I wonder how many toys pass through our hands during our lifetime? I wonder what makes us forget most of them, but remember some? I have no idea how many dolls I’ve forgotten, but I never forget the one that was stolen from me when I was seven. Any number of stuffed animals must have come and gone, but when my Teddy bear Dr. Neil was also stolen from me, I had the drive and rage of a Fury until I got him back.
Some toys I remember in great detail but don’t have memories, or even very strong feelings, about when or how they vanished from my life.
One time I was describing these “sort-of” paper dolls at Craft Night. I talked about them several times over the years, trying to figure out what to call them; without a name, I couldn’t even look for images. And Rhonda suddenly said, “You’re talking about Colorforms!” I had no idea that’s what they were called, but she was right. Since then, I’ve periodically done searches of vintage Colorforms and YOWSA! Colorforms of “The Munsters” and “The Addams Family” TV shows can auction for three to five hundred dollars. Beatles Colorforms start around seven hundred dollars. If y’all have those things in your attics, you might want to find out their value. I’m sure the ones I’m looking for will be more like ten dollars, but I’ve never found them yet.
I had another set of actual paper dolls that I’ve also looked for. They were babies and had the greatest little clothes, but they were also front and back paper dolls. The clothes folded down over their shoulders. I’ve seen similar ones, but not the set I recall.
I don’t know if I’d actually buy these if I found them, but it’s fun to search for them. Maybe I just want to see if they actually look the way I remember them.
Did you have any favorite toys you’d like to find again?
Alas, I have no toys of my childhood. It was common custom in the family that as you grew out of a toy you passed it down to a younger sibling or cousin. Basically I inherited some great antique toys and books from my uncles that I in turn passed on to my younger brothers who in turn passed them on to younger cousins. The advantage you always had a new flow of toys coming in … the disadvantage is a lot of those toys would be worth a lot of money today. The really treasured special gifts (dolls and stuffed stuff) that you received from grandparents have either disintegrated or were stolen. I still have a lot of board games up at the top of the closet.
I had to get rid of a bunch of my board games because of the way I had them stored in the garage, they got this bad musty smell that wouldn’t go away. =(