FAVOURITE TOYS

Which were your favourite toys when you were a child?

One of mine was the Magic Robot when I was six years old, one Christmas! So fascinating and so accurate. I learned a lot of general knowledge with that Magic Robot, even at such a young age, but I also enjoyed the Compendiums of Games we were bought.

Oddly enough, somebody was talking about Magic Robot earlier on t telly.

Really? What were they saying about it?

What was your favourite toy when you were little, Ena?

A Dinky toy was mine…it was a tank transporter and tank….wish I had kept it with the box as I saw someone get £400 for one on Dickinsons Real Deal…I think my mum sold it on at some stage

I'll bet Ena's was a meccano set,
mine was a Trianco radio set, I was about 10 and it was a kit were you built a radio receiver and could get radio stations all over but, there was no loud speaker, ear phones only with was good because, I could get radio Luxemburg and enjoy pop music before it was available on the home, wireless,
edit,,, there was a lot of hisssing and shuuuuushin,,and interference but it was, state of the art back then,,, it was like an iphone today

Yes, Tom, I got the idea for this thread having read Ena mention a Meccano set in another thread.

Our shop must have done really well that year because my little brother and I had loads of toys. I got the usual girly things like a Pedigree pram with two dollies in it, one white, one black, and I got a cot with another "baby" in it.

We had leaner years mind you, and one year we got to play in a big telly box which we converted into a caravan, a bus and a few other things, by cutting out holes for windows and a door. We played in that for hours!

here's a pic of me driving my Jeep and my sister got a three wheeled bike, This would about 1955/6

That's a great picture.

The year we got lots of toys was also 1956. My brother got a New York Police car with sirens and lights, but the problem was, even at four years old, he was too big for it, so it had to go back to the shop.

"Which were your favourite toys when you were a child?"

A football.
I'm not totally sure that you all will accept this as a toy. But, it probably was, along with my bicycle, my favourite. Both greatly entertained me and kept me very happy throughout my childhood and teenage years.

Anything that keeps you happy as a child and given to you is either a toy or a present. It doesn't matter as long as it's something you loved to play with.

Remember wanting a ‘Jonny seven ‘rifle,all the rage in the late sixties,or a chopper bike..”no chance “was the reply…
I got the Jonny seven,result

The bicycle I wanted as a child was called a pink witch. Its colours were bright pink and turquoise, but I didn't get one.

Instead I got a second hand maroon bike which my dad taught me to ride and, instead of looking in front of me, I was watching the front wheel, and rode straight between a bobby's legs! He wasn't best pleased, but that's the only scrape I ever had with the law.

Joe Maplin, I also wanted a Chopper bike for Christmas, but I didn't even get a new bike of any kind.
I remember a couple of lads had Choppers and I had quite a number of goes on them. But, to be honest, they looked far better than they were. In fact, they were rubbish! I thought that I would be polite and not use other words to describe them. Basically, they were uncomfortable, slow and slowed down very quickly as soon as you stopped working hard on those pedals - rubbish for long distances. Best bicycle, especially for those long distances and speed, was a Claud Butler racing bike. But, the Chopper looked "cool!"

"Anything that keeps you happy as a child and given to you is either a toy or a present."

Mollie,

mollie,

They were just describing it, and it rang a bell because I recall a girl in my class at primary school bringing one into class on one occasion. I did not know that was what it was called until hearing this on TV today.

My favourite was a chemistry set.

But, not what you might think.

It was a hand me down from an older cousin, and there was not much of it left: A spirit burner, couple of test tubes, test tube holder, test tube stand, some litmus paper and a flask. Practically all the chemicals were exhausted.

I swapped my stamp album for a Bunsen Burner, and set out to restore the set to something like what it had formerly been.

Zinc granules obtained from the cases of used U2 battery cells, carbon also from the central electrode. Sulphur: well I knew where a vein of rock sulphur could be harvested on one of our many colliery spoil heaps. Once I had sulphur, I soon had Sulphur Dioxide, leading to Sulphur Trioxide, and hence to Sulphuric Acid.

I'll not bore you with any more of the list, but never did any of the experiments for which the set was designed, on the other hand, I had quite a large chemical processing and production facility on the go.

Got into glass blowing to make some of my own apparatus, including a nice voltameter: so electrolysing water provided a stream of hydrogen and oxygen.

I even got as far as catalyst technology, and was making Platinised silica gel.

Learned one hell of a lot about chemistry: far more than I would have, had that initial chem set been complete.

Wow! You had all of those things as a child, Ena?

Puts me and me dollies to shame!

My favourite was dolls dolls and more dolls..it seems as a child I picked up any illness going, my Auntie would always bring me a doll..I loved them,one year she brought me a black doll,when I was well my Mam took me to Mesnes park,of course my doll had to come with us, we sat on the grass,my doll at the side of me,when I went to pick her up she'd disappeared so fast forward to my thirties..I saw a little black doll in a shop and bought her,she sits on my dressing table.
Even now I have this love of dolls..I watched Jane McDonald on one of her tours..she went into a shop that sold nothing but dolls and was frightened of all the dolls staring at her..I would have been in my glory....I have a glorious memory of when I was a child..a friend from our street used to put her little sausage dog in her dolls pram and wheel it everywhere..the poor little thing never complained.

