Free Toy Making Books (.pdfs)
Home-Made Toys 1915
Toys & Toymaking 1882
Girl's Own Toy-Maker 1860
Boy's Own Toy-Maker 1859
Children's Toys 1877
Free Model Building Books
Model Aeroplanes Cavanagh 1916
Model Aeroplanes (2nd) Collins 1911
Model Aeroplanes (1st) Collins 1910
Model Aeroplaning 1910
Model Locomotive Design Greenly 1904
Model Engineer's Handbook Hasluck 1902
Model Engines & Small Boats 1898
Building Model Yachts Biddle 1883
Model Yachts & Boats 1887
Building Model Yachts Walton 1880
Model Dockyard Handbook Lawrence 1867
Things Worth Making Williams 1920
Model Making Yates 1919
Mechanical Models Stout 1916
Canoe & Boat Building Stephens 1885
Boy's Workshop Kelland 1914
The Boy Mechanic Pop Mech 1913
Beginner's Woodworking Wheeler 1907
Boy's Playbook of Science 1869
Free Kite Making Books
Kitecraft & Kite Tournaments Miller 1915
Kite Mechanics Marvin 1897
How to Make Kites Varney 1897
Free Doll Books
The Doll Book Starr 1908
Handicraft for Handy Girls Hall 1916
Handicraft for Girls McGlauflin 1910
Clay Modeling Hildreth 1892
Modeling in Clay 1880
Manual of Play Forbush 1914
Cassel's Sports & Pasttimes 1896
Mother Earth's Children Gordon 1914
Vege-Men's Revenge Upton 1897
Golliwog in Holland Upton 1904
Online Book Search Engines
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Walmart Toys
has the low prices and wide selection you would expect at any Wal-Mart store. And if any item you order from them does not meet your expectations, you have your choice of returning them to any Walmart store, or by mail (some items such as computer hardware and components, heavy or large items that are identified as oversize on their item description pages and perishable products, such as flowers and food, cannot be returned to a store).
Willygoat Toyland
sells toys of all kinds, including swingsets, ride-on vehicles, trampolines, game tables, building blocks, wooden playsets, toy trains, stuffed animals, RC cars, and much more.
U.S. Toy Company
sells a vast array of party and seasonal decorations, novelty toys, stuffed animals, balloons and many more items. Their products are affordable, with some items priced as low as a penny apiece.
Amazon.com Toys and Games
department carries top selling toys, action figures, activities and learning toys, arts and crafts materials, baby toys, toy blocks, gears and models, dolls, games and puzzles, stuffed animals and stuffed toys, toy vehicles, ride-on toys, and die-cast models, and basic and traditional toys. You can use this Amazon.com search form for toy search, or to search any of their other fine stores.
"Smart" Toys, Educational Toys
In operation since 1953, U.S. Toy Company's Constructive Playthings
sells the finest early childhood educational toys, equipment, books, records, tapes, videos, art supplies, and teaching aids available. They ship anywhere in the USA, but they do not ship internationally.
The Scholastic Store
is the largest publisher and distributor of children's books. Scholastic’s most popular titles include Harry Potter and The Magic School Bus. The Scholastic Store Online also sells toys and games you’ll find only at Scholastic Inc.
KazooToys
sells the world's largest variety of educational, non-violent toys and games. Over 3,000 unique products for kids of all ages teach math, phonics, and more. KazooToys has been awarded as the "Toy Store of the Year" by the Toy Industry Association.
Classic Toys
LEGO
products are developed in such a way that there is something for all ages and stages of development. From kindergarten toddlers, schoolchildren and teenagers to young-at-heart adults. There's something for everyone - whether you prefer making things up as you go or building predesigned models. The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well". Now the world's sixth-largest toy manufacturer, LEGO was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. The Company has passed from father to son and is now owned by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, a grandchild of the founder.
Crayola.com and SillyPutty.com
sell all-time classics that no kid can do without, direct from the manufacturer.
Pinata.com
is the place to get a pinata to complete your party planning, direct from the largest manufacturer in the US. They have hundreds of pinatas and party games to choose from.
TIME Magazine, October 26, 1962, p. 90:
All's Swell at Mattel
In 1945 a Los Angeles industrial designer who had gone into the picture-frame business found himself with a lot of extra frame slats and decided to make doll furniture with them. Thanks to the doll furniture, Elliot Handler and his wife Ruth cleared $30,000 on sales of $100,000 that year. The Handlers have never quite matched that profit margin, but in the 17 years since then their Mattel, Inc. has joined the front rank of U.S. toymakers. Last year Mattel earned $4,000,000 on sales of $49,400,000...
Mattel gives much of the credit to saturation selling on TV. In 1955, Mattel, still a fledgling firm with annual sales of only $6,000,000, decided to move into toy burp guns...
Mattel's Mickey Mouse Club advertising, which plugged the Mattel name as hard as the burp gun, has revolutionized the $2-billion-a-year U.S. toy industry. Previously, toy companies spent most of their ad budget in the Christmas season and concentrated on selling individual items. Today, top companies advertise year-round on TV, and accent the brand name. Mattel, with a 1962 advertising budget of $5,700,000, still plugs harder than anybody else.
The Built-in Whinny. To back up their advertising ("You Can Tell It's Mattel-- It's Swell"), the Handlers aim for well-made, moderately priced toys. One Mattel innovation was a mass-produced music-box mechanism that has now gone into 60 million toys ranging from guitars to lullaby cribs. Another gold mine: a miniature voice recording that stands rough handling, allows Mattel's Chatty Cathy doll to speak eleven phrases and a $48 rocking horse to whinny.
Mattel's biggest success has been the Barbie doll, a more or less scale model of a busty teen-ager which appeals to little girls because it looks "grown up" and to their parents because it is inexpensive. Made in Japan to save on labor costs, the Barbie doll (which now has a boy friend named Ken) is priced at $3 retail and has become, according to Ruth Handler, "the greatest phenomenon that has ever hit the toy business." Mattel also offers separately a Barbie wardrobe ranging from lingerie up to a $5 wedding gown.
...Husband and wife aspire to make Mattel the world's biggest toymaker; this year, if their sales hit $80 million as expected, they will achieve their goal and surpass longtime industry leader Louis Marx...
At Mattel's Los Angeles factory, a staff of 200 toy developers, including chemists, sculptors and engineers, tinker behind locked doors on an annual research budget of $1,500,000. Currently, the company has 17 new toy "principles" ready to employ in a variety of toys. Exults Jack Ryan, a one-time missile engineer who heads Mattel's R. & D. department: "We're right out on the frontier of technology."
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See also:
Games
Posters
T-Shirts
Sporting Goods
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