Classic Toys | Pedal Cars

Throughout the generations pedal cars have been extremely popular and a firm favourite among children of all ages.

We had one when we were younger and one of our most treasured memories was peddling our little sister around as she smiled in the tiny passenger seat of our shiny blue pedal car. We felt so grown up driving around like Mum and Dad.

Generations before us have had similar experiences and memories of pedal cars, as nearly every child either owned one or knew someone that did. Pedal cars go all the way back to the 1890s, when the automobile made its way to the streets. The pedal car soon followed.

Just like automobiles, the pedal car was only for the wealthy families of the time, but it was still on every child’s wish list. As the Great Depression loomed most families who could not afford the shiny metal pedal car made their own, and so was born the billy cart, usually made out of wood and other household materials, and they had just as much fun!

Fun Fact – Like many toys during the war, pedal cars stopped being produced as the metal was directed to the supplies for the war.

The post-war prosperity brought a new automobile to every driveway. Lots of children wanted a shiny metal pedal car to match their parents. Garton Kidillac deluxe cars from the Garton Toy Company, included a battery powered head and tail lights and were advertised in toy catalogues for $36.95 in 1954. In the same catalogue, $11.98 would get you a pedal and rod driven Murray Champion Sports Car.

Fun Fact – During the late 1930s some pedal cars made by U.R. Lines Bro’s were decked out with real Dunlop tyres, including a spare.

The pedal cars were not cheap to make as they had lavish details and the steel was typically enameled to ensure the rich and vibrant colours. In some models the pedals were even adjustable with movable windshields and rag-tops to ensure a more comfortable ride for the little racers. Models ranged from economy to luxury, just like their parent’s cars.

Fun Fact – The Garton Kidillac was even given away by car salesmen as a sweetener to buyers of the new Cadillac.

After the huge success and popularity that pedal cars attracted, companies started to manufacture pedal planes, trucks, trains and tricycles.

The 1970s saw plastic pedal cars being parked in driveways as new safety standards for metal cars were introduced, sadly leading to the end of the manufacture of ride-on metal cars.

When the company Murray stopped manufacturing pedal cars they moved onto the next big thing – the power lawn mower.

Fun Fact – The Australian Government released a stamp with a red Cyclops pedal car from 1953 as they were so popular here in Australia.

Pedal cars are still very popular today but sadly in today’s ‘throw – away society’ they’re now mostly made of plastic and mass produced. Tin pedal cars are still sought after however as a special big-ticket item or a collector’s item. They remain a classic with the same stylish appeal that they had many years ago but they’re now much harder to come by.

Here at The Vintage Toy Box we have a beautiful line of vintage inspired tin pedal cars in-store so you can relive memories of your past and allow your children to experience the hours of fun you had as a child.

Our Toy Shop Values

We are guided by our values. 

Awareness, Community, Compassion, Creativity.

To have awareness is the ability to know, perceive, feel and be conscious of things and people around you. It’s about tuning into feelings, emotions and reactions, and responding in an appropriate way to each situation. 

Community means living as a collective group in harmony, sharing a common purpose and goal. 
Strong communities have members who look out for each other and contribute towards the common good. 

Communities hold each other up. It takes a village to raise a child.  The more people work together as a community, the stronger they will collectively become. 

Connection, Family, Contribution, Fulfillment. 

Courage, Giving, Empathy, Humility.

Moral courage involves doing what is right by others, particularly when the potential risks may involve shame, opposition or their disapproval. 

Courage is not about who we claim to be, but rather who we reveal ourselves to be through our words and actions.  Actions speak louder than words.   

Humility is the quality of being humble and realising that you are no more important than any other person. Those that are humble have little vanity or ego, but realise their own value in society. 

Those that are humble put themselves on an equal footing to others around them, seeing too the value in them, and how much more we can be together. 

Someone who spends their life taking care of or looking out for others shows humility, by working towards a greater good. 

We are greater than ourselves. 

To have empathy is the ability to connect with other peoples emotions, and imagine what someone else might be thinking or how they are feeling. It’s about understanding other people and acting with sensitivity towards them. 

Empathy is to walk in someone else’s shoes, walk their path, and feel their pain. Empathy is to feel more than your own emotions and to be aware of more than your self. 

Fairness, Integrity, Frugality, Kindness.  

To demonstrate fairness is to think about how your actions may affect other people, and act accordingly. To be fair means to listen with an open mind, without discrimination, treating everyone as equal whilst remaining impartial.   At The Vintage Toy Box we promote fairness as we believe every person is equal and should be treated the same.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral and ethical principles that you choose to live and act by. It’s about doing the right thing by others and feeling comfortable that your actions led to something good. Integrity is about choosing to be a decent human being.

