Toys Timeline

While the 1950’s were the beginning of a period of great change throughout America, toys weren’t changing a whole lot.  Board games, model planes, and small dolls were favorite toys in 1954, and they didn’t vary much throughout the whole decade. Tags: Army men, Whee-Lo, United States, fire crackers, World War II, scrabble scrabble, bottle [...]

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With the great depression in the past and the rationing put into place during World War II  no longer necessary, times were changing in 1947, especially for toys.  The quality of toys improved during 1947, but for the most part they were the same toys kids were playing with before the way.  Tags: lean years, [...]

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In the 1800’s there were really no toy “brands”.  There were toy makers, but toys were still being crafted by small toymakers across the U.S. and Europe.  The games that children were playing were much simpler, and the toys they carried were often small enough to fit in a pocket. Tags: toy brands, toy makers, [...]

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The incredible demand created for toys in the 1990’s marked a new height in American consumerism.  The toys that came out in the 1990s were collected by children and adults, and there were many that were enjoyed by both groups. Here is a quick look at some of the more popular toys in the 1990s. [...]

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In the 1980’s, the desire for toys was the highest it had ever been.  Christmas usually means a mad rush by parents to find the next “must have” toy for their kids, and Cabbage Patch kids were one of the biggest toys in the 1980s that caused quite a bit of turmoil for parents looking for [...]

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The toys that came out in the 1970’s seemed to come out of nowhere and were often unlike anything people had seen before.  Though the Star War’s action figures were simply variations of a theme, the success of the movie – and all the resulting toys – came as a surprise to many. This is [...]

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In the 1960’s, the U.S. had gone to war with Vietnam, the counter-culture was rising, and women’s liberation was pushing the country into new directions.  The toys that came out during this decade reflected these events as well as technological advancement and innovation that had sprung up in the U.S. Tags: cakes and cookies, celebrity [...]

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American affluence after World War II meant that there was money and desire for commodities like toys. A few of the world’s most popular toys would come out of this decade. While they were popular when they first came out, many are still very popular with adult collectors. Tags: New York City, Mr. Potato Head, [...]

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In the 1940’s, the world was fighting its biggest war.  In the U.S., people were forced to ration what they had to be able to supply the war effort with what it needed to be successful.  The toys invented in the early part of the 1940’s reflect this sentiment, and in the late 1940’s, toys [...]

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The U.S. economy in the 1930’s was a complete flip from what had been seen in earlier decades. Manufacturing techniques were getting better, materials were getting cheaper and more durable, but now people did not have the money to purchase these new toys. The Viewmaster did not come about until the end of the decade [...]

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