The stuff that dreams are made of. It was 1948 and The War had been over for 3 years but there were still G.I.'s over there in support and security roles. Sooner or later they had to come back home. The G.I.'s that had returned earlier had three years to settle their way into new jobs and make a livelihood for themselves and their new families. The postwar baby boom, automotive boom, and housing boom were in full swing. Companies like Kellogg's were offering tasty new and breakfast cereals and offering 'premiums' as their marketing ploy to increase sales and what better way to market their product than to encourage this new class of people to buy a home? Kitschy little toys stuffed in cereal boxes were great for the kids but the veteran's had more grown-up concerns like upward mobility and a place to call home, a home of their own. They were ravenously hungry for homes to call their own. Better Homes and Garden magazine had been offering house plans drawn by architects for years. Kellogg's was already quite familiar with offering premiums and a collaboration was born to offer not just plans, but a complete kit showing what the finished house would look like in three dimensions. Those vets already home could plan their new house, and housewives waiting for their hubbies to return from overseas could dream of that special house.
Today, Toys and Stuff is glad to offer yet another of these post-war dreams offered by Kellogg's in 1948, The Colonial Cottage. The kits used tab-&-slot construction and what is unusual about the house shown here today is that nothing has been glued! It survived these 66 years just on the merits of its tab-&-slot construction method. But I suppose that's also why the front bay window is missing. :-( I am debating as to whether or not I should glue bracing to the interior because I sure wouldn't want any more loss or damage to occur on the model. What do you think?
This time around I posed my three built-up Kellogg's houses together with some era-appropriate toys. The toys themselves would feel right at home on any O-gauge train layout featuring period trains and the houses too would fit in as well. It would be great if these were re-issued in some fashion. McLoughlin Bros had issued some village sets printed on heavy cardboard called Pretty Village and My Pretty Village back around 1898. The sets came in large boxes and included 'flats' of people, animals, trees, etc which used small metal clips to stand them up. In 1980 they re-issued the set in book form printed on a lighter weight cardboard which the purchaser then had to cut out and assemble by themselves. This could be a doable format for re-issuing these kits OR a straight-up reproduction featuring the kit, the booklet, and landscape-chart floorplan. We can only hope. The stuff that dreams are made of. Enjoy!
LOL - I never expected Google photos to come up with a .gif for these but what the heck, here it is :-)
The three houses posed with toys that would have looked 'right' on a train layout of the early-mid 1950s, or used in conjunction with other cardboard houses of the era for a village display.
My Wife said The Gif looks Like a Earthquake LoL :) Just having Fun The Berg's :)