It's all here! Pictured and listed in this massive volume, now in its fourth edition, are fifty-four years' worth of toys produced between Matchbox's founding in 1947, and 2001, including their popular diecast vehicles, playsets, dolls, plastic kits, robots, and ephemera. The international scope of Matchbox toys is illustrated in catalogs and on boxes and labels printed in a dozen languages. Certain toys have been made for sale in specific countries or to promote specific companies or products. In 1982 the international numbering system on miniatures changed. The result of all these variables is a fascinating and infinite variety of Matchbox toys. In the largest volume about Matchbox Toys ever published, 2,447 color photos illustrate nearly all of Matchbox's vast line. Helpful captions and a price guide make this an essential part of every collector's library.

Providing collectors with information on virtually every aspect of toy collecting, this guide contains over 15,000 listings of both antique and modern toys. It features the same popular format as top selling Schroeder's Antiques Price Guide, with hundreds of photos, histories, and much more.

Current market values for 31,000 listings and 2,000 photographs are included in this publication that has been revised with new toy categories.

Here is the thorough list and newly updated price guide for the thousands of toys and collectibles distributed by McDonald's restaurants with Happy Meal*r boxes and bags, given out in all countries around the world except the U.S. (they are in the companion volume). Thousands of all-color photographs show the toys, boxes, bags, advertising materials, buttons, pins, value range and variations.

A tragicomic novel about nostalgia, addiction, and 1970s action figures. The Toy Collector is a wickedly funny portrait of a young man who sells stolen pharmaceuticals to finance his growing addiction to memorabilia. An orderly at a Times Square hospital, he buys his toys at exorbitant prices, searching the familiar tacky plastic in a perverse effort to avoid adulthood. As the story switches from the make-believe world he creates with his childhood friends-populated by Scrunch-Em, Grow-Em Dinosaurs and toy robots-to the grown-up pleasures of sex, drugs and alcohol, James falls in and out of love, and stumbles through New York City in search of dubious redemption.

During the 1940s, rubber toys that squeak became the most popular crib toy. Later, reed devices were developed to generate different sounds and soft, pliant vinyl plastic replaced rubber. Today, people avidly search for rubber and vinyl squeaky toys. Here, over 300 color photographs and a delightful text explore the field with a current price guide.

The toy collector's identification and value guide.

This new reference and price guide presents an informative 'personal' history of the former Marx Toys Company plant at Glen Dale, West Virginia, where many of the fondly remembered Marx Playsets, doll houses, and toy figures of the 'baby boomer' era were created and manufactured. More than just a catalogue of these ever-popular and eminently affordable toys, this book provides Marx toy collectors with new insights into the planning and production processes employed by the original 'king' of American toy makers. Included are insightful interviews with Glen Dale plant model maker and with the son of a Marx artist, along with previously unpublished photos of a number of Marx toy and figure prototypes. With publication authorised by the current owner of the Marx Toys trademark, this book provides a unique and valuable behind-the-scenes look into the production of one of America's premier toy manufacturers.

Volkswagen Beetle toys and models from the late 1930s to today are all displayed in over 350 color images. Tin, die cast, sheet metal, and plastic Beetles by major manufacturers, including Corgi, Matchbox, Hotwheels, Lledo, Tonka are included, along with glass and ceramic Beetles, and a Beetle Transformer*TM. Current market values are provided in the captions.

Tracing developments in toy making and marketing across the evolving landscape of the 20th century, this encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference guide to America's most popular playthings and the culture to which they belong. From the origins of favorite playthings to their associations with events and activities, the study of a nation's toys reveals the hopes, goals, values, and priorities of its people. Toys have influenced the science, art, and religion of the United States, and have contributed to the development of business, politics, and medicine. Toys and American Culture: An Encyclopedia documents America's shifting cultural values as they are embedded within and transmitted by the nation's favorite playthings. Alphabetically arranged entries trace developments in toy making and toy marketing across the evolving landscape of 20th-century America. In addition to discussing the history of America's most influential toys, the book contains specific entries on the individuals, organizations, companies, and publications that gave shape to America's culture of play from 1900 to 2000. Toys from the two decades that frame the 20th century are also included, as bridges to the fascinating past—and the inspiring future—of American toys.