The Nursery Play Toy by Chad Valley of England

This is a picture heavy post, so bear with page load times.  Quite possibly one of the coolest toys to come out of the original release overseas is this set of tin blocks by Chad Valley of England.  Called 'The Nursery Play Toy', this set eluded me for years, but I finally acquired it, in its original box!!

The set consists of a set of five cylindrical tin block that nest together, each lavishly illustrated with a scene from the film.

The box itself has some fun illustrations as well including baby oysters on the lid!

The side panels of the box have large illustrations of the characters including the White Rabbit

the Mad Hatter's Tea Party

the Walrus and the Carpenter

and a few flowers on the bottom.

The largest of the tin blocks features Alice, Dinah and her sister with the White Rabbit racing by.

The top of this tin features Alice riding the bottle on the sea of tears.

The next size down features Alice in the Garden of Live Flowers

and the Caterpillar.

and a Rocking Horse Fly.

The Dodo makes an appearance on the top of this block.

Next size down features all the denizens of the Mad Tea Party

with the Cheshire Cat on the top.

Down one more size we have the White Rabbit and Bill the Lizard outside the White Rabbit's house

and the White Rabbit on the top as well.

The smallest block has the Cards painting the roses red

with the King and Queen of Hearts

and of course Alice on the croquet grounds.

A not very attractive image of Alice adorns the top of this tin.

This is a very rare toy indeed.  In the more than 25 years I've been collecting this is only the second complete set I've ever seen.  A partial set was on eBay a few weeks ago, and went for big bucks even though it was missing the smallest of the blocks.

Chad Valley toys is a very old brand in the UK, makers of fine toys for most of the 20th century.  The brand is still active, most recently purchased in 2009 by Argos which exclusively offers Chad Valley toys today.