Old-Timey Toys From Christmas Past
You can make these hand and pull toys from recycled materials: pull duck, dog and car; parachute, spear the fish and a shape puzzle; flipper carnival man; baseball player; whistle, wooden snapper.
November/December 1978
By the Mother Earth News editors
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Wooden pull duck - see the text for a link to downloadable construction details.
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Christmas (the season of sharing) isn't really Christmas unless you give a few toys to all those special "little folks" on your list. And here are some good, old-timey toys that you can make yourself from hardly more than odds and ends lying around the shop.
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Wooden Duck, Car and Dog
"When it comes to the construction of toys," says Billie R. Tyler of Otis, Oregon, "nothing beats the strength and reliability of a solid chunk of wood." And solid chunks of wood are exactly what Mr. Tyler uses in the three playthings that he's designed especially for toddlers.
The duck is made by tracing its pattern onto a 3/4"-thick piece of pine board that is at least 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. (NOTE: Due to space limitations, all the "grid" drawings with this article have been reduced. The patterns must be redrawn on 1/2" squares before they're transferred to your working materials.)
Cut the wood to shape, drill a 3/8" hole through the duck's body as indicated, and sand the body smooth. The bird's wings and eyes are then burned or painted on each side of the piece of wood and (if painted) allowed to dry before the body is given a good protective coat of polyurethane.
Scrounge up a wooden spool, cut it in half, and cut a piece of 5/16" dowel to a length of 2-1/8". Securely glue one end of the dowel inside one half of the spool (so that the ends of both are flush). Then slip the "axle" through the hole in the duck's body, glue on the other half of the spool and check for free rotation of the wheels.
Paint the exposed portions of the wheels and axle with the polyurethane, screw a small "eye" into the front of the duck, tie on a stout string and the toy is complete.
Click here for downloadable construction details.
The car is very similar to the duck, except for its two sets of wheels. Scale the design up on a sheet of paper, transfer it to a 3/4"-thick piece of wood measuring 2-1/2" x 6", cut the car out and drill two 3/8" holes through its body. Paint (or burn) the windows on the little vehicle, let them dry, and then coat the car's body with polyurethane. Cut two spools in half and mount the four halves on two 5/16" x 2-1/8" axles in the same way that the spool wheels are mounted on the duck's axle. Paint the exposed surfaces of the wheels, insert an eye-screw into the car's "nose," and tie on a pull string.
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