Wait, wait, you put a penny in... and it pees on you?
November 13, 2011 8:14 PM Subscribe
Help me find a Christmas present: an old bathroom ornament(?) that works when you put a penny in it.
My boyfriend was really sad when he wasn't bequeathed something his grandfather had on his toilet tank: a machine where a little man came out of an outhouse and peed real water on you when you put a penny in it. He says it was under a foot tall and either ceramic or painted metal. I'm imagining something made of metal only because my grandparents had a lot of cast metal penny toys when I was a kid, including one where a lion jumped through a hoop and grabbed your penny and put it in a barrel.
It had to be at least 35 years old. Unfortunately Google is not the place to search for anything involving bodily functions. Perhaps a Mefite ran across one of these as a kid or might at least know a more technical name for the figurine?
My boyfriend was really sad when he wasn't bequeathed something his grandfather had on his toilet tank: a machine where a little man came out of an outhouse and peed real water on you when you put a penny in it. He says it was under a foot tall and either ceramic or painted metal. I'm imagining something made of metal only because my grandparents had a lot of cast metal penny toys when I was a kid, including one where a lion jumped through a hoop and grabbed your penny and put it in a barrel.
It had to be at least 35 years old. Unfortunately Google is not the place to search for anything involving bodily functions. Perhaps a Mefite ran across one of these as a kid or might at least know a more technical name for the figurine?
We once sold one of these squirting gag gift outhouse novelty toy things at the vintage store where I worked. It's not a bank, and it's plastic rather than ceramic or metal, but it does squirt water. Ours did not have a little man of any particular ethnicity, so others must exist.
posted by peagood at 8:51 PM on November 13, 2011
posted by peagood at 8:51 PM on November 13, 2011
So I wonder if he's conflating two things - the bank doesn't seem to squirt, and the squirter doesn't seem to take pennies?
posted by Miko at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2011
posted by Miko at 8:54 PM on November 13, 2011
PS - searching using bodily functions brings this guy too. That's probably not it, but it's too good a find not to show off.
posted by peagood at 8:58 PM on November 13, 2011
posted by peagood at 8:58 PM on November 13, 2011
I'll be clearing my cache... of outhouse things... or Santa won't come...
But, seriously, as someone who was an antiques dealer for years, if someone came in to the store and described the item as you did, I'd bet on it being the novelty squirter I first linked to. Here are more. The ones like this are newer, and the former is the right age and they're common enough. I um...may or may not have once had a small collection of hillbilly outhouse things, stemming from how my grandmother kept her teeth in a "Maw" cup like this when I was growing up.
This is a good page with lots of vintage mechanical banks from the right era - there is an "exploding outhouse bank" and another that's a toilet with a little man that grabs the coin, which you can see if you scroll down. It might be another good place to ask questions.
Boy, this is a fun question and I am having way too much fun looking at awesome vintage hippo banks...
posted by peagood at 9:27 PM on November 13, 2011
But, seriously, as someone who was an antiques dealer for years, if someone came in to the store and described the item as you did, I'd bet on it being the novelty squirter I first linked to. Here are more. The ones like this are newer, and the former is the right age and they're common enough. I um...may or may not have once had a small collection of hillbilly outhouse things, stemming from how my grandmother kept her teeth in a "Maw" cup like this when I was growing up.
This is a good page with lots of vintage mechanical banks from the right era - there is an "exploding outhouse bank" and another that's a toilet with a little man that grabs the coin, which you can see if you scroll down. It might be another good place to ask questions.
Boy, this is a fun question and I am having way too much fun looking at awesome vintage hippo banks...
posted by peagood at 9:27 PM on November 13, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Miko at 8:41 PM on November 13, 2011