Mouse trap Especially when the little man dived from the springboard into the tub

Looking back, I think the best toys were those we made for ourselves.

Cardboard guns which went bang due to a brown paper flap.
'Tanks', ie crawlers made from cotton reel, elastic band and slice of candle.
Elastic guns (the elastic usually were slices from inner tubes
Trolleys (aka soap box carts)

I mentioned on another thread Mr Banks scratch-built flying model aircraft.

Sometimes they were exceedingly simple:

Two machine screws (which we commonly, if incorrectly called bolts) and a nut. You inserted one bolt to half the depth of the threads inside the nut, then placed in one or more percussion caps, then inserted hand tight the second bolt. You threw it into the air, and you didn't half get a bang when it landed!

There was always something new to move on to.

EDIT: The above should read 'TOY GUN CAPS', not percussion caps! Sorry for that error, what was I thinking!

Hot Wheels LINK

As Tommy Trinder used to say ""YOU LUCKY PEOPLE ""
My memories were we could not afford any toys ,but got an apple&orange .
GB.

I always felt that there was a paradox.

Being poor gave me a far more enriched life than the better off kids.

I am sure that my walk from Plantation Gates up to Haigh Hall was far more rewarding than what those riding the tractor were able to experience. I knew The Plantations in a way they never would or could.

A phenomenon that I found repeatedly across so much life experience.

They might brag about their Summer hols stay at Butlins, but I knew that they had nothing like the fun that I had camping in the woods.

I have been poor in my life

I have not had enough money for a bus fare and had to walk home

I have had Christmas's and Birthdays, and I did not get anything at all

I will tell you what is fun too, Christmas time when a member of your family has become a Jehovah's Witness, that is a barrel of laughs I can tell yoo

Without a doubt my best ever gift was a Meccano set. Once I'd created every structure in the manual I made my own personal favourites - my best was 'Supercar'. My next best gift was a Lego set - again structural and I could learn to build and to innovate. Best board game ever was Risk!

JR,

Can you remember what number Meccano set you had?

Momac:

That was an interesting story, but a sad one. Somebody pinched your lovely dolly and you must have been really upset.

Then you went on to buy a replacement after all those years.

My aunt had a wonderful collection of big dolls, all dressed in Victorian clothes, and I'm pretty sure they weren't plastic, but China, but I never got close enough to examine them. They would probably be worth a lot of money now so I hope whichever of her grandchildren got them, has taken care of them since she died.

Golden Bear: So sorry I'd called you Owd Codger, so came back to edit.

You're older than me, so times must have been very hard. I do remember the Christmas stocking with an apple and an orange, and a ha'penny in the bottom, but we were a bit luckier than that.

Mind you, we still enjoyed playing in that box that I mentioned earlier.

Not a toy, to be sure, but I think for entertainment and recreational activity, having a dog scored quite highly.

Ena,
No I can't remember the number of the Meccano, but it made quite a few structures including a long base truck, a crane and a lift. there were many parts so quite easy to improvise. When I was 16 we moved house. A guy who was a friend (older than me) and had educational issues was always intrigued by my Meccano set... so I gave it to him as a parting gift.
I'm sure he had many hours of enjoyment with it.

Hello mollie, I remember not too long ago before my Mam died, we were shopping in town , I think it was somewhere in the market that I saw a doll and I just stood looking at it.. my Mam said “ I think you’re looking at babies “ I said “Mam I’m most definitely not,three is enough “ I used to take them to the doll’s hospital in the market hall,whenever they needed attention, I also washed their clothes and kept them clean,I just love dolls.

Hi Momac, goodness, I'd forgotten about the Doll Hospital in the Market. I have a vague memory of taking one of my dolls there. Can't remember why now, but it was terminal and nothing could be done for her.

Like Roylew said in his post yesterday about wishing he'd kept his Dinky toy, it would have been worth a lot of money. Same with most of our toys from the 50s/60s. If only our parents had known.

A must every year DANDY and BEANO Annuals. A BAYKO building set set. I had it for years. Whenever I got some money I would buy extra pieces Whatever I got I played with for years. Not like to day. Kids open their presents Christmas morning and never play with 99% of the stuff At least kids back in the day got their moneys worth out of the presents they got.

Admin:

I've still got a Dandy and a Beano annual!

At least kids back in the day got their moneys worth out of the presents they got.

Yes, and they were appreciated more. Kids today, it would seem, only get electronic gadgets, which are not helpful in their growth of learning how things work, and definitely don't help with their general knowledge. Anyway, nuff said about that!

I agree Mollie but, there is a flit side to the coin. I used to nag at my kids playing just game on the computer and not doing more academic stuff, They were using the new technology for pleasure and. they were learning to ' drive' computers by finding ways of, jumping a canyon or getting up a ladder in this new way, They left us in their wake and, Now we are asking the young, " how do you send a text ?"

