The Little World

Whitemetal us…or Zamac us. But no lead.

You are lucky these days, Walter. Many of the hazards of the olden times are gone. No more Hitler, no more smallpox, and no more lead soldiers. I was never in any real danger from the first two but I was exposed to the last ones.

And I was delighted to be in that position. This was the 1950’s and lead was a lot more common in our environment. Then again, so was asbestos and tobacco smoke. We were lucky as kids to avoid any of them. My parents smoked heavily, I went to school in a cold climate where the school steam pipes were lagged in asbestos cloth, and lead soldiers were sold at every toy shop.

I only had six of them – an American army squad in a red cardboard box- two riflemen, an officer, someone with a flame thrower, and a machine gun team.  And I got them when I was old enough to value them, so they were not chewed on or otherwise damaged. I think I avoided lead poisoning. Of course I made up for it in middle age when I took up shooting old-fashioned rifles and we made our own bullets in a melting pot – but I have checked my fingernails and I don’t seem to be poisoned or dead.

You’ll be safe with Airfix soldier sets or any other plastic productions…though I still would not suck on them to see what they taste like. And stay away from cheap soldier sets in case some fool has painted them with lead paint.

Tell you what – if you want to see what the old sets looked like, go down to the Toy Museum at 26 Seah Street and look at all the things they show. I spent several hours in there and saw things that I never knew existed. Pardon the odd colours on the picture, but they keep the lighting low there to preserve the paint on the older toys.

If your Dad is at all concerned about the metal toys tell him that Dinky Toys, Matchbox Toys, Hot Wheels, and Greenlight cars – as well as most modern die cast toys – are perfectly safe. The only damage they will do is if you become a collector and then it will be to his wallet…