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boys' toys : country trends England types play sets
English Toy Types: Play Sets
Figure 1.--Here we see two best buds playing in the back garden. Notice the small play set. We are not sure what it was, perhaps a gas station/garage. There also seems to be some kind of mountsin/rough terraine in front of the boys. Mpt sure how that was connected to the gsrage. We are not sure what that is all about. The snapshot is undated. We might guess the late-1940s, but we are unsure. Notice the boy on the left had the kind of knee socks that became popular after World War II rather than the turn-over-top school socks the boy on the right is wearing. He looks to be weating a school uniform. Notice the homes in the background. It lookd like anv affluent puper-moddle class neighborhood. You would think that garage play sets would be most popular in middle-class neigbothoods where families comminly had cars. (working-class failies did not ciommonly have cars until well after Workd War II. A British reader has provided an assessment of this page and like us is not sure how to date it. Click on the image to see his comments.
There are both indoor and outsoor play sets, but they were very different. An indoor play set came in a box or carrying case. It was a cardboard, metal, and now plastic to creae a scene or themed play activity. The are collections of similar toys designed to work together to enact some action or event. Play sets are now all plastic. They involve includ figures, accessories (people, horses, cars, ect.) and possibly buildings or scenery, purchased together in a common box. We have seen play sets for boys done as as gas stations/garages, marinas, a Wild West town, and much more. The boys here seem to be playing with a gas/petrol station/garage play set, but we don't see any cars (figure 1). After World War II we begin to see popular play sets based om movie and TV shows. All of this seems mostly for boys. I am not sure if there were early play sets done for girls except of course doll houses which out date early play sets by decades. At some point, probably the 1960s, castle play sets appeared so the girls could play out their princess fantasies. I recall a pink princess castle I purchased for my niece at a Disney store. I am not sure when play sets forst appeared. I suspect in the 1930s. I know I had a Wild West play set in America during the late-1940s. I played with it a lot. It was perfect for shoot outs. I suspect that the time line in Britain and America was comparable. Outdoor play sets are back yard/back garden gym set affairs with slides and swings. Thus they are also called swing sets. Some are even more elaborate with a kind of play house into which the children could climb.
