Postcard Memories is a weekly series of historic postcard views and photos submitted by Marcel Rousseau.
Some were previously published by the Orillia Museum of Art and History and in the book Postcard Memories Orillia.
By 1945, with war production coming to an end, Otaco Ltd. on West Street South began producing metal toys to keep the plant busy.
The first toy made was a shovel and crane numbered MT1. In the fall of 1945 they were making 500 a day to meet the demand for Christmas. For the next 20 years, Otaco continued to design and manufacture over 50 different metal toys, but its first toy, the MT1, continued to be one of its most popular sellers.
Three models were made, one with covered wooden wheels as shown, another with open wheels and an educational kit called “Buildo” and numbered MC10. The “Buildo” came in pieces with instructions on how to assemble the shovel and crane.
Most shovels came with a yellow base with silver, green, red or yellow bodies. With the refinement of plastic toys in the late 1950s and early 60s, Otaco found it difficult to compete and so ended the Minnitoy production line.
