Vintage Apple Bank - Money Box With Worm... Circa 1970's - 1980's

I remember when I was about 6 years old, sitting with a giant apple on my lap and offering it all my pennies so that the worm that lived inside would pop out and take the money off me, for years I thought I must have imagined it as everybody I asked had never heard of one and certainly never had this toy / money box in their childhoods, until one day on Ebay...

Photo from Ebay Listing.

I found one in America and yayness upon yayness I managed to grab it... for it's age it was in perfect condition and playing with it takes me right back to my childhood, so of course it's one of my favourite treasures!

                                            Vintage Apple Worm Bank with its original box.
                                            Plastic and metal wind-up Toy made in Hong Kong.
                                            The apple bank measures approx: 4" high x 4" wide.
                                            The box measures approx. 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" x 4 1/4".

The bank has a wind-up mechanism, the key to this is attached to the mechanism via a small hole towards the back of the apple, (see photo below) - which is great as it cannot get lost.

                    After winding, you place a small coin on top of the little red button and wait...

Once this button is pressed it activates the mechanism for the worm, after a little clockwork whirring noise has been made, the worm appears...

His little legs ( yep, Mr. Wormy has legs!?) anyhoo, they catch onto the sides of your coin and take it back inside the bank, where it drops down and can be collected another time... or if you're anything like me, you'll take it back out and keep making "Mr. Wormy" eat the same coin over and over!

Mr. Wormy  in motion

If you turn the apple over, and turn the small circle in the bottom centre you can access all the stored money inside, this is incredibly easy to do as it was designed with small hands in mind.

The only information I can find on The Apple Bank is what is written on the side of the box:

 Made in Hong Kong.  No. 9041 (c) J.S., N.Y..

However ,while on my quest to find more, I found this cute little video so now you can see for yourself what he looks like in action...

Or you can watch it here if you prefer:

             http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g0mBqqVu9o&feature=related



If any of you remember this toy, or have any information on it, please drop me a line in the comments section below, cheers x

1975 Sunshine family Dolls Sewing Pattern - McCALLS #4716 .

The 72 piece pattern contains everything you need to complete each of the outfits shown in a diagram on the left side of the packet:

For male Dolls: Jacket, Vest, Shirt, Overalls, Pants, Kerchief.

For female Dolls: Jumper, Skirt, Blouse, Apron, Shawl, Cape.

For Baby: Diaper, Bunting.

I still haven't found a physical copy of it yet, but I found the next best thing - an uploaded pattern, and not only that it was free, so I decided I'd share it here for anyone who is also looking for this pattern and having a humdinger of a time finding it, so here goes:

As I stated before, this pattern makes items which will fit the following vintage dolls - remember it was produced in 1975, so it will only fit certain body shapes, anyhoo, the dolls it will fit are:
Ken.
GI Joe.
Sunshine Family.
Wild Bill Hickock.
Jesse James.
Bill Coey.
Cochise.
Wyatt Earp.
Davy Crockett.
Midge.
Maddie Mod.
Stacey.
Taylor.
Tammy.
Christy.
Casey.
Francie.
Prairie Country Western.
Cricket.
Skipper.
Bonnie Breck.
and other similar sized Fashion Dolls.

I haven't had a chance to print out and try these patterns yet, so I think I should warn you you may need to resize them when you do so...

Enjoy!