Funding secured for toy archive

In Pictures: Vintage toys

An east London museum has been given a Lottery grant of almost £250,000 to archive rare catalogues and papers from four companies which made classic toys.

The manufacturers of Corgi cars, Spacehoppers, Sindy dolls and Action Man figures donated the material when they closed in the 1970s and 1980s.

But the V&A Museum of Childhood, in Bethnal Green, has been unable to do anything with the collection until now.

An archivist will oversee a three-year project so the items can go on display.

The material comes from Abbatt Toys, which made interactive early-learning toys; Lines Brothers, known for its dolls and cars; Mettoy, manufacturer of Corgi cars and Spacehoppers; and Palitoy, which made Action Man and Star Wars figures.

It includes original toys, company files and documents, and catalogues listing products made from the 1920s to 1980s.

One of the companies, Palitoy, was known for its Action Man toy figures

The paperwork offers an insight into the theories and strategies used by the companies as they tried to make their toys appeal to children, and outlines elements of the manufacturing process.

Catherine Howell, the museum's collections officer, said it was "a real gift" to be able to "preserve the historical records of some of the most famous children's toys of the past".

The collection will also be digitised and made available as an online resource, so people can look through it while conducting research.

The money, which totals £244,500, is not the first such Lottery award for the Museum of Childhood.

A £3.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund paid for most of the attraction's £4.7 million refurbishment programme in 2005.