Lenci

Lenci dolls were made by a company founded by Enrico and Elena Konig di E. Scavini in Turin, Italy, during World War I. “Lenci” was Elena’s nickname. While Enrico was at war, Elena began making dolls. She used felt because Turin was the center of the Italian felt industry. The fabric was steamed and stiffened […]

Paper Dolls

Paper dolls developed from the “pantins” of the eighteenth century. Pantins were jointed paper doll caricatures of fashionable people. In chic circles in Europe, it was an adult pastime to make a new pantin each day. By the nineteenth century, the more familiar paper dolls children played with were sold in stores. The first American […]

Frozen Charlottes

Frozen Charlottes, stiff china dolls with unjointed and immovable arms and legs, were made from the 1850s until the 1920s. The boy doll was sometimes called “Frozen Charley.” The dolls were usually made with their arms at their sides or pointing straight forward. A few have been found with the arms in a folded position […]

The Ideal Toy Corporation

Toy maker Morris Michtom, famous for the stuffed bears that he began calling teddy bears in 1903, founded the Ideal Toy and Novelty Company that same year. The firm began making dolls in 1906. Its dolls included the first American character doll, The Yellow Kid (1907); sleeping-eye dolls (1914); crying dolls (1920); Shirley Temple dolls […]

Cloth Dolls

Children have played with homemade rag dolls through the ages. In America, interest in rag dolls increased with the invention of the sewing machine in the 1840s. Women’s magazines published directions for making the dolls. Butterick published its first pattern for a rag doll in 1882. The first commercial rag dolls were made in the […]

Erector Set

The Erector Set, invented by A.C. Gilbert in 1913, was a collection of steel strips with evenly spaced holes that could be connected with nuts and bolts. Children built models of ferris wheels, bridges, skyscrapers, railways, robots, and more. The sets included gears, wheels, pulleys, motors, and other accessories, and in 1924 parts that would […]

Legos

In 1949 Danish toy maker Ole Christiansen made a set of interlocking red and white plastic blocks with studs on top that could be locked together in different shapes. Christiansen’s company was named Lego. Lego blocks were soon one of the most popular toys in Europe. They were introduced in the United States in 1961 […]

Redlines and Blackwalls

Tires on Hot Wheels produced from 1968 to 1977 had a red stripe and were called Redlines. From 1977 to 1989 Hot Wheels had black tires and were called Blackwalls. A series of Redlines issued in 1993 were marked Vintage or 25th Anniversary on the base. The year on the base of a Hot Wheels […]

Buddy “L”

The Moline Pressed Steel Company, established in 1913 in Moline, Illinois, began making toys under the Buddy “L” name in 1921. It made toy trucks, fire engines, and other vehicles like concrete mixers and road rollers. Most of the toys are from 21 to 24 inches long. They were made from heavy steel, strong enough […]

Dinky Toy

Meccano Limited, founded in 1901 in Liverpool, England, made toy construction kits using perforated metal parts that had to be bolted together. The company first made clockwork trains, and, after World War I, produced O gauge electric trains. Later on, it made OO gauge. In 1933 Dinky Toy model cars were introduced. Production was curtailed […]