Tuppertoys: Shop-at-home toys are colorful (1989)
Busy mothers will find holiday shopping a little easier this year thanks to Tupperware and four new additions to its Tuppertoys line. Each is colorful, durable and designed to grow with your child. You can buy replacement parts, too, so a lost piece won’t end the life of these toys. [Editor’s note: A reminder that this article is from the ’80s, so pricing and product details are for historical reference only.]
“Parents tell us they want fun, durable and safe toys that hold their child’s attention and encourage hours of imaginative play,” said Lisa Kaplan, Product Director for the Tuppertoys line. “We have those same exacting standards for our toys. Each new Tuppertoys toy meets another exacting standard as well; it must continue to challenge children as they grow.”
Link-A-Lot toy is a linking, learning, lots of fun toy. It’s made of six rainbow-colored “links” in different shapes — square, circle, rectangle, triangle, hexagon and diamond — that all link together.
Young children learn colors and shapes as well as develop manual dexterity skills as they pull the shapes apart and put them back together.
As they grow, the boy provides endless opportunities for creative play, stimulating imaginations to construct an almost limitless variety of forms including bracelets, chains and free-standing sculptures. Suggested retail price is $8.50. For ages 2 and up.
“What’s Inside?” puzzles will stay at the top of the toy chest in easy reach for frequent play long after the holidays have passed. Made of durable, washable and child-safe plastic, both puzzles provide fun for children eighteen months and up.
One features the numbers “one” through “ten” on its interlocking puzzle pieces; the other teaches color identification and names: “red”, “yellow”, “orange”, “blue”, “green” and “purple”.
The surprise is what is inside! Under each puzzle piece are words and pictures. The “Numbers” puzzle features the brightly colored nursery rhyme, “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe.”
What’s Inside puzzles help little hands develop manual dexterity and eye/hand coordination. Children learn colors, size and shape recognition. Children learn colors, size and shape recognition, and word associations while they have fun fitting the puzzle pieces together. Suggested retail price, $8.50 each. For ages 18 months and up.
Tote-em Pails toy
Children who like to build mighty towers, nest and stack things and splash in the bathtub will love to find this versatile toy under the tree.
This bright nesting, stacking indoor and outdoor toy features six colorful pails, each in rainbow color. The largest pail has a carrying handle. Appealing animal faces are etched on two sides of these colorful pails. Turn the pails upside down and stack them; they make a totem pole!
Raised geometric shapes on the bottom make each pail perfect for stamping out clay “cookies” or designs. Three pails have holes in the bottom, too, for sprinkling water on an imaginary garden. The suggested retail price is $11.00 for the set. For ages 2 and up.
Li’l Tuppers School Yard toys
What child wouldn’t fall in love with this adorable toy? A great holiday gift, its variety of activities will keep children two and up occupied for hours and interested for years. It features a merry-go-round, basketball hoop and basketball, swings, covered slide and teeter-totter.
The Merry-go-round has room for five riders, so the two Li’l Tupper characters that come with the set can bring along their friends from the companion School Bus toy or Li’l Tuppers City Hall set made by Tupperware and sold separately.
Older children will be challenged by games with the ball, such as bouncing it into the hoop or from the teeter-totter into the slide. The suggested retail price is $19.50. For ages two and up.
Vintage Tupperware Shape-O Ball Shape Sorter (1968)
Kup-L-Ups vintage Tuppertoys Tupperware toy
Tupperware toy train, blocks & shape sorter (1985)
Tiny Tupperware: Mini-Mix-It and Mini-Serve-It (1979)
Mini-Mix-It and Mini-Serve-It miniaturized Tupperware sets for children, which are identical in appearance and quality to products used by
grownups. were received with great enthusiasm by children and grown-ups alike.
SnaPics and Build-O-Fun vintage Tuppertoys from 1965
Busy Blocks, addition to Tupperware’s toy line in 1972
A vintage Tuppertoys Bounce It In game from 1984
2 Responses
Incredible article.
I had forgotten all about the SnaPics, the Build-O-Fun and the Busy Block sets.
I have all of my sets from childhood, plus the animal-shaped toy sets. They have been packed away for decades.
I also have many of the diferent Mini Mix-It and Serve-It sets. Some with original boxes.
One very popular Tuppertoy wasn’t mentioned at all in this article though – the Pop-A-Lot.
Goodness, but keeping track of the little balls was hard to do. But I even still have my set from way back!
Thanks for such a wonderful article.
My mother was a Tupperware Dealer and she had to purchase everything that she wanted to display for sale. My younger brother and I very quickly got into her supplies and took the fun stuff.🤣 As her business and clientele grew, she would have to come and check our bedrooms for the missing toys. Thank you so much for this article. I’m 56 years old, but still can see us plain as day, happily playing with her display pieces. Ahhhh, America!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