This is a jolly little film on the opening of the first Legoland Park, Billund, Denmark, in June 1968.
More than 50million people have visited Legoland since its opening, and 1.9m people visited the park in 2011, making it the most popular tourist attraction outside Copenhagen, in Denmark.
Previously on Dangerous Minds
Lego my video: Tim Pope reacts to seeing one of his videos for The Cure recreated in Lego
Having one of these for breakfast would have made me eat my Corn Flakes. A vintage cut-out-and-keep Halloween mask given free with Kellogg’s breakfast cereals.
Via Not Pulp Covers
The original LEGO patent for a “Toy Building Brick” was filed by Godtfried Kirk Christiansen on July 28th, 1958, and registered October 24th, 1961, as Patent No. 3,005,282. O, what joy this simple diagram has inspired.
Via The Khool
What toys would the 3 Wise Men bring the infant Jesus today? Certainly not the body lotion, jewelry or cologne they gave upon that first Christmas night.
According to this short film report, from 1975, toy manufacturers would have a pretty good idea what to give, as they already know the kinds of gifts they will be foisting onto kiddies as Xmas presents years in advance.
But before we get too cynical, a newly published survey of British children has revealed that not all children are so predictable in their wishes. Top of UK children’s Christmas list was a baby brother or sister, next a reindeer, followed by a horse, and a car (ambitious little things aren’t they?). While a ‘Dad’ was number 10, and a ‘Mum’ was 23rd. It would seem for some children that good relationships with humans or animals are far more important than owning a ‘Gangnam’ Furby or a Doc McStuffin’s Time for Your Check-Up Doll, which let’s be honest can only be good for us all.
With thanks to NellyM
A few days ago Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow blogged about an image clipped from an Irish sales flier titled, “Girls’ crappy fake toy laptop is pink, and half as powerful as boys’ crappy fake toy laptop.” This raises the question about gender-neutrality with certain toys targeted towards the sexes.
Anywho, Top-Toy Group—a Sweden-based Toys “R” Us licensee—has released a gender-neutral toy catalog for the holidays with this statement:
We want our catalogues to reflect the way boys and girls play in real life, and not present a stereotype image of them. If both girls and boys in Sweden like to play with a toy kitchen, then we want to mirror this pattern.
Personally, I think this is beyond awesome and great! This kind of advertising makes sense to me.
More images from the catalog after the jump…
Vintage adverts for the 3-D View-Master, that delightful stereoscopic device through which thin cardboard reels or discs of images were viewed. I can still recall the pure pleasure of viewing these brilliant-colored, photographic images that made the everyday world seem slightly anemic. The stills of Alpine scenes, with pink roses blossoming around a snow-capped chalet; a copper-haired Gulliver (who looked like my neighbor’s biker son) tied to the ground, his hand pin-pricked by Liliputian arrows; pink puppet pigs escaping a drooling, sharp-fanged wolf; Huckleberry Hound crash landing on the Moon; Yogi Bear having his portrait painted; or, Jerry as a Musketeer (Mouseketeer?) probing Tom’s nasal cavity with a sword; The Flinstones; Droopy; London by day and night; Edinburgh Castle under a summer’s sky. It was a delightful portable world, one which my inner geek wanted to join.
More from images of Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound, after the jump…
Via Pop Culture Safari
Or the “Cab Driver” doll, to be more precise, which is part of the Brother Production company’s “Crazy Killers Collection”.
The 12” doll comes with two heads, replica army jacket, sunglasses, four different kinds of gun and even a miniature recreation of Travis’ infamous arm brace/gun rig. It’s actually pretty neat!
And it can be yours, via Ebay, for only $350.
Photo by Scott Beale
Laughing Squid‘s Scott Beale spotted this fabulous Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. action figure. Boob is the “eminent physicist, polyglot classicist, prize-winning botanist, hard-biting satirist, talented pianist, good dentist too” who joins the Beatles to fight the Blue Meanies. Usually I only go in for the authentic vintage of this kind of thing, but this is really, really well-done.
Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. is from McFarlane Toys and is available for purchase on Amazon.
Isn’t this just the cutest thing you ever did see? And when did you ever think you’d be able to say that about John Merrick, aka The Elephant Man?
This cuddly Elephant Man beanie toy was made by Maffers Toys, and you can find more of their work on Deviant Art.
Lego. Cartoons. Imagination. What’s not to like?
Clever advertising campaign for Lego by German advertising agency Jung von Matt.
With thanks to Vítor Rua
A rather rotund rendition of Tony the Tiger by Ron English. Inspired by his cereal box hack, Fat Tony will be making appearances at local toy stores soon. You can pre-order one at Big Bad Toy Store.
Fat Tony will be sold in limited quantities.
Via Laughing Squid
Peter Cushing liked to read - as can be seen from this rather strange sequence from The Skull (1965).
When the Gentleman of Horror wasn’t reading, Peter liked to play with his toy soldiers at his home in Kensington, London, as this British Pathe News reel footage from 1956 shows. This was Mr Cushing before his career defining performances as Baron Victor in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), and as Coctor Van Helsing in Dracula (1958).
Previously on Dangerous Minds
It’s that time of year when department stores fill their shelves with all those things you do not need. Today I spied this on display in one well-known high street store, Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote Vomiting Figure. This allegedly “collectable toy” originally went on sale in 2004, and according to its advertising pitch:
This is the first item ever made based on the Monty Python movie, The Meaning of Life. Squeeze Mr. Creosote and he vomits! Let go, and the vomit slides sickeningly back into his mouth and down his throat. Splatter fans, this is a must-have!
“Splatter fans”? It must have been a splatter fan who wrote this 5 star review on Amazon.com:
I love this little thing!!! It’s extremely amusing! You might even say that it’s more amusing than a slinky…okay…maybe not…BUT STILL!!! It’s pretty awesome!!!
Personally, I’d opt for the Slinky, but I doubt that’d help the Pythons get even richer. So, if the vomiting doll doesn’t appeal then perhaps you can be tempted with a box of Mr. Creosote’s Wafer Thin Mints?
Total robot dedication here. From The Old Robots Web Site:
“THIS IS A ROBOT HOBBYIST WEB SITE I/WE DO NOT BUY AND/OR SELL ANYTHING ON THIS SITE.”
