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Toy cars made from plastic.
On this page I hope to feature some classic childrens toys, dating from the 1950s through to the 1970s, that were either made out of plastic completely, or else were mainly made of plastic with some minor metal parts only.
From the early days of the 20th century, most children could look forward to being given toy cars made from metal, either die-cast, or, if the parents were quite well off, brightly coloured tin plate (visit the tinplate page to see some classic tin toy cars).
While there could be no doubting that metal toys were still very desirable gifts to find wrapped under a tree at Christmas, the increasing use of plastic in all products of the 1950s, led to many manufacturers producing toy cars from this increasingly popular material. Some toy cars were very basic affairs, featuring just a simple formed bodyshell, perhaps with a base, or sometimes with no base at all and just a couple of axles protruding from the one-piece body. Plastic toys could be produced very cheaply indeed, another bonus for the manufacturers. Many were crude looking things that bore no resemblance to actual production cars, whereas others did resemble a real car, more or less!
Alan, one of the visitors to my toy cars section on oldclassiccar, has sent me photos of some of his toy cars, which I've included in those featured below (thanks Alan).
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