In order to prepare children for adulthood, parents in Scarfolk wanted to familiarise their toddlers with life's cruelties as soon as possible. Toy and game manufacturers were only happy to oblige.
ScarToys' Sing-a-long-a-Savagery Music Box TV (see above) contained gruesome images of decapitation, dismemberment and disembowelment by artists such as Goya, Caravaggio and Hieronymus Bosch. The images were accompanied by nursery rhymes such as Girls & Boys Come Out To Maim, Mary Had a Little Laceration, and Wrinkle, Wrinkle, Little Scar (See Discovering Scarfolk p. 159 for more details).
Additionally, children were forced to endure a variety of traumas they might typically face as adults. These included peer-group rejection, physical and mental degeneration (achieved with regular bleach injections and a cricket bat), and being hunted by the official Women's Institute sniper.
For more toys and games see: The Drowning Game, Mr Liver Head, Pollute, Mr Smug, Landmine, Action Man Waterboarding Playset and Lung Puppy.
Scarfolk is a town in North West England that did not progress beyond 1979. Instead, the entire decade of the 1970s loops ad infinitum. Here in Scarfolk, pagan rituals blend seamlessly with science; hauntology is a compulsory subject at school, and everyone must be in bed by 8pm because they are perpetually running a slight fever. "Visit Scarfolk today. Our number one priority is keeping rabies at bay." For more information please reread.
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Sing-a-Long-a-Savagery (1970s Toy)
Labels:
1970s,
art,
authoritarian,
children,
Council,
dystopia,
health & safety,
illustration,
injections,
injury,
music,
nursery rhyme,
parenting,
peer-group,
products,
sniper,
totalitarian,
toys,
TV,
Women's Institute
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My father put an iron stud in his cricket bat. He made such an impression on me....
ReplyDeleteAww,that takes you back ta th' good ol' days.don't it?They don't make em' like that anymore!None of that Barney an' whinging Teletubby rubbish back then!My brother got the live vivisection kit,and sis had the Interrogation playset,as well.Such happy tmes!
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