TOYS

Introduction
Toys are things to play with, esp. play things for children.

Toys throw light on the remarkable similarity of sentiments and customs that exists among people divided from one another by time, space, race or religion. It also forms a key element to relate with the story of human race as they are intimately connected with the activities of the children who played with them and of the adults who designed or made them. It also holds historical importance as it supplies valuable supplementary landmarks in the history of man’s progress. Example: the toys recovered from the excavation of ancient tombs or sites which were the seats of by-gone civilizations and those who have left traces of their existence.
Toys also hold important educational value as it helps the experts to study children and their psychology. As a folk art toy making takes us back to the dim and distant past. Though the factory produced toy is a product of our mechanical civilization, some of the earliest toys prove that mechanical devices were also known to ancestors thousands of years ago.
Rattles, building blocks, pull carts, stuffed toys, dolls, train sets and various indoor games are a child's best friend. Interestingly, these very products also constitute the vast and varied range of traditional Indian toys that are slowly coming back into vogue. Doing the trick is the use of bright new colors and contemporary designs, and the backing of modern marketing techniques. There was time when clay dancing dolls or figurines of birds, animals and musicians could amuse a child for hours. Many adults may have fond childhood memories of playing with home-fashioned toys. Today, however, the markets are brimming with a variety of factory-manufactured toys of different makes and brands.
As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made from materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and synthentic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores.
Somewhere along the way, the Barbie doll replaced the humble clay doll, while Lego took the place of simple wooden building blocks. More than the change in basic form, the materials have changed because of technological development. Some how the basic difference in the gender based toys remain similar till date. Previously toys for girls were like dolls which were soft and curvy made of wood of stuffed fabric, mostly indoor toys and the ones for boys were outdoor and not as soft n easy to handle as girls as boys were suppose to be tough. Even now you see Barbie’s wearing pink lacy stuff soft beautiful and all accessorized popular among girls and GIJOES all tough with muscles and guns , hot wheels and race tracks very popular among boy.
Evolutionarily girls like to play with soft curvy dolls, kitchen sets (indoor games) while boys play outdoor games and had toys like toy soldiers, guns etc. This gender difference was there and still continues to be the same.
“Handmade toys reflect the culture and the traditions of the people, those produced by factories represent the march of science”
The play instinct is inherent in children and the earliest toys presumably included any object which appealed to this instinct and could be handled with ease by the child. The child’s environment and the mode of life of those in whose midst he was brought up must have determined the type of toys of any particular era.

Children have always made toys for themselves. By doing so, they have been provided the opportunity to penetrate and understand the physical environment in which they live.

Chronology
1920: Wooden toys
1928: Mickey Mouse was launched as a cartoon character
1934: the Mickey Mouse came as a toy in US
1959: The Barbie Doll was launched in the US
1960: beginning of plastic toys in India
1975: wooden toys lost existence in the Indian market
1980: the plastic toys
2000: wooden toys came back as art objects


Indian traditional toys
Indian handmade toys
Playing cards
Kitchen sets
Top (wooden lattu)
Dolls, animal forms ( glass, lacquer, terracotta and wood )
Puppets (fabric, wood, coconut, fiber)
Gilli danda (wooden)
Skipping rope
Ball (rubber, fabric, wood, clay)
Wooden toys
Stuffed toys

Western influence in India
Electronic
Cartoons and Barbie dolls
Guns and cars
Soft toys-teddy bear
Batterie operated toys





Toys in the 20’s and 30’s

Indian tradition of making has always been a craft

Indian toys since the early times have always been made from easily available material from the surroundings or were made from waste material from daily life.

Toys made out of wood were the most common in the 20’s and 30’s. Local carpenters made toys from locally available wood. Toys like gilli-danda, top, and wooden dolls, bullock cart were common. Simple wooden toys with wheels (something which has a string to pull) were used to play. Bullock cart was a favorite toy amongst kids.
In very interior parts of the country dolls and animal forms were made of cow dung and terracotta were colored in different colors using geru. (colors like Indian red and brown were used)
Small animal figures made of sugar were used in the ritual of puja. These small figures were then used as toys by kids and were also sweets to eat. Figures made of turmeric were also used as toys and now they are worshipped. These things are practiced till date but the context has changed. Lacquer toys were also available. Simple rattles made of tin and small stones were the sound entertainers.

In India kids were playing with handmade toys, while in the US Mickey mouse was launched as a cartoon character in 1928. Mickey mouse came as a toy in 1934.

Toys in 60’s and 70’s

Wooden toys were common in the market till the mid 70’s. Rubber dolls with blinking eyes were new and common. Dolls with moving limbs and action figures were in picture. Plastic toys were seen in since 60’s. After the mid 70’s wooden toys were almost extinct in the common market. They are again in picture in the 21st century but in a totally different context.

Toys running on batteries were all China made and were brought in India by people who could afford buying it from China. Metro cities like Mumbai and Chennai had toy stores selling the Chinese toys. Toy trains, cars and planes were some products available then. India was making clock work toys. Foreign toys were bought in India by rich Indians who could afford buying expensive toys.

Building blocks called Mechano made of wood was a common toy. Later this toy was also made in plastic.

The Barbie doll was launched in 1959 in the US. Launching of the Barbie doll was a landmark in the history of toys. Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara at play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children's toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company who launched the barbie doll.

Toys in 80’s and 90’s
Wooden toys were totally replaced by plastic in this decade.

Recycling of waste was on scene in this decade. Toys made from recycled plastic with very dull colors were available.

Rattles were toys making sound. Toys making realistic sounds were new inventions. Crying babies were exciting to play with.
Many famous toy companies started business in the 1890s and 1900s. Britains started making toy soldiers and later farmyards, zoos, cowboys and indians and railway figures. Hornby produced clockwork and electric trains and Meccano.
In the 20th century, the cinema and later TV, has had a major influence on the retail of toys. The popularity of many toys goes in cycles as new generations rediscover the toys for themselves. The use of battery power and computers have changed the way that toys operate. However the principles behind the toys are often the same with clockwork train replaced by the electric, the walking and talking doll relying on batteries rather than clockwork and string. Now there is also a return to wooden toys, traditional looking teddy bears and simple games such as marbles and spinning tops.

Aarti Badamikar
Akruti Sinha