R is for Raytel (Pershore) Limited - Wooden Forts

From the archive, and there will be more and more of this stuff as I get it all scanned-in, today we're looking at some wooden forts I will never have in the collection, because I have neither the space nor the inclination to start collecting those tatty, play-worn forts half-filled with a mix of Airfix and Britains 'Herald Hong Kong' one sees at car boot sales any day of the week!

You may not recognise the Raytel name, but I bet that if you're between 40 and 50-years of age, you had at least one of their products in your toy stash. Good, solid - now called - 'traditional' toys, although they have always been made and still are, there are several makers exhibiting stuff like this at the London Toy Fair every year, and we saw similar forts and vessels from Papo not that long ago.

I would add, that you can see in the image a loss of quality over the Tri-ang/Pedigree stuff those of us in the 50-60+ years bracket had, and upon which these seem based, thinner tubes on the chair and table, thinner wooden legs, plain blocks, plastic wheels etc . . . none of it is quite as substantial as the previous generation's playthings.

Close-up of the previous shot shows us the stuff we're interested in now, as 'grown-up' toy soldier fans, two wooden forts from their 1977 catalogue; a traditional castellated affair with buttressed corners and an unusual, hexagonal log-fort, from the frontiers of toy-land.

Main Street, Fort Town, Woodsville! There's a third and some blurb! Is that the proper spelling of Medieval?  Fort [John?] Wayne looks a bit like our childhood fort but ours was hand-made by our parents and had thick walls and deeper barracks along the back wall!

I like how the presence of a moat round the Mediaeval Castle is hinted at by a low wall; if the drawbridge is up, that's it - you'll have to wait 'till the post comes or the milk's delivered!

Having pointed out that the overall quality of Raytel's products was less substantial than those that went before, I would say these seem to be made of real wood and/or ply sheet, unlike some of their contemporary rivals who used pressed-hardboard, a forerunner of MDF and the stuff peg-boards (for rack-toys) were made of, which had a tendency to warp in damp, or collapse completely, if left out in the rain!