Tom, as far as computerised gadgetry yes, they're leaving us oldies behind, and there's nothing wrong with that, but why would you want to jump a canyon, and how many ways can you go up a ladder?

Do kids pick up a real book (not a Kindle) to read nowadays? - I'm talking about 5/6 year olds, not teenagers. I was taught to read when I was 3 and was devouring my Noddy books at age 4/5.

Kids 2day r 2 busy txtng so have trouble spelling, but that's moving away from the subject. Perhaps a new thread on the pros and cons of electronic gadgetry might be discussed further.

Ah, childhood books.

The ones that stick in my mind were the 'Just William' series by Richmal Crompton

NO need to apologise Mollie m, I bear no ill will to anyone who got stuff it's just that we didn't but hey things wern't always dar at 6.00
GB

When I was growing up and at an age to be reading, I found loads of books in our house, and I don't know where they came from, well obviously me parents, but how they came to be in possession of them I don't know, because neither of them were book readers, but when I was about 8yrs old I found a book called Mein Kampf

LINK

Golden Bear, thanks.

Tommy, did you read it?

I was fascinated by books even at a really young age. We had a book case which housed the complete works of Dickens (which I still have) and a set of Arthur Mee's Encyclopaedias (which my brother still has). I was too young for the Dickens, but I looked through Arthur Mee's and loved the colour plates and reading some interesting things.

I was still engrossed in me Noddy books till I turned five, and by then I was in primary school where we were given Janet and John books to read, but I still enjoyed me Noddy books which I got from the Children's Library in Station Road.

Now we know tommy why you have turned out like you are ,shame it must have had an impression on theeeeh!!
GB

The atari 2600.

Mollie

"Tommy, did you read it?"

I read a little bit of it, but at 8yrs old I didn't get any of the two pages
I read, but I knew who had wrote it, and what a bad man he was.

'Mein Kampf' became an international best seller in 2016.

eBook version of it ditto.

In 2020, Amazon banned sale of it, but later reinstated sales.

It is heavily influenced by an earlier work, acknowledged by Hitler, which was penned by Henry Ford, who was an extreme anti-Semite

The 'Mein Kampf' I came across had been printed in I think it was 1938, and it had a glossy picture at the front of Hitler in an army uniform.

I have never even seen a copy of 'Mein Kampf', but then I do not move in such circles as are likely audience for the book.

However, in 1970, I was working in Radio Comms, when I hears a transmission in English Language from Radio Peking. It invited you to write to them if you had any questions about China.

I had lots of questions, which I duly posted off to them.

They did not explicitly answer my questions, but did post back to me oodles of stuff: Recipes, city guides, history articles, etc.

Included in their post was a copy of the little red book: 'The Thoughts of Chairman Mao'. I did not find owt of interest therein, but I guess somebody did as it was soon half inched.

When I was little I thought that Chairman Mao was a cat

My favourite Christmas toy would have been a train set, I wanted one from being about to 7/8 years old every year but, Its never came I remember asking at the age of 13 and My Mum saying, You're too old now for toys, Father Christmas only brings clothes to lads of your age,

My favourite Christmas toy & favourite Christmas tomahawk bike plus DANDY and BEANO Annuals my brother got the Chopper bike we used to get a big present and a potato sack with smalls... following year parents got divorced and family were split up all over the country did not see my half sisters for 12 years my dad for 10 years brother got sent to grandparents and me and my sister ended up in Ashton with an out side loo..... Well got that off my chest.....

Somebody once tried to sell me a Toyota.

Sent them packing!

For that price, I bet I could get a real 'ota!

When I was a kid, you put a piller case at the end of the bed on Christmas Eve and when you got up, it was full with goodies like a game, a toy, a annual, a bag of nuts, a apple and a orange.

But you were thankful as your parents were poor.

Best present I ever had was a bike put together by my uncle Joe he begged a load of parts from lots of people, the year was1945 and I had the bike for years, my parents being the friends of Tom Hughes bought me a new Northern star from him, but I always loved the old bike, I gave it to a young lad in the street.

Lots of lovely memories from childhood days and the toys we all played with.

I've enjoyed reading every post you've made.

Peter Israel

I am sorry to hear about what happened to you and your family, and from your choice of bikes, you sound to be slightly younger than me, but were you born in Ashton ?

GB - "My memories were we could not afford any toys ,but got an apple&orange."

You can't really complain about a computer and a mobile phone!!!

lived in the prison houses in Bickershaw Elisabeth Ave till 7years old then Ashton

Peter Israel

I know those prison houses in GIbson Street, and I remember when Gibson Street was the access road into Bickershaw Borstal, and I remember going having a nosey down there after watching the film 'Scum' in the early 1980s.

So me and yoo would have been living under the same council in those days in Bickershaw, because Bickershaw was under Abram U.D.C. as was Bamfurlong

my johnny 7
anybody else have one lol? just read through and saw joe had one too

I also remember the Dolls' Hospital. I once took in a doll whose head was broken, to have a new head put on-- without telling my Mum-- it cost far more to replace the head than it would have to buy a new doll! My Mum was not impressed!