Humpy

Wooden Humpy at Heysham Head Amusement Park - The Coin Slot, August 1973

Released in 1961, Humpy the Camel was one of RG Mitchell's earliest rides.  He was originally sold as plain old "Camel" before being renamed "Humpy" a couple of years later.  Made out of wood, he had a "flat string puppet" appearance, similar to Muffin the Mule.

Herne Bay, August 1997

Humpy made a reappearance at the Amusement Trades Exhibition in January 1972, this time made of fibreglass with far more detail than his wooden ancestor.  As with most of RG Mitchell's animal rides, he went through quite a few colour changes over the years, going through every camel-ish colour from brown to yellow!  Unfortunately, Humpy appears to have been a far less popular cousin to the likes of Jerry the Giraffe, Jumbo the Elephant and Rocky the Horse and, with so few still having been around by my childhood, it's hard to date the different colour variations.

2000 RG Mitchell Catalogue

As with all of RG Mitchell's animal rides, Humpy played soft lullabies and nursery rhymes when in motion. Skegness Pier, June 2017

Skegness Pier, June 2017.  I believe this Humpy's colour scheme dates from the mid-1990s.  He was certainly around in my childhood as I rode the very same camel on both Paignton and Skegness Piers (in 1997 and 1999 respectively) when they were both under the ownership of Mitchell Leisure Ltd.!