What gift items do you remember from your childhood which would never be gifts today?

[FredaFrogspawn]

Another thread ended up accidentally debating the fact that ashtrays were common gifts for weddings or twenty first birthdays. I remember big marble or onyx ones, and ones on a stand which went by the arm of the chair. No one smoked in our house and we still had a shed load of these things.
Another thing I remember is steering wheel covers, in pleather. What were those about?? And leather covers for the TV listings magazines we all had to have before papers printed what was on with ‘Radio Times’ self importantly embossed on them. (My dad kept his TV Times in there and ringed the programmes he wanted to watch with a Quink ink capitalised ‘Tell Dad When This Is On.’)

Anything else?

My kids have a few of the things mentioned so far.
Dd (7) asked for stickle bricks for xmas.
She got them. Still plays with them.

Ds had a space hopper for his first birthday.
A miniature one.

Dd has a lolo ball. Ds can bounce on it, dd struggles.

I loved my Cadbury dispenser. I kept asking my parents for a new 10p coin each time, even though I knew how to get the coins out.

Rubik's toys have stood the test of time.
My parents had them in the late 70s.
I had some in the 80s

Both kids play constantly with them now.

And I had the resin blue clackers on white string.
And blue wrist to complement them.
My sister (younger) was only allowed the rigid plastic ones .

Just remembered those etch sets where you scratched off the black paint to see a metallic picture underneath. Also the thing in the picture!

Toy washing machine that ate batteries and could wash a handkerchief

Perfection - A clockwork tray with shapes that had to be popped into the correct holes, or else the timer would run out and the whole tray jumped up, sending all the shapes up in the air

Notelets and other matching stationery

Writing sets with a fountain pen, propelling pencil and a ballpoint pen

Also china dolls, I mean WTF? My kids would run screaming from the room if they unwrapped this on their birthday

For I think my 9th birthday, one grandmother bought me this massive china doll which according to the box shared my name. It terrified me. My other grandmother has just died and she left an equally big China doll that was hers as a child to my 2 year old dd. Dh thinks we should use it as an "elf on the shelf"...

Iron filings pictures. The outline of a bald man; give him luxuriant locks and a full beard by moving the filings with the accompanying magnet.

Hours of fun

@ginginchinchin 23:09:28
I got a girl from UNCLE set )United Network Command for Law Enforcement). It had a garter gun for shooting baddies and a fountain pen with invisible ink! You wrote your note then the person receiving the blank letter had to hold it over a naked flame to make the words visible again

We must be about the same age. I loved Ilya . You're probably a bit younger as mine was the 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' version

Mine were Spirograph as already mentioned and my Etch a Sketch. (Straight line dark grey 'drawings' on a silver grey magnetic background. Spent hours on it. Also a previous poster mentioned Kaleidoscope - I loved that.

Pomegranates can only be eaten with a large pin. Dangerous but that'll learn ya and of course it takes wayyyyy longer to eat. Genius

Does anyone recall the version of Pippa that had a wig? So she had a short wavy style under a longer style. A girl at school stole the long hair wig off me one break time

Does anyone remember the painting books that you just used to just paint water on? Cleanest fun ever 🙄.

To the pp who mentioned getting a dictionary, I got a big dictionary for my 18th, and it had little finger indents where the next letter started (like a telephone directory). Still have it almost 30 years later.

Does anyone remember the painting books that you just used to just paint water on? Cleanest fun ever

You still get those. My kids have several. It's the only kind of painting fil can cope with in the inlaws house.

Avon Pretty peach set....I so wanted one
Presents for friends at school were always handkerchief sets, wrapped bath cube sets, small fancy bottles of bubble bath (from Woolies), coloured bath crystals, parma violet perfume, pot pourri in satin hangers for the wardrobe .
Best Christmas presents were my Timex watch on a blue leather strap with holes in it, a wendy house which was a printed plastic covering that went over a frame made up of plastic poles that slotted together (loved it), and a chemistry set, a bride doll ...living the dream

Can you still get those picture kits where u tapped small nails into marked spots then went around with sparkly string to make a picture ?? I made a lion head one.
I remember those long necked thin birds on a stand that rocked back and forwards till they went right down into a glass .

Im pretty sure my DS who is 6.5 and has an Asd diagnosis also has adhd however, we have to hand in the school questionnaire And the parent questionnaire to the consultant pead and you can tell by the answers from the teacher that she doesn’t think he has adhd even tho the school put him on the Sen register for social interaction difficulties(without prompting)...
Has anyone got a diagnosis without prof of adhd behaviour in more than one setting? Appt in 16th July!

Autograph books

I remember being given them as gifts a couple of times. Never got a single autograph though.

Powder puffs were always a favourite of mine. I also remember getting a fluffy bag to go on my bed & put my pyjamas & nightdresses in.
I had one bumper Christmas where I got a peaches and cream Barbie, lights alive, a keeper & a Cadbury chocolate dispenser. I was still jealous of my little sisters major morgan!

@Graphista thank you for saying lo-lo ball. I've been trying to remember the name of it for actually years now. I bought my son one a year ago, but it wasn't called a lo-lo ball. He doesn't love it as much as I loved mine, I could skip on mine, I thought it was great! Way better than a pogo stick as you had your hands free and could relax rather than tensing like you do on a pogo.

To keep you all going.

www.flickr.com/photos/38301877@N05/albums/72157619206330728/

Five year diaries.

And this.

Being jealous of friends who had dolls from overseas holidays dressed in nylon flamenco dresses! Getting a bionic woman doll because my male cousins got the 6 million dollar man. She had a fetching boilersuit and handbag full of soon to be lost gadgets I think? Anything Holly Hobby themed... A kids cookbook with 'Love Is' style illustrations of girls with crystal tipps style hair in flared jeans making gratin potatoes?!!! A yellow Timex watch with Snoopy holding a tennis racquet for hands and a tennis ball rotating for the seconds. Loved that.

[quote Ormally]@MrsAvocet I still look for the Cadburys Dairy Milk dispensers on eBay, they were never bettered! But haven't found one. Worked with a 10p and you could get special boxes of the mini bars to slide into them.

A flower press made quite a regular appearance as a present. Not the most stimulating item.
Those little creatures that gripped your finger/a lamp stem. Usually, but not always, monkeys. Possibly had a second purpose as a suck-a-thumb toy.[/quote]

Mine worked with 2ps lol.