PLASTIC TOY T.V. By 'CODEG'

1950's?
1 Valve (well, ok, a bulb!).

NOTES

As far as I can tell, the manufacturers name 'Codeg' actually stands for 'Cowan de Groot' - sounds like a foreign name but the toy's box claims this is British made. In fact there is a Cowan De Groot currently listed as Toy and Game Wholesalers located in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.

The toy uses filmstrips that are "projected" (I use that term lightly) onto the translucent white plastic screen at the front; in this particular model a pink-coated bulb is used which might well be the original. There are five film strips included with this toy; the first two I recognised as nursery rhymes (Hey Diddle Diddle and Little Miss Muffet) but it took a session on Google to figure out the other three (Mary Had a Little Lamb, Tom The Pipers Son and Old King Cole).

The film strips mount around a circular tin plate turn table (A) with a bulb at its center - I think there should be some clips used in attaching the film but these are missing. One of the bulb's connections is via a pice of wire (B) that scrapes across the turntable as the turntable revolves; I can see no other electircal connection to the turntable so I assume the appropriate battery had a spring metal contact that contacted the plate.

The other connection to the bulb appears to run down through the plastic column below the bulb and goes to two spring metal contacts (C) that form the on-off switch, controlled by a cam (D) operated by one of the controlls at the front of the toy. The turn table is rotated by a rubber wheel (E), though the wheel struggles to overcome the force of the metal contact scraping over the top of the turn table.

CURRENT STATE

A few patches of discolouration, plus I suspect a few clips (for the filmstrips) are also missing. But otherwise undamaged. The filmstrips themselves are begining to warp and don't feel too flexible - I don't fancy risking trying to fit them so instead I might make some replicas so I can see what the images are like; the plasic screen looks too thick to let very much light through.

WHERE FOUND

Fleabuy for a tenner (plus a fiver for postage).

Obviously, the character on the front is definately not a rip-off of Mickey Mouse!

	High diddle diddle, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Cow jump'd over the Moon, The little dog laugh'd to see such Craft, And the Dish ran away with the Spoon
	Little Miss Muffet Sat on a tuffet Eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider And sat down beside her, And frightened Miss Muffet away!
	Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow; And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule; It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school.
	Tom, Tom the piper's son, Stole a pig and away he run, The pig was eat, And Tom was beat, And Tom went howling Down the street.
	Old King Cole was a merry old soul And a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler he had a fiddle, And a very fine fiddle had he; Oh there's none so rare, as can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three.

A rather fiddly-sounding set of instructions [Link to larger view - 252K]

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