I couldn't find an alliterative title/heading,
and I thought it needed one, or should have one (mental block #1), I tried
Tupperware Toys T... and Building Blocks B... and Great Green G... but couldn't
get any further with any of them (mental block #2).
In the course of trying 'G' I arrived at
the above (a favourite poem when I was a kid - How the Elephant got his trunk)
and thought "Who says a title HAS to
reflect the contents of an article" (mental block #3, or just mental
conditioning)? Some English Professor I'll bet! So I though "Fuckitt, I'll go with an odd quote";
totally unrelated to the post!
But the mental blocks link us to today's
post, which is the Tupperware Busy-Blocks
and NOT the Limpopo River.
Tupperware
by Dart Industries Inc. - a
range of predominantly plastic household goods, gimmicks and novelties, for the
kitchen, bathroom, garden or (in this case ) toy box, was sold through a system of agents and 'parties'
where someone (usually - it has to be said - a woman) would organise a
Tupperware Party at her own or a friend's house, and people would order
products from the catalogue, or take away any purchased stock the organiser had
brought on the day.
Similar sales models were employed by Avon (perfume), Betterware (similar polymer and household products) and latterly
the Adult-toy, marital-aid and kinky-costumier - Ann Summers! I also believe (and stand to be corrected as I've no
evidence) that in the 'States (from whence Tupperware
came) they were head-to-head with Rubbermaid?
Dart and their Tupperware both still seem to be going; I'm not so sure about the parties?
These aren't that uncommon, Tupperware
parties were big in the 1970's and while I have a bunch (incomplete) in storage
I had none here until quite recently, when several lots came in, giving me an
almost complete samples, the first three (1) came in a mixed lot a few months
ago, maybe longer? Then the other day I got the bag-full (2) for a pound of
your human money in a Charity shop, only to pick up 'I for Indian' (3) a few
days later - more on that as we progress.
They fall into a basic classification of
four groups, people (3), inanimate objects (7), animals (15) and fantasy - One!
You can go further with wheeled vehicles, vessels, bird (singular!), mammals, marine
mammals, musical instruments (2!) &etc.
I have highlighted the fantasy element here
to make the collage . . . a 'U for Unicorn', they could have had 'unicycle' (done
like the 'V for Violin' or with a rider) and kept the whole set in the real
world?
A few days after I found the toys in their
little bag, the same shop had the blocks, with the rather tatty remains of
their original box, it was a state, but I trimmed-off all the shite, in order
to scan the images in, and they will pepper the rest of this post.
And these were they; the blocks. There was
one missing, 'G for Giraffe', I have cheated to get the total by opening one of
the yellow ones and propping it either side to give the impression of two!
The funny thing was, although they came
from the same shop, they were offered for sale a few days after the toy-bag,
and when I bought them (after umm'ing and arr'ing for a day) I found the
missing Indian in his block!
I was also missing the giraffe (still
short) and 'D for Dog', which I had in the odd three.
You get eight-each yellow and blue blocks and
ten red for the required 26-count. The picture sides reveal the contents of
each block and are shown here with back-light to try and show them, it's not
that successful and they are missing the giraffe, nor are they in alphabetical
order and I seem to have left a couple of yellow ones (Indian and nurse) out! I
think because I've used three photos' I didn't think would be - usable!
Working this out as I write it . . . I
realise the 'Q for Queen' block is also missing from the above, that's because
I shot these at a mates house after I'd bought them intending to keep the three
figure blocks with the toys and chuck the rest in the recycling, shot the ones
that were going to be chucked intending to then shoot ('legally held' firearm of course!) the close-ups with the
three figure ones.
In the end I rescued all the above blocks
from the bin the next day - they'll be no trouble in the attic - until I find
the 'G for Giraffe' toy and block, do a follow-up post (which may be years
away) and then they can all go to recycling or evilBay?!! As a result the 'K
for Kangaroo' got chosen at random for the close-ups!
When you get nerdy and break them down, you
find a repeat pattern, but one broken with two yellow's out of sequence in the
middle of the alphabet and it's a repeat from 'A' rather than a mirror from
Nurse - if that makes sense?!
Each block has two fluted-sides (which do
interlock, albeit with a 4/5-mil offset) a letter-side, the letter concerned being
shown in both capital and lower case type, with serifs, a picture-side
depicting the toy enclosed and finally; two sides with a geometric
pattern/design of smooth and stippled plastic; this can be built-up to make
larger patterns or track-ways for the toys to follow.
I suspect each block has one straight and
one X, Y or corner tracked side, but I didn't check; there comes a moment when
the subject starts to be tedious and you can stop obsessing and move on to the
next item of interest, the next post, the next whatever!
The blocks also interlock with a pair of
simple shelf-like 'male' clips down one of the open sides, the other having
similar 'female' receiving slots allowing for larger structures or firmer
'piles' to be formed, and for colour patterns to be created within those
constructions.
Second from the left on the bottom row
shows how smaller constructs can also be stacked.
The limits of my photographic skill meant
it was almost impossible to show the track-ways/patterns in their best light,
so I'll leave it to the original publicity material, but I'm sure you can see
how it works, and anyway we're more interested in the toys!
