Thumbs Up – Collecting Whimsy

One of my more whimsical collections are thumb toys. I’m not sure of the official name for these toys but when I researched them I came across many options:
• Wooden push puppet
• Thumb push puppets
• Thumb toys
• Push bottom puppet
• Collapsing Toy
• Wackelfiguren
• Wackeltiere

This is a quirky collection,  I’m not even sure how I got started, but every now and then I find a new one I can’t resist or someone (my sister, mostly) sends me one as a gift.

Brief History
Swiss wooden toy maker, Walter Kourt Walss created the first thumb push toys in 1932. The name WAKOUWA used to describe the toy was an abbreviation of his name.
Soon other toy makers in Germany and around the world were copying the toys in wood, plastic and metal.

While researching the history of these little toys I found a few good resources at the following websites:
http://www.wakouwa.net/ – origin and history
http://www.oldwoodtoys.com/kohner.htm – good history

Value
Most of the toys in my collection are not vintage, or even valuable. Some are wood and some are plastic.  There are, however some versions of these toys that are selling for over $100  but most of these sell for just a few dollars. That’s ok, I still find them fun to have around.

I haven’t found any collectors guides but the few websites that are listed here seem to be the most comprehensive and noteworthy.

Collector sites:
http://pomsiespushpuppets.blogspot.com/

Charmayne’s Push Puppet Page – A serious collector- she has the most amazing gallery of push toys! http://www.2kiters.com/pushpuppet/gallery/galleryindex.htm

http://www.push-puppet.com/index.html

Wakouwas by Lauren Orseau – fun photographs
http://lorseau.hinah.com/gallery.php?c=photo&s=misc&g=wakouwa&im=19