Paper Toys
Paper toys have been around since the mid-1600s when they were called Pantins. Almost every toy can be found in a paper or cardboard version.
American companies began turning out paper toys by the thousands around 1900. McLoughlin/Milton Bradley, the most popular manufacturer produced beautifully lithographed covered box sets or cardboard figures on wooden stands and sheets of American and foreign soldiers.
Between 1895 and 1905, almost every major newspaper in America featured Sunday Art Supplements, which were paper toys for children. The World War II era was the golden age of paper toys in the US. Paper dolls such as Betsy McCall could be found in all publications.
Many boxed sets of played paper dolls still can be found thou the price has increased from the original pennies sold for the cost is still easy to get into as a collection. As a ALERT collectors should be aware that many 1940s and 1950’s paper dolls have been reproduced in their entirety since they are off copyright. O’Brien’s Collecting Toys 12th Edition is a great resource for pricing and identifying many of these paper toys.
Paper toys have been making a comeback with the Japanese art of origami which has led to some wonderful inventive designs in paper. Takashi Tsundo has created paper robots called Piperoids that you can find a few samples of online.
https://artoftoys.com/product/piperoid-rokuske-hachi/
Art Of Toys often features the creative cardstock art work of Chris Cinder which are robots, dragons and even sprites all made from cardstock. We sell these so fast in the gallery it is hard to get online.
https://artoftoys.com/product-category/cinderchris/
Here is a robot pattern that Artie Annette used for 2nd Saturday art activity at Art Of Toys that was found online. There are many online resources for paper toys….MANY
