From the archives…

Some things never change. That special thrill of gazing into a toy shop window is just as special as it always was, especially with Christmas on the way. This heart-warming photo of an American toy shop in 1941 captures the magic as two brothers make their mental notes for the upcoming letter to Santa Claus. Hey kids! You’re in luck! As long as you’re wishing for “Hop Ching”, that is…

Going back a little further, judging by the clothes, we see a scene with a little added resonance in these financially troubled times. The three urchins have eyes only for the lavish display in this toy shop window. The man standing behind them looks like he’s wondering how he’s going to pay for it all.

Back in 1893, people needed to make their own entertainment. Their equivalent of the Cartoon Network was this circle of card with multiple pictures of a horse printed on it. Spin it around in a special viewer and it looked like the horse was running (why not print this picture out and try it? It’s not like anything important is happening at work at the moment). Other programming included acrobats and flying birds. It was heady stuff.

It’s a little early for us to be thinking of next January’s Toy Fair (although you can rest assured the toy industry is already gearing itself up), but we can only hope attendance will be better than the Madison Square Garden Toy Show managed a hundred years ago. Top toys of the day were, apparently, replicas of the Wright Brothers’ plane and what looks suspiciously like a life-size model of a bomb (you can’t even buy a good toy gun these days), and still nobody came.

Finally, here’s a cautionary tale. If you’re planning on buying toys that you know your kids won’t like, but that you think are just great, consider that they might surprise you and actually like them – much like this little girl has confounded her dad by liking the toy train he’d dearly hoped would be snubbed. Trying to grab it back from her isn’t very nice though, is it?