Antique Fisher-Price Toys
Fisher-Price was
founded in 1930 by Irving Price and his wife Margaret, Herman Fisher
and Helen Schelle. All founding members came to the table with their
own experiences and the combination was a recipe for success.
Margaret Price was children's book illustrator and was the company's
first art director and Irving was retired after working many years
for a major chain store. Fisher worked for a games company in
advertising, creating and selling and Helen Schelle operated a toy
store in upstate New York.
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The first toys
made by Fisher Price were constructed mainly of wood and steel and
were first displayed in New York City at the American International
Toy Fair in 1931. The very first toy that was sold was named Dr.
Doodle and was wooden duck whose beak opened and closed and whose
wings flapped when pulled by a string. Dr Doodle's were made for many
years and today can be found under the name of Dr. Duck.
Fisher-Price was
also one of the first toy companies to use plastic to manufacture
toys. The company found that plastic made the colors brighter as well
as made decorations on the toy last longer. The first toy that was
made with plastic was Buzzy Bee. Like Dr. Doodle, Buzzy Bee was a
pull toy whose wings would spin when pulled.
It was in the
1960's that a friendly little family was created, known then as the
Play Family and were originally made of wood. Today they are known as
Little People and are made of plastic. With the advent of these
little girls and boys came houses, cars and schools as well as
animals which made for thousands of imaginative hours of play.
Fisher-Price is also responsible for the well-known View Master with its thousands of picture reels that allowed a child to see the world from their own home. Many of these View Master reels were created depicting favorite cartoon characters as well as pictures of outdoor scenes like the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns. In total, over 1.5 billion View-Master disks were created along with 25 different models of View-Masters.
Antique Fisher-Price Toys make a great addition to any antique toy collection.