Kindness means doing something nice for someone else without expecting anything in return. Kindness is about being respectful and helping others without wanting someone to help you back. The act of being kind is not just being nice but showing empathy and understanding.

Harmony, Loyalty, Honesty, Questioning.

Living in harmony means to live peacefully with others, having an unspoken agreement to have different ideas and feelings and considering this before taking action which may upset the balance.

To show loyalty means you have a strong feeling of support towards someone, and will demonstrate this support to them, and if necessary defend them if required.  True loyalty comes from the heart.

To be honest simply means being true to yourself and true to others. 

It may be very hard to be honest at times as sometimes being honest can lead to consequences if you have done wrong. Being honest though shows integrity in wanting to right the wrong. 

People appreciate honesty, it shows you can be trusted. 

It’s always best to be as transparent as possible. There is strength in admitting our faults. We are after all only human.   

It is important to question things around you. Questioning is the most simple and most effective way to learn. Brilliant thinkers never stop asking questions because they know it is the best way to receive a deeper insight. The more questions we ask, the more knowledge is gained.

Reliability, Sharing, Resilience, Strength.  

Sharing is a vital life skill and our most basic form of human interaction and well-being. Sharing allows us to develop, and most importantly, keep friendships. When you share you get to experience the enjoyment together. 

Sharing is caring. 

To have resilience means you have the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties or tough situations. It means that you have the ability to adapt well. To be resilient means you can 'bounce back'. What doesn’t knock you down, makes you stronger.

Gratitude, Respect, Tolerance, Truth.  

Having respect for yourself and others is one of the most important qualities a person can have. Respect is a positive action or feeling towards someone or something that you consider important. You can show respect for others in simple ways like by using polite words, by using positive comments, playing fair and listening to what someone is saying to you, even if you do not agree. 

To be tolerant means you have the ability and willingness to accept others. 

Teaching children about tolerance is important. As they grow they will learn to accept people who are unlike them in a fair, objective way.

Tolerance is about being patient, having understanding, and accepting ideas, beliefs and opinions in a respectful way.

The world would be a very dull place if we were all the same. 

Being truthful allows us to grow and mature and allows others to put their trust in you. When people trust each other they grow together and can conquer anything. Trust is important for society and for forming social bonds.

Teach our kids today to be the adults of tomorrow.

Our Toy Makers | Pukaca | Paper Toys and Craft Kits

In a nutshell, tell us about your business

PUKACA is a company committed to the design and manufacture of unique paper toys and paper products that are made for children, designed by us thinking as children. We are based in Portugal and have a wonderful worldwide following, including The Vintage Toy Box in Australia.

Tell us a bit about you

We are two designers,  Isabel Vaz & Nuno Dias and we founded PUKACA in 2005.  We met at University and straight away we started working together after discovering that Isabel loves to draw small creatures and Nuno loves to make them come alive.

Some years later we decided to create our own brand - PUKACA - and we began to put our ideas into practice.

What inspired you to set up your business?

We’re always delighted by the traditional tales, the Brother’s Grimm Fairy Tales, the La Fontaine Fables, medieval stories, the natural world and all other worlds that belong in a child’s imagination.

What do you make?

The main products in our range are paper toys. We also make Alphabet & Numbers Posters and 3D Paper Postcards - all made with 100% recycled paper.

How do you make them?

We start the design of all of our paper toys by drawing out the ideas that we would like to see built.

After choosing the design we like the most, we start building it by hand – it’s an old school method that makes our paper toys so unique. We build countless prototypes - all by hand - until we reach the final toy.

Depending on the product, the illustration will be made by hand or in a computer and then applied to the final design already vectorized.

After that, the final product and packaging is printed, all in our own facilities, and we make the final assembly, always by hand.

Let’s just say that from the initial idea to the final product there are countless prototypes and hours of hard (fun!) work.

Describe your artistic style

Simple and straight lines, colorful and playful.

What do you love about your business?

In a world full of technology, our paper toys bring back the pleasure of constructing your own toys.

Our toys are meant to be built using the hands, increasing manual dexterity and spatial perception. We believe that constructing and playing with our toys allows families and generations to interact together, share experiences and create lasting memories.

It’s that need to see things take shape, to create, to learn and to play.

Our toys aim to enhance in the child, or in anyone who handles them, an active and creative intervention. We believe in the principle that difference enriches us. It’s important to have toys that raise creativity, provide new experiences, highlight the human individuality and allow interactivity with others.

 Where would you like to see your products?

Over the last few years we’ve sent our products to the five continents on the planet.  We like to say that we love to see our products wherever there’s children or people that want to play with them.

