Fisher Price Nifty Station Wagon: Updated with Original Advertisement

If I were forced to choose a favorite from the hundreds of pull toys Fisher Price has made over the years, this would be it: the Nifty Station Wagon from 1960, a miniature version of America's beloved family road trip vehicle.

This 13 inch long kitsch classic sports a removeable roof, lovely fake wood side panels, stylish white wall tires, moving headlight "eyes", and a little wooden family (mom, dad, child of indeterminate gender, and dog) who were precursors to the classic Little People.

 Dig the funky tweed interior! I think my little sister and I had matching pants in this pattern back in the '70s.

Mom has her eyes closed. Maybe Dad is a crazy driver, and she can't bear to watch...

 Besides the headlight eyes, the front grill also has a "smiley mouth" bumper.

A simple mechanism causes the kid and dog in the back seat to spin wildly to the accompaniment of a raucous noise as the car moves, just like in real life. Those Fisher Price toy engineers were geniuses.


Updated August 11: 
Several people commented that they had never seen this vintage Fisher Price toy before, so I thought you might enjoy seeing the original advertisement, from the April 1960 issue of Playthings magazine (a trade journal). I have a small collection of vintage toy ads, catalogs, and brochures, and this is one of its highlights. Click on the pic to see it bigger and read the text.

Musical Fisher Price Circus Wagon

Here's another vintage Fisher Price circus piece: the musical Circus Wagon, made in the early 1940s. The wooden pull toy measures about 13 inches long. As it's pulled, the band leader's arms move up and down, as if he's playing the pipe organ, and a melodious song plinks and plonks. The lithographed paper features wonderful anthropomorphic pipes and an elephant who looks suspiciously like an unlicensed "Dumbo" film clone.

Circus Elephant Push-Toy

One of my favorite circus-themed toys is this vintage plush elephant on wheels, probably made in England in the 1950s. It's sized for a child to push as he or she walks behind it. My little Merrythought bear loves to go along for the ride.

1932 Fisher Price Big Performing Circus

One of my most beautiful circus toys, and one of the hardest to find, is this, the Big Performing Circus made by Fisher Price in 1932, its second year of business.

 The centerpiece of the set is a 16 inch long wooden circus wagon, complete with doors that open, a roof that lifts off for easy access, and a pull string. The wagon was actually strong enough for children to ride on, and it came filled with beautifully lithographed jointed wooden animals, along with props for them to perform with, like barrels and ladders, and a clown to organize the whole affair.

The large number of pieces and the heavy play use this popular item received over the years makes them scarce today. Fisher Price went on to produce circus themed playsets right up to current times, but this is by far their most wonderful.

Fisher Price Bouncing Bunny Cart

One of the last of the Fisher Price Easter Carts made for their special spring toy line was the Bouncing Bunny Cart, created in 1961. The 8 inch long wooden cart is lithographed in a colorful bunny design, and the separate, spring-mounted head bounces merrily as the toy is pulled along. The cart, which makes up the bunny's body, could be filled with candies and treats to serve as an Easter basket. A really cheery vintage toy!

Fisher Price Chick Basket Cart

One of the smallest and cutest of the Easter Carts made by Fisher Price is the Chick Basket from 1957. Only 6 1/2 inches long, the lithoed wooden pull toy features a yellow and blue paint scheme with a sweet little chick sporting her Sunday best. These carts originally had either a fibre board container or a straw basket attached to the back. Easily damaged or lost, they are usually missing when this toy is found. Mine has a vintage replacement basket that color coordinates nicely.

Fisher Price Bunny Engine

Fisher Price made a number of Bunny Engines for its Easter toy line over the years. These 10 inch long wooden trains had an open area in the back that could be filled with candy, enabling the toy to serve as an alternative Easter basket. This one dates from 1954, and features one of the later lithographed designs.

Fisher Price Donald Duck Cart

For its Easter toy lines from the 1930s - 1960s, Fisher Price featured pull carts with various spring themes (bunnies, ducks, chicks) and Donald Duck toys. In 1954, it combined the two to create the Donald Duck Cart, a lithoed wooden pull toy consisting of a cart that could be loaded up with Easter goodies, pulled by a cut-out Donald with acetate plastic feet. As the cart was pulled, Donald's feet flapped realistically.

Fisher Price Egg Truck

The Egg Truck is one of the oddest of the old Fisher Price Easter toys. Dating from 1947, it features a farmer duck with delicate felt arms driving a strangely designed truck as he delivers his load of eggs to market. Disturbing cannibalistic theme aside, the 12 1/2 inch Egg Truck made a very practical Easter basket, as parents could load up the truck bed with candy and treats. The Egg Truck is very hard to find today, as it wasn't made for very long, and the duck's felt arms were damaged quite easily.

Fisher Price Duck Cart

For its Easter toy lines, Fisher Price made a number of small carts with fibre board containers that could be filled with jelly beans or other small Easter candies. These are hard to find now, because the fibre board was so easily damaged. My example, the Duck Cart from 1946, still has its container, but it has typical wear and repair. Still a cute Easter cart!

