Chrismas toys: Action Man met a smoky end

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Phil Lowe concludes his reminiscences of Christmas with some favourite toys and television programmes.

Rolf Harris' Stylophone was a big hit with children in the early 1970s

A game of Monopoly at Christmas with Phil Lowe and his family

A Lego set from the 1960s

A Hornby train set from the 1960s

OVER the Christmas holidays the local streets would be full of children being taught to ride their new bikes or, those proficient enough, would be flying down the hill of Scarborough Rise with looks of pure exhilaration and joy.

After Christmas there was always the return to school and the opportunity to engage in many a “what did you get?” dialogue with your schoolmates.

Most children pre the “never had it so good” Fifties were given hand-me-down toys and clothes for birthdays and Christmas and so, in this respect, my sisters, brother and I, grew up in a fortunate age.

I was always in a state of real excitement about any toys.

Even in the Sixties, I expect that there was a degree of “pester power” and pressure on the parents to give the children what they craved, based on what their mates had or were promised. Of course, the toy departments would reinforce that in their merchandising and presentation materials, especially in the run up to Christmas.

Our family wasn’t well off by any means and we never had credit cards, so most of the toys would have had to have been bought through shops’ saving schemes or from the building society account.

One of my favourite toys that was originally bought as a Christmas present was my Action Man.

He was an original 1966 Palitoy model with moulded hair and big identity tag. He came in a GI outfit and I collected all the other outfits; German stormtrooper, aqua kit, Australian soldier, Russian soldier, US navy (sailor), space astronaut (silvery outfit), mountain and Artic outfit and I had a jeep and a tank for him to whiz down the stairs and around the carpet in.

On the outfit packets you could collect “stars” towards your next purchase.

My Action Man also had his own camping equipment including plates and knives and forks for eating in the field.

He ended his life being blown up with magnesium flash powder from Alf James’ joke shop, on Green Lane.

It was terrible. His plastic gripping arm was never found after sailing over into next door’s garden. He was buried with dignity and I played Taps on my Scout bugle as the sun went down over Chaddesden.

I loved my Lego sets and, although I wasn’t aware of the technicalities at the time, I would have had the early 1960s stud and tube coupling system. My memories are of playing with mainly yellow, blue, red, green and black bricks with grey or dark green rectangular bases.

There was also a little garage with a retracting door and some little cars that went with it.

By 1966 the Lego product range comprised 57 sets and 25 vehicles and a total of 706 million elements were produced during the year, all of which I wanted, but had to be content with what I got given me for birthdays and Christmas.

I remember building Lego underground hideaways like on Stingray and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

A lot of other plastic toys had “Made in Hong Kong” printed somewhere on them and these words became synonymous with cheapness.

As I think back to all the presents I, my sisters and my little brother got given, it is almost like creating one giant wish-list all over again.

What is weird is to think that, as I mentally reconstruct these memories of childhood gifts now in the year 2005, some of them have become collectors’ items. If only I had kept that James Bond car instead of trashing it!

So, in no particular order here are some of the toys I fondly recall us having: fuzzy felt, yo-yos, ping pong bats and balls and a Man from U.N.C.L.E set with a packet of cigarettes that was a secret radio really.

There were Thunderbirds toys, Steve Zodiac and Zoony on a flying scooter from Fireball XL5, Stingray and Terrorfish toys and another favourite with me were Dalek toys and albums.

From the James Bond film Goldfinger came the Aston Martin DB5 with an ejector seat and guns.

Equally exciting was a rocket-firing Batmobile. This had little yellow rockets that were easily lost down the back of the settee.

In quieter moments I had Christmas fun with my Hornby Dublo train set. This was a big set my dad had constructed for my sole use (or so he claimed as he took over the operations) on a hardboard base and it had built on railway sidings.

My presents would include various locomotives, trees, stations, a crossing which turned and allowed the train to go in another direction, and railway red signal boxes etc.

As children we would be bought individual toys for Christmas but we were also encouraged to “share nicely”.

We had to share the Cluedo, Dominoes, Ludo, Monopoly, Snakes and Ladders, jigsaws and other games and spent many a happy hour cheating each other at card games like Old Maid, Snap, Donkey and Happy Families.

As a child I collected cards with my friends and must have spent my pocket money on packets and packets of Batman and Man from U.N.C.L.E cards.

Our parents knew we enjoyed collecting these and quite often a Christmas stocking would have a little surprise in like these card packs.

Ironically, such a seemingly innocuous gift could cause a bigger thrill than an expensive present costing pounds.

I would often be over the moon if I got a bag of unusual marbles for Christmas to play with and invariably lose at school.

The artist in each of us was encouraged with painting by number sets.

We all had lots of watercolour paints and crayons and arty stuff and Dad brought home old blueprint paper from Rolls-Royce for us to draw on.

Most Christmases I would add another Dinky, Corgi or Matchbox car to my growing collection.

Like today, lots of kids wanted a bike for Christmas. Before I was allowed a proper bike, I had a red scooter that I loved and scooted everywhere, especially down hills with the metal stand piece sparking noisily along the road.

It took a long while until I got a bike. I was probably about 14. My younger sister, Angela, and I got one each the same year at Christmas.

Mine was a blue and silver Raleigh racing bike with five gears! Dad did the dad thing of running along behind me, holding on to the seat and then pretending to hold on while I wobbled ahead down Harrogate Crescent, fully ignorant and independent at the same time.

I loved reading as a child. Popular children’s comics were made into Christmas Annuals such as Jo 90, Valiant, Beezer, Topper and Dandy.

In the late Sixties, I remember adverts on the telly for Rolf Harris and his stylophone (1969) or a bouncy space hopper (1968) and my sisters would be desperate for the popular Sindy and Paul dolls.

A big family draw was the television at Christmas and we used to sit as a family and listen to the Queen’s speech at 3pm and enjoy a family film.

Morecambe and Wise were always a favourite with their Christmas special. I remember Leslie Crowther hosting Meet the Kids when all the family would get misty-eyed as we watched some poorly children receive presents and love.

In the afternoon there would be a short film and a Walt Disney programme to see clips of all the Disney favourites and the latest releases for us kids to get excited about. Billy Smart’s Circus was on next.

Later on, Dad would have thrilled to see Abbott and Costello as he was a fan of the slapstick comedies and then Sooty had a show with Christmas guests.

We would probably have had a break while the news was on before watching the televised pantomime around 6pm.

One particular year the panto was Dick Whittington with Terry Scott, Hugh Lloyd and one of my favourites at the time, the character actor and comedian, Reg Varney.

At 7.15pm the police drama Z Cars would have a Christmas theme about people being caught drinking and driving and then, if we hadn’t had enough television, we could have watched Christmas Night with the Stars hosted by the affable, Eamonn Andrews.

At 9.25pm I would have been tucked up in my bed and my sisters likewise in theirs while our parents indulged themselves in Charlie Chaplin’s film, The Goldrush.

My younger brother, Adrian, was born on December 21, 1969, and so we had a newborn child in our family that Christmas and a great present for our whole family.

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