Toying With My Memories

My brother happened to be browsing around e-bay when he stumbled upon what was one of my favourite toys from my childhood. A 49 LST navy landing craft that was made by Buddy L. I'll always remember Buddy L toys because they were made completely out of metal, a rarity these days. I also had a Buddy L Pepsi delivery truck with a little forklift that you would use to load the tiny Pepsi bottle cases.

I remember the Christmas I received my navy ship, my brother and I had been snoopin' around a couple weeks before, for our hidden presents, as impatient young children will do. I think my Mom had gone to do more shopping and we took the opportunity to case out the joint. We checked all the usual spots, attic, closets and so forth. We had no luck 'til we decided to search our parents' bedroom which was always off limits. We had searched the closets with no luck and it wasn't until I tripped over the blankets of the bed and fell face flat on the floor that the booty was revealed to me. For you see, my new vantage of a worm's eye view led me to see my new toy stashed neatly under the bed. Excitedly ( and I mean excitedly, to a kid this is like finding a pot of gold) I called my brother over and showed him. We pulled it out from under the bed and carefully opened the box so as not to rip it. We then proceeded to play "war". The ship also came with a cool tank and a truck with a canvas top for the back (actually plastic but made to look like canvas) and six plastic soldiers. For the next two weeks, we snuck any chance we got to play with that toy. Needless to say when I opened it on Christmas morning, I had to act as surprised as could be, for my Mom never found out that I had been playing with it all along.

Check out a similar toy to mine here: Buddy L War Ship

The machine guns on the back where the turrets are seem to be missing on this one and there are no sign or mention of the tank,truck nor the six plastic soldiers.