Retro Czech Toys As Seen on Instagram is an idea that came to me this morning because Thanksgiving is over and so is Black Friday, thank goodness, and the shopping madness has finally stopped. (By the way, we never partake in the madness.) I can’t count how many advertisements I have received regarding toys this past weekend. Is every parent scrambling to get the latest and greatest for their child?
I remember visiting Czechoslovakia in the early 1980s and when we stopped at the homes of cousins and friends, the children were lucky to have toys that to me seemed so plain, so inornate, so bland…
During the communist era, the factories such as Vašek, Igra, Ites, KDN (Kaden Nachod), and Výtvarná řemesla manufactured toys which clearly matched the ideals of the times. All toy designs were certified with the Communist Party and there wasn’t a big freedom of choice for Czech kids at that time. In fact, many were lucky to have toys at all.
Typically, East European toys and other more sophisticated models replicated the actual vehicles chosen by these governments for the people, the workplace, or more often, the communist party elite. Real vehicles were not manufactured as a result of research development response to market demand, thus Eastern European automobiles usually lagged far behind the west. Since there was no market, what people received was what the government deemed worthy of production. Most vehicle toys replicated the real vehicles from the state factories – operated and owned by the government. The toys, then, were also made in factories owned by the state.
It was a time of total unification, so everyone had the basically the same choices. And this extended to everything. The furniture all looked the same, the clothing. It really made me appreciate what freedom of choice I had back in the USA.
Today we’re sharing some vintage, old Czech toys through various accounts across Instagram and we acknowledge and recognize the beauty of these toys,
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Do you remember any of these toys or have others to recommend?
We’d love to hear from you!
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