World War II Toys

Just three weeks before Christmas, on December 7th 1941, America was violently thrust in to the Second World War. When war rationing of metals, rubber and other products went into effect toy manufactures were forced to find other materials to build their instruments of play.Glass toys, often filled with candy, became a popular item. Many of the toys where molded into the shapes of tanks and planes that America’s children were quickly becoming very familiar with.One of the most popular series of toys released during the war where called “build-a-sets”, made completely out of cardboard. The sets often had a military theme or where constructed to be used with toy cars or airplanes that kids already had in their toy box.After the war ended in 1945 toy makers resumed their production of model trains and wind-up toys, and launched a new era in the toy industry by making toys from the different types of plastics that had been developed during the war years.