Scandia House Troll

1960s Scandia House trolls are known for their "big hair" and color coordination, and this one is no exception. She wears her vintage coatdress that nicely complements her green spiral eyes.

Dam Troll

Although I have no interest in the cheap, China-made trolls of today, the original 1960s trolls made by Dam, Scandia House, and Uneeda captivate me. The early Dam trolls in particular are quite artistic, with an almost sculptural quality, and full of character.

This little 3 inch troll is one of my favorites. An early original Dam troll, it sports a remarkable crop of turquoise mohair in an "Albert Einstein" 'do. Just a fantastic troll!

Vintage Archer Space Men in Original Box

Yesterday my 1950s Archer Space Men in their original dime store box arrived (see my earlier, very excited post from the day I found them). They're in fantastic, factory mint condition.
Check out the pics:

 Top of the box. The "Archer" logo and spaceman pop up
to make a display.

 End of the box. It holds 2 dozen space men...

 

 ...and here they are! (Also 4 really cool robots.)

Here's a close-up of the space men. Several have lost their helmets, which are floating around loose in the box. Vintage Archer Space Men are frequently found with missing helmets. Design flaws caused ill fits, and the plastic used for the helmets tended to warp, crack, and discolor over time. These poor helmetless guys will likely suffer fatal embolisms when exposed to the vacuum pressure of space...

Dotty Teddy Bears

Just got another bear made by Peng Peng, teddy artist extraordinaire: Domino, this little 4 1/2 inch panda wearing her fab polka-dotted dress. Here she is with her new friend, my 1950s British Merrythought teddy who is also into dotty fashions.
I love the Merrythought's big nose: 

it gives her such a comical look.

Here's Domino doing a little spring cleaning 

(she's overly optimistic: we just got 6 inches of snow yesterday...).

Mattel's Blaze Horse

It's been the month for finding horsies: first two antique wooden rocking horses, then the fab 1950s Harry the Hairless Horse ride-on, and now this: Blaze, the talking, galloping horse made by Mattel in the early 1960s. 

At first glance, Blaze looks like just another variety of the ubiquitous spring horse (the kind most of us children of the 70's remember for their tendency to flip over during exuberant riding and pinch our fingers in their springs), but he's got a few features that take him to a whole new pedigreed level.
First off: no springs! Blaze is mounted instead on an "untippable", according to Mattel, tubular steel frame. Secondly, as you ride Blaze up and down, his legs move independently in a quite realistic horsey gallop. As if this wasn't enough, Blaze also talked, courtesy of Mattel's patented pull-string technology. He said several phrases, including "How about some hay?" He also whinnied and neighed.
Naturally, the price for all this innovation was steep: $48 (that's a lot for a kid's toy now, let alone back in 1961!). Consequently, no one I knew as a child had Blaze, and I'd never seen one in the horseflesh until last week, when I found this one.

Mine no longer talks, as is typical of most Blazes found today, but he gallops great. We haven't tested the "untippable" claim, but if I crash, I'll let you know. I've installed my Blaze next to my dining room table. Guests can now pull up a chair, or a horse, as they prefer.

Blaze was heavily marketed on TV, and his original ad is now considered a classic. Click the link below to watch it, courtesy of  TV Days: it's fantastic:

Mattel's Blaze Commercial

And here's a print ad for Blaze, in which he apparently helps capture an evil fire hydrant:

Harry the Hairless Horse

I found this adorable little rocking pony at the same time I discovered the antique wooden horse in the previous post. I have a very small car (a tiny Chevy Aveo hatchback), and the horses more than filled the back seat. As I drove down the expressway, little horsie faces peered out of each side window. 

It was also the day I found a huge double gumball vending machine on its original stand, and that was propped in the front passenger seat, with a bit sticking out the window. Visibility, needless to say, wasn't great...on the drive home, I kept envisioning a policeman making out the accident report: "driver decapitated by gumball machine and/or rocking horse." Fortunately we made it home safely, and a hernia later were all ensconced in my increasingly crowded living room. 

 

Made in the 1950s by Moulded Plastics Inc. of Maple Plain, Minnesota, this little guy is called Harry the Hairless Horse. Odd name, odd-looking horse! Perhaps he was marketed to allergy sufferers. He measures 30 inches long by 22 high, and his body is fibreglass while his legs and rockers are wood. He's so cute and portly!

Here's a close-up of his label:

And here's an original ad I found for him and some other products,
all proclaimed "Harmless Fun For Young and Old".
Can you imagine getting shot with the "Air Fire Thunder Gun" that
"Shoots Standard Table Tennis Balls"?! Ouch. Perhaps you could make a quick getaway on Harry the Hairless Horse...

Dick Tracy Tin Litho Car & Cap Gun

Character toys are an extremely popular subset of toy collecting. Competition for such toys is fierce, as many of them have cross-category appeal, for example, to collectors of comics or radio show premiums.

The famous cartoon detective Dick Tracy featured in a great tin-litho character toy made by the Marx Company in the late 1940s and early 1950s: the Dick Tracy Squad Car. It was offered in several sizes and varying degrees of deluxe-ness, from a simple palm-sized friction car to this 11 inch model with a wailing siren, working spotlight, and "gun sparks" created by a concealed flint. Mine is missing its spotlight and has a lot of play wear, but the lithography of Dick and his sidekicks is still bright and colorful.

