Tag Archives: vintage toy adverts

Famous Madame Alexander Dolls

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Greetings vintage mates! TVTA is pleased to add another new toy entry to the archive. This time it’s the famous Madame Alexander Dolls line from the US, with today’s catalogue images coming courtesy of FAO Schwarz 1967 to 1974, and the Madame Alexander Friends From Foreign Lands booklet, 1970.

Madame Alexander Dolls is the creation of Madame Beatrice Alexander Behrman, the daughter of US immigrants, who created the Madame Alexander Doll Company, Inc. in New York in 1923.

Throughout her lifetime, Madame Alexander received many accolades for her pioneering craftsmanship, originality and excellence. She was the first to create toys with officially licensed tie-ins to entertainment properties, producing dolls of famous characters from the likes of Gone With The Wind, The Sound of Music, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Cleopatra, Heidi, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty; she also helped popularise industry innovations such as dolls that could close their eyes, and dolls that could walk, and she was first to introduce the plastic face mould, which changed the doll industry forever!

In honour of her achievements, she was made a life member of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, and her dolls have featured around the world in permanent exhibitions. Madame Alexander was a true pioneer of the doll world, and her vision lives on today with the famous Madame Alexander company still going strong and celebrating 100 years in the business this year!

Click on images to go big. Enjoy the scans!

Madame Alexander Dolls. FAO Schwarz Fall Winter 1981 /82 catalogue. US.

Friends From Foreign Lands booklet, 1970.

“The Happiness Of A Child Is A Joy To The World”

As always, thanks for looking!

You can read more about pioneering woman Madame Alexander at the official site here

Madelman action figures from Spain – short is beautiful

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Madelman Live Action sets. Featuring: Trapper, Canadian Mountie, Polar Expedition. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Greetings vintage mates! TVTA is pleased to add a new toy entry to the archives – Madelman action figures, from Spain. I hadn’t come across these toys before, and when I first saw the adverts for them I believed they might be 12 inch scale (approx 32 cm) Action Man / GI Joe spin-offs of the 1960s. But no, although similar in design and play themes, Madelman figures stand up at approximately 7 inches tall (17 cm), meaning that the production costs for the figures, accessories and vehicles would have been far lower than their taller contempories back in the day.

Madelman was produced in Spain, and saw successful exports to countries like Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and the US. The original production years covered between 1968 to 1983. The line was revamped by the longstanding Spanish toy company Exin around 1988, but fell out of toy fashion by 1990.

Madelman Buzo Deep Sea Diver and Polar Explorer set. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Madelman Catalogue entries. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Madelman Live Action sets. FAO Schwarz 1974_1975 Catalogue. US.

Madelman figures space toys. FAO Schwarz 1981 1982 catalogue.

Thanks for looking!

Where is TVTA??

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Greetings vintage mates! Hope you’re all doing just fine and dandy?

Well, TVTA is still here, although we’re a little bit over there, and maybe just a bit over that way, or this way, or up the road, or down the road, or across the water… heck, we’re gonna need an atlas!

Charles Atlas. “Let me prove I can make you a new man!” 1976 advert. US.

Erm, not Charles Atlas, but you know what we mean. Thank you, Charles.

So, long story short, your humble editor and his intrepid office cat Wooof has moved offices. Not local, but abroad. Change of country. Yikes! Our office equipment is all packed up and waiting to join us, our new scanning room is bereft for the moment of a … yep, scanner. Mrs Coldkettle the tealady is still trying to sort her visa. But we’re getting there… (wherever there is). So where exactly is ‘there’ ?

It was almost Dubai. Then California. Then Melbourne. Then finally…

clue as to where our new offices are located:

Tower of London. Published by The Ministry of Works. Date unknown.

Where is TVTA ??

Cover. ABC of Londons Transport. UK. 1948

Really? TVTA has moved to…

The Clash – London Calling.

Ah. Blimey, those fish and chips and a good old cup of Rosy Lee sure tasted good after 14 years in France!

Suffice to say, we’re back! And we’re looking forward to catching up with our dear vintage mates here in WordPress-land! Geography-tastic! See ya soon. Love ya!

BRITAINS SET N° 460, Scots Guards, circa 1933.

This post was brought to you by Beaky Plinders Moving Company, est 1920, for all your international moving needs and vintage office equipment, by order. 

 

A numerical dilemma: The Elephant in the Room!

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Cover. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Greetings vintage mates. Since 2011 TVTA has been diligently keeping track of the number of vintage print advert and catalogue images it has been archiving for your viewing pleasure. To date, prior to this post, our print archive stood at “4,998” images! Why, that’s “Enough print to encircle the planet three times, hot enough to fry an egg, deep enough to contain six Olympic swimming pools, and faster than a cheetah driving a Formula One racing car!!” or so our blurb says!

So… only two print images to go until we reach that magical figure of “5,000” archived images. Goodness! Whatever shall we post here today to celebrate such a milestone?

Well, how about this… a 1967 Corgi Toys advert featuring the Batmobile and Batboat! Bam! Pow! Kersplowie! Cool, “4,999” images! We only need one more ad to reach our 5,000 target!

Corgi toys. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Fine. So how about print image N° 5,000? What will it be?

How about this one?

The Fright Factory Thingmaker horror kit by Mattel! Y’all know how much TVTA loves horror and Halloween, right?

Fright Factory by Mattel. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Cool! But, then, how about this… The Sound of Music Dolls by Madame Alexander?

