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By G.J.Hayter & Co. Ltd ... a subsidiary of J.W.Spear & Sons Ltd. ... and sold under the "Victory" brand name in 1973.
Which is a pretty complicated lineage for a puzzle that simply requires you to put the right bit in the right hole.
Play Tray
Trumptonalia.
It's nice to be reminded that,even in 1973,some mainstream toys were still being made out of wood.
In this case the board is a plywood sandwich with a printed paper top.Backed with a sheet of white plastic with raised mouldings in the character spaces to make the pieces stand slightly proud for easy removal.See pic below.
And,in turn,that white plastic sheet is held in place by a thin sheet of brown hardboard,stapled at each corner to form the base.
The nice chunky plywood pieces are satisfying things to handle.
And the colourful artwork makes it very pleasing on the eye too.
And,whilst the artist is uncredited it's definitley one of the of the small
group who worked on the many Camberwick story books.
Availability 50+ years later ?
With a little patience,even boxed examples aren't that hard-to-find.
And Victory also produced versions for other similar tv shows as well,
including the Magic Roundabout,a couple of years earlier,in 1971.
If you fancy getting one of these online,then the same condition issues apply whichever version you're after.
So you should just bear them in mind if they're likely to bother you :-
1) The raised white plastic under the figures often suffers from scribble and even puncture marks.
and
2) The artwork is simply stuck onto the plywood.So any exposed edges are very prone to lifting.
