Part I
I have been interested in Blue-Box as a brand and a manufacturer for years now... Ever since I identified two of my childhood toys as being of that make (Made in Singapore)... I remember buying two sets myself in 1972 - I was 6 then - from a sweet and toy stall in a big park near Paris on a rainy sunday afternoon with a little money I was given for the occasion.
One, the bedroom, is still intact in the box...
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| Early 70s |
I didn't play very much with it (I don't know why... Maybe pink didn't appeal to me as a child)... Little did I know at the time that the item was in fact a "knock-off" from a bedroom set designed by a famous American Toy manufacturer (Ideal, USA) for his Petite Princess range released in 1965 :
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| Petite Princess pink bedroom by Ideal (USA) - Source Wishbook.com site |
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| Kenny Little from The Littles by Mattel in the Blue-Box bedroom |
The pieces and color scheme are so similar that they are very difficult to tell apart in photographs,
I suppose it is a different story once one is able to handle them as they are of totally different quality...
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| Redbox "Petite Princess" type big scale bedroom |
The second set, the kitchen, got really played with... I just loved the little accessories (the saucepans, frying pan, kitchen utensils...) and that is probably why it is not in its original packaging any longer...
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| Blue-Box early 70s kitchen |
For a long time I thought, it was all that was left of it... But recently, I realized that I had just moved the accessories to another of my toys, my Crailsheimer kitchen...
as they fitted that set better in scale...
The red and brown chair in my set is the one I got originally when I bought it... I have since seen a Blue-box dining-room set with the same chairs...
But all the other similar Blue-Box kitchens seem to come with this different model of chair :
If you are familiar with the American dollhouse furniture brand Allied Plastic (USA), you will recognize it as a copy of a chair from their early 50s range "Dolly's Furniture" in the 1/24th scale too....
The other elements in the kitchen, the green fridge, sink and cooker, it only dawned on me recently, were borrowed from another American maker's range "Little Hostess"* by... Marx ! (The maker with the great slogan : "Marx Toys, Do you have them all ?")
* The 1/16th scale one as Marx has another Little Hostess range for bigger doll...
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| "Little Hostess" kitchen by Marx, USA (60s) |
The Blue-Box fridge is again a simplified version of the original design in a different scale (1/24th for Blue-Box ; 1/16th for Marx)...
Blue-Box released this kitchen in different colors, here is a white version...
and the Marx white version
And in later years, Blue-Box would also produce an orange version (Marx did have an orange version of their kitchen too... before Blue-Box, I suppose !).
You have just read Part I of II of an article written by Ysé
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An exclusivity Tilt-Top Magazine - © Peinture Fraîche
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so interesting to see and read about early Bluebox sets
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rita ! I'll try to write more on Blue-Box soon...
DeleteLate to the party but thrilled at how much Blue Box you have documented. Nobody ever writes about it!
ReplyDeleteI have the avocado-colored kitchen (with matching Allied-style chair!), the fabulous mauve bath that's semi-Petite Princess-y, and then a growing collection of mid-century modern pieces that are clearly knock-offs of Triang's Spot-On collection.
Never too late to hear from a true Blue-Box fan ! My collection too has grown since this article (I don't know what is so pleasing with early Blue-Box, its tiny-ness maybe ? And I love the company resourcefulness to survive in an overcrowded 50s/60s Hong-kong market...)... I might have enough to write again on the brand next year...
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