Slapping that toy stethoscope round my neck made me feel like the local GP. Tapping Action Man's knee with my silver plastic reflex hammer was always fun as was dropping something yukky in the white kidney tray.
I seem to recall a bright red case for my doc's kit shaped like half a plate. It had a white cross on it.
My daughter had the classic plastic set by Fisher Price that came in a beige plastic case. Its star item had to be the inflatable blood pressure unit, which came with a little pump. She always checked my blood and said I didn't have any!
In the Noughties I found a huge loose plastic doctor's and nurses set at a car boot sale. It was from the Sixties or Seventies and came with dozens of toy medical items, the whole lot being held on a toy trolley. It was fabulous and a real credit to the seller that it was all still intact and I snapped it up for my toy stall back then. I never found a brand name on this set but I imagine it was by Nasta or Fleetwood or someone.
Since then I've seen vintage branded medical sets for the old US TV series Dr. Kildare and one called Emergency I think. I seem to recall a show here in Blighty called Emergency Ward 10 but they won't have been the same.
Did you have a toy doctor's kit readers?
Emergency (1972-77) was a US series about a pair of Los Angeles firemen who train as para-medics, and have a truck equipped with rescue and life-saving equipment. The idea of para-medics was new at the time. Dinky produced a die-cast model of their vehicle, with plastic figures of the lead actors. More recently Hot Wheels produced a smaller model of their rescue truck. This series screened in NZ, and I enjoyed it. Emergency Ward 10 (1957-67) was a British hospital series. I can not really say a lot about it, as it did not screen in NZ. I do remember Dr Kildare, and Marcus Welby M.D., both US shows. There was also Doctor Finley's Casebook, which was another British series. Also the seven Doctor films, and their spin-off TV shows, which were once regulars on TV in NZ.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Paul. So many doctor TV shows! I don't recall Emergency at all. There was as well Woobinda the Flying Doctor, which I do remember! Where they vets or human docs?
DeleteThough I did not have a Doctors toy set, I did play doctors and nurses (not a euphemism), mostly with girls, at my nursery and infants school, so I would have been handling things like this.
ReplyDeleteMish.
I remember doctors and nurses Mish, I think. It rings a bell at least although I have no recollection of early schooling. I know I had some but its a blank! I stood outside the school a few years ago to jog my memory but very little came back, apart from an overwhelming sense of years gone by. It looked like a Victorian prison with seperate playgrounds for boys and girls!
DeleteDoctors Sets and Supermarket/Grocery Sets were some of my very first dimestore toys. Played with them for hours and hours...
ReplyDeleteThey were classics of our childhoods Zigg.
DeleteThe mention of a show about the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service rings a very dim bell. They provide medical care to remote farms and communities in the Australian Outback using aircraft. I think there is something similar in Canada ? They are human doctors, and so are their patients.
ReplyDeleteWoobinda always reminded me of Daktari. I wonder if there are Woobinda die-casts anywhere?
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