SANTA'S PUBLIC

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 248, 11 December 1940, Page 6

SANTA'S PUBLIC

DEMANDS NEW AND NOVEL TOYS. A peep into Santa Claus" 1940' Christmas pack reveals that engineering science has relegated many of the toys of a year or so ago to the "horse and buggy" age. Consequently an exacting tricycle and scooter public thac demand many things *'lik 1 daddy V"' including streamlined wheeling comforts, will have no fault to find with this year's Christmas toy parade. Visits to. toy displays being mounted in leading department stores show, for instance, that the "okMashionedr tricycfe is now an oddity. Inexpensive [processes lor? st/amp.mg metal have ciaused this chikVs favourite to go streamlined. The same is true of - scooters and kiddy cars. Behind this trend is a chiiJ, public as eager for the novel as the grown-ups who jostled each other to get near the new creations at the 1940 auto shows. This public of minors, say toy experts, will tolerate Santa Cla.iis coming to town in his traditional sleigh and reindeer, but he must have the very latest in his pack. New and fantastic in operations is a contraption seen abroad' that looks like an over' grown scooter. The feature ib in the back wheel, as big as thct on a full-sized bicycle, but with its axle off centre. The rider stands on the platform, and b/ alternately leaning forward and 'backward.; actually |makes the thing go. Streamlining is the motif, irou--the tiniest scooter to the most ornate toy—which may this year be the electric train. Seated at the control box, sonny (and father) can use a separate currentt.; —either superimposed on the tracks, or carried on a third rail —to make the crack streamliner do everything but earn, a profit. Some of these outfits can cost father a small fortune.

As in real life, the toy train's rival is the airplane. Here, too, the trend continues to more elaborate and ingenious: planes, and kits from which can be built. Not only can the young enthusiast build his own plane which will fly, but by setting a few controls he can make it perform. Along with the" idea of educating potential engineers and scientists with elaborate building and chemical sets, the toymaker have taken an interest in the junior science psychology. For the very young, toys are revealing useful, educational tendencies. 'Perhaps most obvious of these are the sets which provide toddlers with lessons in the axiom that a round peg goes into a round, hole, whereas a square peg can fit only into a square hole.