Today I Stumbled upon a Secret Kingdom of Lost Toys

What is it that makes someone start a collection which alters the course of their entire life? For Mel Birnkrant, it was an iron Mickey bank he saw at the Paris flea market in 1958. His hotel room rent was $30 a month and the toy was $10. It was in that moment, at the iconic Marché aux Puces,…

Bedtime Story: The Legend of Lego

I didn’t expect a great story when I saw this video, all I knew was that my brother and I played a lot of LEGO when we were kids and that was reason enough to click on it. Whether or not you played with LEGO as a child, this is a heartwarming (bedtime) story of…

The Little Barbie that grew Breasts

Skipper was launched by Mattel in 1964 as Barbie’s kid sister. Ten years later, Mattel decided that it was about time Skipper hit puberty like the rest of us. That is, if anyone else experienced puberty by rotating their left arm and voila: boobs! In 1975, ‘Growing up Skipper’ led to controversy in the media…

The Vault

Paper Toys for your Cabinet of Curiosities

The French National Library is one of my favourite places to time travel when I need a good distraction, especially since they have so much of their archives online to get lost in on the Gallica BNF website. Today I found a file with a rather large collection of paper toys of Christmas past from the early…

Pssst! You've stumbled across content that is exclusive to Nessy's Keyholders.

There’s a new way to access the really special stuff from Messy Nessy Chic …

Hidden beneath the surface layers of the internet, there’s a place where we keep our most secret addresses, untapped archives, creator’s inspiration, collector’s guides, explorer’s manuals, obscure research and much more… And it’s made for our keyholders only!

Apply now to unlock the Vault

Keyholder Login

Abandoned Toys ‘R’ Us Stores are Kind of a Thing Now…

They say kids only play with iPads and smartphone applications these days, but is that entirely true? The best-selling toy of 2016 was a furry mechanical robot creature called Hatchimal that arrives in an egg, hatches and then evolves as you play with it. So kids still want toys, but do they value that experience of buying them…

Today I’m Shopping for Vintage Star Finders

There are countless applications that we can download on our smartphone these days to identify the constellations, but I’m not so much searching for the stars right now as I’m searching for inspiration– design inspiration. And these vintage Star and Planet Finders I found in abundance on the internet today, provide a whole lot of that. This…

Seriously though. The Things Children Used to Play With…

I was doing my morning rounds of the online auction sites, looking for an interesting Christmas gift for my Pa, when I ended up being fixated on a sale of unusual vintage toys made between 1850 and 1950. The auction taking place on BidSquare this weekend features some pretty eyebrow-raising playthings, including a wide variety of…

Stop Everything, Allow Your Inner Child to Enjoy these Adorable Felt Sculptures

Nope, there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop me from dedicating an entire post to these soul-wrenchingly adorable little fluffy felt sculptures. I don’t know about you, but me and my inner child really needed this today. We’re looking at the work of Cat Rabbit, the creation of a Melbourne-based textile artist who’s…

Kid Brothers were too Poor to buy Card Games so instead, they Made their Own

For those of us that grew up with the means to buy the commercial card games, do you know where they ended up? I know most of my mediocre board games and card collections gathered dust in the parents’ basement for years before they finally inevitably ended up in the trash. But for two brothers who couldn’t…

That Time Barbie Actively Encouraged Starvation Dieting

Playing with dolls that have a weight-loss complex doesn’t particularly spell out ‘fun’ for me, but 50 years ago, Mattel decided this was just what playtime was missing. In 1963, a series of Barbie dolls came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight, which simply advised girls in capital letters: “Don’t eat!”. The dolls’ accessories also…