PLASTIC CLASSICS: VINTAGE CHARMS AND NOVELTY TOYS

Its too soon to talk about the Big Day so I won't but the onset of the dark month of November has got me thinking about the promise of day-glo party favours and Hong Kong novelties. My childhood was chock-full of little plastic toys and vending charms, so here are a few that have been picked up by that big claw in my mind:

Plastic pipes: the classic Dad shape and the three-pot bubblers: blub!

Plastic pea shooter: tchooom!

Ball floater: pfffft!

Plastic catapult: Yeoooow!

Skull key rings: Yikes!

Skeleton key Rings: dem bones!

Top Hat Skull: the Bone Daddy!

King Kong figures: Grrrrrr!

Super Balls: zzzzzooooom!

Strange Change Lost World cubes: plup!

Which plastic toy thingies do you recall readers - from Birthdays, parties, holidays, Thanksgiving or trips out?

MILK AND BUTTIES AFTER SCHOOL IN THE 1960's

When I was a spotty schoolboy in the Sixties I would come home from school [or skoo] on a Friday and celebrate with a large jam butty and a huge glass of milk.

The butty would be made from Mother's Pride, the very whitest and softest of bread, stork margarine or Lurpak butter and a thick filling of Robinsons strawberry jam with whole strawberries in it. On biting into it the jam would squeeze out from the sides of the butty and go all over my hands. I used to love licking the sticky stuff off my fingers like a dog!

The milk was full cream from the Milk man, a pint bottle in the fridge and poured into a tall hi-ball glass. If I was feeling posh I might have had a straw but mostly I liked to gulp it down in as few gulps as possible. I would finish with a dramatic 'aaaaaaa' and wipe the milk-tash from my face with the back of my arm as if I'd just done a 15 hour shift down the pit!

Heaven!

Nowadays its a much less interesting affair, a strong cup of Yorkshire tea and a Mars Bar from Aldi called Mister Choc. 

What did you have have when you got home from school readers?

I'M SEEING STAR WARS BB-8 SPHERO DROIDS EVERYWHERE!

Since seeing the BB-8 Sphero droid on the Star Wars Force Awakens clips on You Tube I'm seeing influences allover the shop!

It first called to mind my old globe keyring!

Then my old Dizzy Bug!

and most of all this Chinese rotating Space Station!

Where have they got the BB8 Sphero concept from?

Not made of green cheese..

I've been having a great time with the small vac-form moonscape Woodsy got for me recently. At just about 10"× 5", its perfect for mini dioramas and single model displays. Like the Triang Spacex version from the large supersets, ive painted it in shades of pale blue, with violet shading and white highlights. Perfect for displaying the small Kinder spacecraft!

CHILDHOOD DITTIES, BEDTIME TUNES AND PLAYGROUND RHYMES OF THE NINETEEN SIXTIES

When I was a wee bairn in the Sixties there were little ditties everywhere. I struggle to recall them now but here's a few lines from each:

Yellow belly custard, snot nose pie

all mixed up in a dead dogs eye.....

Some new laid eggs, a dozen pegs

and half a pound of jam....

Jingle bells, Batman smells.....

Anyone remember them?

I do remember the playground chant of "Who wants to play at Cowboys and Indians, No Girls Allowed!". Yes, we managed to be racist and sexist in just one short song back then! Looking at it now I wonder if Girls Allowed the pop group took there name from it?

And what about the classic tough guys schoolyard chant of "Come and have a go if you think your'e hard enough!"

Another short song, a lullaby, I recall is quite poignant as my late Mum and Dad would sing it me when they were on wee Woodsy bedtime duty. It went something like 'Go to sleep my Baby, close your pretty eyes......". Not sure how it went after that but the melody still brings a lump to my throat!

There must have been gazillions more ditties and jingles back then readers. you know any?

TOY HORSES OF THE SIXTIES

When I was a kid in the Sixties I had a load of plastic horses. 

The biggest was my Action Man horse but I had some about half the size and even smaller ones. A whole field full. They were hard plastic. I can't really recall much more and it's odd because I was never really into real horses. I think I just liked plastic animals as a kid.

They may have been called Breyer. Does this ring any bells with anyone?

NASA X24 SCOUT 2 DOPPELGANGER

Was having a scout round the NASA JPL archives the other day and there's a historical section on lifting body tech. Found this unusual shot of the X24, as opposed to the blunt nosed X24. How Scouty is this?

Bill

WHEN DID YOU GET YOUR FIRST STAR WARS TOYS?

Like many 'boys' now in their mid-Fifties I grew up with Thunderbirds and the 1969 landing on the Moon. It was our Star Wars.

When Star Wars actually came along in 1977 I was a teenager aged 16 and my old toys were already locked away and the electric guitar ruled the roost.

I imagine being 8 or 9 in 77 was the best age to see Star Wars maybe?

So basically I was too old to have got any Star Wars toys in the Seventies. My own childhood space operas, Thunderbirds and the Moonlanding, although long gone had provided me with all the toys a lad would ever when I needed them as a kid.

It would be decades later in the 1990's before I held any of the Star Wars Kenner action figures. They were loose Darths and Lukes, by now cast-offs at West Yorkshire's Car Boot Sales, nuzzling up against Thundercats' Lion-O and Ghostbusters' Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

How about you readers, when did you first get any Star Wars toys?

My early Star Boot sale haul.