We have a very cool picture of my now 23 year old son sitting on the back porch playing his plastic Smurf guitar when he was 3-4 years old. I'll bet lots of us had toy instruments with some decorations that would be pretty interesting to hear about.
My friend has a 1950's Maccaferri (also plastic) that is called "The Romancer" and has pictures of spinning records, dancing teenagers, girls in poodle skirts...etc all over it. That thing still plays very well although it was built as an entry level cheap novelty instrument.
Come-on folks...you Americans can tell us all about your Andy Griffith guitars and I'll bet you Brits had some mighty fancy things in the skiffle days. Those glitsy things were what we played at the start and sometimes betray some deeply held sentiments. No...my son does not play songs now about little blue elves.