Toy Instruments Design, Nostalgia, Music

Toy Instruments comprises an eye-popping collection of musical toys made between the 1950s and today. In theory, all of these toys are meant to excite children about learning how to play an instrument. What becomes clear, however, is that these products could be as much fun for adults as children, especially for adults with their own musical interests. From the late 70s to the early 80s, the heyday of these bleeping, chirping, thrumming and keening devices, while children were busy driving their parents crazy with these batterypowered sounds, adults were incorporating the unique tones into the earliest samples of electronic music and techno. Divided into chapters like Sing Along, Rhythm Machines, Voice Changers and Musical Animals, which provide details and commentary about the individual toys, Toy Instruments represents the crossroads of educational and weird. Just as dazzling as the cacophony of sounds produced by these toys are the designs of the toys, as well as their packaging. Made all over the world, the predominately gender-neutral design applied to the products and packaging is at times more fascinating than the toys.Culled from the authors personal collection, Toy Instruments is the first book to explore this niche of the toy industry, doing so with an informative and humorous approach, demonstrating how even in todays world of Guitar Hero and Wii, these musical toys from a bygone era are irreplaceable.