My Dog Has Fleas! Ideal toy shop catalogue, 1980s, France

Posted on October 21, 2019 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

My Dog Has Fleas (Sacapuce) game from Ideal.

Power Mite from Ideal

Posted on November 29, 2017 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Launched by Ideal in 1969 as the toy that is “safe for little hands”, Power Mite gave kids the chance to create their own workshops with sets of miniature power tools. The die cast metal and plastic made tools were plugged into battery-operated ‘electrical’ terminals, and were powerful enough to work through soft materials like balsa wood and styrofoam blocks, which Ideal supplied as ‘building materials’ with the range.

The following Ideal catalogue pages from 1972 are clearly pitched at boys, with descriptions such as: “Bring a man-sized thrill to a kid-sized worker”, and “Boys can play ‘craftsman’ with tools that look exactly like Dad’s”.

Tammy, the doll you love to dress

Posted on November 15, 2017 by The Vintage Toy Advertiser

Advertised as “The Doll You Love To Dress”, Tammy was a 12″ teenage fashion doll produced by Ideal between 1962 and 1966. Tammy was produced in three versions: a straight legs version, a bendable legs version, and a “Grown Up Tammy” version which featured an African American doll. Tammy inspired the UK’s bestselling teenage doll, Sindy, which was released in 1963, one year after Tammy. Pedigree Toys, who owned the license for Sindy, also obtained permission to use Tammy’s tag line, “The Doll You Love To Dress”.

The selected pages below have been scanned from an early Ideal Toys catalogue. The drawings are quite a charm, and the catalogue includes a checklist of what accessories were available at the time and also a price list.