Favourite toy as a child and why?

Isabel loved her bicycle and to cycle around the neighborhood with her friends. She loved to go to a nearby farm and to climb trees.

Sara loved to construct her own toys with pieces from other ones.

Nuno loved building blocks that allowed him to create fantastic places to play, transforming rooms into play grounds.

To check out some of Pukaca’s fabulous range, and to learn more about them, drop into The Vintage Toy Box. We can guarantee their paper toys will make you smile!

Our Makers - PoppyLane Decor and Designs | Nursery Decor and Children's Room Decor

In a nutshell, tell us about your business

PoppyLane decor & designs is a small, local business that produces one of a kind and custom made mobiles to suit any space, age and theme. We specialise in falling flower mobiles.

These beautiful statement pieces are hand crafted and have a subtle elegance and beauty that can create a relaxing space for little minds and adults alike. 

PoppyLane decor and designs also creates child and adult size head bands, flower crowns and halos for all occasions; all of which can be custom made. 

Tell us a bit about you

I am a Southern Highlands mum of a beautiful little girl, and I love to create. 

I created my first piece when setting up our nursery, awaiting the arrival of our daughter. After her birth I decided to continue expressing my creativity in the hope that others would love my pieces as much as I do.

When I’m not looking after our daughter I am helping other young minds develop through my position in a local child care centre.  

What inspired you to set up your business?

The love I have for creating these beautiful pieces was enough to get the ball rolling, whilst also allowing me to spend more time with my daughter. 

What do you make?

Custom mobiles, wall hangings, headbands, flower crowns and anything else a customer may have a vision for.  I will give everything a go and love creating custom designs and one-off pieces.

How do you make them?

By sourcing quality materials and using my interest in design to piece together the perfect combinations. 

What do you love about your business? 

That there are no restrictions - I create because I love to. I get to work with others to create their visions and help them come alive.  I love to see joy on little faces as they wear their crowns or hang their mobiles.

Where would you like to see your products?

In beautiful spaces created by those that have chosen one of my designs to be their statement piece.

Favourite toy as a child and why?

My teddy. His name was Bundy. Who would have thought a little girl could love a bear so much.  He is proudly still around today for my daughter to enjoy and love, just as much as I did.

To see some of PoppyLane Decor and Design’s beautiful hand crafted mobiles, and to learn more about them, drop into The Vintage Toy Box, as they look even more gorgeous in real life. 

Valentine’s Day

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we take a brief look at the history of the day, and give you some love inspiration.

Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14 and honors romance, love, and matters of the heart.

There is a bit of controversy about how Valentine’s Day first came about but the theory that we like the most comes from Ancient Roman times.  It is thought to be linked to a Roman Festival in which young boys and girls would pulled names out of a bowl to see who they would spend the rest of the festival with. Some pairings even got married.

Fun Fact: The red rose was the favourite flower of Venus, Cupids Mother and the Goddess of Love.

There was once a boy named Cupid, he was the son of Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love. Cupid is usually associated with Valentine’s Day as the mischievous boy who went around sending arrows through the air, making people fall in love.

Fun Fact: King Henry VII officially declared February 14th the holiday of Saint Valentine in 1537.

The most popular gifts around the world that are given to celebrate the ‘modern day’ Valentine’s Day are chocolates and flowers. As the years have passed however people are getting more creative and branching out from the expected chocolates and flowers.

If you’re looking for a unique gift, something that is a little different or something that will last long after the flowers have wilted and the chocolates have melted, come down to The Vintage Toy Box where we have loads of unique and quirky gifts for your loved one.

Sometimes the sweetest gift to give is one that brings back memories and gifts that you can have fun with.

Have a romantic night in doing a vintage style puzzle together or playing classic games. We’ve got lots of games designed for two. 

Have a little fun and friendly competition with our Spud and Bubble Guns.

Bake some cupcakes and decorate them in our ‘love’ themed cupcake sets. 

Whatever you may be after for your special someone – come down and see us as we’re more than happy to help you pick out a perfect gift.

Our Toy Makers | Whispering Hallows | Soft Toys and Toy Bunnies

In a nutshell, tell us about your business

I started Whispering Hallows as a hobby, a way for me to express my creativity. I have two children and have always loved to make quality handmade toys. The Bunniekins family from Whispering Hallows are different from everything else on the market, as they are each unique, with their own personalities and style.

View fullsize

What inspired you to set up your business?

I like to make and try different things! I also make jewellery, such as earrings, necklaces, brooches and sometimes natural baby chews. I will give anything a go at least once.

What do you love about your business?

