|
|
"I
want to say one word to you . . . just one word. Plastics."
-
Ben McGuire (Walter Brooke) giving career advice to Ben
Braddock (Dustin Hoffmann) in the 1967 movie, The Graduate
|
|
By
the time the late 1970s rolled around, plastic had established
its rule as the material of choice for mass produced toys
- a throne they continue to hold at present day. Tin and,
to a certain extent, pressed steel toy cars were fading into
history thanks to their higher production costs. Rising material
and labor costs were driving production from factories in
Japan to those in China, Hong Kong and other cheap labor countries.
Another factor was safety. Children were cutting themselves
on the sharp edges of the tin cars. While the end of the tin
toy era was a sad passing, there have been some nice examples
of miniature Mustangs produced from molded plastic.
|
