Out of all the toys throught history, the most interesting were in the "tin era" of toys. This time period was from the nineteen twenties and fifties, excluding the forties due to the need of metal in World War Two. Many people regard the toys from the tin era with a certain charm. They seem to give one a sense of the past. Now, most toys are are plastic action fighters or complicated video games that can't ever duplicate that charm.
In the nineteen twenties, the tin toys were very simple. They were small vehicles like trains or crude models of figures. Most toys were only two or three colors! There weren't that many car models because most children weren't very interested in them. However, there were many tin boats. Though because they weren't able to float or sail, there were wheels attached to the bottoms. Models such as these are very valuable today due to the great
amount of detail and craftsmanship done on them.
Penny toys were popular for a short while in the ninteen twenties too.
They were named because of their small size. The first old fashioned
telephones were introduced, the kind with ear pieces. Horses became popular also. Many had soldiers on their backs because of the war's influence. Along with them came slightly larger trains and motorcycle models. The first wire operating tin toys were introuduced shortly before the nineteen thirties. 
In the nineteen thirties, tin toys became a little more complicated and started experiencing even more influence from the war. Most of them now had about
six basic colors: red, blue, black, white, gold, and green. There were many kinds of vehicles that came from the war. The first zepplins and planes for instance. There were also many "practical" so-called toys, such as clocks with a tin soldier on a motorcycle that came out every hour. These toys were mostly used for ornaments, though.
Soon after, Water drum toys were introduced. These toys were of famous people or animal characters holding drums that had water wheels in the back. When water was poured onto the wheel, the character would beat two little sticks it had in each arm onto its drum. Later in the thirites, the first model cars and trolly cars were made. Both of these were very expensive because they were the first of their kind and money was needed for more important things such as the war. At the very end of the thirties, model boats made a short comeback.
After the war, the tin era started up again with an explosion of popularity that would later burn out. In the fifties, there was a great number of toys that were based on occupations. There were still toys that operated on wires, but now the first of the battery operated toys were begining to appear. There were such toys as telephone pole climber and one with a man cutting the hair of another man. Though some worked with movement, most just used their batteries for blinking lights and sounds. It was because of all the movement, light, and sounds that circus toys became popular. There were dancing clowns and trains that played music with animals roaring from them. In the early fifties, there were tin model airplanes from World War Two, mostly bombers. Almost all plane toys were popular as long as they were jets. Jets were popular because they had never been toys before. At the end of the tin era, tin remote control cars were used, which were then upgraded with plastics and such, shutting tin out, maybe forever.
Also, plastic dolls are a recent invention. Before, they might be referred to as ragdolls since they were made out of cloth. There have also been different types of plastic dolls made. Shown on this page are dolls that are obviosly very different from Barbie Dolls. Nowadays it's much harder to get such time and quality put into a toy than it was back then. 
Any suggestions for or comments about our site? Visit our general message board and. . .well. . .leave a message! You can also e-mail us and we'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks once again for visiting our site!