Reading Room

I Yam What I Yam

“I YAM WHAT I YAM, I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN!” by Edwina Campbell Popeye, one

Collecting The Marx

COLLECTING THE MARX MICKEY MOUSE METEOR TRAIN SET By Jim Engelage In the early 1950s

The Gang of Five

By William Gallagher   A recent auction of a “Machine Man” robot selling for almost

Shovel All The Coal In McLoughlin Brothers Picture Blocks

By Ken Foust Shovel All the Coal In McLoughlin Brothers picture blocks by Ken Foust

In Toys We Trust

By Morton Hirschberg In Toys We Trust by Morton A. Hirschberg The history of toys

Felix Frolic

By Carl Lobel FELIX FROLIC! THE TOY THAT CHANGED THE  WORLD* *(THE TOY WORLD) by

Auburn Rubber Company Innovation in Motion

By Dave Leopard The Auburn Rubber Company, based in Auburn, Indiana, was originally the Double

Tale of the Toonerville 4 No 2 Alike

By Carl Lobel When viewed separately, three of the four Toonerville Trolley lithographed tin wind-ups

Polyrama Panoptique

By Mara Bosboom Hi, my name is Mara Bosboom and I work for the Toy

World’s Oldest Toys

Excerpted by Christina Rubin Vying to be the World’s Oldest Toy:  Is it the 4,000-Year-Old

Fountains? What Do You Mean Fountains?

By Roland Digilio When meeting another collector for the first time, the conversation will invariably

A Very Early Locomotive

By Marty Maloy A bit of historical background is in order for full appreciation of

An Arithmetical Pastime

By Anne Cartwright This hand colored, linen-backed game was published in 1798 by John Wallis,

The Games People Played: Dominoes

By Anne Furnish Cartwright The earliest reference we have to the game of dominoes dates

Children’s Favorite Tool Chests

By Ken Vliet In collecting children’s tool chests it is difficult to find them with

Carl Adam: The Little-Known Inventor of A Lot of Well-Known Toys

By Jurgen and Marianne Cieslik Rare luck. While researching our book Ein Jahrhundert Blechspielzeug: Ein

Ahrens Fox Pumper

By Roy Blomster I am a toy collector. I have been collecting since the mid-1970s,

Crandall’s Pigs in Clover

By Christina Rubin Charles Martin Crandall, born May 30, 1833, started inventing toys at the

Palmer Cox Brownies

By Jeanne Solensky, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library One of the joys of my job

Structo Toys 1915 – 1920

By Paul Stimmler The toy company we know as Structo was formed in 1908 by

Buddy

By Michael Yolles In 1982, Albert W. McCollough’s book The Complete Book of Buddy “L”

Mr. Edison and the Talking Doll

By Christina Rubin In 1877, Thomas Edison dreamed of creating a talking doll using his

A Nodding Acquaintance

By David Finn These days almost any Z-list celebrity or sportsperson has a bobble-head dedicated

The Woverine Zilotone

By Martin A. Roenigk Ever since discovering the Wolverine Zilotone several years ago, I have

The Ultimate Wind Up

By Chris Rubin This article is adapted from information provided by the Franklin Institute in

Toys Made In Buffalo, New York (Part I)

By Anne Cartwright By the late 1800s, early 1900s, Buffalo NY was the 8th largest

Toys Made In Buffalo, New York (Part II)

By Anne Cartwright  From 1882 to 1892, they produced cast iron still and mechanical banks