Vintage Disney Jigsaw Puzzles

Looking back on some of the toys and other items that I have saved from my childhood, I now realize that I had quite a few puzzles. Most of these were given to me as either birthday or Christmas gifts.

We'll start today, with some "Frame-Tray Puzzles" by Whitman. These were aimed at younger children and were supposed to help develop "coordination and motor control."

This Donald Duck puzzle is dated 1965, the same as the "Munsters" Frame-Tray Puzzle that I posted last year.

These children's puzzles would often have a few "special" shaped pieces. I'm not sure if that one piece on the upper right is supposed to be in the shape of a boat or a banana split.

This "Jungle Book" puzzle is from 1967, the year the film was originally released. There is one piece missing in the upper left corner. It was very easy to lose pieces to these "tray" puzzles, since they did not come in a box, like most other puzzles.

Unfortunately, this one is missing several pieces. This was one of my favorite puzzles when I was a kid....probably because it depicted a scene from Disneyland.

The following "boxed" puzzles all mention having 100 or more pieces, on their box lids.

This puzzle was manufactured by "Jaymar" and is titled, "Capt. Donald's Treasure." I remember this one being purchased at our local "Lucky's" supermarket, in the seventies. 

This Donald Duck puzzle was manufactured by Whitman, and bears the same "50 Happy Years" logo, as a Walt Disney World puzzle that I posted back in 2011. That logo was designed for the 50th anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios, which dates this puzzle back to 1973.

And here is that previously posted, Walt Disney World puzzle.

Here's another Jaymar puzzle, and this one still has it's "Lucky's" supermarket price tag of $1.27 on the side of the box! The artwork (titled, "Fishing") has always reminded me of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland.

These next two puzzles were manufactured by Whitman. The Donald Duck puzzle still has a Sav-On Drug Store price tag on the side of it's box, but the price has faded and is now illegible. Does anyone remember the Sav-On Drug Store jingle? "♫ ♪ Sav-On Drug Store, Sav-On Drug Store.....SAV-ON!!! ♪ ♫" And who remembers when all of the Sav-On Drug Stores in California changed to Osco Drugs, and then back again to Sav-On?  Supposedly, the new name didn't go over well with customers. Today, many of those old Sav-On locations are now CVS Drug Stores.

And here's yet another Jaymar puzzle. This one is titled, "Toyland."

Most of the puzzle pieces were still assembled (in sections), inside the box, so I was able to put it together pretty quickly for a photo.

This puzzle was sold in 1976 (during our country's Bicentennial celebration), and was manufactured by Springbok, which was a division of Hallmark Cards Inc. The design was taken from the cover of a 1939 issue of Mickey Mouse Magazine. The artwork was also the inspiration for Disneyland's and Walt Disney World's "America On Parade" celebrations, which took place from 1975 through 1976.

I posted this "mini" Whitman's Frame-Tray Puzzle back in July of 2010. This puzzle was designed for very young children and has only 12 pieces, while the one above contains almost 500 pieces!

And here is the newest jigsaw puzzle in my collection. It was a personal souvenir from my visit to Walt Disney World, during it's 40th anniversary in 2011. Can someone tell me why Disneyland's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction poster, is included in the upper right corner of the puzzle? I know Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom had a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea "ride," but it was located in Fantasyland. Did the person who designed this puzzle, just make a mistake by using the poster from Disneyland's old Tomorrowland walk-thru exhibit? If so, that is kind of a big mistake!

****BONUS****

I thought I would include two more of the Whitman "Frame-Tray Puzzles" from my childhood, even though they are not Disney-related.

This Batman puzzle was actually my brother's, but we pretty much shared stuff like this. He is a few years older than me, and remembers the Batman TV series being on in "first run." I only remember when it was being repeated in "syndication." This puzzle is dated 1966, which is when the TV series debuted.

