A little plastic fruit guy who you stick on the end of your pencil.
This one is the last remaining example of the many I had as a child. As far as I can remember, I had a pear, a pineapple, an orange, tomato, onion, corn-on-the-cob, a kind of purple blackberry or raspberry (which for some reason I called a grape), a long thin green one (possibly a cucumber) and I daresay others too. They were very popular in the 70′s, but I’ve yet to find a definitive guide to them anywhere on the internet (it really is the kind of thing someone, somewhere would get a bit anal about). A guy has a photo of some here.
I’ve kind of got it into my head that there were the original fruit toppers (‘grape’, pear, orange, pineapple) and also later imitations which seemed to be made of harder plastic (like this lemon), were poorer quality, and tended to be more obscure (often unrecognisable) types of fruit and vegetables. The ‘good’ ones were made of a slightly softer plastic and were much more satisfying to chew on in lessons.
Some of them might have worn little removable hats.
Were the original ones based on Munch Bunch books (and later short lived TV series which I never saw)?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LHzsPfZr8k
I am sure the original ones had proper names
Well that’s strange. I just can’t make the dates add up… According to wikipedia that series first appeared in 1980 based on books from 1979. But I definitely had the toppers before then because they were all the rage at Newland House.
Here’s my theory – the originals appeared mid 70′s – I’m convinced we all had them in Lower 5 with Miss Rowe so that’s got to be around 1976 surely – maybe even 1975. They may well have been based on a TV show – who knows maybe a proper foreign one that we never got to see.
Anyway – I’m guessing that someone spotted that kids were going crazy for Made in Hong Kong fruit characters with little hats and big shoes and so they knocked up a quick set of books and a tv show in response – namely The Munch Bunch – which, incidentally, I also have NO recollection of whatsoever. The only Munch Bunch I remember were some adverts for yoghurt years later…
Either that, or Wikipedia’s got the dates wrong, and your earlier comment is correct in every respect.
There’s also a chance that I’m suffering from False Memory Syndrome to compensate for the fact that I was playing with little plastic fruity guys at the age of 15 or 16 – let’s face it, that’s not beyond the realms of possibility…