Toys and Games

1930? Old Fables in New Rhymes. Marian B. Cochrane and Florence A. Camp. No. 8475. Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Company. Unknown source. This is a curious game. Fifteen (of sixteen?) heavy cardboard cards are still here, each representing a verse version of a childhood story. The first and third line of each quatrain is blank. The child needs to substitute a word that makes sense and rhymes with its partner two lines away. Two of the cards (#4 and #8 in the hand-numbering here) present FC and TH. Someone (a teacher perhaps?) has filled out a smaller card for each of the numbered stories: the card contains correct words for filling the blanks. One of those words, according to the scribe, is “unsterstand.” Actually the verse version of FC here is quite good. I may use it soon in some oral presentation!

2020 Playmobil Set 70621: "Aesop's Fables." 30 pieces, including a story booklet. Greek texts. $37.50 from happy*sheriff through Ebay, July, '21. This is a cute and clever set of figures for presenting seven of Aesop's fables. The booklet and package texts are all in Greek. Not for purchase in the USA. The animals' heads can be raised and lowered. Human heads can be turned, and arms move up and down. I had thought that the grown man figure was Aesop; he may be, but he is also the human adult in SS and MSA.

1991 Wolf in Sheep's Clothing. Children's toy from an unknown maker, sold at a Los Angeles flea market. Gift of Margaret Carlson Lytton, Nov., '91. Movable head and legs. This curious creation may resemble a dog as much as a wolf. Whichever he/she is, the creature did its costume very well!

1970? Small plastic "Color TV" with scrolled scenes of TH. 12 pieces. Nobbies, Omaha? A simple idea is here translated into reality. Scroll the two wheels through a series of scenes. The paper is not always obedient to the scroller's desires!

1957? Japanese red tin toy steam locomotive with friction motor, marked "Aesop" at the front both left and right. 9" long and 3.5" high. Marked "EO" and "Made in Japan." $6 from Matt McKeeby, Schenectady, NY, through Ebay, Feb., '00. Click on the image to see the engine larger. Now this takes a prize! An Aesop locomotive! I gather that this toy comes from the era during which the Japanese were prone to put any symbol on any object and (re)produce it. "D-57" appears beneath the engineer's windows and on the boiler-cover at the front. There a bunny holds flags, perhaps for the tortoise and hare whose heads are pictured above the name "Aesop" on the flag panels on either side of the boiler-cover. Further back on the left side a crow in a cap holds a mouse either by a string or by its tail. On the opposite side a zebra and bear face each other. The engineer is a stork, who has a wing resting leisurely outside the windows on both sides! On the roof above him is a flying bird. In my years of collecting I never dreamed that such a thing existed.

1950? "Hollywood: Dessins animés tirés des Fables de La Fontaine et Sujets divers." Animated cinema toy. F.M. Paris. €30 from entrepot*d through Ebay, Nov., '23. This is a most unusual toy. There are two key elements: a viewing implement and 38 cardboard strips, about 11⅜" x 1½". The implement is a sliding wooden frame with a channel perfectly matching the width of the cardboard strips. Above this channel are perhaps forty plastic or glass rods that refract the images passing below them. The hoped-for result is that the images, otherwise hard to decipher, become movie loops, showing a repeated action. Though the package mentions La Fontaine fables, I can find only two that I recognize: GA and LM. Other strips that take on a life for me are a tightrope walker; a train; and a dog chasing a man. It is quite possible that I have not mastered the right speed for moving the strips underneath the frame. I would say that this is a very creative idea that did not quite get worked out fully.

2020? TH wooden two-piece puzzle. C Westcott. 3.75" tall, 3.5" wide. Unknown source The two figures fit each other well. I am unsure of how the carrot plays in this configuration, when they are either together or separate. Is the hare lying on the tortoise's back and leading him on, as one would a mule with a carrot? I have not been able to identify the "Westcott" artist.

1992 Russian carved FC toy, with handle and ball-and-string. Gift of Margaret Carlson Lytton from the Rose Bowl Swap Meet, Christmas, '92. Extra exemplar, labelled, signed, and tagged as a "Rezcik Collectible" from Heritage International, Ltd., as a gift from Donna Eddy, June, '99. Another exemplar a gift from Simon Mogilevsky, July, '99. Get the ball going in a circular movement, and the fox will wag his tail and the crow will bob with the cheese in his mouth! Another ingenious and well executed gift from Meg! And now we see that the Russians are becoming more self-conscious about marketing their excellent toys! The other exemplars have the same great action as the original!

1990 Russian carved FG toy, with handle and ball-and-string. Gift of Mary Pat Ryan, Christmas, '90. Get the ball going in a circular movement, and the fox will wag his tail. The "grape" may actually be an apple or a cherry! Ingenious and well executed.

1985 Russian carved FS toy, with push button. $10 at Victor Kamkin, NY, April, '98. Push the button and the fox backs up while the stork raises his head; then the fox offers the stork food in a very shallow dish. Well executed. I saw this in the Kamkin window and asked for it. I was told that they could not get at their display window, but they would let me know the next time they changed their display. On a chance, I called a year later and they had laid it aside for me. Through Roseann Fitzgerald and a friend, I got it--and played with it so much that Tom Greener had to repair it for me when I broke its string.

1980? French wooden puzzle and stacking toy based on Aesop's fables. One fable image on each of the four sides: MM; "The Heron"; FC; and TH. 8" high and 3½" square. $36.89 from FrenchVintageBibelot through Etsy, Dec., '20. Ingenious and delightful! I wonder if this is a "one-off" created just once. Or was it a manufactured toy made many times over? Ten "storeys" make up four different images. Watch out! Solving one side does not solve the others! Of course, getting the solution "wrong" makes for some surprising characters!

1970? Russian carved wooden toy depicting WC. Button-activated movement. $20 Canadian from 2013reh001 through Ebay, July, ’21. This is one of the most successful of Russia’s lovely active carved wooden toys, and it portrays a fable I wish were presented more often. Good operating condition!