1936: Cotton Reel Tanks
December 9, 2020
By AHNZ
Home-made tanks, early Baby Boomer toy.Cotton reel, candle, matchstick, and a bit of candle for friction to slow down the unwinding. Most of these 4 common household objects are very unlikely to be found in a 2018 home but for most of the C20th, all.
According to Adkins History…
“…by the 1960s, growing affluence and the increasingly sophisticated toys available in shops, along with other distractions such as television, made them an old-fashioned novelty.”
But when did children start making them? The Auckland Star (Jan 1936) has instructions. It certainly makes sense that tanks would be exciting the imagination of WWII New Zealand children as this is when tanks became popular and mainstream.Note, this is prior to the War starting. As with WW1, the desire and romance to join the army, see the world, meet interesting people, and and kill them was fermenting some time prior to any war. Forget any nonsense about heavy-hearted young men reluctantly setting off. They were hungry to do some battle as State Propaganda so instructed.
The Auckland Star how-to as well, knowing newspapers, doubtless simply codified a craft little boys around New Zealand were already well aware of and crazy about in 1935.
One of these little boys (a boy in his sixties., mind you) was Minister Bob Semple. In the name of Labour 1.0 and progress, he was playing with full-size tanks, bulldozers in fact, everywhere he could for the sake of transformational projects. And, yes, he even built his own special ‘Semple Tank’ for military use when the war came, though the army did not find it useful.
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Anarchist History of New Zealand: Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big enough majority in any town?- Mark Twain
These homemade toys were popular in the U.S in the 1920s, & there, they were known as “spool caterpillars” – the wooden cylinders that thread came on, being known as “spools”.
Only the fancier versions had the notched ends, which improved traction & “power”.
Thanks for the memory.
At your service