Hilariously inevitable. A toy TV news van with a detachable microphone and camera on top, that flips over into a giant toy studio camera, complete with a lens. From Creative Playthings, during the late A Division of CBS years, circa the late 1970's.
How long did it take for the TV guys at Black Rock [1] to start bouncing ideas for toys off of the toy people? Was the plastic toy era one of synergistic, cross-promotional tie-ins?
[Was there ever a TV series about the People 'N Places of the World? Starring kids who lived in igloos, mud huts, and teepees? Maybe they could do a whole series of just kids, left alone to live in a wild west ghost town? Call it Kid World? Kid Country? Think of the merchandising possibilities.]
The other obvious, disturbing, but unmentioned aspect of this Creative Plaything: while one kid's pretending to be the camera operator, the other one's pretending to be Dan Rather. Also, as Culler points out in the comments, you kid "loses his humanity." Definitely caveat emptor.
VINTAGE CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS TV NEWS TOY CAMERA/TRUCK, ends Sept. 3rd, opening bid: $4.50 [ebay]
[1] Eero Saarinen's black granite monolith of a corporate headquarters opened in 1965.
nice find! reminds me of this cautionary tale animated by the always spectacular chris ware for "this american life".
[bwahaha, I totally forgot about that. I started watching that with the kid thinking, "Oh, how adorable, a cute, hip cartoon." Did not end well. -ed.]
This is sweet, but the Fisher Price Adventure People TV reporter set (1977) is way cooler:
http://cgi.ebay.com/1977-FISHER-PRICE-ADVENTURE-PEOPLE-MOBILE-TV-UNIT-SET_W0QQitemZ170143367614QQihZ007QQcategoryZ374QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I hope that link works. If not, you can find it on ebay.