Wolverine Toy Company

Wolverine produced colorful tin lithographed toys focused on domestic and novelty play. Their Sandy Andy sand toy was an iconic beach toy for decades. Wolverine also produced a lovely range of tin kitchen and grocery play sets. This is the same firm as the Wolverine Supply & Mfg. Co. record listed separately in this encyclopedia; the company traded under the earlier name until 1962.

Benjamin F. Bain, founder of the Pittsburgh firm in 1903, which traded under both the Wolverine Supply & Mfg. Co. and Wolverine Toy Company names.

Wolverine Toy Company is the later trading name of the Pittsburgh firm covered in this encyclopedia under Wolverine Supply & Mfg. Co.; the two records describe one company, and this entry covers its output under the shorter name.

The products are the same two families. First, the gravity toys built around Sandy Andy — the sand-driven hopper-and-bucket machine patented in 1918, whose self-cycling action remained in the catalogue for half a century. Second, the lithographed tin household range: Sunny Suzy kitchens and appliances, tea sets, ironing boards, washing and dishwashing toys, and the Corner Grocery store.

Under this name the company continued into the era when tin gave way to plastic, moved production to Arkansas in 1970, and was eventually absorbed into Today's Kids. Later production in plastic is much less collected than the lithographed tin.