Powder Monki ~ Retro Badges & Magnets

Author Topic: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*  (Read 9995 times)

Offline Skyhorse82

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 153
Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« on: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 05:18 am »
When I was about 6 or 7 ('87 or '88) I was in Sydney at a massive shopping mall and there was a toy we all got to play with in the kids section. I am not sure if the toy was actually for sale or if it was some sort of display, but to this day, I have never found any information on it. I'll list the things I remember:

(sorry it's long, but there is no succinct way to put this).

- a green plastic mountain (no, not the Kenner playset one, but possibly same size)
- there is a grey mill sitting on top, or some sort of plastic 'stone' building.
- there is a blue plastic pond, at the bottom of the hill, maybe some trees too and a bridge over the pond.
- all features molded into the plastic I think, not loose.
- about 6 or 8 tiny plastic silver-coloured or grey fish are in the pond
- there is a conveyor belt leading from the pond, up to the mill
- somehow, you get the fish onto the belt and it moves up to the mill. I think this is done manually by turning a handle (I dont think it was motorised in anyway).
- the fish end up on a water-wheel, and move through the building, out the other side, and end up back into the pond.

This toy may have been primarily a water-mill or fishing toy but I have always called it the 'fish mill'. It didn't look like it was designed for the bath and the fish were TINY. It didn't require water to run either. No one knows what I am on about.

Who came up with this concept for a toy? Honestly. I mean, what toy-making team actually sat around the boardroom table and said 'I have an idea...' and came up with this? Why would you have a conveyor belt to carry fish around and through an empty building just to drop them back in the pond is beyond me *cuckoo*....but I played with it and it was fun for a few minutes. Weird. A fish re-cycling toy.

Now, a long time ago, I posted this query on the 'Do You Remember?' forum, and someone suggested that it was called 'Mr Fishy Wishy's Marvellous Contraption', but I think they were joking around as I cannot find anything on this, lol.

This toy sounds like a strange dream, doesn't it? But no, it actually existed at some point! I will absolutely die in disbelief if anyone out there knows what toy this was.
« Last Edit: Thursday 29 March 2012, 06:56 am by Skyhorse82 »

Offline zuse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2073
    • Zuse's Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 05:55 am »
This brings back a random (but similar) memory of random toys that used to be in mall kiosks and beach shops. I can't remember if I remember fish or what but I remember these endless conveyer belt toys.
Check out my Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide!

Hey, check out Bing Rewards. I've earned several $5 Amazon gift cards using it. :)

Offline Wardah

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 237
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 06:13 am »
I remember one with penguins.

Offline zuse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2073
    • Zuse's Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 06:23 am »
I remember one with penguins.

I was totally about to come back and say that I remembered one with penguins. And maybe one with dolphins or something like that?
Check out my Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide!

Hey, check out Bing Rewards. I've earned several $5 Amazon gift cards using it. :)

Offline zuse

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2073
    • Zuse's Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #4 on: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 10:26 am »
This is like what I was thinking of. Not really like what you were talking about. :-P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYWGkFXQHO0

(One of my other favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vqQhj7O1aI)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180848073439






Some of the sets with other animals were apparently made by DY Toys... who sure enough made that stupid weazel ball toy. Ugh.
« Last Edit: Tuesday 27 March 2012, 06:03 pm by zuse »
Check out my Vintage Littlest Pet Shop Guide!

Hey, check out Bing Rewards. I've earned several $5 Amazon gift cards using it. :)

Offline Skyhorse82

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 153
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 28 March 2012, 10:46 am »
Nope, not the right ones....but definitely cool suggestions! :)

Offline Rachel-Eyes

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 29 March 2012, 06:28 am »
I think I remember this, Skyhorse! Your description brought it all back to me... was it styled realistically, not cartoony like the penguin slide? I seem to remember the fish looking quite real. I never had one, but I also remember playing with them at some store in the mall. I think I asked my dad for them, but he said that they were too expensive.

Calling all teddy experts! Please help me find my Cuddle Bear!

Offline Skyhorse82

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 153
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 29 March 2012, 06:49 am »
Yes! It WAS quite detailed and realistic looking, not cartoony-looking and not boxy-looking either. The fish were dull-silver or grey I guess, with a tiny line for a gill and an imprint of a tiny eye too on the side, I think, but basic fish (didn't have scales that I recall). Gosh, they would have been about 1.5 to 2cm long. I cannot believe that someone out there might just know what I am on about!

Do you recall any more about this toy? Like how it operated at all? Motorised or mechanical?

*ARGH!* Excited. :)

Offline Rachel-Eyes

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 29 March 2012, 08:28 am »
Sadly, I can't really remember much else about it, since I had forgotten all about it until I read this thread. Umm... I don't remember cranking it, I want to say that it had a switch, though that could have been a demo setting. And I seem to remember a red fish, but I could be making that up.

I remember who I was with when I found it though. It would have been my dad, my cousin, brother, best friend, and her brother. And I think maybe my best friend's parents were there too? It's making me wonder if this was when we all took a trip to the beach together, but it could also very well have been in my boring little town in Indiana too.

Calling all teddy experts! Please help me find my Cuddle Bear!

Offline Rachel-Eyes

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 29 March 2012, 09:44 pm »
Skyhorse, I just read your initial post again and realized that your fish mill was from about '87 to '88. I should probably mention that I wasn't even born yet at that time! (Not until '89.) The fish mill I'm thinking of would have been from about '97 or '98. Perhaps they brought it back ten years later to try to gain more interest again? Maybe that's where the red fish are coming into play?

Because there's no way we can't be thinking of the same toy.

Calling all teddy experts! Please help me find my Cuddle Bear!

Offline TheMinorityof1990

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 299
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #10 on: Monday 20 August 2012, 09:30 pm »
I had/have a toy like the penguin one, it was called the great dalmation chase and it involved a escalator.

Offline Skyhorse82

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 153
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #11 on: Tuesday 18 March 2014, 11:23 am »
It has been awhile *Bump*.

Offline MsTwilight

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 64
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #12 on: Monday 21 April 2014, 10:17 pm »
I have a harness racing one. I still have it packed away in one of my closets. I do remember the penguin one too. I will look in my old store catalogs to see if I can find the fish one. It seems very familiar!

Offline Miss Katherine

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 12
  • Misfit Clarice
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #13 on: Tuesday 22 April 2014, 02:14 am »
I've been wanting to know for years what the proper name was for these types of toys. The only ones I'm familiar with featured "cartoony" animals, so I have obviously never seen the fish one. The one I owned was in a jungle theme and had a lion, tiger, and (I think) monkey that slid along a winding green track, and the track had ridges that the figures were designed to fit over (so it wasn't a slide like in the penguin set).

Someone mentioned these being popular in mall kiosks back during their time, and that reminded me that I also remember seeing them a lot in those "corralled in" displays with other motorized/novelty-type toys (Weazel Ball, Bumble Ball, little barking and walking dogs, etc.) in front of KB Toys and similar places. I guess it would especially make sense if they were mostly made by the same companies as those other toys.

Offline ForeverKokiri

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 232
Re: Fish Mill...what the....? *LMAO*
« Reply #14 on: Thursday 24 April 2014, 06:33 am »
Used to be popular? I saw kiosks with a bunch of them last Christmas!

I think they're generally just called "Motorized toys". That's quite a wide category, though!

 

anything