THE TOY-BREAKER'S DREAM COMES TRUE THIS YEAR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15161, 19 December 1949, Page 4

THE TOY-BREAKER'S DREAM COMES TRUE THIS YEAR

Playthings Available Are Many And Varied

Good Selection Of Gifts In Tanranga Shops

For the parents, the improvement in both the variety and quantity of toys available this year will make shopping easier—or it should —and perhaps this Christmas may be distinguished as the toy-breaker’s dream (and the parents’ nightmare) come true. Fashions in some children’s toys change nearly as much as those in clothes and, on looking around the shops, one seeps a large number of new toys to delight young children. The mechanically-minded and the less complicated type of child are catered tor equally this year. The mechanical ones have clockwork toys made with a watchmaker’s precision while for tough and hearty children there are unbreakable plastic gifts. In fact choice will be limited only by the contents of each parent’s purse. At last the little girl’s dream of a golden-haired sleeping doll can be realised. Dolls have now made their return, in reasonable quantities, to the retailers’ shops, and are showing, an almost pre-war finish. They range from plastic kewpies to the life-size edition, which sleeps when laid down and cries when picked up. Little girls are also eyeing longingly the large variety of prams and push-chairs (all sizes)—not being really sure which one they would prefer. First glance in shop windows shows a predominance of plastic toys. Cups and saucers and household furniture provide excellent furnishings for dolls’ houses, while cars, jeeps, trailers and ships excite the admiration of small boys.

These plastic toys, as well as being colourful and light, are especially suitable for pre-school children as they can be easily cleaned. Plenty of noise should prove to be one of this Yuletide’s main characteristics, because as well as the ever-popular drum on sale, there are such new instruments of parental torture as saxophones, violins, guitars, banjos and tin whistles —• which will not do very much to help towards the quiet peace of Christmas Day. Tennis racquets, cricket bats and sets of golf clubs arc available for young sporting enthusiasts, while amateur gardeners are well catered for with spades, rakes, forks, brooms and the ever-popular wheelbarrow. Cap guns, toy rifles and many other types of firearms as well as sets of bows and arrows, provide prospective entertainment for cowboys and Indians —the game that has been beloved of boys for generations. Cuddly toys, such as the longsuffering teddy bear, dogs and soft dolls, range alongside rubber and unbreakable wooden toys (such as Mary Lu and Claribel cow) for the very young children. Educational toys, such as Meccano sets, with replacements available, and’model railways, with additional crossings, lines, stations and signs, draw a very good following from flie mechanically-minded six-year-olds and upwards. Pedal-cars, tricycles, rockinghorses, scooters, dolls’ cots, books, large trucks and the popular small dinky toys are all waiting on the shelves to form part of some child’s Christmas stocking.