Sunday, October 17, 2010

147. Building Creative Minds with TINKERTOY

One of the earliest--and best--Christmas presents I received from my parents as a kid was a canister of Tinkertoy-ordered from the commissary of Clark Field, no less! I got this special gift in 1964, at age 7, and I was delighted no end, keeping me occupied for hours constructing figures, pinwheels, watchtowers, vehicles, animated ferris wheels and robots from colored sticks and spools, supplemented with cardboard cut-outs. All I had to do was follow the instruction guide that came with the set. I played with the set until it literally fell apart and until now, I could visualize the fantastic things I could create with this unique toy created in 1914 by Charles H. Pajeau and Robert Pettit of Illinois. Pajeau designed the toy after seeing children play with pencils and empty spools of thread--and thus Tinkertoy was born. Today, Hasbro still makes Tinkertoy, in both plastic and classic wood. This complete and unused example of a Junior Tinkertoy was purchased for a few dollars at the famous Antiques Garage Flea Market in New York.

146. CAMAY ALBUM OF MOVIE STARS


Here's a great example of an advertising premium from the popular soap, Camay, made by then Philippine Manufacturing Corporation (PMC), the future Procter & Gamble.


It is an album of beauteous Filipina movie stars of the 50s, with detachable color photos and biographical sketches of famous actresses of the day like Carmen Rosales, Tessie Agana, Linda Estrella, Rosa Rosal, Norma Vales and Nida Blanca.


It is often hard to find an album with all the pictures intact, but this example has them all. Camay has since undergone many relaunches--at one point, even the pronunciation changed into a more Americanized --Cah-mey!


But its association with stars and beautiful women remained. In fact. Camay Girls were some of the most recognizable women on TV in the 60s thru the 80s, a list that includes Pacita Goyena, Tina Artillaga, Maritess Revilla, Cita Revilla, Claudia Bermudez and Zsa-Zsa Padilla. In the 90s, Camay had all but disappeared from the product shelf, but the images of the legendary beauties who promoted the soap lingerin our memoroies--and in albums such as this!