Park and Shop Game

For lovers of shopping and vintage board games, what could be a better fit than the classic  Park and Shop game? Park and Shop's origins date to the late 1940s, when civic authorities in Allentown, Pennsylvania worked with business leaders to solve parking difficulties in the town's shopping district. To overcome limited parking afforded by street meters, they created a then-revolutionary system of free lots surrounding shopping areas. Citizens would park (and walk) and shop. The system was such a success, it was made into a board game, later purchased by gaming giant Milton Bradley. There were several versions of Park and Shop over the years; this one dates from 1960.

The object of the game is to drive from home to the most strategically placed Park and Shop lot, then move your person to all the shops on your list, get back to your car, and make it home before anyone else.

You choose cards along the way that tell you what to do, like this one shown below: "You have 'created a disturbance' and have been arrested. Go directly to 'jail.' Stay two turns."

1954 Fisher Price Gold Star Stage Coach

Fisher Price made many wonderful wooden pull toys over the years, ranging from wiggly puppies to clattering rocket ships. One of the most detailed and elaborate is this, the Gold Star Stage Coach from 1954.

Measuring 15 1/2 inches long, the stage coach features a pair of pinto ponies who "gallop" up and down as the stage is pulled, along with a spring mounted driver who bobs energetically along. (The spring on mine is a bit sprung, which has made his hat pop permanently up. He looks rather like a startled cartoon character now.)

A strong box at the back of the coach opens, and can be used to store very tiny treasures. The top of the coach also opens, and small passengers can be placed inside.

Two wooden mailbags complete the stage coach's accessories. Even in Toyland, "the mail must go through!"

1950s German Dollhouse Grocery Shop

I just don't seem able to resist these German dollhouse shops. Just when I think I've seen all the varieties there are, another one turns up. This one, from the 1950s, is in a great modern style, a wonderful contrast to my antique versions.

 Measuring a whopping two feet wide, the wooden shop in a period-correct salmon pink color features a fruit and vegetable stand and an unusual pastry case.

The stand holds fruits, veggies, cheeses, sausage, and a rather macabre (by today's standards) pig's head, all made of chalk:

The pastry case is filled with tiny breads and cakes:

The shop came absolutely packed full of what to appear to be its original miniature boxes. My favorite is the "Wackel Peter" package:

There are only three drawers to this shop, which appear to be all it ever had. Kaffee = coffee, Zimmt = cinnamon, and, according to Google Translate, flaumen = flood. Hmmm. Ah, Google thoughtfully asks if I meant "pflaumen," and, if I look closely, I see what may be a "P" trapped under the left side nail, in which case pflaumen = plums, which seem much more likely than floods to be stocked in a grocery store. 

Two of the most interesting items in the shop were these miniature glass bottles of refreshing beverages:

 My family of 1950s Schuco teddy bears are just the right size (and vintage) for this shop. Looks like they're stocking up on cake (and pigs heads...)

Flintstones Weebles

Hasbro's original Weebles toy line, made in the 1970s, was one of my childhood favorites. The playsets and figures were, for a brief period, competitors for Fisher Price's Little People. Any kid who grew up in America in the '70s must surely remember the company's famous advertising jingle, "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down," as well as the parent and media induced "choking hazard" scare that prematurely ended the line.

Most Weeble sets were generically themed (a cottage with family; pirates in a ship; cowboys on a ranch) but there were a few licensed character tie-ins, including the Flintstones.

Yabba Dabba Doo!

Fisher Price Space Blazer

Zooming in for a landing is my very favorite vintage Fisher Price pull toy: 1953's Space Blazer. Measuring 14 inches long, the wooden, paper lithographed Space Blazer features a domed cockpit with a green alien pilot, a bouncing antenna on the front, and a clanging bell on the rear. As the toy is pulled, the cockpit spins and the bell rings.

The little green man is adorable:

The Space Blazer's lithography is beautifully done, 

with lots of great detail:

Blast off!

Hair Happenin's Francie Doll

I see a lot of vintage vinyl doll cases when I'm antiquing, and, while I've come across a few genuine Barbie ones, most are knock-offs or "generic" versions. It's always worth checking such cases out, however, for I've found they often have treasures within. This particular case, made by a company called Miner Industries, features just such a generic fashion type doll on the cover illustration.

