Tin Gameboards
by Sharon Korbeck
2006
Few people, toy collectors especially, can dispute the appeal of a tin toy. And much has been written about the colorful lithographed wonders, mainly those made prior to World War II.
While reams of paper are devoted to tin wind-up toys and vehicles, little has been written about the forgotten child of tin lithography — tin game boards.
And though they may not be topping the hottest collectibles lists today, its hard to beat an array of these colorful playthings when it comes to display value gained per dollar spent.
“The metal game boards have always fit into the toy category. They’re more like toys and less like games,” said game expert Bruce Whitehill.
Tin game boards were produced by several notable (and a few relatively unknown) toy manufacturers as far back as the early 1900s.
The Pittsburgh company Wolverine Supply & Mfg. made many such games from the 1920s to the 1960s, according to Whitehall. Many Wolverine games focused on races, by sea and by land. Later tin games primarily were target games.
Among the company’s earliest game boards were Aeroplane Race, Motor Race and Speed Boat Race.
Pittsburgh wasn’t the only Pennsylvania source of tin toys in the early 20th century. The state was a hotbed for toy production.
The little town of Jeannette was home to at least four small (and now relatively obscure) companies that produced tin game boards, said Whitehill. Among them were Archer Toy, M.H. Miller, Jeannette Toy & Novelty and T.H. Stough.
Flat-surfaced tin game boards served as race tracks and dart boards. Three-dimensional versions were often shooting galleries. Common themes involved the circus, carnivals, sports or Western characters (including the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy).
The Louis Marx Co., known for making just about every toy imaginable, made its share of tin games. As early as the 1930s, Marx made a licensed Dick Tracy target game of cardboard and tin. Similar games were made bearing the images of the Lone Ranger and other Western heroes.
In the 1930s, New Jersey’s J. Chein & Co. released a circus target game that came with a toy gun and rubber darts and employed a stand-up style board.
That “shooting gallery” theme continued for many years, especially as the market for toy guns grew. The 1950 Sears Wish Book showed several pages of “test your skill” games, including tin game boards.
The Crow Shoot game, complete with gun and an “ample supply” of cork bullets, was offered for $1.29. It was typical of other games popular at the time, which included a tin board with plastic birds or other animals that spun when hit. Ohio Art made a similar WhirliBird game in the 1950s.
A non-licensed Wild West Target Game allowed young cowboys to “protect the stagecoach by picking Indians.” Pistol and suction cup darts came with the set, priced at a mere 89 cents.
One of the nation’s most notable game manufacturers, Pressman Toy, turned out a variety of square target tin games during the 1940s and ’50s. These were ultimately the same game with different lithography. Among the magnetic dart games were Robin Hood and Coney Island themes.
Target game boards continued to be made into the 1960s, but by then, most were made of corrugated cardboard, fiberboard or plastic.
Soon after, a growing distate for toy guns led to the disappearance of target-type games.
In the 1960s and 1970s, another popular form of tin game boards came into vogue. Chinese checkers boards, often backed with traditional checkers boards, were omnipresent.
Tin game boards remain somewhat forgotten and overlooked in collecting circles.
Vintage examples are more difficult to find than tin vehicles, figures or wind-ups.
And they’re next to impossible to find complete with accessories, such as the box, toy gun or darts. While cardboard game boards folded up nicely to store in a box, tin gameboards were often large or unwieldy — difficult to store or transport.
“Some of the metal boards are collected for their theme (such as military or Western),” Whitehill said. Others become part of larger collections of sundry tin toys.
Tin game boards can be elusive, especially those that remain unscratched or free of rust.
Just like the players of the games themselves, today’s collectors need to be right on target to find these cousins to the more widely collected tin toys.
