusted by moving a plunger within the coil and it could be set to give a shock level which made your arms jerk about and ache, you could hardly let go of the handles. We used to see who could stand the largest shocks.
It seems unbelievable now but its true because I remember it came in a nice coloured box from a shop. My Dad said it helped his rheumatism.
 
Bayko was a system for building houses,it had a green plastic base into which rods were inserted.The bricks windows and doors slotted over the rods and you could design and build your house. the roof was already formed and rested on to the structure.
 
During the war toys were only things we spoke of, hence we made our own. The most simple and dramatic was the "Fire Can". This was simlply a tin can, preferably a 2lb treacle tin if possible, We smashed holes through it , attached a strong wire through two holes in the rim enableing it to be swung vigorously to keep a fire of tiny sticks alive Later in the war when our Anderson air raid shelter was not needed we made it into a den to make a fire to bake potatoes These were obviously smoke driven and tasted aweful. We always emerged saturated in smoke. The trolly made from an old pram was also a firm favourite. With lack of road traffic this was used with impunity.
 
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