Back in the 80s, when my sister and I were little, we joined the Henri Hippo savers’ club in Ulster Bank. I spent all my pocket money on penny sweets back then, so I have no idea what happened the bank account, but we were both quite attached to our Henri Hippo money boxes. I had a blue one and my sister had a red one. Alas, some years later, a shelf fell down one day and our hippos were smashed to smithereens.

So, I was delighted to hear that Ulster Bank are bringing back Henri Hippo! Even more exciting is that the money boxes are supposed to look the same as they did in the 80s, although only blue ones are available. I was hoping that I could finally replace my moneybox by opening an account with them, but it seems you can only get one when you open a bank account for a child under 12. They won’t even sell me one (yes, I did write and ask!) - I suppose the idea of a bank not wanting more money is novel. I’m not sure what today’s high tech kids will make of him, but they may well be fighting with their parents over who gets the money box anyway! I guess I’ll just have to keep my eye out on Ebay for any mini entrepreneurs who want to cash in on Henri.

Reminiscing about Henri also brought back fond memories of my Trustee Rusty the fox money box from Trustee Savings Bank. I can’t find any evidence that he ever existed on Google, but surely I’m not the only one who remembers him? Since the bank merged to become permanent tsb many years ago, I doubt we will ever see poor old Trusty Rusty again, but I might start a campaign one of these days. He would be much less annoying than that guy from The Sopranos!

At least Cyril the Squirrel is still going strong for An Post. I don’t think that Cyril has ever been immortalised as a money box. Perhaps keeping a lower profile is the secret of his longevity? I see from his website that you can even contact him directly, so maybe I’ll write and ask him.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 10:42 pm and is filed under irish, pick n mix. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.