YOUNG NEW ZEALAND

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 144, 20 August 1941, Page 2

YOUNG NEW ZEALAND

DEMAND FOR TOY SOLDIERS

INFLUENCE OF THE. WAR

Toy soldiers and minialure war equipment direct from the war zone are the latest craze with New Zealand children.

One of the reasons is that they have seen the soldiers taken out by little evacuees from Britain.

But children left behind in Britain are having to go without their toys so that they may be exported to help pay for the war. In London, the world's largest makers of toy soldiers, who use about 500 tons of lead to make 12,500,000 items a year, are now working entirely upon export orders, and many of these are for New Zealand.

The United States are buying five or six times as many British toy .soldiers as they did before the war. and children there are showing special interest in the Anzacs fighting in the Near East. Young New Zealand is keenly interested in boxes of their own- infantry regiments, but they are also buying a wide range of toy soldiers, from Greelf Evzones to pilots of the German Luftwaffe.

Modern mechanical warfare is reflected in the strong demand for the latest models of tanks, aeroplanes, (3ren-gun carriers, barrage balloon units, Army lorries and motor cyclists. Despite these innovations, however, old favourites in pre-1914 uniforms and Highlanders in full dres« are still wanted. And many New Zealand children still prefer the traditional cowboys, Indians and native warriors, while there is a steady demand for model home farms, with miniature animals-