Sunday, December 5, 2010

Vermont Toy Museum

Do you ever feel a bit like a lunchbox from the 1970s? You know- the kind of lunchbox with a bit of rust, wear and tear? Honestly, I think I feel like one of those lunchboxes sometimes. Actually, a lot of the time now.
*
My recent travels over Thanksgiving took me to the beautiful, great white north of Quechee, Vermont and I'm happy to report a visit to an exciting little treasure buried in the heart of Quechee called the Vermont Toy Museum. The museum is a tribute to by-gone toys from a by-gone era. Let's face it, do they make toys or lunchboxes as cool as they did in the 1970s? I don't really think they do. Understandably, I do make my statement with some degree of bias and age.
*
Nevertheless, the museum is a wonderful homage to a forgotten time. I saw more than a few folks, like myself, absolutely in heaven within this small little museum. Two ladies, in particular, were giddy with excitment over what they saw. To be honest, I was pretty psyched too. The One To Be Pitied immediately knew I was over the moon inside myself. It was like being a kid again. The place was just wall to wall, overrun with goodies and my other half knew I had found nirvana in Vermont.
*
Sure, I love the maple syrup and cheese, glassblowing and pottery, antiques and just about anything Vermont is nirvana enough, but visiting this little toy stop was like a step back in time too. It was a real treasure trove of fun. About the only thing missing were some old friends, one finger mittens and a snowball fight with the school yard bullies.
*
I spoke with the son of the proprietor of the museum who indicated his father was in his 60s and built his little vision traversing the landscape in search of goodies at yard sales and pit stops along the way. He told me, not once did his father ever purchase from ebay, but rather scoured the vast collectable riches that exist in our very own backyards through yard sales. I thought that was pretty nifty. I have a cousin who lives in Vermont and lending a bit of truth to that story, she indicated that that man once visited her yard sale and purchased toys from her for the toy museum.
*
Well, I thought I would share some of those vintage classics with you. Images were provided compliments of my phone. If you ever have the opportunity be sure to visit the Vermont Toy Museum in Quechee, Vermont. It's not my Fan Cave, but it's certainly like exploring one and that's always fun. About the only thing missing were lunchboxes for Bionic Woman and Land Of The Lost. Three cheers to the Vermont Toy Museum. Who knew there would be toys tucked in next to all that delicious maple syrup and cheese?

5 comments:

Fritz "Doc" Freakenstein said...

Nice piece on the Vermont Toy Museum, Sci-Fi Fanatic! Most of the lunch box photos are from the 70’s when I was already in Jr. High school, so I didn’t have any them. However, the Lost in Space board game that you have a photo of hanging on the wall of the VTM, I received for Christmas in 1966. I played with it quite a lot, but of course as the years wore on, I outgrew it and, like most of my cool toys from my childhood, it got donated to some other neighborhood child. I also had dozens of the Lost in Space cards that had wonderful black and white photos from the first season of the show. I never was able to get a complete set of 55 and I think I may have ended up trading them for *ulp* baseball cards.

Unknown said...

Nice post! I love vintage lunch boxes and own a few of my own. I was really taken with that BATTLE OF THE PLANETS one! Very cool...

SFF said...

Hey Doc

I had a few of these nifty boxes along the way, a few that I didn't display. My phone was snapping pictures left and right that day.

Funny, you mention those original Lost In Space cards. They were terrific. Rittenhouse released a new Lost In Space card set and included the black and white reprints of the original card series as part of their rare additional cards in random packs. I have since acquired many of them, but I'm still missing close to half. Ugh. Being a collector is never easy eh?

Also a few notes, you'll note the Lost In Space board game references images from There Were Giants In The Earth.

Space:1999 includes a shot of the creature from Dragon's Domain.

The Planet Of The Apes box is clearly a representation of the TV series.

And how could you go wrong with Doctor Doolittle. A classic kid film!

Thanks for your personal reflections Doc! SFF

JD.

Love Battle Of The Planets. If I can ever finish my favorite vehicles post the Phoenix or GOdphoenix as its known on Gatchaman would be on that list along with Mark's jet, Princess' bike, Keyop's Space Buggy and my personal favorite Jason's race car.

Shweet!

Thanks JD.

John Kenneth Muir said...

SFF:

This is awesome. Those lunch boxes are amazing. I own (and love...) the UFO, 1999 and Apes boxes. But those are great views of the 6 Million Dollar Man, Battle of the Planets, ST:TMP boxes and other toys.

A real treat for the eyes (that's making me want to blow money on E-Bay this second!)

best,
JKM

SFF said...

JKM. I know it! I'm desperate to pick myself up a few goodies.

The only thing missing from the selection was a Bionic Woman and Land Of The Lost lunchbox. Those are sweet too.

But yes, you can imagine the fun my eyes had. : )

Thanks, best to you.
SFF