Earlier this week I came across an interesting page on the Toy Retailer’s Association’s website which set me off on a nostalgic trip down memory lane as a tried to recall my favourite toys as a little boy in the 1970s. It did not take me long to draw up a list of my Top Ten toys which I hope you will enjoy.
1) Owl.
My Mum just called for a quick catch up and when I told her I was writing this article, the first thing she said was “Owl!â€. Although this list is in no particular order, my cuddly owl (called Owl) was my very favourite toy. Bought at a school fair (5p I think – the old type) and made by a school friend’s mum, there was a time when owl and I were inseparable. Owl slept next to me every night and even came (secretly) on school trips. I have been (healthily) obsessed with owls ever since. I remember buying an owl ornament (it was a thermometer) on a family holiday to the Isle of Mull in 1975 and even now I can’t resist owl pictures and ornaments. All because of a cuddly toy (he never let me down!) called Owl.
2) The Garden
Can a garden be a toy? Well, ask my Dad. Our garden was variously a football pitch (with a wooden goal at one end), a cricket pitch (six and out if you hit the ball next door), a bicycle race track, a playground (we had a large metal climbing frame with a trapeze in the middle), a zoo (there was a rabbit in a hutch and chickens in a coop) and an early forerunner of Go Ape: I could climb all along the sycamore hedge on one side of the garden before climbing the large sycamore at the end. Oh, and we dug loads of big holes and made dens in the rhododendrons at the bottom. I suppose you could call our garden a giant al fresco compendium of games.
Everyone loves them!
3) Balls
How much fun can you have with a bouncy ball? God, I loved them. Multi-coloured, plain or see-through, I had them all. Just chucking it as hard as you possibly could against a wall or on a concrete playground, you could have so much fun on your own with a bouncy ball. Of course, if there were two of you, well, then, you would fight for the ball wouldn’t you?
Marbles were a big part of my childhood. I remember we found an old washing up bowl in an old outhouse one day and it was full of marbles. That was like finding treasure. I love the fact that children we playing marbles in 2000 BC in Egypt and are still playing marbles today.
My favourite ball as a boy was the leather football I got for either a birthday or Christmas – I can’t remember. In those days, it was called a ‘casey’ and owning a casey was a very big deal indeed. You didn’t really want to use it in a match with other boys in case it got damaged, so I spent a lot of time on my own playing keepie uppie or practising volleys with my left foot. I loved that football.
I can't believe I found a photo. Ours was just like this!
4) Anything on wheels
I don’t know which came first, the toy tractor with the trailer or the Chubby pedal car, but these four wheelers were so much fun when driving around in the garden, not too far from the back door.
My red trike was something to behold. A three wheeler with a boot for carrying toys and (no doubt) for better balance, this was easily one of my favourite toys. There is a certain age when you are not quite big enough to follow the older kids around on their bicycles; I did my level best on the trike!
5) Hobby horse
My granddad was a carpenter and made me a hobby horse which was perfect for a little boy like me who loved his cowboy outfit. Enough said!
The world's first bionic man.6) Six Million Dollar Man/Action Man dolls
I think I preferred my Steve Austin doll to my Action Man Adventurer (who I called Bob), but it was a close call. Steve Austin had an eagle eye and bionic arm, but Bob had a hang glider (called Skyhawk) which we used to take to the beach and launch off sand dunes with remarkable success. Action Man also had a tank and my brother had a parachutist with silk parachute which you could drop out of a tree/bedroom window/throw up in the air. So although I was immensely proud of my Six Million Dollar Man, I think Action Man got more, er, action.
AKA Bob.
7) Super Striker
You know, the one where you push the plastic footballer’s head down and he kicks the ball? Who needs FIFA 2013 when you have two five-a-side teams and an AstroTurf football pitch? All Star Super Striker (the deluxe edition) filled many a rainy afternoon. What a fantastic game.
8) Cross Fire
Why did so many games in the 1970s involve ball bearings? Cross Fire was a frenetic table top game (you could play it on the floor as well) where you had two players with rotating plastic ‘guns’ which fired ball bearings along the board in an attempt to score a goal by hitting the central counter (a bigger ball bearing in a plastic disc) into your opponent’s net. It was fast, frantic and fun. It was also noisy and it sometimes hurt. We loved it.
Pipe down and mind your fingers!
9) Kites
Kites appeared in China in 1000 BC. I visited Shanghai a few years ago and can confirm that the Chinese still fly kites, both young and old. And why not? There is something magical and relaxing about launching a kite into the air and watching it float on the wind. My favourite kite was actually an aeroplane which had rotating plastic wings that flapped like mad in the wind. I distinctly remember flying the plane on a camp site at Portpatrick in Scotland (it was the year Elvis died and we also saw an adder) and watching it drop, drop, drop into a huge patch of heather. The cord was so hard to untangle!
10) Howzat and Test Match
For the life of me, I just can’t picture children today playing a game which involves filling in a proper cricket score card while they play. Both Howzat and Test Match required a little concentration for a lot of fun. Howzat was simply a case of playing cricket by rolling two hexagonal barrels (a bit like dice) and playing with whatever combination of results ensued. Howzat took a fair bit of thought but could also easily keep you busy for a couple of hours. Test Match was a very grand board game with batsman, bowler and full fielding side. It was, quite simply, brilliant!
Remember all those washed out summers?
If you have enjoyed my rambling and have just remembered some of your favourite toys, tell us about them below. You might also enjoy the basic history of popular toys which started me off. Long live timeless and classic children’s toys!
Post Script: on my way to the paper shop this morning, I walked past a house with a Mr. Potato Head in the window. I have just read that Mr. Potato Head was launched in 1952!