This Mighty Mouse puzzle is dated, 1969. By this time, the Whitman company had changed it's logo and added the line, "It's Kid Tested," to it's registered trademark.

This was another puzzle, with "special" shaped pieces:

**BONUS #2**

While scanning a childhood comic book for a future post, I came across this 1977 ad for Whitman jigsaw puzzles:

**BONUS #3**

Blogger and "Meet The World" follower, "Andrew," of the "Bayern Kurve Blog," has generously shared a photo of a vintage Disneyland puzzle (manufactured by Jaymar), which he acquired at a flea market.  I really like the graphics on this one!  And boy, they sure did fit A LOT of the Disney characters into it.  There are five of them just in/on that one vehicle, alone! 

Andrew pointed out that the title of this puzzle is "Tomorrowland," even though the artwork is depicting the Midget Autopia, which was located in Fantasyland.  He also mentioned that the puzzle no longer had the "Win A Trip To Disneyland" entry blank inside.  I happen to have a Mickey Mouse comic book, with that same contest logo on the cover, and the entry blank is still inside.  The date on my comic book is 1960, so I think we can assume that this puzzle would probably be from the same year.

Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Andrew! 

Happy Thanksgiving! And Happy Cake Day, Too!

Today is Thanksgiving, but it's also "National Cake Day." Incidentally, this Saturday happens to be "International Aura Awareness Day." Are you aware of your aura? A friend of my grandmother's once told her, that she and I shared the same aura, but that's a story for another time. Today, we are focusing on Cake Day! Who decides these "official" days, anyway? I didn't feel like doing any more research, to find out!

Okay...so I recently found this 1973 Wilton "Cake and Food Decorating Year Book," in my mom's kitchen cupboard.

As the cover states, it's "a month-by-month calendar of cake and party ideas." It starts out with some suggestions for January and February, and then continues with ideas for the rest of the year:

I actually remember this magazine from childhood, mainly because of the Disney cakes and cake pans that were pictured in it.

"Let's Take A Trip To Walt Disney World!" Walt Disney World would have only been two years old, when this was published.

What, no turkey-shaped cakes for November?

A special cake pan was available, to create Cinderella's cake-dress.

If you were going to make a princess or royal-themed cake, there were plenty of carriages to choose from.

More "doll" cakes:

Who knew you could make hard sugar figures and designs, out of just a little sugar and water? Here's the recipe:

The back cover listed a variety of molds that were available, for making solid sugar figures of the Disney characters.

And while we are on the subject of cakes and cake pans....in the 1990's, Disneyland sold these copper Mickey and Minnie Mouse pans/molds, in the "Le Gourmet" shop, located in New Orleans Square.

I bought these with the intention of hanging them in my kitchen, but instead they remained wrapped up with the tags still on them, for over 20 years!

The pans had been coated with a protective lacquer finish, to prevent tarnishing. If they were going to be used for actual cooking, rather than just for decorative purposes, instructions were given on how to remove their lacquer finish. It's nice to know that acetone is available from any chemist. Now, where do I find a chemist?

The Le Gourmet shop also sold a matching set of refrigerator magnets.

To give you an idea of the size of the magnets, I photographed them together, with the copper pans.

By the way, the Le Gourmet shop also carried "Unique cooking and serving accessories, exotic spices, and cook books for the connoisseur." That description is from a 1985 Disneyland Guidebook:

The shop opened along with the rest of New Orleans Square, in 1966, and closed in 1998....probably so they could sell more plush toys and T-shirts out of that space! (Remember the "people" who were in charge of the park, back in the 1990s?)

Here are a couple postcards, showing what the shop looked liked in it's original location, next door to "The Court of Angels." By the time the shop closed in 1998, it had been relocated to the space formerly occupied by the "One Of A Kind Shop."

 

Happy Thanksgiving, to all....and a very happy Cake Day, too!

