Blonnnndiiiieeeeee!!!

I was at an estate sale today and came across a shoe box full of what appeared to be loose puzzle pieces. Picking a few up, I immediately recognized what, or rather who they were.

Priced at $1, I couldn't pass them up. Similar to paper dolls, these heavier cardboard pieces apparently were intended to be nailed (!) down using the included (!) hammer and nails.  You have to love old toys and their carefree attitudes about child safety. 

Dagwood, Blondie and Alexander "Baby Dumpling" Bumstead. The presence of Alexander and the absence of "Cookie", the Bumsteads' daughter, places this set between 1934 and 1941.

Dagwood and the ever-present sandwich that bears his name.

Blondie, sporting a decidely 30's hair-do and a slightly mangled leg.  Perhaps by Daisy or  Dagwood in a hunger-induced rage.

The handle of Alexander's wagon is also a shovel.  There were some odd accessories with this playset.

And of course, Daisy.

The set came with a secondary set of heads which oddly enough don't fit as well, particularly Blondie's which causes her to swivel her neck 180 degrees.

I was going to crop out the upper portion of this image, but I like the way Blondie looks up at the disembodied heads of Dagwood and Alexander.

Some of the accompanying accessories.  I'm not sure how these could be used in play.  Perhaps it originally came with a backdrop.

I was never a huge fan of the strip, although I read it, but I was a bigger fan of the movie serials starring Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton, who later voiced Jane on "The Jetsons".

Cartoonist Chic Young originally began the strip in 1930 about the free-spirited adventures of a young flapper named Blondie Boopadoop and the romantic pursuits of her boyfriends, including one Dagwood Bumstead, son a wealthy railroad baron.  As the depression worsened, the popularity of the characters began to dwindle and Chic decided it was time to bring them down to earth.  Dagwood proposed to Blondie, his parents disinherited him, and Blondie and Dagwood settled down into a middle-class existence complete with a child and a dog.  Americans embraced the new Blondie and Dagwood and publication of the strip, under guidance of Chic's son Dean, continues to this day.