Popular toys from the ’40s: Kids’ favorites (1948)
This four-page photograph shows 126 Christmas toys, a good cross-section of the $300 million worth which US kids — like the two in the picture — will find under their Christmas trees this year. The number beside each toy identities it on the price list appearing at the end of the picture.
A number of the toys are old reliables (chemistry sets, dolls, electric trains) refurbished with new colors and new gimmicks.
But the year’s crop also contains a host of new ultra-realistic toys which recollect the “world in miniature” theory current among the nation’s 2,000 toy manufacturers. Thus a boy who receives the scale-model road-building equipment (numbers 91, 92, 93, 101) can actually build small cement roads with it.
His sister can have a vacuum cleaner (30) and refrigerator (54) equipped with real lights. There is also an electrical truck (79) that can be remotely controlled to turn corners and back up, a juke box (69) and an air-turbine racing auto (97) for the youngster bored with mere windups.
Toy manufacturers expect that all this realism will make 1948 Christmas sales top all previous records. For parents who must foot the bill, there is a saving consolation: there are more small toys than ever, and the trend is definitely toward medium and low prices.
See a list of all toys (and prices) after the pictures
More toys than ever! The top popular toys from the ’40s
Toy price list
Since toys are not strictly price-fixed, their retail prices frequently vary from one store to another; the prices listed below for the 126 toys on the preceding pages are estimates made by their manufacturers. While they range from 15 cents to $72, there are 95 toys under $10, and 71 under $5. The average price of all 126 is $8.38.
The parent who shrinks from the upper-bracket items can take comfort in one perennial of Christmas time: it is often the cheapest, sometimes tinniest toy that, for reasons understood only by youngsters, proves to be the most wonderful on a Christmas morning.
List of toys featured in photos above
| 1 Velocipede $20.95 2 Chemistry set 7.95 3 Counting house 10.00 4 Wooden mailbox and blocks 3.00 5 Acrobatic wooden clowns 2.50 6 Cash register 3.98 7 Penny-bank safe 2.98 8 Adding machine 1.98 9 Birdhouse bank .39 10 Rocking horse 15.50 11 Nesting blocks 2.00 12 Wheeled horse 2.25 13 Musical elephant 2.25 14 Clow-in-the-dark dog 3.00 15 Hurdy-gurdy music box 2.95 16 Jointed wooden cow 7.50 17 Singing bird 2.50 18 Barking dog 3.00 19 Pecking rooster .75 20 Pecking bird .41 21 Duck family 1.19 22 Comic wooden train 12.50 23 Queen Anne furniture 20.70 24 Hunt stable 22.50 25 Child’s davenport 20.95 26 New-Look doll 17.95 27 Doll cradle 5.00 28 Plush elephant 5.95 29 Child’s armchair 11.95 30 Electric vacuum cleaner 8.95 31 Magnetic jackstraws .69 32 Housecleaning set 3.25 33 Plastic golf clubs 5.95 34 Plastic rolling toy 2.95 35 Bed and inflated mattress 3.29 36 Colored doll 11.95 37 Doll high chair 4.50 38 Sewing machine 6.95 39 Electric iron 1.95 40 Doll bathinette 4.50 41 Wetting doll 8.95 42 Airplane hobby horse 4.95 43 Plastic doll stroller 3.95 44 Plastic croquet set 3.95 45 Gilbert & Sullivan show 10.00 46 Marionettes, each 7.95 47 Baking set .98 48 Dish set 1.79 49 Sombrero doll 1.79 50 Drum major 1.98 51 Dancing doll 5.00 52 Doll carriage 14.98 53 Electric range 7.95 54 Refrigerator with light 3.95 55 Kitchen sink 1.49 56 Assembled walking giant 50.00 57 Plush elephant 2.75 58 Doll glider 2.98 59 Toy kitchen mixer 1.98 60 Toaster set 1.69 61 Lemonade server .98 62 Washing machine 4.00 63 Waffle iron .98 |
64 “Diesel” electric train $72.50 65 Conveyor-belt log loader 12.50 66 Water tower 7.95 67 Electric freight train 72.75 68 Supermarket 2.98 69 Juke-box phonograph 31.98 70 Swiss juke-box bank 41.98 71 Wooden pop-up figures 2.00 72 Sparkler top 2.50 73 Teddy bear xylophone 1.59 74 Radio in toy phone 5.93 75 Sniffing dog 2.25 76 Deep-sea diver 2.00 77 Metal doll house 5.25 78 Steam engine 12.50 79 Remote-control truck 39.50 80 Logging truck 7.95 81 Lumber carrier 8.95 82 Phonograph-record books .29 83 Plastic ring toss 1.50 84 Period furniture 17.60 85 Plastic piano 2.98 86 Car with light and horn 4.95 87 Gearshift car 3.50 88 Mechanical car 3.75 89 Wooden cabin cruiser 8.00 90 Model-building kits 1.00 91 Concrete mixer 10.95 92 Dump truck 12.95 93 Bucket loader 13.95 94 Silver-plated cowboys .15 95 Miniature animal books 1.00 96 Boy doll 24.93 97 Air-turbine racing auto 4.95 98 Steam roller 2.00 99 Jigsaw-puzzle map 3.50 100 Telephones 5.95 101 Road grader 13.95 102 Child’s steering wheel 2.98 103 Wagon 11.00 104 Wooden circus 29.50 105 Four-poster doll bed 410.00 106 Cowboy suit 4.98 107 Set of boxing gloves 5.00 108 Vinylite bob-up toy 18.00 109 Child’s toilet-article kit 7.98 110 Microscope set 9.95 111 Put-together pull toy 1.70 112 Humphreymobile 1.98 113 Egg-laying hen .59 114 Snapping alligator 1.00 115 Barnyard 13.95 116 Fire department 7.95 117 Wooden puzzles .75 118 Climbing monkey 1.98 119 Auto speedway 2.00 120 Wooden train set 3.50 121 New England village 5.50 122 Carousel night lamp 8.95 123 Ski-jumper 1.59 124 Ski and sled toy 13.95 125 Magnetic airport 9.95 126 Rubber balls .52 |
