Toys

In the world of Deluxe, every little boy was "Johnny" and every little girl "Suzy".  Deluxe / Topper introduced some of the most memorable toys of the 50's, 60's and 70's such as Operation X500, Playmobile, Jimmy Jet, Dream Kitchen, Secret Sam Spy Toys, Johnny Eagle Guns, Penny Brite Dolls, The Ding-A-Lings, Johnny Lightning cars, Suzy Homemaker appliances, Topper Tigers, Dawn, Zoomer Boomers and many more. Toys of the 50's The toys from De Luxe Toy Creations and De Luxe Premium in the 50's were almost exclusively dolls.  There is an excellent web site with more information and great photos than I could possibly provide about these dolls - The Deluxe Doll House Toys of the 60's As Deluxe entered the 60's the toys became much more sophisticated.  The availability of cheap motors, light bulbs, and D-cell batteries provided the opportunity for a whole new set of capabilities for toys.  Companies still separated toys for girls and boys.  Toys for boys tended to focus on things like space, military, and transportation, while toys for girls were oriented towards home, family and education. Deluxe became Deluxe Topper, and toys began selling in retail stores. Toys of the 70's The company was now known simply as Topper Toys, and there were really just two major areas for their toys: Dawn, the fashion doll, and Johnny Lightning die cast cars.  This was an interesting parallel to Mattel with Barbie and Hot Wheels as their major toys, and in fact caused some significant corporate rivalry.  An interesting article was written in 1970 for Sports Illustrated describing this rivalry.   The success continued into the 70's, but came to an abrupt halt in 1971.  When an inventory was taken in 1971 it was found that the inventory was not what it should have been... In simple terms there was money spent for product, but no product on the shelves. It appeared that creative bookkeeping had happened... for all the toys Topper was selling they had no "real" cash... only numbers on a page.  Topper filed for bankruptcy. This was an unfortunate end to what had been one of the most sucessful toy enterprises of modern times.  Deluxe toys only exist now in the hearts, minds and collections of those who still seek them out for play or display..  Toy Identification Every toy has an ID Plate molded in.  It is usually located on the bottom, or back.  This plate shows the:  - Catalog No.  - Copyright Date  - Company name at time of manufacture  - Company location at time of manufacture Doll identification is much more difficult.  If you have any insight, let me know.  In any event, doll accessories seem to use the same ID Plate as other toys. Numerical Listing The links below provide a listing of toys produced between 1960 and 1972 by Deluxe Reading, Deluxe Topper and Topper.  The links are sorted by Catalog Number.  Early items only had two digit numbers.  To help sorting, these all have "00's" added at the beginning, so Catalog No. 61 is listed here as 0061. 0001-0999 1000-1999 2000-2999 3000-3999 4000-4999 5000-5999 6000-6999 7000-7999 8000-8999 9000-9999 A000-A999