Plating up some Poppins!

I feel lucky to have grown up in a time that had some sort of at-home movie playback system. In the recent generation’s case, that would be Blu-Rays and DVDs, but in my case, it was VHS.

Ahhhh, yes. The days of showing your kindness through a courtesy rewind. And the days of little me totting down to my video rental store to further wear out their sole copy of Mary Poppins. I would happily bring it home, pry open that ugly brown rental case, and pop it in my VCR. I’d watch the neon, mock 3-D Mickey turn around slowly in circles while the music played an anticipatory fanfare that to me was the audible representation of a heavy curtain being drawn back to reveal a magical place that I was going to get lost in for the next 2 hours or so.

On the days when I was on my way home, mentally cursing the other fortunate child who had my coveted Mary Poppins VHS tape in their sticky little grasp, I would resort to my storytelling record of it. Full of wonderful illustrations, albeit an alternative cast, I was happy to get lost in another way… an artistic way. Whimsical, colorful drawings abound, and so did my imagination! I never forgot them, and they remain a happy part of my childhood. So when I happened upon this set of children’s plates recently with such reminiscent art, I jumped at them, and how cute they are!

The 1965 set of eight feature four larger plates and four salad or dessert plates- kid sized, of course. They’re made of some kind of tin, but are in perfect condition. Bright, glossy, and glorious! I hadn’t seen these before, so I’m betting on the fact you haven’t either. I thought I would share. Take a gander. :)

I have also discovered they came with a tray! I don’t have this, but lemme tell ya… I will! If anyone out there has one that they would like to sell, you just let me know! :D

And for those of you too young to know about the revolving Mickey at the beginning of many Disney VHS films, this one’s for you! It just happens to come from the 1985 copy of Mary Poppins. That’s good stuff right there!

What's in your bag?

I think I might be a strange Disneyana collector. I rarely collect things for it's monetary (or future monetary) value as it seems many people do. Often times, I collect Disneyana things that I would have purchased if I were a kid at the time they were created. And I SO would have purchased this! I mean, c'mon, it's the carpet bag! I would have spent hours pretending cool things came out of it. I wouldn't have pulled out a lamp or a mirror, or anything else Mary yanked out of her carpet bag... no, I would have gone for the big guns- a pony!! Oohhh yeahhh. That's where it's at! Or maybe a doll house! Furnished of course.

I think they should have sprung for a different, non-plastic material for these bags, but my imagination could have carried it off. Still a very cute and colorful piece for kids! What would you have pulled out of a magic carpet bag when you were a child?

Help me solve "Mary's Medicine Mystery"!

Maybe not as fun as solving mysteries at Disneyland in "Minnie's Moonlit Madness", but it will have to do until next spring, folks!
Mary holds a mystery. Oh yes she does. One that neither myself or anyone else that I have asked (and there have been many) can figure out. It fits all into this cardboard box of confusion!! So I turn to you sensational blog visitors for answers. How on earth do you use this thing?!
First thing's first. I received both the Mary and the spoon together, although I am fairly certain that they were sold separately. Now, I have the original Mary in the box, as you can see, and by all accounts I cannot see that there is a piece missing. It says 1 piece on the box. She fits very snugly in the box, with no room for anything else that I can tell. Please correct me if I'm wrong. That being said...
As evidenced in photo #3, Mary has two indentations in the shape of spoons on either side of her. One is labeled with Tablespoon, and the other with Teaspoon. Handy dandy! Mary also has a little slot, as you can see in photos #4 and #5, for what I can only assume would be part of a spoon.
It would make sense to me if a spoon was supposed to lean against Mary, or sort of clip into that slot portion, only no spoon I have every tried fits to it at all, not even, as far as I can tell without removing it from the original plastic, the Mary spoon pictured. They all fall down. You can lean a spoon up to it if you balance it correctly, but it doesn't come into contact with the slot or the spoon part.
You cannot even fill the built in spoons up with the supposed medicine because it would drip all out the slot portion there onto the ailing. So what's the deal!? Were these types of things common in and before the 60s? I've never seen any other form of this, nor has anyone I've ever asked.
Please help! And if you can't, ask your friends, neighbors, and relatives, or even just get creative. Help me solve Mary's Medicine Mystery!