By Virginia Winder
The irresistible smoky tang of gunpowder wafts past like a fleeting ghost.
Crack, crack, crack – the sound of a cap-gun shot at close range rings in ageing ears. Then, for a split second, there's a stinging smack of bullet-fast cork on bare flesh, and a close-up flash of bully brother laughing.
These memories appear unbidden in the Fun Ho! National Toy Museum in Inglewood.
Curator Richard Jordan pauses before a glass case displaying toy firearms. Soldier-style pop-guns and cowboy cap-guns are all kept out of harm's way.
"These are very un-PC," says Richard with a grin.
Bang Bang! This Large Revolver, in production from 1945-58, is not PC (polictically correct), says Richard Jordan.
Look closely and you will spy many toys that are not politically correct. But they have their place here, in history, where a slice of Kiwiana has been preserved in primary colours.
Trucks and cars drive across the walls like swirling 3-D friezes, hardy diggers and tractors are parked in a sandpit waiting to be broom-broomed into life by young playmates.
Built to last
Some are buried deep within the grey grains, which Richard says are definitely cat-free.
The hidden toys are also safe. "You can bury a Fun Ho! Toy in your garden for 40 years and when you dig it up, it will be exactly the same," he says.
"They bring them in here and say 'can you free the wheels' and I do, and they go away."
The reason the playthings are so hardy lies within the elements. Similar toys in Australia were made from tin. In the United States they were cast from iron.
But in New Zealand – after Fun Ho! got past the dangerous lead stage in the 1940s – the toys were made from aluminum. "It was extremely good luck because aluminum, it lasts. It doesn't rust and, as a result, ours are still here."
Behind glass panels are displays of buses, fire-engines, tractors, racing cars, vehicles of every description, including the Fun Ho! Mobil Miniatures, which were sold at service stations.
Not just for boys
It's not all a memorial to the lads of Biggles and Boy's Own ilk, there is also doll's house furniture and kiddy versions of household equipment.
In the middle of the first room is a wheel-free Bedford van, which houses a miniature railway town for Thomas the Tank Engine.
Train Spotting: This Bedford Van provides a unique holder for the Thomas the Tank Engine train set for boys, big and old. Image: Provided by The Daily News
Richard admits this has nothing to do with Fun Ho! Toys, but the children (and some adults) adore the blue-and-red engine. "We can't have anything else in there – the children notice."
Surrendering to toy soldiers
Two diorama towers, painted with not-so-subtle political messages, each have four different windows. This is where you will see the British view of the past, when the English were conquering the world.
Khaki-suited hunters point guns at African warriors, Jodhpur-clad huntsman ride horses in pursuit of a fox and German soldiers are dressed in full military regalia. "But if you look, the only one in a surrender position is a German," Richard says. "You won't see an English soldier doing that anywhere."
British Soldiers: You won't find any of these lead-made soldiers in the surrender stance.
Image: Barry Young Collection
Knights in shining armour, a battle between cowboys and Indians (now known as first-nation Americans), soccer players, a race meeting, farm-life scenes, slowly rotate past small windows. Richard says some of the toys date from World War I, with only a few inspired by World War II.
Fired-up about furnace
In the "staff only" shed out the back, the plates for the aluminum creations hang from the ceiling. "Those are the original plates," Richard says, pointing out a mould for knucklebones, a craze that comes and goes as surely as hula hoops and scooters.
Richard has big plans for this space.
Brush Up: Fun Ho! Toy replicas are still being made in the museum. Image: Provided by The Daily News
"This is where the furnace will be going some time in the future," he says.
"By having the furnace and doing the whole operation on site, it will actually change it into more than a museum. It's real Kiwiana," he says, praising the efforts of Jack Underwood. "Guys like him (Jack Underwood) made New Zealand what it is. They took things and improved them."
Fun Ho! Toys helped entertain generations of New Zealanders from the 1930s right through to now.
While many of the toys are still being used today, their popularity began to wane in the 1970s and the Fun Ho! company eventually closed in 1987.
Keeping up the fun
"Plastic killed a lot of things," Richard laments. He also cites cheap overseas imports as another nail in the company coffin.
Sadly, one of the problems for Fun Ho! Toys lay with the hardiness of the products. Because they lasted, people had no need to replace them.
When the firm closed, the Underwood family gave the toy collection to purchasing manager Barry Young and he opened the first Fun Ho! National Toy Museum in the basement of the old factory.
Back in 1999, the former Crossroad Promotions group bought the collection from Barry, with funds via the Inglewood Development Trust. This money was provided by the Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET) and the community, Richard says.
"There was a lot of voluntary labour that went into setting this up – from the whole community," he says.
New home for toys
That same year, the museum moved into the former Inglewood Post Office in the centre of the town. The main street building, erected in 1986, is ideally suited to its new purpose. There is even a theatrette in the old bank vault, where viewers can watch a five-minute video from the precarious comfort of blue powder-coated tractor seats held up by S-shapes of sprung steel.
The collection and building are now owned by the development trust, but Richard and his wife, Anne, run the business side of things.
They are also the curators, ensuring the entire collection of 3000 Fun Ho! Toys is on display.
As mentioned, Richard mends old toys, and yes, there are replicas available. The original casts are being used to make toys off-site and these are sold from the museum.
While the cap-guns, pop-guns and farm machinery have no appeal, there's a cute Mark IV Zephyr that has found a new home.
Fun Ho! Toys not only last – they evoke powerful memories of our Kiwiana past and can make the heart of an avid collector beat way too fast.
Inglewood Ingenuity: Look for the model fire engine in the town's main street to find Fun Ho! memories.