#1950s toy

[doctorbeth]

Jigsaw Teddy Bear

It's been a while since I've posted about a jigsaw puzzle patient, and I just sent one home, so I thought I'd share his story today. :-)

Mr Theodore E. Bear, known as Teddy to his friends, was not feeling well. Teddy's person wrote:

When I was born, my father bought me my first (and only) teddy bear.  That was 66 years ago.  Sadly, our new pup tore it up.  I cannot describe my heart break.  I lost my dad in 1999 and this was the only personal thing I had left from him.

Could I please get an estimate on fixing him?

I would so appreciate your efforts. 

This is the photo she sent of her Teddy:

She actually had both eyes, and the tears were pretty clean, but Teddy had lost a significant percentage of his head and front body. We agreed on a treatment plan to include a spa (thereby removing Puppy saliva), and he flew to the hospital from Arizona.

When patients are in pieces like this, spa photos can be a bit... disturbing, so I don't send them. Suffice it to say that given his age, the surviving cream and brown parts needed to be separated to be safely cleaned, and I kept his googly eyes out of the water.

Once he was dry, surgery proceeded. It's a bit complicated when you aren't sure what his original shape was. I sent this photo I found online to ask if it perhaps looked like him:

It was so close, his person thought it WAS him at first! But there were issues I could see with this sample. For instance, when teddy arrived one eye was on cream fur. So using this as a guide, but keeping that in mind, I went about putting him back together. There's a fur whose reverse side is a really close match for older, well loved bears like him, and I used that for the darker brown areas. For the missing cream areas (which were really more of a yellow) I used a smooth minky fur.

Here was the first set of photos of Teddy:

Well, it turned out that despite the eyes being on yellow cream on arrival, his person remembered them on brown. That memory is what is important, so that part of his face needed to be adjusted. Also, the head and muzzle were a little too big, as was the nose... but his body was looking good!

Here's the next set of photos (without the nose on... it'd go on once we got the muzzle size/shape right).

That was right! And then there was the new nose, which was embroidered:

All set! His person wrote:

Love it!

Thank you!  

He’s perfect!

Oh, and lest you think I forgot his heart of original stuffing, he did get it, it just goes in at a different time with jigsaw animals that need lots of adjustment. Here it is being made and installed:

Teddy made it home safe and sound. His person wrote: Thank you so much!  You saved him and a huge piece of my heart! Teddy is HOME!  He’s wonderful and I so appreciate your hard work!

[goobersplat]

1940s/1950s Whitman Animal Rummy Cards

[adventurelandia]

1954 Donald Duck pull toy

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Superman battery operated tank - Linemar Toys (1958)

[sovietpostcards]

Children reading "The Tale of the Silver Plate and the Ripe Apple" (Russian folk tale). Photo by M. Ozersky (Moscow, June 1956).

[vintage-tech]

Here, have a functional toy sewing machine or three.

[mutant-what-not]

1950s

[dailyworldcinema]

Giants and Toys (1958) Directed by Yasuzo Masumura

[oldguydoesstuff]

Ideal Toys' Robert the Robot from 1954.

[vintageadsmakemehappy]

1959 Marble King

[doctorbeth]

Red Heart Elephant

Elephant was well loved for many years. So well loved, that when his person outgrew him, his person's mom put him in a box of keepsakes and stored him safely away in... an attic. And he became mostly a memory in his person's mind. Fast forward almost 6 decades and his person was going through boxes of her mom's things and found Elephant! As she said, he'd seen better days, but she had fond memories of their time together and hoped he could be restored and/or rejuvenated. Here are a couple of the diagnosis photos she sent:

As you can see, Elephant had lost his hearing, and had vision issues in one eye. He was a bit discolored from age, had a bit of a slump from stuffing compression, and had lost his tail. He also had a bit of balding, some small wounds, and his internal wire structure was bent out of shape.

His person wanted to think about the treatment options (spa, transplants, etc). She eventually opted to give him new ears, new felt around his original eyes, a new tail, new spa, a small heart transplant for his largest bald spot, a new tongue tip, wound repair, and wire adjustment.

She found this image of one of his relatives, as a reference, but didn't want the red tail with a bell. She opted for a tail to match his torso, and with a string tip.

She also wanted a bit more decorative ears, and so found a nice red minky with white hearts that she sent with him to be used for his inner ears.

So Elephant flew in from Texas, and started, as many patients do, with his spa:

His old eyes were out for the spa not so he could hide, but because, as you can see, the old felt had bled onto his fur (that just happens over time). You can also see he's losing a bit of the antique browning he had gotten from his time in the attic.

Next was restuffing him (once he dried) and of course he got a little heart. I used a lighter fabric because to match his lighter fur.

Next was choosing the fabric for his outer ears and tail. There were many options, because he was kind of a creamy, tan, gray color... his original color was probably a pale gray.

His person made her choice, and surgery proceeded. Hearing restored with new ears, a new tail, new red felt for his eyes to match his inner ears, a small heart patch for his bald spot.

Once he was better, and feeling himself again, he was ready to fly home:

He flew home to Texas and his person was so happy! She sent me his whole story (turns out his name wasn't Elephant, it was "Lel-Ephant") and he hadn't just been a childhood playmate, but also a companion purchased to keep her company during a hospital stay, who then proceeded to be carried everywhere until she started school. He would be left in the rain, and at neighbors, but always came home.

Now both he and his person have survived many years apart, and their own additional challenges, but can finally share their lives together again.

[goobersplat]

Vintage Snorkmaiden and Moomin Plush

[gameraboy2]

1953 Space Commander Vibro-matic Walkie-Talkies ad

[newyorkthegoldenage]

On March 9, 1959, at the North American International Toy Fair at 200 Fifth Avenue, Ruth Handler, founder (with her husband Elliott) of the toy company Mattel, displayed a new doll she called Barbie. Named after her daughter, the doll was meant to show that little girls could grow up to be more than mothers or caregivers—they could be firefighters, doctors, astronauts. "Experts" predicted that the doll would be a flop—they couldn't imagine children wanting to play with a grown-up doll.

They were wrong. In its first year, 300,000 Barbie dolls were sold. The first one sold for $3.00. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Photo: the original 1959 Barbie, from Barbie Media via Business Insider

[retropopcult]

Northgate Shopping Center in Winter Haven, Florida, 1954