The National Museum of Toys / Miniatures

[gwb123]

http://toyandminiaturemuseum.org/history/

 

Sometime ago, my wife read about a "doll museum" somewhere in Kansas City. Typically we were in town when it was closed, or was squeezed out by other things we'd gone to see.

 

We finally were able to stop at the National Museum of Toys / Miniatures this weekend and spent a short three hours looking through their exhibits.

 

The museum is literally divided into two sections, with the Toy museum being on the second floor.

 

Included in their displays were a number of pre-WWII and wartime toys, some foreign, some US.

 

Unfortunately, the museum was sparse with placards, so I will have to speculate on the age and origin on some of these items.

 

In the center of a generalized "war toy" display was this book on wargames, by none other than H.G. Wells!

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The museum presents toys as cultural objects as much as playthings, reflecting the history and values of the societies that created them.

 

I believe this might be an older Britain's set showing a British field ambulance evacuating the wounded.

 

In front of the ambulance in the second photo you see a very worn nurse holding a wounded soldier in her arms.

 

Note the gaggle of pilots conferring in the background, complete with gloves and flight helmets.

 

In the upper portion of the photo note a hand held press mold, as well as the lead soldier and the bomb burst that could be made with it. With sets like these, the industrious child (or parent) could stamp out an entire army!

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From the interwar period, this wonderful example of a Marx Toy Company metal tank, with an assortment of pop up features. I especially like the hand with the raised signal flag in the center.

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A rather stoutly built and well used toy fighter plane.

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A very impressive pre-WWII lithograph four engine bomber, complete with gunners printed on the side of the fuselage. The camouflage pattern looks like those used for the war games that preceded the war.

 

I am not exactly recognizing what aircraft this represents, or if it was just the product of an active imagination. But considering the age and size of this it is in pretty good condition.

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I believe we have discussed this fellow before. If I recall correctly, these dolls became popular during the pre-war US draft, when boyfriends, Dads and brothers were called up for "short term" national service.

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War eventually did come to the US.

 

Although I intuitively knew some of this, the narrative on this sign explained a lot about the toys that you find from the actual WWII period.

 

This explains why the metal toys that you find from this era are all prewar, or immediately postwar.

[gwb123]

The outgrowth of these restrictions were a return to wooden toys, as well as paper and other "non-strategic materials."

 

Here are some examples of wooden Army vehicles.

 

The ones in the vertical display include another cannon, a jeep, and either a tank without a turret or an amtrac (it was hard to tell due to the glare).

 

 

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A wooden airplane, probably simplified for a younger child.

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A classic ad for a wooden, 21 inch, Commando machine gun. The semi-realistic art indicates it can be used with a tripod or fired while in the running/ standing position.

 

Note the mail in order blank that says "Send No Money", and then asks for $1.95 to cover postage.

[gwb123]

Paper dolls had never fully gone out of fashion, and fit right in with wartime material restrictions. In addition to Joan, there was also Mary from the Army (WAC) and other characters.

 

I apologize for the photo, but it was the only one I took.

 

This is a bit odd to look at with the modern eye. The doll looks like a juvenile, as does her basic outfit, while the uniform is that of an adult service woman.

 

If you search on the internet, you will find a number of WWII paper doll sets, including some modern remakes.

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Somewhat of an extreme for "non-strategic materials" are these toy soldiers. At first they looked like a very rough sandcast. If you dig far enough onto the museum's website you find that these were molded from sawdust and glue, and then painted. I would imagine these were very fragile and few of them survived.

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Paratrooper doll, made to be thrown into the air so that it could parachute into pretend combat.

 

There was a film clip to go along with this on with the original owner of this toy. Apparently he spent quite a bit of is time climbing trees to retrieve his brave soldier, and more than once had to get his father to get it off the roof. This was about 8 inches tall.

 

Originally it had goggles and a flight helmet as well.

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Believe it or not, there were hand held games before the electronic age. This one measures about 3 x 5 inches. The goal is to "put out" the street lights before the enemy bombers are overhead.

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While metal was scarce, plastic, paper and cloth were available to make these child sets.

 

This one is a bit creepy for the pretend gas mask to be carried by the junior air raid warden. Note the included whistle, included to get on the nerves of adults while playing blackout.

 

The folded over brown item is apparently an official looking police style visor cap.

 

This was a way of socializing kids and making them participants in the events of the time.

 

The aviator badge may have been generic to other kits and sets.

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For the girls, this lavish Junior Nurse kit, complete with sugar pills and a play watch.

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Added details from the Nurse set.

 

The glasses were probably added because "they make you look smart!"

 

Hard to think that the young owner of this is probably in her 70's by now!

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As a post script to the World War II period, there was a section on the post war rebirth of the toy industry in both Germany and Japan.

 

There were a number of tin toys shown, but it was hard to tell which ones came from the Occupation era.

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As mentioned, the other half of the museum was fine miniatures.

 

Once upon a time it was a hobby of well to do ladies as well as their daughters to maintain finely appointed doll houses and decorative rooms. In scale, these had actual wood furniture, woven rugs, and silver place settings. The level of detail on these is incredible. Included in the collection were violins that were a mere 2 to 3 inches that were not only strung, but could be played in proper key!

 

There was not a lot of military related material in this part of the museum, but it is worth visiting just to see the level of craftsmanship.

 

The suit of armor shown here is actually about 8 inches tall.

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This fully jointed fellow was in their masterpiece display... again about 8 inches tall and completely detailed and correct.

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And of course you have to have a wooden ship or two.

 

This not only displayed topside, but also had half of the hull removed to show the interior. I believe this was about 10 to 12 inches long.

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These are just some highlights of the combined museum, and ones that were appropriate for this Forum.

 

There was a nice section in the toy museum that showcased key toys by decade from the 1920's through to the present. Somewhere mixed in there were the Star Wars, Care Bears and GI Joes that my kids played with. And then there were some now notorious items such as the Easy Bake oven.

 

I think most people would enjoy visiting here if you happen to be in Kansas City, but a couple notes about the museum:

 

I didn't think it was particularly kid friendly and I would not take a child who was under 10 or 12 years old. Why? Because all of the toys are behind one inch thick plate glass. If there was a child play area there, we didn't see it. The young kids who were there were really frustrated and confused by it all.

 

If you are really, really into toys, you have to keep in mind that what is on display is a SAMPLE. This is not an all exhaustive display of every toy ever made, or every variation. For example, there were originally 10 or 12 Care Bears. In their display, due to space, they had 2. Now those examples were in mint condition, but my first thought was where are the rest of them.

 

There are very few placards explaining what you are looking at. I am sure the museum knows exactly what they have in their holdings, but for some reason display cards are few and far in between.

 

Overall, I would say that the place treats toys either as art or cultural objects. If you can work with that, you will be fine. And you will be rewarded with such gems as the original Stief teddy bear or original Disney inspired memorabilia. Enjoy!

[trenchbuff]

Thanks again for another great museum review! I'll certainly add it to my list next time I'm in KC to visit the WW1 museum.