There's a whole bucket full of reasons for modern kids staying indoors more than we did.
Their safety, mobile phones, computer games and social media are a few.
it has to be said that I did stay in to watch telly. Especially after Skool and on Saturday mornings. But I did go out a lot.
Bikes on the park, going round to other kids' homes and gardens, walks along the canal and longer walks round the docks. There were lots of fun reasons to be out.
Were you out a lot as kids readers?
 |
As with the others it comes in a plastic display case, plastic moulded base and carded backdrop showing a painted ocean scene showing a container ship on fire in the distance.
The toy is held in place with the usual metal spring clip, which if you're not careful is guaranteed to cause some damage!
Note the backdrop has had a slight alteration. In the top right hand corner the wording has been blanked out. I'm assuming this was done sometime well into the production for some unknown reason so backing cards didn't need to match what was in the box. In this case the backing card is actually the correct one for the 'Mighty Blaze'!
The 'Mighty Blaze' is one of six (which was later increased to eight) 'Marine Classics' motorised toy boats brought out by Ideal during 1966/67 using their unique removable electric motor also used in their 'Motorific' Cars and 'Zeroid' Robot range.
The motor and the batteries are stowed below decks in the deep hull. This also houses the 'automatic bailer' which is designed to pump out any water resting at the base of the hull, or bilge, so the motor and batteries are protected from shorts.
As I've said in my previous two Boaterific posts, the toy boats have lots of delicate chromed detail which is unsurprisingly prone to being damaged. Unfortunately, my 'Mighty Blaze' is missing a couple of parts from the top of the pilot house roof; a small flag pole, which presumably, as the toy was assembled in the U.K. would have been flying the Union Jack, and a radio aerial.
Although Ideal was an American company, which during it's humble beginnings can claim to have created the first 'Teddy Bear', it had assets in the U.K.
According to the small print on the back of the Boaterific display card, the toy and packaging were 'printed and assembled in the U.K., with imported parts made in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Apart from differing flags, and possibly packaging, As yet, I've not come across any obvious variations between American and British versions of the toys.
More Boaterific ramblings tomorrow, shipmates!
I can hear the tinkling music of the Ice Cream van outside. It's a reminder that its summer in the UK.
Its such a nostalgic sound the ice cream van, like a sweet bell ringing from our childhood. Ice Cream vans were a constant feature of our streets in the Sixties and Seventies.
With memorable names like Mister Softee and Mister Whippee, getting an ice cream from the side of the van was a real delight.
The ice cream was soft and piped into a sort of pyramid on a cone or in a tub. The finishing touches were just the best: chopped nuts, sprinkles and a swirl of delicious sauce. My favourite was raspberry. What was yours?
For something different I sometimes asked for an oyster, a nougat wafer or a screwball. Remember them?
Sometimes my Mum asked me to take a large bowl to the van and get it filled for a Sunday dinner dessert. Great fun!
What are your ice cream memories readers?
Here's some photos of my Ideal Boaterific 'Barracuda' Sport Fisherman.
Mine comes in a plastic display case, plastic moulded base and carded backdrop showing a painted coastline scene showing a lighthouse, and a swordfish leaping from the sea.
It's held in place with a metal spring clip.
The 'Barracuda' is one of six, and later increased to eight 'Marine Classics' motorised toy boats brought out by Ideal during 1966/67 using their unique removable electric motor also used in their 'Motorific' Cars and 'Zeroid' Robot range.
Like I mentioned in my previous Boaterific post on the 'King of the Sea' boat, the 'Barracuda' has lots of delicate chromed detail, as well as a couple of outriggers pointing upwards, which are unsurprisingly prone to being damaged. The only part I can see is missing from mine is a mast which should be attached to the rear deck, but in spite of that, how this toy could have survived relatively intact for so long is beyond me. Just taking it out of it's plastic case needs a certain level of dexterity!
I love this Booster rocket art by George Akimoto from 1960. Its fabulous!
Do you like it?
Maths today involved Stem and Leaf tables. The name reminded me completely of an old tome I have from my teenage years, Tree and Leaf.
Tree and Leaf is one of the lesser known tales from JRR Tolkien. Like Tom Bombadil and Farmer Giles of Ham it forms part of the wider Middle Earth mythos.
I think my paperback copy was published by Unwin. I imagine I got it at Sweetens bookshop in Preston in the late Seventies, along with the other stories I mentioned.
My copies of Lord of the Rings are battered things now. Three paperbacks I adored back then and read them ferociously wherever and whenever I could, even at my first job of paid work! I hid the book in the top drawer of my desk and pretending to scribble I had a sneaky read!
My Missus' late Grandma bought me a paperback copy of The Hobbit in 1980 for Christmas too and somewhere I've a biography by a chap called Humphries. The paperback Silmarillion too.
I still have some of the Athena Lord of the Rings posters, which are quite collectable now. Alas my beloved Athena woodblock picture of Gandalf has gone to Mordor as has my Bo Hanssen album inspired by the book.
With the school holidays looming I plan to re-read Tree and Leaf in the sunshine of the garden and like Bilbo at Rivendell relive those glory days of my youth and my absolute love of Tolkien back then.
Have you read Tree and Leaf readers?
