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Banthrico started producing die cast promotional model car banks in the late '40s for the banking industry. These banks were available as a gift to people that started a new account and had a slot in the bottom to put their spare change. Usually the banks name and address was painted on the roof of the car. These primitive promotional cars included Buicks, Cadillacs, Lincolns, Packards, Desotos, Chryslers, Dodges and of course the more common (relatable) Chevrolets and Fords. In mint condition, today these cars are exceptionally sought after.
About the same time, another company, Product Miniature Corporation was introducing promotional models made from plastic to the public, many of which were also in the form of banks. Many Chevrolet bank models had the inscription on the bottom "To help save for a rainy day, or to buy a new Chevrolet" The almost mandated scale for these cars was 1:25th, however a few Chevrolets and Plymouths were produced in a larger 1:20th scale.
The model car "kit" hobby began in the post World War II era with Ace and Berkeley wooden model cars. Revell pioneered the plastic model car with their famous Maxwell kit derived from a toy.
The earliest toys were made from materials found in nature, such as rocks, sticks, and clay. Thousands of years ago, Egyptian children played with dolls that had wigs and movable limbs which were made from stone, pottery, and wood. In Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, children played with dolls made of wax or terra cotta, sticks, bows and arrows, and yo-yos. When Greek children, especially girls, came of age it was customary for them to sacrifice the toys of their childhood to the gods. On the eve of their wedding, young girls around fourteen would offer their dolls in a temple as a rite of passage into adulthood.
As technology changed and civilization progressed, toys also changed. Whereas ancient toys were made from materials found in nature like stone, wood, and grass modern toys are often made from plastic, cloth, and synthentic materials. Ancient toys were often made by the parents and family of the children who used them, or by the children themselves. Modern toys, in contrast, are often mass-produced and sold in stores.
This change in the nature of toys is exemplified by the changes that have taken place in one of the oldest and most universal of human toys; dolls. The earliest and most primitive dolls were simple wooden carvings and bundles of grass. Egyptian dolls were sometimes jointed so that their limbs could move realistically. By the early 1800s there were dolls that could say "mama". Today there are dolls that can recognize and identify objects, the voice of their owner, and choose among hundreds of pre-programed phrases with which to respond. The materials that toys are made from have changed, what toys can do has changed, but the fact that children play with toys has not changed.
