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Wipe Off Cards
Trumptonalia.
Camberwick Magic Wipe off Colour Cards set 1966
There are still some questions to be answered about this one.
But we're getting there.
It's one of the earliest bits of merchandise to hit the shelves,as it actually carries a 1965 Gordon Murray copyright.
So it obviously came out in 1966.
No confirmation about the manufacturer yet.
But I'd be surprised if it was anyone other than Chad Valley.Simply based on their output at the time.
This particular survivor had 5 different cards to colour in.But there may have been more originally.
And it wouldn't have been asking too much to expect a few more to be fair !
These examples are in "as sold" condition ie.the colour outlines are printed
Although the choice of colours doesn't seem to be of any particular significance,other than to simply differentiate between areas requiring a different colour.
And 5 cards are the only things this survivor had inside.
No pens.
Which you'd sensibly assume would be included.But there's no mention of any on the lid.So maybe not.
And when I say "pens" I suppose we're really talking about the ubiquitous tool of choice back-in-the-day ...
the dreaded crayon !
An implement that's caused so much collateral damage over the years.
And all in the name of kid's "artistic" expression.
Of course,despite the bold claims on the lid,these sorts of cards never truely wiped clean anyway.And it certainly wasn't something that improved the more you used them.
Yes it saved paper and helped the planet.But that wasn't something any 1960's/70's kids were bothered about.
And not that many parents either to be fair.
But the fundamental problem with the whole concept was simply the limited amount of fun you could have colouring in the same pictures over and over again.
Although Dekkertoys clearly thought they were a good idea.Because they produced another,much later Camberwick version in 1997 ... with crayons included ! And the on-site page for that one is here
