Its a strange question but did you collect rings as a kid?
You know, rings for your fingers?
I remember having loads of cheap tacky rings in my collection of stuff in the Sixties mixed in with Key Rings and vending machine toys. Some had huge fake colourful jewels on metal hoops and others where bats and gorilla heads made from a single piece of plastic and part of the monster craze.
I nor my brothers ever had any super hero rings, which is a shame as I understand that the old Superman rings from the Forties are like Picasso's. I do have a Green lantern ring somewhere in the loft but its a modern plastic one so I doubt I can retire on it.
The rings I do remember the most are the ones you could blow. They were issued as part of the Bazooka Joe bubblegum craze - a mail away? - and we had a few sirening round the house when I was growing up. Blowing made them whistle like kettles.
Those whistling rings may have been released by other companies too.
Did you blow on your ring readers?
I remember the cool Waverly ring which was issued with my diecast Man from UNCLE Oldsmobile. You've jogged a buried memory, Woodsy... thinking back, I'm sure rings were a big trinket thing for kids back then, weren't they?
ReplyDeleteOf course Tone, the Waverley ring compliments of UNCLE! I'd forgotten about flicker rings. I'm sure I had a few different ones. They were cheap capsule toys from vending machines in corner shops. I can almost picture them but I've got flicker memory, it keeps fading in and out!
DeleteNo whistle rings, but a bunch of monster head rings.The ring hole was the monster's mouth and you stuck your finger through it.I remember a green zombie, a red demon, and a white reaper.I've come across them from time to time while digging through the attic, so they still exist.
ReplyDeleteYes Brian, I'd forgotten that the ring formed the mouth of some of those monsters! What a neat idea. I bet they're still being made somewhere!
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