Vintage childhood toy
Does anyone remember what the toy I'm going to describe is called or if there are any photos of one?
Its a thick wire that has a handle at the bottom and a little ball at the top. The wire/rod allows a monkey or other toy character to slide down from the top of the rod to the handle. The character has some sort of arm or tail composed of a small spring (like the ones in a click top pen) and the spring usually has a weight at the end like a plastic hand or a ball. To operate the toy, you move the monkey up to the top and then give the spring a little wack. The monkey then boings it's way as is claiming down from the rod. It makes a spring boinging noise.
Just wondering if anyone remembers those things.
10 replies
I still have a similar one. It's a vertical metal rod on a wooden base and a wooden ball on top. There's a ring that can slide along the rod. The ring has a tiny woodpecker figure mounted on a spring. With the ring in the top position you pull the bird and it starts pecking on the rod, moving the ring downwards with each peck, making that boinging & ticking noise. I used to love it as a kid. I still do. But I used to, too.
EDIT found a video of this exact one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szhxh1eEEL4
That's hilarious and totally unexpected! But way better than I expected to find! Thanks!
We have one just like this, but without the purple feather. It maybe used to have one, it's very old.
Oh! I had one just like that when I was a kid!
I found something that seems like what you're talking about by searching "vintage tin monkey toy" on eBay. They look like little spring monkey on a stick toys.
Beautiful! Thanks!
I believe you're describing a Tin Litho Climbing Monkey.
Here's an example.
Very interesting but it was that other one with the spring. But this one is really interesting too.
I haven’t seen monkeys, the woodpecker version is familiar to me. Don’t know if it had a generic name.
In Mexico they had el chapulin Colorado!
Something like this, but the hammer and or the antennae had springs on them:
That's why I was trying to find a name. I got no clue what one might call this in Spanish.