I love the fact that I can choose what I want to make, although the best part is seeing the looks on little people faces when they see, feel and hold the bunnies. I love the feel of the felt bunnies and how each one is different with a different personality and love seeing children discovering this too.  

Where would you like to see your bunnies?

I would like to see my Bunnies go travelling all over the world. We have such an influx of mass-produced toys and electronic games. Children need the encouragement to play with toys and create imaginary games and adventures with their toys.

Favourite toy as a child and why?

As a child my favourite toys to play with were dolls. I remember having so many dolls. I had tea parties and adventures with my dolls, and pushed them around in a pram. They were my babies. I had a doll that I was able to wind up and she played music and rocked her own little baby. I still have that doll!

To meet the Bunniekins of Whispering Hallows and learn more about them, drop into The Vintage Toy Box and see what mischief they’re getting up to.

The Vintage Toy Box | Traditional Barber Shop meets Toy Shop

View fullsize

For those of you that know us, you’ll know that we also own Motique. Motique is a botique men's gifts and games store, set up to offer a tailored selection of products designed to meet the requirements of the modern gentleman.

Motique, a fine purveyor of old-style men’s goods operates online and from within our Moss Vale store in the beautiful Southern Highland’s of NSW, in our old style traditional barber section at the back of The Vintage Toy Box.

What’s really interesting about our shop though is that for 40 years before we moved in, it was also the Moss Vale Barber shop, operated and run by the local legend John ‘Snipper’ Parry.

We have people popping into the shop all of the time talking about when they were a kid, and when John used to cut their hair. These people are now grandparents themselves , but they still look back fondly on their childhood days.

Sadly John is no longer with us, but we thought it would be a lovely thing to keep his memory alive, so we’re currently on the lookout for:

1. A barber to rent out our barber chair

2. People with memories to feature in our special feature piece about John.

If you fit into either of these categories, or know someone that does, please get in touch, as we’d love to hear from you!

Classic Toys | Step Back in Time | Toys From The 1960s

The 1960s, also known as the Swinging Sixties was a decade of fun, due to the relaxation of the taboos and constraints of previous years, especially those relating to Sex and drugs and rock and roll.

After experiencing sluggish economic growth in the 1950s, as the after effect of Word War 2, the U.S.A experienced a massive 1960s boom with the economy which rippled around the globe. People born in the early 1960’s are commonly referred to as Baby Boomers due to this economic upturn.

Fun Fact: ‘Baby Boomers’ aren’t just from the early 1960’s like many people believe. The baby boom actually started when husbands and men returned from the war in 1945, leading to a high number of babies being born the following year.

The sixties was known for its peaceful demonstrations of peace and love and the creation of the Hippie sub-culture.  One of the biggest demonstrations of mass-love was Woodstock, a three day music festival held on a dairy farm north of New York City in August 1969 which attracted more than 400,000 people spreading love and peace. Rolling Stone magazine listed Woodstock as one of the top 50 moments that changed the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll and was forever immortilised as the summer of love.

The Space Race also dominated the 1960s with the USSR and the USA competing against each other in the realms of space exploration. On the 20th July 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon after leaving earth 4 days earlier. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin had fulfilled President John F Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon before the 1960s came to a close, even though President John F Kennedy himself was assassinated on the 22nd November 1963 in Dallas, Texas.

Fun Fact: The real winners of the space race were said to be the USSR when they launched the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 back in 1957.

Muscle cars with huge engines and loud exhausts became extremely popular in the 1960s. In Australia, these muscle cars needed to blow off steam somewhere – so in 1963, the Bathurst 1000, also known as The Great Race was introduced.  It was a completely different race to the souped up race we see today with only minor modifications being made to the engines.

Fun Fact: No special harnesses or seatbelts were installed in the cars; they raced in the standard seats that were manufactured with the car. Most racers encountered fabric burns and rashes as they slid around the seat racing around Mount Panorama.

The cars and rules have changed dramatically at Bathurst over the past 50 years but that doesn’t stop hundreds of thousands of people camping out on Mount Panorama for the 4 day event (the city of Bathurst expands its population by 4 times over the duration of the event) with many more tuning in on their TV’s every year to witness who will be the next King of the Mountain.

Once again music was a huge part of the everyday life of most people during the 1960s and in 1964 the cultural phenomenon of the British invasion of music began as The Beatles flew into America.  The Beatles were at the forefront of the invasion alongside The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and Herman’s Hermits.

At the start of the decade music changed when the huge ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ movement came to an abrupt end and novelty pop songs and Motown groups climbed up the music charts. Surf Rock or California Sound also emerged during the early 60s, where the music was based on beach and surf.  The Beatles’ rival band, The Beach Boys dominated the surf rock scene after starting out as a garage band, they gained popularity as they made their way up the charts.  Their popular songs Good Vibrations and Surfin’ USA among many others are still enjoyed  around the world today.