Yodel-me-not, for we do not kid around! Here it is in all its glory:

Madame Alexander Sound of Music Dolls. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Okay, but how about the splendid joy of the Teleidoscope and Musicalscope… TVTA dares you to look into the eyepiece of toy goodness and not be bedazzled by the sight and sounds which await!

Teleidoscope and Musicalscope. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

However… how can one resist the lure of Lincoln Logs?

Lincoln Logs. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or, Winnie the Pooh toys and books?

Winnie the Pooh toys and books. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Gosh-durn-it on a biscuit, what about the Hound Hotel and Bear Outing playsets that probably no one’s ever heard of but wishes they had?

Hound Hotel and Bear Outing toys. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or the Hurricane Galloping Horse toy? Giddy up!

Hurricane Galloping Horse toy. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue

Don’t know about you, vintage mates, but we here at TVTA are finding it hard to simply pick two adverts to reach our goal of 5,000 archived images!

How about some Dinky Thunderbirds toys?

Dinky Thunderbirds. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or a Bilofix building set? (free pipe included for Dad to smoke on while he helps out building boats and stuff on Christmas day)

Bilofix building toy. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue

We could always ask our TVTA intrepid office cat Wooof what he suggests as our 5,000th print image…

TVTA’s intrepid office cat, Wooof (in one of his latest incarnations. Wooof has had more nine lives than you’ve had hot dinners!)

Wooof says: “Miow, mewl, myaw, meeeow, myah, myah, myah, mioooow!”

Translated: “Dear editor of TVTA, why not just post everything you just scanned, and then we can have another week off work? You silly, human twit, you.”

Dang. So, as usual, the cat wins. Hence, TVTA is proud to announce that we have now archived “5,010” print images. Excellent. Right, we’re off to set up the Bilofix and light our pipes! As always, thanks for looking 😁

Toy shop goodness: Hamleys of Regent Street, London W.1.

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Peter and Jane: We Have Fun. Lady Bird Books. 1964 / 2004.

Hamleys toy shop based in Regent Street, London, England, was founded in 1760 by William Hamley. It is the biggest and oldest toy shop in the world, and prides itself on selling not only traditional toys but newer toys that enter the market. Hamleys Book of Toys, Sports and Games, Christmas 1983 states

“Whilst traditional toys and dolls are as popular as ever, a vast revolution has nevertheless taken place in toyland. Electronic games and home computers have captured the imagination of children and their parents throughout the world.”

The Hamleys book goes on to announce the creation of a vast 4,000 sq. ft electronic games complex called ‘A Step Ahead’ with trained technology advisors on hand to guide customers through what surely must have been described back then as ‘video game heaven’.

A Step Ahead. 1983. Hamleys.

Hamleys also announce another new department ‘Small World’ featuring international dolls furniture and miniatures, as well as extra space given over for their ground floor Star Wars department.

The 123 page Hamleys Christmas book is wonderfully presented with photographs and descriptive text, giving us a sense of not just what the toys looked like back in 1983 but what they did, too. Enjoy the scans!

The 1983 Christmas Book of Toys, Sports and Games by Hamleys. Front and rear cover. The front ‘cover subject’ is “Toy Lady” while the back features one of Hamleys famous bears.

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Top ten toys that are freaking me out right now! (ptII)

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Pelham Puppets. FAO Schwarz 1974 1975 catalogue. US.

Greetings, vintage mates! This is a fun “part 2” to a post I made way back in 2020, in which I showcased some particularly disturbing toy adverts which were leaving me, quite frankly, completely freaked out!

yet, here I am again, once more a sucker for punishment, as I present 10 further foul examples of nightmare-inducing toy monstrosities!

As such, with my latest batch of creepy adverts, I think I’m pretty close to the stage of the below definitions:

Pediophobia or “the fear of dolls” is a specific type of phobia characterized by irrational and intense fear or worry of dolls. Pediophobia is closely related to Automatonophobia.

Automatonophobia – morbid fear of ventriloquist’s dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues or any inanimate object that simulates a sentient being.

Is it just me… or am I the only one to feel disturbed by my post header advert for Pelham Puppets? Take your pick, each puppet may surely possess the power to ‘string you up’ and leave you suspended in fear as they torture your dangling body…

Maybe it is me.

Maybe not.

Anyway, I’m not taking any chances, and neither should you!

Be warned…

Here is my latest top ten toy adverts that are freaking me out lately…

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Hello? Fisher-Price toys customer services department? Yes, can I get a sniffer dog please?

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The Fisher-Price Chatter telephone. 1963 catalogue detail.

Greetings, vintage mates. TVTA is pleased to add to its archives a selection of scans for Fisher-Price Toys. Who among us, as children, didn’t own or have a friend who owned the Fisher-Price Chatter Telephone? Or how about the Snoopy Sniffer dog? Or the Little People (formerly known as Play Family People)?

Little Snoopy and Snoopy Sniffer dogs. Fisher Price. 1968.

Fisher-Price is an American company founded in 1930 during the Great Depression by Herman Fisher, Irving Price, Helen Schelle, and Margaret Evans-Price. The company can proudly claim a long tradition of producing delightful preschool and early-years toys made from durable materials, and designed to last throughout generations of family members as the perfect hand-me-down toy.

Presenting: complete scans from the 1963, 1965, 1968 and 1970 Fisher-Price catalogues, each featuring toys a good deal of us will remember all too fondly.

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