Toys and Games Collection

A Fisherprice telephone is one of the most iconic childhood toys! They initially had eyes that moved back and forth as they were tugged along and were made of wood. They were introduced in the 1970s. In 2000, Fisherprice changed the design briefly to a push button, but customer complaints led to the old style being returned to. 

Over time, the design has changed, but the classic rotary style phone is still used, even though almost no one used a rotary phone anymore!

Did you have this toy as a child?!

We have a collection of the Flower Fairies books and also a Christmas Tree doll from the 1980s in our Toys and Games Collection.

The beautiful flower fairies series, was created by English illustrator Cicely Mary Barker and first released in 1923. The dolls were released onto the toy market between 1983 and 1989 by Hornby. They had petal outfits and wings that fitted into their backs. Our doll has sadly lost her wings!

We have a ballerina music box in our collection, with a woodland scene on the outer and inner box. Ballerina boxes have been a popular type of jewelry box for decades. Music boxes by Antoine Favre-Salomon in Switzerland in the 18th century. The idea of incorporating a dancing ballerina to the music box probably arose from rise of ballet and popularity of automata in the 19th century.

The jewellery box appeared in our Lockers Toys and Games Collection, in a locker designed by Museum Council student Martha Jackson to look like a magical woodland scene.

This Fisherprice record player was first introduced in 1971 as the "Fisher-Price Change-A-Record Music Box". It has five different colour records which can be played, featuring songs such as Clare de lun. It has become a classic toy, and people are even creating new records for it using 3-D printing.

This toy features in our Lockers Toys and Games Collection, in a locker designed by Rachel Robinson and Oscar Carnwath-Smith from our student Museum Council, who have created a locker which looks like a teenager's bedroom, with posters and even a small guitar.

This tin plate toy typewriter was made by Mettoy Ltd in the 1950s. It has a hand operated type wheel and movable carriage. A similar model in red was also produced for shops. It can be found in our Lockers Toys and Games Display, in a locker designed by Friday Scott Buck and Mimi Mutti, two of our Museum Council students.

We have been kindly donated a 1950s edition of the classic word game, which was invented in 1931 by an American architect called Alfred Mosher Butts. 

Initially, he called it “Criss-Crosswords”, but in 1948 it was renamed “Scrabble”. Our edition has wooden tiles. Plastic tiles were not introduced until the late 50s.