Wolverine Supply & Mfg. Co.

Wolverine produced colorful lithographed tin toys focused on domestic, beach, and novelty play. Their famous Sandy Andy sand toy has been produced for generations, and their tin grocery stores and kitchen sets are beloved. Wolverine toys have a cheerful, domestic aesthetic. This is the same firm as the Wolverine Toy Company record listed separately in this encyclopedia; the two describe one company, which changed its name in 1962.

Benjamin F. Bain, whose Pittsburgh firm began in 1903 and whose patented gravity-fed sand toy became its defining product.

Wolverine's great idea was Sandy Andy, a lithographed tin toy in which sand poured from a hopper into a bucket, the weight of which sent the bucket down a track, tipped it, and returned it to be filled again — a self-perpetuating machine driven by nothing but gravity and a handful of sand. It was patented in 1918, sold for decades, and is one of the most ingenious American toys ever made.

From that came a whole catalogue of gravity and action toys, and then Wolverine's second field: tin household toys. Sunny Suzy kitchens, ironing boards, washing machines, tea sets, dishwashing units and the Corner Grocery store — lithographed tin play-domestic equipment, produced in huge quantity and now among the best visual records of mid-century American kitchens.

The company traded as Wolverine Supply & Mfg. Co. and later as Wolverine Toy Company; this encyclopedia holds a record under each name, and they are the same Pittsburgh firm. It relocated to Arkansas in 1970 and was later absorbed by Today's Kids.