I love the design of this toy. The characters are visible from all angles in the windows: head-on in the windshield, in profile on both sides of the car, and from the rear in the back window.

 

  

I found the Squad Car just a few years ago at an antique shop; my other Dick Tracy item has a much more interesting  provenance. I was home from college one summer, helping my mom with some gardening. All of a sudden there was a "clunk" as my shovel hit something metallic in the earth. I was an anthropology/museums major, with a special interest in archaelogy, and I began excitedly yelling, "hey, we found something! Could be a treasure!" And indeed it was: my mother unearthed this Dick Tracy cap gun, made by Hubley in the late 1940s, and said: "huh. I wondered where that went to. I missed it one day little Robbie and I played cops and robbers in the yard." So...this toy was buried in my grandmother's garden for several decades. It now resides in a place of honor in my toy collection (I didn't give it back to my mom. Finders keepers, you know...).

Big Box Full O' Archer Space Men

*THUD* That's the sound of me fainting to the floor after finding one of the toys of my dreams: not only are they my much obsessed over 1950s Archer Space Men (so named because they were made by Archer Plastics), they are 1950s Archer Space Men IN THEIR ORIGINAL DIMESTORE BOX! Wheeeeee!

Just a big box of joy, that's what this is...

Trade-In Barbie with Original Box

Here's something wonderful I just got (technically, though, she's a Christmas present, because she's been on layaway since then...)

By the mid 1960s, the Barbie doll, which had formerly been the height of couture, was now looking matronly and dated in her tailored "Jackie O" ensembles and pillbox hats. The Mod era had begun, and Barbie evolved along with it. In 1967, Mattel Toys offered a remarkable promotion: by sending in $1.50 and your old Barbie, you could get the new version, complete with "bendable legs", a  patented "twist n' turn waist", and "real eyelashes". Little girls unsentimentally dispatched their original Barbies in droves, and what they received is pictured below: the "NEW Barbie", with her original box. Mine is in minty, unplayed with condition: it appears her box took the worst of the wear over the past 40 years.

 

The new more poseable Barbie offers increased 
photo opportunities 

for the robots:

Vintage Norfin Troll

I love vintage toy trolls, but am partial to the earliest ones dating from the 1960s. This large 9 inch troll is a bit more recent (1977) but she represents a big moment in troll evolution: the creation of the Norfin model by Dam, the originator of the vinyl toy troll. Norfins were a huge departure stylistically from the first toy trolls, with cuter, more child-like faces and less rigidly posed, sometimes even jointed, bodies. Norfins are still being manufactured today, but they are now made in China of cheap plastic with brash, synthetic hair. This early Norfin was made in Denmark by the Dam Company of high quality European vinyl with a gorgeous mohair wig. She's still wearing her original felt tunic and hair bow, and is in practically unplayed with condition. Even though Norfins aren't quite my style, this was a special one, and a steal at only $6 from a toy show vendor last week.

1960s Ideal Pebbles Doll

This 8 inch Baby Pebbles Doll, made by Ideal in the 1960s during the initial run of the Flintstones cartoon, was discovered in a booth full of junque at a toy show last weekend. Ideal made both Pebbles and Bamm Bamm dolls, in a huge range of sizes. This was the smallest version, and she is soooo cute!

 

 

Archer Space Men

Found at a toy show last weekend was this 4 inch 1950s Archer Space Man, in a great dark emerald green color. I already had 2 bronze ones I got years ago at a yard sale, and since then Archer Space Men have become a small obsession. I love their Art Moderne styling, their Communist Bloc civic statuary look, their "retro futuristic" feel. It's always a thrill to find another one.

 

 

Cannibal, Snake Charmer, & Devil Valentines

Here's some iconography that would be hard to find in modern children's valentines: a snake charmer, a cannibal stewing a lady, and a devil (although devils still feature in adult valentines). These date to the 1950s.

Space Age Valentines

I love retro space age iconography, so naturally I love these great 1950s valentines:

War Time Valentines

This group of World War II era valentines were received by their young owner at an event called "The Good Samaritan Class Party at the Church Feb. 5, 1945." No idea what church or where: it's quite intriguing!

Novelty Nose Valentine

This is one of the most unusual valentines in my collection: an actual pair of wire and cloth "funny nose glasses" adorn the odd lady on this 1960s card:

Mechanical Buzz Saw Valentine

Here's an odd, but fun, mechanical valentine, from the 1930s or 40s. You can actually spin the buzz saw around to torment the little man if you want.

Magician Valentine

My sweetie is a magician, which of course makes me very partial to magic themed valentines. This large mechanical card from the 1950s features a magician and his lovely assistant, who floats high above the stage.

Carnival Game Valentine

This is one of the largest vintage valentines in my collection, measuring about 9 inches tall, and probably from the 1950s. It has a great mechanical feature: by moving the winged heart in the upper right corner, the target animals spin by. And isn't the little sailor a cutie?

Anthropomorphic Valentines

I love anthropomorphic toys and images (vintage Mr. Potato Heads are one of my favorite things to collect). Every January, I start trolling the local antique shops and online dealers looking for vintage valentines, and I'm always especially excited to find an anthropomorphic one. I don't know why they appeal to me so much; maybe because they just look so friendly, like little friends in unexpected places. Here's a sampling from my collection, mostly dating to the 1950s.