Pivotal Toy Companies

The early days of toys were very basic although there were some exceptions. There are records of pieces found from 4000 BC that were believed to be part of an early checker or chess type game. This was an exception. Most were handmade from wood or scrap metal. They were no moving parts or complicated assemblies. Most were made by the child's parents at home. Toys began to take off a bit more in the 16 and 1700's. The mid to late 1800's saw a change in toys. They started becoming more detailed with some moving parts. Manufacturers started popping up such as Lionel trains in 1901.

MARX TOYS

In 1919 one of THE most influential toy manufacturer's of the 20Th century was started by Louis Marx and his brother David. They had 2 policies the first was "Give the customer more for less" and "Quality is not Negotiable". In the beginning Lou took other peoples toys and marketed them very successfully but within 10 or so years he was a millionaire and began producing some of the world's most memorable toys! Remember those play sets in big boxes full of army men and cowboys and the like? Marx toys! How about Big Loo, the Big Wheel, Rock'em Sock'em Robots, Johnny West, Stoney Smith and countless others! All Marx toys!
To get an idea of how popular a toy company Marx was, in 1955 Marx sold over $50 million dollars in toys and spent $312 in advertising! In contrast Ideal toys sold $6 million dollars and spent $500,000 in advertising. That's unreal! Sadly this began to catch up with Marx with the dawn of television and the baby boom that was looming. Marx Toys managed to stay family owned until 1972 when it was sold to the Quaker Oats Company. Quaker never was able to recreate the magic of Lois Marx and not to mention the beginning of the electronic and video game boom, and in 1982 closed it's doors. In my opinion as well as thousands of others, Marx toys was THE best toy company ever.


IDEAL TOY COMPANY

Back in 1903 Morris and Rose Mitchum had an idea for a simple toy. It was a little stuffed bear. They put them in their store window and sales did OK. Around the same time, then President Theadore Roosevelt went on hunting trip. The President's staff had a Bear tied up for him to shoot. Teddy refused to shoot the bear as he felt, rightfully so, that it was defenseless just sitting there tied to a tree. Word of this spread and eventually made the papers. Morris and Rose had a brainstorm! Why not write the President and ask if they could call there little stuffed Bear's. Teddy's Bears? They did, he said yes, and the rest was history! By 1907 they started Ideal Novelty and Toy Company and eventually would change the name to Ideal Toy Company in 1938. The company was sold in 1982 to CBS Toy Company which ended up closing. Many of Ideal's toys are still made today by various companies.

Marx and Ideal are just 2 of the many influential companies. There would be many more to come such as Deluxe Reading, later changed to Topper Toys, Remco, Mego, Kenner, Hubley and many more. Sadly, most of these are now gone. Today's toys just don't seem the same. So much is expected from modern toys and there's not much room for children to imagine. Ahh the good old days...