# Help, please, in finding an old toy.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 2, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482 "2001-12-02T19:22:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\
**Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482/1 "2001-12-02T19:22:46Z")

</div>

Some thirty-five years ago, my mother gave my sister a great toy. It was kind of like a low-tech version of SimCity. Now she wants to give the same toy to my niece but doesn’t know who made it, or even if it still exists. What I know about the toy is:

It was made in Europe.  
It contains a printed cloth with simple roads and a lake on it.  
Opal did not make it.  
It contains wooden blocks painted to look like the stories of buildings and roofs so that you can easily put together multistoried buildings.  
It also contains little wooden cars, boats and trees.

Does anyone remember a toy like this? Can anyone think of how I might research this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482/2 "2001-12-03T01:56:00Z")

</div>

Ebay has a vintage toy section. Maybe scroll through some of the photos:

[http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catvintagetoys.html](http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catvintagetoys.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482/3 "2001-12-03T02:47:33Z")

</div>

You might try

> **[Kids' Gear and Products](https://www.verywellfamily.com/kid-gear-and-products-4157349)**
>
> Does your child really need that toy they've been asking for? Learn to sift through the array of offerings and choose gear and products they'll benefit from.

for starters.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JRT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@JRT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRT)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-please-in-finding-an-old-toy/96482/4 "2001-12-03T04:00:55Z")

</div>

My dad used to have one of these as a kid, it got passed down to me and I LOVED playing with it! I have no idea where it is now, seeing that my gradparents (it was kept at their house) passed away a few years ago and all their things were dispersed. I’ll ask my dad the next time I talk to him if he remembers where it was bought or who made it.