The dealer had it priced absurdly low, I'm guessing because he thought the dolls inside were equally generic. They were not. While the clothes were nothing special, the doll on the right is a Tressy, made in 1965 by American Character. She's notable as one of the earliest "growing hair" dolls: a special button on her stomach and a keyhole on her back enabled her young owner to extend or retract a special "growing" strand of hair, that could then be styled in all sorts of ways by using included accessories.

(Don't the dolls look like they're gossiping and passing secrets to each other through the partition? What else could they do to pass the time, being packed away as they were for 30 years?)

 While not a Barbie, Tressy is still an interesting and attractive vintage fashion doll:


The other doll was a Barbie, or rather a Francie, Barbie's Mod cousin from England. This particular version is from 1970, and was called Hair Happenin's Francie. Francies tend to be much scarcer than Barbies of the same vintage, so she was quite a find.

Francie has a completely different face sculpt from Barbie, with softer, younger features and big brown doe-like eyes. This model sported a sleek blond bob, and originally came with several hair pieces to change up her style. Clearly, this case belonged to a child who loved doing hair. Perhaps she (or he?) grew up to become a stylist...

Attic Find: Vintage Barclay Cowboy & Indian Figures

Every collector dreams about making a great "attic find": discovering a wonderful antique preserved in an attic, packed away and forgotten for decades. Finding such an item can feel like finding buried treasure, and not just because of the piece's monetary value. Particularly with old toys, it can be a warmly rewarding experience to "rescue" a forgotten item from a dim and dusty attic existence. (If you've seen the final Toy Story film, you'll know what a terrible fate attic banishment is for a toy.)

Every so often a news story will feature such a find, like a rare Steiff teddy bear or a valuable painting by a famous artist, discovered by a young couple in the eaves of their newly-purchased fixer-upper. As enthralling as these stories are, such finds are rarer than one might suppose.

I've only had two attic finds so far in my two decades of collecting. Both were low in monetary value, but rich with history and play wear. My favorite is shown below: two late 1940s/early 1950s lead western figures, just 2 3/4 inches tall, made by the Barclay Company.

This dime store duo have endured much play, and were clearly loved by their original owner. Somehow, though, they got left behind when he grew up...the two were discovered under a cracked floorboard in the attic of an abandoned farmhouse. As I hold them now, I wonder: where did they come from? how did they end up under the attic floorboards? who first played with these? what happened to him? does he wonder today where his little cowboy and Indian are? Just a week after we rescued them, the abandoned house was torn down. It was a narrow escape for these two classic American toys.

Changeable Charlie

One of my favorite vintage toys is Changeable Charlie, a classic American toy made from the 1940s through the 1960s. Charlie is a man of many personalities: colorful printed features applied to the sides of multiple wooden blocks can be flipped and repositioned, creating lots of characters.

The package claims an astounding 4,194,304 different combinations are possible:  

"It's a mathematical fact that you can play with 'Changeable Charlie' eight hours a day, five days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, making one change a minute, and not repeat yourself in over thirty-three years! If you want to know how mathematicians figured this out, send us a postal card with your name and address. We'll be delighted to show you how it's done."

Alas, I have to go to work each day, and so have been unable to test this claim. 

This 1948 set features fantastic caricatures.

Changeable Charlie was so popular, it spawned a sequel called Changeable Charlie's Aunt. This set dates from 1960.

Puzzle Book Valentine

This big, 8 1/4 inch tall, 1930s card was one of my most unique Valentine finds. It includes an attached 3 inch dot-to-dot game booklet, still intact. The aim was to complete the mystery pictures by drawing lines between the numbered dots. The clever caption reads, 'I've got a LINE on you to be my Valentine.'

Working Class Valentines

These two large, 5 1/2 inch tall movable valentines have some of the most unusual themes I've ever seen. Circa the 1950s, the American made cards feature busy factory workers. In the first, a girl spray paints a shiny, chromed automobile, while in the second, a boy prints kisses on a gigantic printing press.

A Kitty for Valentine's Day

Well, I guess the title gives it away, but in this movable 1930s valentine, a mailman delivers a little kitty to the lucky recipient:

A Doggie for Valentine's Day

I found this unusual 1930s valentine at a toy show recently. It's actually a booklet, with a story inside about a dog who moves to a town appropriately called Dogville. The outer cover features real glass eyes on the dog, very like those used on antique teddy bears at the time. The booklet is 6 1/2 inches tall.