Classic Toys | Rubik’s Cube

If you search for the most popular toy in history you will most definitely see mention of the classic Rubik’s Cube.

View fullsize

The six sided puzzle is made up of 26 plastic mini cubes often referred to as ‘cubies’ or ‘cubelets’ which all interlock in a way that prevents them being pulled apart. The object of the Rubik’s Cube is to solve the puzzle by lining up each side of the cube with the different colours.

Invented in 1974 by a 30 year old Hungarian professor of architecture and sculpture, Erno Rubik, the ever popular puzzle has been an all time classic for decades, stumping puzzlers young and old with its magical logic.

The Rubik’s Cube was was never meant to be a toy though. The inventor had the idea of constructing a handheld puzzle with the original intention being to help people understand three dimensional Geometry. The invention proved so curious however that it soon took the world by storm!

Erno Rubik got the patent for his creation in 1975 and paired with another Hungarian toy maker, they soon set the world on fire with this amazing toy, selling over 350 million cubes in the past 40 years.

Fun Fact: The original name for the Rubik’s Cube was the ‘Magic Cube’. It was renamed in 1980 to ‘Rubik’s Cube’, after the inventor as it was bizarrely felt that ‘Magic Cube’ invoked ideas about witchcraft.

The very first prototypes of the cube were made out of wooden blocks and paperclips, with the first test batches of a plastic cubes first being released into a toy shop in Budapest in 1977.

View fullsize

In 1980 the Rubik’s Cube won its first ‘Game of the Year’ award, with a staggering 200 million cubes being sold worldwide during the period 1980 – 1983. The Rubik’s Cube then went on to win ‘Toy of the Year’ two years in a row in 1980 and 1981, with ‘New Scientist’ magazine famously noting in 1981 that the Rubik’s Cube had:

‘Captivated the attention of children ages 7 – 70 all over the world this summer’.

Fun Fact: It took Erno Rubik over a month to finish his own puzzle!

The Rubik’s Cube craze kept growing and in 1981 the Rubik’s Cube was featured on the front cover of Scientific American, as an awe-inspiring advancement in science and technology. In the same year the first ever Super Cubing Championship was held by the Guinness Book of Records in Munich, for cubers to complete the puzzle in the quickest time possible. Jury Froeschl set the record for completing the cube in an amazing record time of 38 seconds!

That record was fabulously broken one year later by a Vietnamese student who set the record at 22.95 seconds. The current world record is an amazing 4.90 seconds held by a 14 year old boy since 2015. There is even a three year old from China who solved it in less than two minutes! Wow!!

Over the years the competitions have evolved to include variations such as solving the cube one handed, blindfolded, underwater, in a single breath and even using ones feet (that record stands at 20.57 seconds)! To this day however, no human has ever been able to beat a robot in completing this puzzle.

Fun Fact: Three of the top ten bestselling books of 1981 were books based on the Rubik’s Cube with the number one bestseller being, ‘The Simple Solution to Rubik’s Cube’, which sold a whopping six million copies.

View fullsize

During the 1980’s and 1990’s the Rubik’s Cube was still being marketed and sold but sales decreased. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s that sales began to soar again as retro toys became popular once again, with sales doubling between 2001 and 2003. In 2003 the first Rubik’s Cube Championships were held since 1982 with an astounding 83 participants.

Fun Fact: Less than 5.8% of the whole world’s population can solve the Rubik’s Cube.

2006 saw another rise in sales when Will Smith was shown solving the Rubik’s Cube in the popular movie The Pursuit of Happiness. The cube has also appeared in a number of other movies such as Despicable Me 3, Tron Legacy, Dude Where’s My Car, Armageddon, The Amazing Spiderman, Wall-E and Snowden. You can also catch a glimpse of the cube in the popular TV shows The Big Bang Theory, South Park and The Simpsons.

Fun Fact: The Rubik’s Cube has 43 quintillion possible configurations (that’s a million raised to the power of five!)

Christmas Traditions | The Adventures of Buddy The Elf!

Now that we’ve welcomed in the New Year and we pack away our Christmas decorations until next year, we take a fond look back on all of the antics of Buddy our Elf. He sure did get up to a lot in our shop in the countdown to Christmas.

We found this when we came into the shop on the 1st December ... we had no idea who wrote it though! 

Mystery solved! Look who we found sitting on top of the fireplace?  Buddy the Elf! 

We’ll miss you Buddy! Until next year!