WW2 wartime models
Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 3:11 pmIn 1942, I believe, wartime production of toys in the USA using strategic materials was halted by government order. In the UK it was done at the same time. France had already been over run by the Germans in 1940.
Most UK and USA producers were by then making needed products for the war effort anyway and very little toy production continued.
There still was a market for toys, of course, and some appeared in more fragile materials such as wood, particle board, paper, plaster, and cardboard.
Every once in a while one of these wartime toys resurface, and some can be found in surprisingly good, obviously unplayed-with condition.
Over the years I have obtained a few, and seen lots of 'Jack Armstrong' type paper planes, mainly available as cereal promotions. Of these I know little.
I must say I don't really like them that much, and few people collect them so they are very reasonable. But, in any case, they are part of the history of toy airplanes so onto the collection shelves they went.
Most UK and USA producers were by then making needed products for the war effort anyway and very little toy production continued.
There still was a market for toys, of course, and some appeared in more fragile materials such as wood, particle board, paper, plaster, and cardboard.
Every once in a while one of these wartime toys resurface, and some can be found in surprisingly good, obviously unplayed-with condition.
Over the years I have obtained a few, and seen lots of 'Jack Armstrong' type paper planes, mainly available as cereal promotions. Of these I know little.
I must say I don't really like them that much, and few people collect them so they are very reasonable. But, in any case, they are part of the history of toy airplanes so onto the collection shelves they went.