Sunday 28 June 2020

TOY BOX TREASURES OF THE PAST - THE SPACE BLIMP OF CHRISTMAS...


Rejoice with me - that's another toy box treasure from the past that will shortly be back in the fold.  The SPACE BLIMP Of CHRISTMAS is a toy that my parents (with me in tow) bought from WOOLWORTH's back in the '60s, though I can't now recall whether I got it '66 or '68 - or maybe even in between.  On the evening of purchase, on the run-up to Christmas (that I do remember), we retired to a cafeteria (pretentiously) titled The NORFOLK RESTAURANT ('twas a great place though), where I examined my new acquisition.


I had the Santa figure for quite a few years before, as a teenager, binning most of my childhood possessions in an attempt to 'grow up'.  (As you can see, that never quite worked.)  Well, for the last 10 days or so, I've been keeping my eye on another aforementioned Space Blimp on eBay, and tonight I struck.  (Surprisingly, for such an extremely rare toy, there was only one other bidder.)  It's bought and paid for, done and dusted, and will soon be winging its way to Castel Crivens to join all my other replacement childhood toys.  Can't wait!


The one I owned in the '60s may have had a different colour scheme as far as the rocket sleigh goes.  I seem to recall the top part as being orange or light brown, though the colour of the bottom half escapes me.  (It was quite common back then for toys to have variant colours and I'm just glad to have one.)  I'm not too fussed as I never actually kept the sleigh for too long, though I retained the Santa figure and reindeer head into the early or mid-'70s.    In case you're wondering, I don't actually play with any of my classic toy collection - the satisfaction of ownership comes purely from looking at them - and remembering.


Anyway, I'm sure the seller won't mind me sharing a few of his photos so that you can see what it looks like - I'll publish my own when I receive the toy.  Until then, I'm simply wishing my life away!  Incidentally, the one I had originally came in a window box (I'm pretty sure) like the one below, but these toys are so rare that I'm not too fussed about that little fact.  Both boxes feature the same main artwork, and I can always make myself a replica window box if I feel like it.  "Ho-ho-ho!"  I'm bound to say that I prefer the colour scheme of the one I've just bought, as Santa stands out more on the blue upper half.

12 comments:

WOODSY said...

Congrats Kid! I love it when a wants list comes together with a sales list! You must have been a good lad, Santa's coming home!

Kid said...

Ta, Woodsy. And some of his old toy pals are waiting to greet him.

Fantastic Four follower said...

Woolworths was always regarded as a cheap and cheerful place with prices cheaper than elsewhere... that's how I remember it. A must see shop when you were with your parents on a Saturday afternoon. Did not stock comics but had British Marvel Annuals cheaper than elsewhere and half price in January. Have a fond remembrance of getting Wild West Timpo figures... Cowboys and Indian figures that came apart and you could interchange! Sounds strange but loved those toys.Well done on collecting another piece of your childhood jigsaw... your genuine happiness on a simpler time always shines through. Keep posting!

Kid said...

Woolworth's was a great shop, Triple F, and the closest one gets to it today is Home Bargains, which is very similar. Believe it or not, Woolies did actually sell comics at one time (certainly in the '60s), cos I remember buying a Batman comic there and seeing others as well. (I also bought some UK Marvel Annuals there in the '70s.) The only Timpo figure I have is Captain Scarlet - I'll have to get myself some Cowboys and Indians before too long. Thanks for commenting.

Colin Jones said...

Congrats on your acquisition, Kid. I can only assume your house is like the Tardis inside and that's how you fit everything in :D

I too am rejoicing at some good news - the Samsung tablet I'm currently using has started updating its' apps again. Early last December all the apps stopped updating for some unknown reason and I couldn't download any new apps either - until today when everything mysteriously got fixed. I've now downloaded the BT and Halifax apps and signed in to both (I already had both those apps on an older tablet and it was extremely frustrating that I had to switch tablets to use those two apps),

By the way, you may recall I mentioned a new Epic collection of Conan The Barbarian #1-13 which was due out on June 10th. The release has now been put back to August 5th - that's the date of the e-book release so I assume the physical release is on that date too.

Kid said...

Well, that and the fact that I live in a large castle in several hundred acres of land, CJ. (Oh no you don't, cry the audience.) I note that the 'You may also enjoy these...' at the foot of my posts disappeared when the country went into Lockdown, so it'll be interesting to see when it returns. As you know, I've got the Omnibus volume of the Conan stories, but I'll probably get the Epic Collection as well. And when Santa gets here (tomorrow) he'll be checking his list twice, to see if you've been naughty or nice - so better watch out, 'cos Santa Claus (in his Space Blimp) is coming to town. (Nurse, is it time for my blue Smarties yet?)

rob diablo said...

Well done Kid..brilliant, looks great as well, i felt the same getting my pipe cleaner Santa back unseen since it hung on my folks tree in the 60's and 70's, then mysteriously vanished!, no where near as good as your space blimp, but i was very fond of it,and getting it back was fab.

Kid said...

It arrived just 45 minutes ago, RD, so I'm going to take a couple of photos and do another post about it. Should be up within a half hour or so. Yeah, it's great getting things from childhood back again, isn't it? Funny how it's a Santa in both our cases.

Colin Jones said...

So will The Space Blimp Of Christmas be treated like a Christmas decoration, going on display only during the festive season?

Kid said...

No, it'll be an 'all-year rounder' on display in my room somewhere, CJ.

rob diablo said...

I wanted to display my pipe cleaner Santa all year as well, but i decided to put it away with the rest of the decks, and then I'll look forward to seeing it when Xmas comes around, a bit like seeing an old friend again, at a special time.

Kid said...

After he's been on view for a good while, RD, I might put him in a cupboard with some other toys, which I bring out every now and again to look at. 'Cos he's new though, and because I haven't seen him for nearly 50 years, I want to be able to look at him for the moment and enjoy having him back.

I'm going to have to make him a larger box, because unlike my first one which came fully assembled in a window box, this one needed the reindeer head and tail and the tree slotted into place. Then they need turned into position. It may be that my earlier version, though pre-attached, was put together the same way, but I can't recall. Were I to try taking the pieces out again, there'd be a risk of breaking them, so I'm not going to attempt it.

Why the change by LP Toys all those years ago? I suspect that too many of them were being broken when kids tried to attach the pieces themselves, so LP switched to attaching the bits beforehand. Also, being able to see the toy in a window box probably increased its visual appeal. All speculation on my part though.



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