Children gather 'round. The picture above is 1964/1965 PLAYMOBILE, the BESTEST Christmas ever for a young Cookie (I was but a dollop of dough in those years), and oh, how I loved it so.
It served no purpose but to keep children with imaginations busy. And how lucky I was to get one, one Christmas from my gentile grandparents (I had a set of gentile grandparents and a set of Jewish parents.)
With batteries, you could make the turn indicators blink and I think the windshield wipers swept to and fro. The dashboard was made from good quality Styrene plastic, which was stable, but the windshield was made from acetate plastic, which was the only fly in the ointment. Acetate plastics over time warp - and like every other Playmobile set up like this I have seen since on eBay, the windshield developed a sunken sag along the top middle.
Overtime, mine was tossed and I think my parents left it at our old house for the children of the buyers to play with.
This is something that I never forgave my parents for.
And I am not joking.
Alas, now I am too old, and have too much fine art to accommodate one should I find one at an antique market.
This makes me sad - not for me - but for children to come.
Driving the Playmobile required a lot of imagination. And that's something that I think children are being robbed of by all this new technology today. On the other hand, I am sure what people in their sixties in the 1960s thought about those of us born in the 1960s.
In any event, whenever I see one of these, for a moment, I am again a three or four-year-old and I marvel at it. And part of me really wants Santa to bring me one.
I doubt we ever had such an extravagant toy in the UK in the '60s. I certainly don't remember it. Jx
ReplyDeletePS Interesting fact: Henry Orenstein, who invented this beast, was a bit of a marketing genius - he spotted the potential of a freaky Japanese toy at a toy fair and made all the right introductions to Hasbro. From that deal, the mega-franchise "Transformers" was born, and Mr Orenstein made millions out of it!
Oh I would love this!!!
ReplyDeleteOh honey, I don't think I had this one, but I think I coveted it, a lot. That doesn't mean I didn't want it, but the budget wasn't there. I think I had a different one when I was younger (I am your elder) but it wasn't as glorious as this one. Think simple Nash Rambler dashboard.
ReplyDeleteOMG...I had forgotten all about this till I just came across this post. I had one too, maybe a bit different, but very close. I'm sure I don't drive much better now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the lack of imaginations being engaged. Imagination is all I had, as a child, and it has served me well to this day. Of course, I had to put an end to my magical thinking... which is a side product of imagination play... but I still wouldn't trade all my many adventures in the creepy basement of my family home. Kizzes.
ReplyDeleteWere you "Detroit leaning?"
ReplyDeletePretty snazzy, but I am not sure what I am looking at. Is this part of a complete car, or just a dashboard? --Jim
ReplyDeleteWell, it's certainly a lot more showy and exciting than the dashboard of my friend's mother's Mini Metro that we used to play in when she visited.
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