Die Cast Toys

Die cast toys have been around since the early twentieth century. Dinky Toys and TootsieToys were some of the early lines. They get their name from the fact that the toys, mostly made of metal, are die cast and then additional parts of plastic may be added. The quality of die cast toys has been steadily improving over the years and they have become increasingly detailed.

Many of the die cast toys became a method of advertising
for companies.

Notice the attention to detail.

In the World's Largest Toy Museum we have hundreds, if not thousands of die cast toys. Most of them are in the museum of course, but we also have quite a selection in our gift shop.

There are trucks, cars, tractors, planes and boats. There are large ones, medium size ones and tiny ones. Some are merely replicas of a particular car or truck while others are used to advertise a particular company's business.

Is it a toy or is it a collectible  I've always felt like a toy should be played with but then some of the die cast toys get a little pricey and some children are harder on toys than others. Consequently I'll leave the decision up to you. It is fun, however, to have a replica, for instance, of your first car or the tractor you drove on the farm as you were growing up. 

Lockheed Constellation
Pan Am

When I was a little boy, my younger brother was in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital so my aunt and uncle took me off mom and dad's hands to give them a break. They took me to the Cincinnati airport and I saw the plane pictured at the left coming in for a landing. I was forever hooked on planes from that moment on. In fact mom always said I was just "plane" crazy. We have all kinds of die cast planes here from early to current, military to civilian, private to commercial. Needless to say, they are my favorite die cast toys.

Often a die cast toy will also serve as a bank like this 1925 Delivery Truck at the right. Sometimes the coin slot is obvious like this one and sometimes it will be hidden and you will have to remove a part of the toy to reveal its location like on some of our tugboat die cast banks.

You can read more about die cast toys on Wikipedia.

Go to our Facebook page World's Largest Toy Museum to see more pictures of just a few of the thousands of die cast toys that we have. Or, better yet, come see us at The World's Largest Toy Museum and see them first hand. There are hundreds in our gift shop that are available for purchase as well.

Good Old Bird

One of the new/old dolls that has come to live here at the World's Largest Toy Musuem recently is in pretty good shape. When I saw her stretched out like that I thought I'd surely break something if I tried to get in that position not to mention the challenge of getting back up! Most of my exercising (when it gets done at all) consists of walking - not contorting.

However, what caught my eye was the old bird standing behind her. The base says, "Peters Weatherbird Shoes - For Boys - For Girls." I had never heard of Weatherbird Shoes and so I did a little checking. I learned that the Saint Louis Peters Shoes Company used Weatherbird's image for promotion purposes from 1907 to 1932. But who is Weatherbird? As it turns out, Weatherbird is the oldest continually running daily cartoon in America. He first appeared in February of 1901  in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and is still going. He's been drawn by several different creators over the years and his "look" has evolved somewhat as well. But for twenty five years he was also the mascot for children's shoes manufactured by the Saint Louis Peters Shoes Company.

Perhaps our girl in pink has some Peters Weatherbird Shoes she can change into from her ballet slippers.

Some of the information for this blog came from www.weatherbird.wikia.com

New Old Stuff

If you go through the World's Largest Toy Museum right now you will see several of these signs. The reason? We just recently acquired the contents of a toy museum at Natural Bridge, VA. We now have the joyous task of finding room in what many folks already consider a "full" museum for these 45,000 additional items. I never cease to marvel at the creative ways Tom Beck and Raine Clotfelter make space appear where none seemed to be before. Before this building was a museum it used to be a restaurant and guess what - a walk-in freezer makes a quite nice display area. Who knew?

With the addition of these new items, we now have toys that go clear back to the 1700s. We have a lot if international dolls and all kinds of other toys that make visiting the World's Largest Toy Museum an even more incredible experience. Even our gift shop has a number of additions from this acquisition expanding what we have to offer.

As we get various displays set up, I'll be posting photos on our "World's Largest Toy Museum" Facebook page for you to enjoy. Keep in mind, though, those snapshots are no comparison to the wonderful fun of seeing over a million toys as you journey through time here at the museum. Looking forward to seeing you.