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making heavier, thick-metal cars. It was the era of the neighborhood 5&10/
Woolworths stores and once the Great Depression hit, things tanked.
With the Second World War coming into view, industrial
manufacturing turned to making items needed for the War Effort.
Metal was scarce, and toys were made in much smaller quantities and
cherished by the children living through this time.
The post-war era saw a boon in metal toys coming out of Japan. Tin
cars were quickly coming into the hands of American boys and girls.
Tin toys may have been developed in Germany, but the available
Japanese workforce that moved into the cities from the country turned
their attention to making modern, acceptable decorative, and utilitarian
products within new factories being built. Because of post-WWII
agreements, Japan was able to export its goods to a variety of other
countries and made a strong foothold in the American market, while
Germany had a much larger recovery to make.

The 1950s Toys

– with Bruce Elass, Tin Toy Collector

[Japanese] toys took many forms,
improving significantly on the pre-war
marketed, purely cottage industry, toys.
With women being given the right to vote
in Japan, they also joined in on the
making and decorating of toys, mostly ALPS Happy Santa with Lighted Eyes: Eyes light up, arms move to
due to the number of losses during the play the drum and cymbals, and the foot moves to pound the base
war. Mechanical and battery-powered drum. Head and body move back and forth. Battery-operated.
toy parts were produced mostly by The Collection of Bruce Elsass
women in factories and assembled there
and at home. Toys soon became a popular ALPS Mechanical Reading Santa: Santa’s hand is magnetic,
export item. enabling him to turn the tin book pages. Wind-up. ALPS also
The heyday of these toys was about made a mechanical Santa Claus bell ringer that was made very
1952 – 1962. After 1962, plastic became cheaply and often used tin can waste. The Collection of Bruce Elsass
the material of choice for toys and tin fell
out of favor. Many of the toys made earlier
in the 1950s have celluloid parts for wind-
shields and other parts, whereas the later
ones have plastic parts. Also, the earlier
toys tended to be smaller, with larger versions being manufactured
later. Transitional, medium-sized toys are often the rarest and therefore
the most desirable and expensive. Some collectors collect only toys with
bright graphic boxes; some may even limit their collections based on
specific graphics artists, although few of the Japanese artists are known.
By the mid-1950s, Japanese toymakers had replaced many of the
earlier wind-up mechanisms with miniature battery-powered electric
motors. These motors enabled the toys to run for a much longer time,
allowing the engineers to increase the complexity and variety of the
movements and even to add lighting. These more versatile toys were a
huge hit in the United States, helping to make Japan the world’s top

Santa on a Scooter: Scooter has bump-and-go action and a clanging sound.
The headlights and taillights light up and flash, battery-operated.
The Collection of Bruce Elsass Japanese Tin Toy Makers’ Marks
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