When Woolworths turned 100 years old last year it also listed the most popular toys in Britain throughout all of that time. In the number one spot was the Kewpie Dolls. Many versions of this doll existed from 1909 onwards. This doll was naked with outstretched hands and plastic hair that had a little point at the top. It was based on a popular woman’s comic strip at the time.
Another big seller was the Hornby Train. This was a model train manufactured by Meccano and looked like a train that people saw every day in Liverpool. Liverpool is the town where Hornby opened its first store and this little toy train was commemorative as well as fun to play with.
Another bestseller over all of time for Woolworth’s is the first Yo Yo model. The O-Boy Duncan Yo-You first came out in 1929. Originally it only came in one color scheme: black with a red rim. The Yo Yo is still popular today. Another very simple toy that became a real maintain was the Rubik’s Cuke. As of 1989 350 million cubes have been sold by Woolworth’s world wide which makes it the world’s most popular puzzle toy.
When it comes to board games Monopoly is at the top. A company called Waddington’s and the game pieces came in a bright orange box first manufactured the board game in 1939 in England.
Lego has always been a big seller at the store. They were first introduced to the toy market in Britain in the late 1940s. Originally called the Automatic Binding Bricks they were first introduced in four colors: orange, yellow, green and red.
As is true in America the little girls in Britain really loved their Barbie Dolls. In its first year of production in 1950 over 350,000 of the teen queen was sold out of British Woolworth’s.
More recently the Canadian Board Game called Trivial pursuit became a big hit. It was first released in 1979 and it is still very popular to this day.
The Brits have always loved James Bond so it is also not surprising that one of the most popular selling toys of the era is the James Bond Aston Martin toy car. This was a little silver car launched by Corgi just before the release of Thunderball in 1965 and it became Britain’s most popular product with over seven million sold.