Thanks to Toad and her mighty scanner we bring you this cool advert for SWORD toys, which appeared in issue 201 of TV21, 23rd November 1968 complimenting the text SWORD story ALIBI [posted yesterday]. Just in time for the Big Day, I can hear those young Swordies now, waving the ad under their Mum and Dad's noses screaming 'I know what I want for Christmas! A Moon Bus, A Moon Bus'.
The old UK price range is quite amazing really, from 3 Shillings 11 pence to 59 Shillings 11 pence. At today's UK prices that would have been about 18p to around £3. At today's values that would be around £2 to £30 but in reality they'd cost a lot more than that in today's toy shops.
Are modern toys unreasonably expensive nowadays compared to 1968? I have a feeling that the Christmas presents bill has gone up over the years as kids expect more and more expensive stuff! Would you agree?
Hard to judge. I'm in the (I think) fortunate position of not having to buy present for children. Still, I do look around toy shops and I have mixed impressions. Some seem incredibly expensive ... and often NOT particularly interesting or the kind of thing that I could imagine being played with for long. But then again, there are some (relatively speaking) less pricey toys which seem good quality and desirable.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do like is that there seem to be lots of creative things, like the bead-picture things (Halam?) and science kits and such.
But there's no question prices these days DO SEEM ridiculous. My problem is that I can't judge how much of my parents income a (for example) 21 shilling doll would have been compared to what it was then. Those proportions will have varied between the social income groups back then, and I am not sure the comparison figures one can find really tell the whole story.
I still think we had it better in terms of toys than today's children. Maybe that is just rosey tinted contact lenses, but that's my belief.