Did You Have One Of These Menacing Playthings?
By Barb Oates, ReMIND Magazine
Remember your old toy box? Maybe you had that Raggedy Ann and Andy toy box with the bench? Or that white wicker-like hamper box with the circus animals on it? Whatever you had, there’s no doubt that when you reached into that treasure trove, it provided countless hours of fun and laughs. Imagine if you pulled out one of these terrifying trinkets! Here’s just a handful of toys that still give us goose bumps today.
Cymbal Chimp
While the cymbal-banging monkey toy has gone by a lot of names — including Jolly Chimp and Charley Chimp — since its debut around the early 1950s, his most recognizable features are his red-striped pants, red-ringed eyes and the terror that often followed his abrupt, random cymbal clanging. He’s actually a movie star in his own right, appearing in several films, and is even in a short story by Stephen King, appropriately titled The Monkey.
Lady Elaine Fairchilde
When Mr. Rogers made a visit to the Museum-Go-Round and up popped Lady Elaine Fairchilde with her engorged nose and rosacea-stained cheeks, some kids immediately covered their eyes. While Lady Elaine was well-meaning in nature, her visage was way too horrifying for most kids.
Dummies
Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret’s 1978 thriller Magic confirmed that ventriloquist dummies aren’t to be toyed with. There’s something eerily haunting about their flappy jawlines and bulgy eyes, as well as the mysterious masters who control them.
Mattel’s Jack-in-the-Box
Cue the creepy windup music … “All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel. The monkey thought ’twas all in fun. Pop! Goes the weasel!” Well, the monkey was wrong. There was nothing fun about being scared out of your wits when that creepy, polka-dot-dressed clown finally popped out of that box.
Dolls
We’re not talking Cabbage Patch Kids or Barbie dolls here. We’re talking those old dolls with the porcelain heads, glass eyes and sinister stares that seem to follow you throughout any room. We’re also talking the likes of movie-star dolls like Chucky (yes, he’s a doll) and Annabelle, the braided bizarro who’s actually based on a real haunted doll. (Annabelle actually resides, encased in glass, at the Warren’s Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut) Even The Twilight Zone dedicated an episode to a deviant doll with 1963’s “Living Doll,” where we met Talky Tina and her famed warning: “You’ll be sorry!” Also, we can’t forget about the 1975 TV movie Trilogy of Terror, with Karen Black being terrorized by a feral-looking warrior doll, or 1987’s flop Dolls, where a legion of toys — led by Mr. Punch — take down a family.