POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Toy truck made by Boomaroo Products Pty Ltd

Toy truck made by Boomaroo Products Pty Ltd

Object No. 85/2566-68

The Powerhouse Museum's toy collection strongly represents the types of toys that were available in Australia in the twentieth century, including Matchbox toys, tin toys, model trains and home-made toys. It contains every type of transport toy - cars, trucks, tractors, fire engines, buses, motorcycles, aeroplanes, ships and trains -- as well as novelty toys, robots, kitchen toys and Meccano sets. The majority of these toys were manufactured overseas, notably the large collection of tinplate toys from Germany, Japan and the UK. However Australian-made toys are also represented in the collection. Among these are toys made by Boomaroo, Wyn-toy, Cyclops, Ferris and Robilt. These Australian toys were usually built from heavy-gauge pressed steel rather than thin tinplate. They may sometimes lack the design, finish and motion of fine imported tin toys, but they were sturdy enough for rough treatment in Aussie backyards and sandpits. Boomaroo Toys made a range of pressed steel vehicles and other toys in competition with other Australian manufacturers such as Wyn-toy and overseas toy companies such as the Buddy-L. They operated as Boomaroo Products Pty Ltd in Sydney from 1954 to the 1970s, part of the Artlay Manufacturing Company Pty Ltd. Boomaroo was a member of The Australian Games Manufacturing Association, TAGMA. Their name derived from a combination of the words 'boomerang' and 'kangaroo' and their trademark depicted a kangaroo perched on a boomerang, above the words 'Made in Australia'. Boomaroo toys are represented in the Museum's collection with a range of trucks including a petrol tanker, tow truck and tip-truck, as well as a cash register, tram and forklift. The significance of these Australian-made Boomaroo toys lies not just in their amusing appearance or how the evoke the remembered pleasures of childhood play. They can speak to us about the experience of being an Australian child in the mid-twentieth century, revealing how children are socialised, and how the young became targeted as a consumer market. Most toys mimic the adult world, and looking at them can tell us something about how this world has changed. Changes in technology and the availability raw materials can be traced in the changing methods of toymaking. By 1954, for example, Boomaroo was able to use steel in the manufacture of toys, something that would have been unthinkable ten years earlier during wartime.

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Summary

Object Statement

Toy truck, 'Boomaroo Toys', pressed steel, made by Boomaroo Products Pty Ltd, part of the Artlay Manufacturing Company Pty Ltd, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1954-1965

Physical Description

Toy truck, "Boomaroo Toys", pressed steel / paint, made by Boomaroo Products Pty Ltd, part of the Artlay Manufacturing Company Pty Ltd, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 1954-1965 Toy truck made of pressed steel. The truck has a yellow and red driver's cab, separate covered tray which is painted red, the whole resting on a black base to which four wheels are attached. The cab includes a human figure positioned in the driver's seat and an adhesive sticker containing the maker's mark is adhered to the front centre of the cab. Silver lights and grill and a black bumper are also located at the front of the truck. The covered tray features two adhesive stickers which are adhered to either side and contain the maker's mark and 'Boomaroo Toys' on a yellow and white striped background.

DIMENSIONS

Height

190 mm

Width

135 mm

Depth

375 mm

PRODUCTION

Notes

This toy truck was made by Boomaroo Toys in Australia, c. 1960.

SOURCE

Acquisition Date

23 December 1985

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