I did get a load of new toys at Christmas time, so I thought that I would share them today.   But first is an old toy that I have had for a number of years.

I bought this in Boston.   I was walking down the street early in the morning, when I saw a neon wind-up key hanging on the front of a building.   Well that got my heart beating faster, then I saw the owner taking out the trash and I convinced her to open up just for me.   Of course I made lots of purchases including this fellow.  You put a coin in front of him and he (I’m not totally sure he’s a guy, but it seems logical;-) reaches up and takes the money.   It’s a totally cool toy and every kid that I’ve shown it to wants one.

This year’s version is not as cool, it just has a hand that reaches up and the skull just bobs a little.   But it’s still interesting and so I had to have it.

I got a new selection of pterodactyls (and a pteroducktyl).

Gummy dinosaurs.

Swimmers.

It was quite the haul and now that I’ve photographed them they can go to their proper places in the cabinet.

Presents come and go, you play with the toy for a while, then it’s relegated to a lesser favored pile.   There are some presents that survive despite the odds.   These are a few of the favored.

This doll was a present to my mom in the mid 1930’s.   The doll had a perilous existence on the reservation.   She lost a few fingers to Joe, the dog (I think Joe was aided by Mom’s brother!).   They did not have electricity, so she was safe from that.   Much later I played with her and put the makeup on her.   She is wearing a dress made by my grandmother.   I’m not sure when she moved to the city, possibly my grandmother sent her for me.

This book was a present for my father-in-law on his birthday again from the 1930’s.   It was probably his only present, because his father had died unexpectedly and they did not have a lot of money.   My father-in-law lived on a ranch ( 1 1/2 sections) in a very tiny town, where they raised a few cows.  (A section is a square mile, and the town doesn’t exist anymore.)   Standing next to the book is Howland Owl (probably mid 1960’s) from the comic strip Pogo.   He was the prize in a cereal box and perhaps my husband played with him, although my husband’s favorite toys were little green army men.   Howland survived because my mother-in-law would not throw away a dead skunk (and I love Pogo).

These cardboard army men were in my husband’s grandmother’s basement.   She gave them to me because I collect toys, but they don’t really fit in with my collection.

I still have one of the many dolls I got for Christmas, but unfortunately she is hiding in a box somewhere.   I used to have her on display, then she escaped.

My other favorite toy is the great Godzilla.   It’s hard to describe my exact relationship with Godzilla, but for starters we are the same age, so I guess we grew up together, separately.  There is an ambiguity about him:  he is sometimes bad, sometimes good, and a visit from him always involves a certain amount of mayhem and sadness.   In questioning why he doesn’t destroy them, a character in Godzilla 2000 says “there is a little bit of Godzilla in all of us”.

This is Rex.  While technically not a Godzilla, he does seem to be related, perhaps a grandfather of sorts.   I worked at a toy store when I first moved here.   I bought one of these for my friends’ dad as he loved mechanical toys.   It was so cool that I had to have one too.  Rex is about 30 years old and has gotten rather creaky in his joints.

The first Godzilla I bought is Japanese.   He’s a tiny thing, but I love him.

This one is my favorite, the classic, original Godzilla.   I love the expression of his face.

I also have the newer Millennial Godzillas.  I don’t think that they really capture the essence of his appeal.   CG is not nearly as interesting as a person in a monster suit.

The European premier of the latest incarnation of Godzilla took place when I was in London, so I went over and and saw some of the movie stars, but Godzilla was a no-show.   (After seeing the movie I understand this, after all he had hardly any screen time.)

There are lots of Godzilla blogs and I ran across two that I like.

http://godzillahaiku.tumblr.com/       and

http://blacksun1987.blogspot.com/        who did an entire year of blogging  pictures from previous movies.  While I’m not completely obsessed, I do have a special place in my heart for the big lizard.

My father had a love of robots.  I’m not sure if it was driven by science fiction movies, or the idea that robots are invincible against us puny mortals.   Since it wasn’t very fashionable for adults to collect toys, he would buy robots for us, and these robots  were not particularly invincible against young children.

About 37 years ago, I bought a wind-up toy as a birthday present for a child of a friend.   It was so delightful and cleverly constructed that I had to have one for myself, and that was the start of my collection.  The toys have to be wind-up toys, although I have allowed a few of other sorts to slip in because they were so irresistible.  I go through spurts of buying, and manufacturers are always coming up with new designs as well as repeating older ones.   Here’s a some of the toys from this year.

These are walkers, side movers, hoppers and spinners and were purchased locally.

I bought these in England, but they are from the same manufacturer as the others.  That’s globalization for you, and they were more expensive since I paid in pounds.  These are flippers, a walker, roller, and a swimmer.

Halloween walkers purchased in Santa Fe.  I was there with a fellow toy collector and got inspired.

More toys from Santa Fe.

Hopping heads, purchased downtown.

I have hundreds of these little things, I’ll share more of them later.