THROUGH A GLASS, CLEARLY

I have some of my very fondest memories from my primary school days, playing with Sword toys on a toy day, xmas panto, first girlfriend and a multitude of exciting educational toys that you could never buy in department stores. In those heady first days of school way back in the mid sixties, I discovered all kinds of construction, counting and creating toys. 

Playplax - clearly brilliant

One that always stuck in my memory was Playplax. Probably because of its utter simplicity and beauty - basically there were two different parts - it stuck with me. One day, while cruising ebay, I managed to score a large boxed set of the two main elements. When I got it at home, the memories flooded back as I handled the perspex squares and tubes and I soon had a beautiful coloured sculpture before me. More importantly, the box held more surprises, as it was clearly marked as a Trendon Toy and designed by one Patrick Rylands. Also it had a Design Centre sticker on it, which revealed that it had won several awards and was obviously a toy design milestone. At the time I found the set, I had been in touch with the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, trying to arrange a visit to their archives. So I looked in on their website and after a brief redirection, found an online copy of the 1970 Design Journal, detailing the launch of Playplax.

The article showed several other toy creations by Patrick Rylands, plus several other similar toys. I hit ebay once more armed with the new information and was amazed to discover another rare toy - the Gyrosphere. This was a simple perspex globe enclosing an equally simple perspex spinning top, which when you shook the globe, spun inside the globe. The Gyrosphere was contained in a simple clear tube with cardboard ends and had obviously spent some time on a dusty shop shelf. I contacted the V & A directly and asked the curator about Playplax and Mr Rylands designs. To my complete surprise, it turned out that he was a member of the museum board and I was able to contact him directly to ask about the design of the toys. After a brief exchange, he told me that he was very surprised that anyone might discover a Gyrosphere nowdays as once it is taken out of the packaging, there is no way to identify it by means of makers marks. He then went on to describe the production and development of the toy and the fact that he used 'powder compacts' as the lids for the packaging during conceptual design.

1970 edition of Design Journal

The Amazing Gyrosphere

After I had found out all I could discern from the V & A Design Journals and conversations with Mr Rylands, I went in search of other Trendon Toys and contemporary designs. Within the journal, I saw another simple construction toy called Hex Upon. Consisting of a set of  19 plastic rings, Hex Upon proceeded from a similar premise as Playplax, allowing small hands to link the rings together to make various shapes. The outer rim of each ring has two opposing slots on each hexagonal facet, making it possible to join the rings together in planes of 90 degrees. Once more ebay provided me with a boxed set, some years later. Again the box was dusty and dirty, showing signs of a long and unhappy shelflife. Looking at the toy now, it is easy to see that a child might tire quickly of the limited possibilities of the toy. Also, when the box is removed and the toy stands alone, it could easily be mistaken for a set of space age napkin rings, as used by all those 70's dinner parties!

A Hex Upon You

 Finally, to round off this little look at space age toy design, I came across a rare game by Airfix. Spectra is a multilevel variation on draughts, with a board and counters that might not look out of place on Ed Strakers desk or on his office wall. The idea being the translucent counters could be overlaid to change the three base colours into secondary shades making a line of matching colour. Again, a pretty looking toy, but not great in the playability department!

Nice try but stick to planes in future