Cold War Kid Toys

January 9, 2022 4:32 PM

In the Prime movie The Courier, characters Greville and Emily exchange written messages on a kids toy. It's kinda like a clipboard with a plastic overlay sheet. Pulling the sheet away from the clipboard erases the last message/drawing. What was this toy?

As we were watching this scene (and I can't go back because Prime is not working for me tonight - sorry no timestamps or screenshot), my SO was, "That was a kid's toy!"

The scene is towards the end, when Greville is confirming to Emily that Alex (Penkovsky) has received the escape plan.

I'm also interested to know if the gifts given to Greville and Alex's children (a rocket model and a doll) were real and identifiable. But maybe those will be separate questions.

posted by shoesfullofdust to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Best answer: I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like a magic slate.
posted by apartment dweller at 4:35 PM on January 9, 2022 [19 favorites]

I didn't remember what they were called, but from your description, that's what I was thinking of, too. Don't know when they started, but they were pretty commonly available until early to mid-80s, I think.

Have no idea how it's used in the movie you're referencing, but it might be interesting for you to know - it often WAS possible to see what had previously been written on the tablet, depending on how much pressure had been used to write, and how wide the mark was, and what marks were on it (or not) previously. As in, it wasn't very foolproof for keeping secrets truly SECRET. (You could look at the black part behind. I seem to remember even creating pencil rubbings from the black part. I'm not sure what the black stuff was, but indents were often clearly visible on it, and any pressure would do it.)
posted by stormyteal at 4:49 PM on January 9, 2022 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: In the movie, they use it to exchange messages in an already super-secure room. During the Cold War/Cuban Crisis. The fact that they were using a kid's toy to do this was clever/funny.

To know that this toy was easily defeated as a secret keeper makes it all the better.

Not sure if this toy is a part of the "true story" element of this movie.
posted by shoesfullofdust at 5:05 PM on January 9, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: It is!
posted by potrzebie at 5:59 PM on January 9, 2022 [6 favorites]

OMG, I haven't thought of these in *years!!* Thanks for asking this question! :)
posted by kate4914 at 6:00 PM on January 9, 2022 [7 favorites]

Best answer: The toy was a cardboard board with a thin layer of black wax, with a sheet of light grey cellophane over top. When you scraped the cellophane it would cling to the wax and look darker, then you could peel it up. But the impression of what you wrote might be left in the wax and still be readable afterwards.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:54 PM on January 9, 2022 [5 favorites]

I got one of these a bit over a decade ago as something to practice writing kanji on. Why waste paper. Only worked half-well for that.
posted by zengargoyle at 8:10 AM on January 10, 2022 [1 favorite]

In my experience, there were a lot of super crappy versions of this toy, but there were also slightly more expensive versions that seemed to work better and resist permanent marks being made better.
posted by Night_owl at 9:58 AM on January 10, 2022