Remember the TONIBELL Miniball? As far as I can recall, that was the only time I ever saw mention of the Tonibell name, but I spotted this toy ice cream van being sold on eBay recently, so obviously it was once a well-known company for SPOT-ON to make a die-cast van with the name on it. I did a little light digging and discovered the following photo of a real Tonibell van on the Internet. Below that is some info about the company, which I found shortly after.
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And below is an ad for the aforementioned Miniball, plus a photo of my very own, purchased back in the late '60s. I took the photo seconds before retrieving the ball from the attic of my former home, 19 years after having inadvertently left it there in 1972. I've now had it back in my possession for 27 years.
8 comments:
Hey, well spotted Kid. A Tonibelle Ice Cream eh. That toy looks superb. On my wants list os the C21 Ice Cream Van but I doubt I'll get one as I'm permanently skint! Fab story as well harking back to that underfloor ice cream football! Glad to see you bloggin' again!
Still not blogging as much as I used to, W, but doing my best when I can. I've been meaning to add an ice cream van to my collection for ages - must do something about it before too long.
Tonibelle vans were all over north London in the early 60's about the time Spot-On did their version. I think they first appeared in the summer of 1959 which came as a surprise to me as I first say them on my return from a trip to New York where the suburbs were full of annoying vans with their chimes and soft icecream.
I can't remember if I ever saw a Tonibell van or not, T47, but I remember Mr. Whippy vans from when I was a kid. Haven't seen or heard an ice cream van around my way in a couple of years it seems, but perhaps I'm just asleep when they're doing their rounds.
That’s because it wasn’t called a tonyBell mini ball ! It was infact called a Toni ball mini ball ! And amazing they were too I loved the coffee one was my favourite! I
Ah, you're at the wind-up, 'Anon'. Of course it was called a tonibell MINIBALL - didn't you look at the accompanying pictures?
And it was the same flavour of ice cream (vanilla) in each ball, regardless of its colour. You've obviously got too much time on your hands.
I've now got a reissued Corgi ice cream van (with chimes), though it's a Walls van, not a Tonibell one.
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