Fisher Price Granny Duck Cart

This Granny Duck Cart is from the 1941 Fisher Price Easter toy line. It's one of my favorites from their Easter Cart selections. Measuring just under 9 inches tall, the lithoed wooden pull toy is essentially a little cart with a head: Granny Duck's benevolent, bonneted face bounces along at the front, while the body of the cart could be filled with Easter treats.

Nowadays, we use it as transportation for the miniature bears: they love to go for rides in the "Duckmobile".

Fisher Price Humpty Dumpty

One of the oddest toys ever made by Fisher Price, its 1957 Humpty Dumpty was advertised as a crib and pull toy. The strange, double-sided item is made of lithographed paper over wood and measures 10 inches long when fully extended. One side features Humpty pre-fall, sitting on his brick wall and smiling merrily (albeit with creepy, huge, wobbling eyes). The other side shows Humpty post-fall, splayed upon the grass and sobbing. In the center of the toy, a small yellow ball meant to represent Humpty's "yolk" spins freely, and jingle bells attached to each of his arms ring as the toy is pulled along. A crib toy? Not unless your intention was to give your infant nightmares, I'd say...just look how he stares at you...

It's Easter: eat an egg today!

Fisher Price Bunny Bell Cart

One of the cutest of the Fisher Price Easter Carts is the Bunny Bell Cart, first made in 1941. It was so popular it was made for several years and went through some slight design variations. Measuring 9 1/2 inches tall, it features an adorable bunny drummer with separate arms holding wooden capped metal drumsticks. As the cart is pulled, the bunny beats the heck out of a tin bell, creating what was surely a horrendous racket to the ears of tired parents on an Easter morning 69 years ago. The open cart area in the front could be loaded up with Easter treats and the whole thing presented as an alternative to the traditional Easter basket.

Fisher Price Rock A Bye Bunny Cart

Dating from 1940, the Rock a Bye Bunny Cart is one of the earliest of the Fisher Price Easter carts, items that were cleverly designed for use as Easter baskets as well as pull toys. The 12 1/2 inch tall wooden toy features great lithography of a grandpa bunny, with separately attached arms that actually rock the cradle as the toy is pulled. The cradle could be filled with Easter grass, candy, and small toys and gifted on Easter morning to a lucky child. The Rock a Bye Bunny Cart is hard to find, as its production run was brief, and the moving mechanism was susceptible to breakage. It's one of the most charming antique toys I've ever seen, and I really treasure mine.

Fisher Price Donald Duck Drum Major

In 1939, Fisher Price released the Donald Duck Drum Major as part of its new Easter line. The 10 inch tall wooden lithoed pull toy sported a separate arm with an attached baton. When pulled, the arm moved jauntily up and down, and the baton swung around and around. Just a fantastic early Disney toy with lots of color and movement!

Fisher Price Dapper Donald Duck

Dapper Donald Duck was the star of the first Easter season toy line from Fisher Price, back in 1936. Measuring just under 8 inches tall, the little wooden toy featured colorful paper lithography with separate wings attached by a piece of rubber. When pulled, the wings flapped wildly. Dapper Donald was phenomenally popular, with thousands sold over its run. For all its popularity, however, it's hard to find today, precisely because of those wings. The rubber disintegrated over the years, and once wingless, the toy was typically discarded. My example happily escaped the rubbish bin, and has lovingly made replacement wings.

Fisher Price Easter Carts

Coming up this month will be vintage Fisher Price Easter Carts & Toys. Starting in 1936, Fisher Price began selling an Easter toy line to keep production and momentum going all year round. Many of Fisher Price's earliest Donald Duck toys were actually Easter releases, as the duck was a seasonally appropriate theme. Fisher Price also created what it referred to as "Easter carts," a wide variety of pull toys with an open truck bed, train car, or cart area that could be filled with Easter grass and candies and used as a child's Easter basket. These toys were all made of lithographed paper over wood, and many incorporated movement and sound effects into their design. Stay 'tooned...

...and have a Happy Easter!

Vintage Casper the Ghost Wooden Pull Toy

Here's one of my favorite toys for Halloween-time: a wooden Casper the Ghost musical pull toy made by the American Pre-School Toy Company around 1962. Great graphics cover the base of the xylophone, which Casper plays as he's pulled along. I love this toy!

Fisher Price Wooden Pull Toys Display Case

I originally began collecting Fisher Price with the intention of replacing the long-lost classic Play Family/Little People playsets of my 1970s childhood. But, as so often happens with toy collecting, one thing led to another, and before I knew it I had accumulated a whole display case full of Fisher Price's wonderful lithographed wooden pull toys, some dating back to the company's founding in the early 1930s. How different these beautiful toys are from the plastic, battery-powered, noisy, flashy products Fisher Price currently imports from China...