Banner Plastics made a variety of plastic toys for children, but
specialized in tea sets and toy trucks.
The Banner Plastic Corporation was founded in 1944 in the Bronx, NY by
two men, Emanuel M. Pressner and Bernard Schiller, although Bernard Schiller
would not stay long with the company. In
1950, the company moved from the Bronx to Patterson, New Jersey where they
purchase a former aeronautical engineering plant. During the mid-1950s, the company greatly
expanded its product line, adding new metal toys to complement their line of
plastic toys, including tea set, blocks, and trucks. Into the 1960s they continued to expand their
tea set line to additional kitchen toys and dishes, licensing such brands as
Pyrex, Corning Ware, and others. They
continued to acquire other toy companies further expanding their lines with garden
toys, military toys, and space toys. But
by 1965 the company had contracted to the point that their catalog contained
only 50 items, that catalog would be their last as they filed for bankruptcy
that year, and by 1967 had been purchased by Tal-Cap, a large toy conglomerate
in Minnesota.
Banner held a Disney license for only two years, between 1955 and
1956. An ad from an issue of Playthings
from April 1955 shows the Alice in Wonderland tea set, but in the picture is a
plate with an image of Thumper, so it is likely that they made a few different
tea sets, but to date I've not seen any other than the Alice set. Tomart also lists stacking blocks and a Davy
Crockett covered wagon, neither of which I am familiar with.
Items are marked Banner Plastics
Corp., Paterson, NJ, and depending on the year and the package, may have the
company logo featuring two kids waving banners.
The Alice in Wonderland tea set was released in 1955 at the beginning
of Banner's Disney license, the Playthings ad from April clearly shows it (well, not that clearly but I've highlighted it in the second image).
It is unclear why exactly they chose to do an
Alice tea set, but there may have been renewed interest since the film had been
aired on episode two of the Disneyland television show the previous
November. Also, the box in the
collection features a label advertising the contest to win a trip to
Disneyland, a promotion that ran the year prior to Disneyland's opening in July
1955.
No specific pricing for the Alice set has surfaced, but comparable
sets of the era retailed at $3.98, which would be $40 in today's dollars.
The Banner tea set is amazingly
cool. For many years it was unclear
exactly what was contained in this mythical toy, since only the tin pieces
showed up the majority of the time.
However, the full tea set is actually pictured on the large tray so it
was known what should have been included.
Eventually the plastic pieces surfaced, and later a full set in the
original box was discovered. A second
set in the box was seen in the early 2000s and that is the set pictured here.
The tin pieces consist of four
plates, four saucers, and the large tray.
The plastic pieces include four cups, four knives, four forks, four
spoons, a creamer, a sugar bowl, a teapot, and a teapot stand - in loose sets the teapot stand is often missing. Perhaps the coolest feature of the set is
that all the handles are characters!
