I will never forget the excitement of one Saturday morning trip to Woolworths and discovering that you could get a Tardis Tent! As a kid I loved Doctor Who and discovering this Tardis Tent was like finding the ultimate Doctor Who Toy. My mum even bought one for me, my goodness I was going to have some fun when I got home.
Dekker Toys released the Tardis Tent Playhouse in 1982.
What Was the Tardis Tent?
The Tardis Tent to be honest was just a standard plastic children’s Wendy House. However this blue tent stood at just over 4 foot tall with an inflatable Tardis Light on top, a window and inside had control panel as part of the interior artwork.
The tent was constructed by putting together plastic tubes with connectors to make the frame for your blue Tardis plastic sheet to cover.
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Let’s Take a look at the Tardis Tent Box
On the cover of the box, you have three children in Doctor Who costumes. A boy dressed as the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison played the Doctor at the time), and two girls one dressed as Tegan and the other dressed as Nyssa. Both Tegan and Nyssa were of course companions of the fifth Doctor.
The box also details the full size of the product: 61cm x 61cm x 122cm high.
My Memories
As I stated above I can clearly remember finding the Tardis Playhouse in our local Woolworths. As with a lot of things back in the early 1980’s a little imagination was needed but that didn’t stop me enjoying my Tardis and playing Doctor Who. I loved getting inside it and pretending to control the Tardis and going on some imaginary adventures. It was a lot of fun and could be played with outside and inside.
Sadly, it didn’t survive my childhood and I think as the plastic tubes got damaged over the years eventually it was thrown away. But it was a lot of fun whilst it lasted.
Thinking of Buying a Tardis Playhouse?
For something that I don’t think cost a lot of money on release back in 1982 it isn’t too easy to find a cheap one now. Having looked on EBay I could only find one 80’s Tardis Tent for sale which was boxed and complete but was being sold at £139! I decided to look at sold prices and found that one sold on EBay back in May 2021 for £190, even more than the one I’d seen earlier.
If you see one of these at a car boot sale or in a charity shop make sure you grab it. Keep for the nostalgia (that’s what I’d do) or sell for a tidy profit but make sure it goes to a Doctor Who collector.
For more nostalgic memories take a look at these:
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Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at Next Stop Nostalgia.
Darren
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