A Vintage Halloween Potpourri (1960s & 1970s)

 

I thought for Halloween this year, I would share a selection of Halloween photos and "spooky" items from my childhood.  We'll start with some Halloween costumes.

This 1965 photo of my brother, shows him wearing his "scary" Halloween costume.  I say "scary," because doesn't that description apply to pretty much ALL clowns?  I wasn't even one year old yet at this point, so I'm pretty sure that I did not have a costume that year.

For 1966, my brother was the Hanna-Barbera character, Peter Potamus, and I was a "teddy bear."  Both of our costumes had huge rolled up cuffs on the pant legs.  There is a photo of us in our costumes from that year, but it is a little blurry.  Since we both wore the exact same costumes the following year, I'm only including this pic from 1967.  I'm assuming that my mom saved the costumes, because they were so big on us the previous year.  Why not get two years use out of them, right?  That was the only year that we ever reused a Halloween costume.

By the way, I still have those plastic pumpkins that each of us is holding.  And, I still have my childhood teddy bear, which I am also holding in the photo.  Those Halloween costumes however, did not get saved.

For the following year (1968), my brother was a "devil," and I was a "tiger."  These costumes were made of a flannel material and were similar to pajamas.   My teddy bear costume from the year before, was made of the same type of material.  Because of this, my mom let us wear these costumes as pajamas, after Halloween.

I also still have that large plastic pumpkin, which was new for me that year.  I remember my mom buying it at Gemco, which was similar to a Walmart or Target store.

For the next year (1969), both of our costumes came from Gemco.  Mine was a "skeleton," and I believe my brother's was "Igor."

I saved my mask from that year.  I remember that it was bothering my nose, so I cut a triangle shape out of it, for my nose to go through.  I thought I still had the costume that went with the mask, but I wasn't able to locate it.

For 1970, my brother was a "skeleton" and apparently, I wanted to be a "tiger" again.

 

Both my mask and my costume, managed to survive all of these years.

In 1971, I was "Dracula" and my brother was "Frankenstein's Monster."  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of us from this year, but I saved my mask and costume.  The teeth on my Dracula mask, glowed in the dark!

My brother's costume did not survive, but I was able to find his mask on ebay.

Now we will switch gears a bit, here.  This book of "Spooky Tricks," belonged to my brother.  It was published by Scholastic Book Services, and was one of those books that was ordered through school.  Once a year (or maybe it was twice a year), the teachers would pass out order forms which included a list of books and their prices.  We would take those home to our parents, and check off the books we wanted to order.  After giving the forms back to the teacher, along with our money, we'd wait a few weeks and then our books would arrive.

There isn't a copyright date in this book, but I know it goes back to at least to 1968, because I have a picture of my brother from that year, and he is holding this book in the photo.

I've only scanned a few of the pages inside:

The back cover:

This is another childhood book from Scholastic Book Services.

This one has a copyright date, of 1972.

Again, I only scanned a few pages.  Some....okay, ALL of these jokes are real "groaners."

The back cover of the book:

We will end this post today, with some vintage Halloween Cards from the 1970s.  All of these cards were from my aunt and uncle.  They sent my brother and me Halloween cards every year throughout our childhood, and even beyond that.

 

 

 

 

This card is my favorite, out of all of them.  

 

 

The inside is "three-dimensional," but I pressed it flat to scan it.  When you lift the lid of the wooden crate, the ghoul and black cat "pop up" out of the tub.

 

This card even had graphics printed on it's backside.

 

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Halloween!

 

 ****Update - 10-11-22****

To see even more vintage Halloween greeting cards, costumes, and "scary" themed children's books, click here for "Part 2" to this post:  A Vintage Halloween Potpourri - Part 2

 

**BONUS**

Last week, Elvira released a new Halloween video.  Just by coincidence, it includes both my brother's Frankenstein and Igor masks, and also my Skeleton and Teddy Bear masks.  Below, are a couple screen grabs showing these masks, along with the full video.