Tootsie Toys plastic animals

I seem to have been away for a long time, it was never particularly intended to be like that, but it has somehow happened. One of the reasons is the growth of pinterest*. Which Ive been using quite a bit. A shame really as it doesnt seem to have the community aspect that perhaps a blog has, but it is fast and a good way of collating and storing online finds. One things for sure, is its certainly less labour intensive than the blog, but sadly much less personal! 

Anyhow, back today with some more plastic animals, in the shape of Tootsie toys. I know nothing about them, but have been picking them up over the last few years. The dinosaur series seems to be much more sought after than the animals, but these fellas have a charm of their own.

We have been finding some lovely things, so I do promise to come back soon.

* Should you want to follow me on pinterest you can do so here.

Rajasthan fort figures

On the way back from Norfolk last year we stopped off at Stow in the Wold, and stumbled on this series of Indian plaster figures at a small antique shop. Battered and bruised and missing limbs they werent too expensive. We were told they were Rajasthan fort figures. Despite a year long effort to find out more, we are still none the wiser. So here they are presented as is. Hope you like them!

1972 Kellogg's Olympic football plastic figure

 

Olympic football comes to Britain today. Todays post celebrates when Cereal packets used to do something special to commemorate those occasions. Back in 1972 to honour the Munich Olympics, Kellogg's Sugar Smacks gave away 8 different athletes to collect and cherish. The carefully balanced, character above was for Football. 

If you want to see the rest of the set, you should head over to Mokarex. A rather good site full of more fabulous cereal giveaways.

Marriage & Homemaking KTC

 

 I was reminded of this fabulous little booklet browsing Flickr last week, when I stumbled upon a lovely collection of images by maraid. If it wasnt good enough finding some more camping flags of Great Britain, she also had thirty two Know the Game booklets!

Now Ive been collecting the Know the Game (KTG) books for a while, but she had some real lovelies, including skating which Id never seen before. Above Ive posted the 1970 edition of Marriage and Homemaking from the KTC (Know the craft) series, which I guess was an off shoot of the KTG books. Lots of practical advice here, as the contents page below shows.

Its not really fair to tease you without letting you read some of the pearls of wisdom for yourself. Page six makes interesting reading.......

English family game counters

 

Another unknown conundrum Im looking for help with. This small set of seven tokens turned up last month at a favourite charity shop. I think they must be from a game and are used as counters. They dont appear to have much age to them, but they do have some charm. It looks as if they represent four generations of one family; Great grandparents, grandparents, mother and father, and one son. They only measure 35mm and have no markings, as far as I can see.

 Hopefully some bright spark will be able to help. I look forward to hearing from you.......

ENJOY WALKERS CRISPS NOW

Super late Sixties beer mat promoting Walkers Crisps and Potato Sticks. The photo shows the front and back of the same beer mat. The bold stylized image, and the two colour printing reminds me of the programme covers for Stoke and Coventry City football club from the early Seventies.

John Elvin & Bernard Gallacher at Sportsgraphic were responsible for the programmes at Coventry and also produced work for Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion football clubs. In 1972 their work was recognised with a D&AD award. It would be nice to think they were responsible for the Walker beer mats too!

1977 Newent Jubilee Celebrations

Somewhat late but another Royal post. This time a lovely A3 poster we found a while back detailing The Silver Jubilee celebrations in Newent, Gloucestershire. It gives an tantalising insight into life in 1977. 

Id like to have seen the bicycle gymkhana, but cant quite see how Brent Ford and the nylon rock band (Brent Ford & the Nylons) fitted into the whole Jubilee festivities. It would be nice to compare and contrast last weeks events with 1977!

KEEP IN A COOL PLACE

Picked up a few more rather nice elastoplast tins last week, which Im sure I'll post soon. But what I really liked (although I didnt know till I got home) was all three had the same phrase on the side of the tin. Reminds me of Abbevilles fantastic 1987 book, on the golden age of matchbook art Close cover before striking. Sadly, now out of stock, it has always been  one of my favourites!

1981 Plastic Charles & Diana shaped badge

Given its the Jubilee weekend, and they've given us an extra days holiday, something of a royal theme for today's post. This 2" plastic crown shaped badge depicts a rather serious looking Charles & Diana, back in 1981. Maybe the artist knew something about their fated relationship before anyone else, they certainly dont look very romantically inclined!

Pull along Russian cat

Here's something a little bit visually different from what we usually post, but too nice not to share. This gem of a find came from a recent trip to London, on a horrible wet and drizzly Sunday. We were not optimistic that anything would be on given the weather, but we stumbled upon a car boot near Elstree. Amongst an interesting hoard of house clearance items we unearthed this little treasure. The cat itself is wooden, but has a painted jesso surface. The base is roughly 6 X 4", and in total she stands 8.5" tall.

She sits on a wooden base, with wheels that roll along. On the base is a rather ornate gold label in Russian, but sadly Ive no knowledge of Russian and  can make no headway with what it says. Below is a close up of the label in case anyone can unravel the cats history.

Interestingly the stick (looks like a ice cream stick) on the base appears to move what looks like bellows, that sit under the base.  Whether the cat had some kind of musical movement at some point is  a mystery.