Teddy Bear Valentine

This simple, 5 inch tall valentine, circa the 1930s, features a classic teddy bear, one of my favorite toys.

Home Appliance Valentines

Keeping with yesterday's anthropomorphic theme are these 1950s valentines, featuring a television and mixer with happy faces and punning sentiments. The television says, 'Tune in channel mine, Valentine!' and the mixer 'Let's get mixed up with each other, Valentine! Batter say yes!'

Goofy Girl Valentine

This vintage movable valentine is one of my favorites. Moving the goofy-looking girl's tongue makes her eyes move, revealing the words 'Be Mine'. American, 3 inches square, circa the 1930s-40s.

Vintage Space Toy Display in a Gumball Machine

I've accumulated a lot of vintage space toys lately, and was looking for a new way to display them that wouldn't take up so much room. I also had an old gumball machine that I'd been trying to find a use for, and one day, as I looked at it, I thought it might actually make an interesting sort of display case.

It had a prominent metal mechanism in the center, which originally turned to push the toy capsules out when a quarter was inserted, and it also had a wire arch that spanned the front window, used to hold the machine's original advertising card in place. They had a machiney, space-agey, electrical look to them, like props from the set of Metropolis, I thought...so I installed some 1950s children's space print fabric as a backdrop, then arranged a scene using vintage Archer Space Men and robots, along with some 1950s space-themed dexterity puzzles.

A closer-up view:

It hasn't really helped alleviate the crowded display area, 

(which is supposed to be my kitchen table)

but it came out pretty cool:

R and L Premiums

At a weekend toy show recently, I found a whole heap of...well, very odd things. These little plastic characters, between 1 and 1 1/2 inches tall, were cereal premiums (and sometimes Cracker Jack prizes) made in the late 1960s and 1970s by an Australian company called R & L. The tiny toys were found in packages of Kellogg's cereal worldwide, although there were some country exclusives. In the late '70s, the company was sold and the owners moved the plant to Mexico, where production continued in a range of new, brighter colors.

There were many different sets of odd and imaginative characters produced by R & L, often with spacey, alien themes, and each with individual names. Fanatical collectors strive to get them all, sometimes in every color combination possible.

These, the Crater Critters, are some of my favorites. The original cereal box promotion read: "Here are the cutest creatures you have ever collected -- Kellogg's 'Crater Critters." Normally they live way down in the deepest craters on a far off planet. They are shy little people, that's why we hardly ever see them."
Click here to see an original cereal box ad for the Crater Critters. 

My favorite so far is called Gloob; 

I have him (her?) in orange and purple:

Next are the AstroNits: "Round and round they go in lunar orbit, in their rockets and flying saucers, the mad, crazy Kellogg's 'Astro-Nits.' With retro rockets firing they zoom into Earth orbit to land on your breakfast table. So you can recognize them we have stamped a dotty name on every one of them." Some of the AstroNits shown below include Knot-Nit, Clown-Nit, Goof-Nit, and Yak-Nit.

My favorite is Goof-Nit:

Then there are the Funny Fringes: "Way out fun creatures from a make-believe land on the fringe of outer space." They all have names ending in "inge."

Here are some of my favorites:

Spinge and Fringe.

Sniffinge, Puddinge, and Nuttinge.

These are the far-out Toolie Birds: bird figures with tool-shaped beaks:

 

One of my favorite R & L lines comprises the Stretch Pets, funny animals with accordion bodies. These, and one of the Funny Fringes, I actually remember from childhood:

Collecting R & L premiums can be both a lot of fun (finding figures in cases full of unrelated items at shows) and a lot of frustration (trying to get that elusive last Crater Critter to complete your set), but regardless, they bring a smile to my face every time I look at them.

Collector Mike Speth has written a great guide to these toys, "Collecting Crazy Colored Plastic Weird-Things," that appeared in issue #12 of Freakie Magnet, a cereal collector's zine. It can also be read online, and is chock-full of photos and helpful info. The company history, figure identifications, cereal box quotations, and original ad linked above were all found at his site. Go check it out!