Forts and garages, made of tinplate. In the pillow case there would be (select from) a torch, a Cadbury's selection box, some sort of snakes-and-laddersish game, Happy Families, a chemistry set (I wonder whether that old house we left 60 years ago still has those potassium permanganate stains on the walls...), a book (probably the Eagle Annual, starring Dan Dare, pilot of the future), a tinplate spinning top...

I did get a mini-snooker table one year, and a cheapie X30 refracting telescope another time. That telescope, along with Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia (especially the Earth And Its Neighbours chapters) got me going on science. Dammit, I've never looked back.