Rotary phones as toys, not a good idea.

[Greg G.]

I gave this non-functioning, no ringer, 79 junker ITT phone to Anita to add to the toy inventory at the pre-school she works at.  The case was secure and solid, just badly faded.  This is how it looked after only a couple weeks. 

[twocvbloke]

Ouch, that poor phone didn't stand a chance against a load of preschoolers, kids of that age are pretty rough with their toys, so it's inevitable that a phone of that age would be unlikely to survive...

I was lucky with my Two-Tone green GPO746, it was used as a toy phone (even though nothing was wrong with it internally, it was just "too old" for someone), no damage, dial is fine, everything worked as it should have, wasn't even converted, testament to the GPO design...

The best phones to give to kids as toys are these (or at least, the modern one which takes batteries for lights and sounds, cos kids are born without imagination these days apparently!!):

[bingster]

I'm surprised they still make those Playskool phones with rotary dials!

[twocvbloke]

I think they did stop making them, but brought them back with electronic lights and sounds, they're just not the same as the originals...

[liteamorn]

I can still hear the sound that made when pulled across the floor, kind of a chatter sound, a kind of yakayakayaka sound

[LarryInMichigan]

It's a good thing you didn't give them your Kellogg 925

Larry

[twocvbloke]

Think of it as a positive, use the now broken case to experiment with retr0bright formulae, to perfect the right thickness, exposure and whatnot, there's always a positive to every negative...

[AE_Collector]

I gave this non-functioning to my gf to add to the toy inventory at the pre-school she works at. 

Perfectly understandable to me. They obviously all tried calling it from their Cell Phones and quickly determined that it didn't work. So they took it out to the parking lot and drove over it with their SUV's....

Lucky it didn't take some gun shots as well!

Terry

[Dialvintage]

I can still hear the sound that made when pulled across the floor, kind of a chatter sound, a kind of yakayakayaka sound

Gosh that took me back! I used to have one of those and I remember the noises now you mentioned them.

[George Knighton]

I gave some toddlers a relatively worthless 500 to play with, just to keep them away from my 302's.

After a couple of days, it's completely disassembled in a more or less irreparable state.

The good new is:

• They stayed away from the 302's
• There's a 3 year old who is now very useful with a screwdriver

[ESalter]

I suppose I'm lucky.  My 2 1/2 year old daughter just loves playing with the phones when she's at our shop.  She usually plays with the 555 cordboard(Every single cord is plugged in someplace when she's done) but she likes to play with a random 500 or 2500 she finds laying around somewhere.  She just runs around with it pretending she's having a conversation.  She has a green trimline handset in her toybox here at home too.  I gave her that figuring it'd get broken or destroyed somehow, but she's taken very good care of it thus far!

---Eric

[Nick in Manitou]

• There's a 3 year old who is now very useful with a screwdriver

This reminds me of when my brother gave his toddler son a set of plastic tools.  The kid took the shroud off the lawn mower with those plastic tools!

My brother figured that it was time to give the kid some real tools!

He is now a mechanic in his 30s and taking engineering classes.

[Sargeguy]

My daughter likes to attack every phone she sees with a screwdriver "Just like Daddy"

Here she is  a couple years ago (age 2) with my as removed from service 266 payphone.  That's probably why I cannot get it to work.

[AE_Collector]

Hey Sarge, can I send her some of my phones to work on too? I have lots that I can't figure out.

Terry

[Sargeguy]

Only if they are pink, she does not like the other colors