Well that was quick! No sooner ordered than delivered (or so it seems), above is my new smoking monkey, along with a fortune-telling fish. My original monkey could've been grey, brown, or green (can't remember), but this blue one was the cheapest option and the fish came with it - a two-for-one purchase. The monkey comes with only two cigarettes, so I won't be letting him smoke them. Packets of extra cigarettes are available, but I didn't get this toy to play with, only to look at - and remember the one I had as a kid. Aside from forgetting the colour, it's exactly as I recollect from my youth, so it's good to have.
Wow! Oh come on get some extra ciggies you know you want to.
ReplyDeleteFun for all ages and test the fish out!
Thing is, PS, 40 'magic' cigarettes (which blow smoke rings apparently) will cost me around £15, whereas the monkey and the fish only cost me £5.99. Tested the fish out - it curled up on a tartan blanket with no moisture at all.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, and I'd completely forgotten about these prior to them getting a post here, I do recall these back in the day. Yet another item that, as a youngster at the time, you didn't think twice about the whole smoking aspect of it, but these days there would be such an outcry!
ReplyDeleteI've never smoked and never will but I seriously doubt that the sight of a plastic primate puffing away would have me picking up the cigs.(better things to do with my money, like the various collections around me)
I think we had the grey version around our neck of the woods.
I've a vague idea that my original one was grey, PC, but because I'm slightly colour-blind, I couldn't 100% swear to it. I don't think a plastic smoking monkey on its own would have anybody picking up the cigs, but in an age when smoking was seen as being 'grown-up' and 'cool' (as it was in the '60s), anything aimed specifically at kids (which smoking monkeys weren't, but sweet cigarettes were) and might be partially influential on their aspirations, well, I can see why society eventually became a bit cautious. Hence no more TV ads for smoking, etc.
ReplyDeleteGonks were another strange 1960s novelty toy that along with Smoking Monkeys and the fortune telling fish were strangely very popular.
ReplyDeleteThe name doesn't ring a bell, McS, so I'll have to look it up.
ReplyDeleteLittle gnome like plastic creatures with shocks of variously brightly coloured hair . I think they were stuck on the end of pens/pencils.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I looked them up, McS, I remember seeing them years ago, but I'd forgotten the name of them.
ReplyDelete