Remember growing up where every toy you got had some cartoon or movie character on it? Record players, cups, plates, toys, watches, anything that you could imagine having, had your favorite cartoon character on it. Disney, the Muppets, Snoopy, and oh so, so many more have dominated our cultural landscape for a long time. In this book author Tim Hollis takes a closer look at how all of this came to be.

While Hollis primarily focuses on the post-World War II, baby boom years, he gives a good introduction to how the practice started back in the early 1900’s with Buster Brown and his shoes leading to Disney and to others that followed in his footsteps. While this may sound like a boring, and somewhat academic topic, Hollis does a good job with keeping the discussion lively and taking the reader step by step through what happened, why it happened, and when it changed. He then moves into his primary focus, the period that he grew up with, discussing post-World War II, where companies like Disney and many others, started to see a decline in placement and want of products, to their rise again. Hollis walks us through storybooks, comic books, records, board games, holiday paraphernalia, even food!, roadside attractions, and more, where retailers and attractions brought the magic of the cartoon...to life, all in an effort to bring in a few more dollars.

When I come across a title like “Toons in Toyland” that’s going to discuss the story of cartoon merchandise I have to wonder...what type of story am I going to get? Am I going to get a boring serious story? A marketing story? Or something else altogether? For me, I’m happy that this book falls into the latter category, because seriously how can you not have fun with a topic about toons in (on) toys? Hollis is passionate about what he’s talking about and it comes across clearly in his writing. He’s been into these toys since he was a wee lad growing up and he’s excited to share his knowledge and his extensive collection (he has a large majority of these toys) with us, the reader. And that’s what makes this book so much fun to read.

The one downside to this book, is that sometimes the stories and facts being presented are coming directly from companies, such as Disney, that are still in existence today. This becomes a problem, in my mind, because most companies at some point have tweaked stories along the way, either by the original founders, or those afterwards seeking to protect the company. While this doesn’t drastically alter the stories, some of the facts should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt or two. Hollis though does a good job of presenting the rise of cartoon and toys, why they remain popular, and the variety of merchandising that they appeared on. I mean seriously, I had no idea that there were food items (bread pudding apparently??) that some toons reached out into.

Hollis’s passion and ability to tell a good story with facts makes this a book that any fan of cartoons and comics should pick up. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars.

ARC provided by NetGalley ( )