I wish my mum had gone to a Tupperware party and got us a set, we had
lots of wooden one we were fond-of, and some blow-moulded HK ones (probably
piracies of these - he wonders), but these are really very good - almost what
plastic was invented for (along with handles and buttons on WWII weapon
systems!) - and you can see that unlike so many of the 'posed kid' images on
1960-70's packaging (and up to the present; witness the kids playing with 3D
stuff in News, Views... the other day) these guys are really enjoying
the product.
If you had a set of these; you must have
had a lot of fun!
Here's the manufacturers explanation,
that's just for completeness, but the image on the right which is an old (2007)
evilBay crop-out is interesting for
showing the headless 'N for Nurse' (back right), who has a small penny-base,
and - along with her head - is missing the medical cabinet we see . . .
. . . here. The three people; all with
large cruciform bases, the nurse having had a little first-aid cabinet (or
overnight/flight bag - they had been invented by 1973 I think?) with red-cross
. . .or at least 'a cross' on it!
'Q for Queen' is probably the most useful,
all three are in that difficult 35mm'ish bracket, but it makes her perfect for
the old-school war gaming scale of Suren, Stadden and Eriksson's stuff, much of
which pertains to the Marlburian period, to which she can be painted-up,
despite the medieval long-sleeves!
'I for Indian' being available to join
Merten/Elastolin 40mm Wild West outfits, leaving 'N for Nurse' to O-gauge
railway layouts! Between the people I've sandwiched the two marine mammals and
the only bird; 'O for Owl'.
The people are all realistic, while the
animals are all a bit cartoony or caricature-like - the pig especially.
Here again we see the small penny bases,
with my storage sample (which had a few of the figures as I would pick them out
of lager samples when I was a small-scale only collector, before I knew the
significance of the 'whole', so have a few now) and the new acquisitions I have
no penny based ones, so they can be considered rarer than the chunky-based
versions.
As the penny-based versions do turn-up
occasionally and were clearly available for all the pre-launch publicity and
packaging imagery, I think it's fair to conclude that several of the models
(and all three figures) were identified as choking hazards, and later given bases
which don't even encourage sucking, some being very sharp 3 or 4-pointed stars!
The queen I had in the odd-three has been
converted by de-crowning into a mere lady-in-waiting! You can also see the
remains of the penny-bases in the centre of the - almost - Maltese-cross. The
Indian also shows the remains of his penny-base, and both would have been easy
to accidentally swallow while sucking, but large enough to trigger the
gag-response, causing them to get stuck and lead to suffocation, although
there's no findable history of it ever happening?
It may even be that the change happened so
early in the set's run, you can only find them in the USA, or Canada?
There is a slight colour variation between
batches, but it's of no significance and I've never seen them in another
colour, as it was the obvious choice after already choosing the three primaries
for the blocks.
Mammals - the funny thing is; the missing
giraffe is probably the least cartoony of the lot! While 'E for Elephant'
hasn't been down to the Great Grey-Green Greasy Limpopo River to talk to the
crocodile yet! Method in the madness! Does that mean I made-up the first three
paragraphs as I went along? I'm not telling!
Looking at the pig and the elephant - is it
fair to suggest that the easier the animal is to swallow, the larger the base?
The inanimate objects/vehicles, the yacht
is a poor model I feel, I would call it a pleasure cruiser and it's too similar
to the 'B for Boat' they should have had a sailed- 'Y for Yacht', a big 'S for Ship'
and a 'B for Bolrog'; to eat . . . err . . . play with the 'U for Unicorn'
- of course!
Finally - I identified these about 12 years ago thanks to Kent Specher's website, where - in his
study of the bases - he identifies two different bases for the 'S for Seal'
(should have been 'Ship'!) sculpt/s; this appears to be a third! The base being
not as small as the one with the ball (also visible in one of the packaging
scans), but having a longer or sharper nose to the corner/angle of the base-front
than Kent's other example - so it would seem there are interim designs of at
least some of the changed toys.
Link to Kent's post - it's easier to go to the bottom and scroll up, but if you scroll down you pass all sorts of other interesting stuff on the way!
A - Aeroplane
B - Boat
C - Camel
D - Dog
E - Elephant
F - Fox
G - Giraffe
H - Horse
I - Indian
J - Jeep
K - Kangaroo
L - Lion
M - Monkey
N - Nurse
O - Owl
P - Pig
Q - Queen
R - Rabbit
S - Seal
T - Train
U - Unicorn
V - Violin
W - Wale
X - Xylophone
Y - Yacht
Z - Zebra
And this is the 2000th visible post on smallscaleworld!
==========================
Added on the 14th November 2018 - The Giraffe turned-up in the
storage lot and as I had suggested above, they (the storage lot) are all the
late version larger or prickly bases, and increasingly it looks like the small
(swallow'able) bases were a US only thing back at the start of the toy's run.
The camel showing quite a distinct colour
variation, and note also that the paler one has a narrower base; the suspicion
therefore would be that it's an earlier version. While I'm making assumptions -
I have a note in the archives that these figures were [also] issued with a 'Dryfoods Breakfast Cereals', possibly as
'Boys Toys'?
While there is a current Dryfoods (working with pet food), it's a
recent (1993) concern and there is no other trace of a cereal-miller or issuer under that
title in the 1960/70's. Therefore - although it's my note - I'd suggest you
treat it as complete bollocks until something more empirical comes along!
I
know - but it would be equally remiss of me not to mention it!
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