SICK BAY

 I like toy guns, I always have but this is really odd. Quite why a Doctor's set would need a handgun is beyond me!

No-one needs feel left out, they come in pink and blue!

For years 3 upwards.

Bizarre!

DOCTOR DOCTOR!

I always enjoyed a good doctor's set as a nipper.

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?

VINTAGE DOCTOR TOYS

I used to love toy Doctor's kits when I was a budding brain surgeon aged 6! They always looked like this one - red case, clunky stethoscope, forceps, the lot!  I remember the Fisher Price version in a square plastic attache case, but that could have been from the 1980's when my daughter was a wee Doc.

One kit I never had was a cool space doctor set like this one, which looks exactly the same as a terrestrial kit apart from the words SPACE DOCTOR!

There have been some famous space doctors, the most famous of whom has to be Bones from Star Trek. McCoy had all sorts of medical gizmos including his utterly brilliant little whizzer, which was released as part of this toy set by Playmates. I think there were some Space 1999 medic kits too. Did you have any medical toys readers?

But by at least the length of an Army stretcher, my favourite medical toy in the Sixties was the Action Man Medic carded set. I absolutely adored Action Man and this kit was just fantastic complete with crutches, drip and yes, that ace folding stretcher! It was re-issued as part of the A Man's 40th Anniversary. Christmas meant Action Man back then and if I had the money I would collect Action Man today. Do any of you readers?