Nostalgic Toys That Inspired the Characters in ‘Toy Story’

Sheriff Woody underwent a major transformation from the early days of the film as a continuation of Tin Toy. The original pitch paired a toy drummer with a villainous ventriloquist's dummy. Over time, the drummer character evolved into Woody, the pull-string cowboy doll, whose name was inspired by Western actor Woody Strode. Woody's design was also influenced by Howdy Doody, the freckle-faced marionette and star of a popular 1950s children's TV series.

"John Lasseter [former Pixar chief creative officer] had a Casper, The Friendly Ghost doll that had the pull string and that's where [Woody] came from," says Taylor. The later inclusion of other cowboys like Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack), Woody's trusty steed Bullseye and the prospector Stinky Pete (voiced by Kelsey Grammer) emphasize the golden era of Western nostalgia.

"Cowboys represent exploration, the frontier," says Brian Volk-Weiss, creator of the Netflix series "The Toys That Made Us." In the first film especially, the character motivations revolve around fads. Cowboy toys were "representative of the movie and TV cowboy phase that was [prevalent] in the 1950s and '60s," says toy expert Bob Friedland. "When those fads fell out of fashion, the toys started disappearing from shelves once the shows and movies stopped being produced."

Another popular fad, and the impetus for the battle between tech and toys, is found in the Buzz Lightyear ccharacter. Throughout the 1960s, specifically as the American space race ramped up, astronaut toys similar to Buzz became highly popular.

"He’s an archetype of the space theme combined with the idea of '80s toys that are based on cartoons," Friedland says. The character was named in honor of Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and the design was inspired by 1950s TV shows like "Space Patrol," one of the first sci-fi series to debut on television.

Though the character is rooted in the past, there's also a hefty dose of Star Wars toy history in there too, says Taylor—especially when Buzz Lightyear's father is revealed to be the villainous Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2. Like Star Wars before it, Toy Story encountered challenges bringing its toys to market.

The original Slinky debuted in the early 1940s as just a spring toy. "The Slinky was literally washers in a factory that came packaged like that," says Volk-Weiss. "But the people in the factory were always playing with them." Naval mechanical engineer Richard T. James and his wife Betty decided to manufacture and market them as a toy, creating the Slinky.

The Slinky Dog was actually revived by the release of Toy Story. According to Friedland, the Slinky Dog debuted in 1952. "[It] was originally discontinued in the early 1990s, right before the first Toy Story was released. They redesigned and re-released him for [the movie]," says Friedland. "That let it sit more in the world of nostalgia because it was a toy that kids knew but likely hadn’t played with in years, if at all…The movie gave him a personality."

Before becoming one half of Toy Story's favorite spud couple, Mr. Potato Head (voiced by Don Rickles) was a fixture of Andy's toy collection in the first film. Mrs. Potato Head (voiced by Estelle Harris) later joined the franchise in Toy Story 2.

"[Pixar] went out to a bunch of actual toys," says Taylor. "[The companies] didn't get it. They were like, 'Wow, we don't understand what this is,' which is why so many of the licensed toys in that first movie, whether it's Mr. Potato Head or Slinky Dog are a little bit old-fashioned. They weren't of the moment."

Mr. Potato Head has been a preschool-age icon since he first debuted in 1952. Mrs. Potato Head debuted the following year. However, the idea for the toy started in the 1940s. "Mr. Potato Head literally started off as a bunch of plastic parts that people were supposed to plug into real potatoes they had at home," Volk-Weiss explains. In the 1950s, the Potato Heads were the first toys to be advertised via the burgeoning world of television commercials. By 1964, it was unpopular to use real potatoes and the plastic body became standard.

A nostalgic toy creatively featured in the first film is Etch a Sketch, the character who communicates through art. Another nostalgic toy creatively featured in the first film is Etch a Sketch, the character who communicates through art. First introduced in 1960, it featured a bold red frame, a gray screen and two knobs that let you draw. Shaking it then erases the design so you can start again. “[It] became iconic because of its design," says Friedland.

The toy became a symbol of the Baby Boomer era, selling 600,000 units in 1960 alone. In the film, Etch illustrates how different toys communicate. While the character is silent, it has an expansive artistic vocabulary.

Are piggy banks considered toys? They are in the world of Toy Story, personified through the character of Hamm (voiced by John Ratzenberger).

"Piggy banks have existed for hundreds of years and it’s a universal play pattern that pretty much every kid knows and understands," says Friedland. "Hamm stands out because he’s not really a toy, but Toy Story understood that not everything a kid plays with was designed [that way]. This underscores one of the movie’s core themes. Kids use their imagination to play, adding personality to pretty much any inanimate object."

Another character inspired by a category of toys—but not directly connected to a specific brand—are radio-controlled (RC) cars, like the one Woody drives in the first two films.

"While not a specific, branded toy, RC is an archetype of radio-controlled cars that have been around since 1955," says Friedland. "The first credited RC car was the Japanese Radicon Radio Control Bus. Since you can pick them up from so many companies, it was easy to create an archetype of the toy, rather than specifying a brand."

In the first three Toy Story films, Woody has a literal army…of Green Army Men that is. "Green Army Men have been around since the 1930s, but boomed in the 1950s when plastic manufacturing became cheap and easy," says Friedland. "Since these were mass-produced and came in packs, it was easy to have many of them, which is why there are so many in Toy Story."

It's also possibly a callback to the original idea for Tin Toy. Many toy soldiers were crafted from tin in Germany during the 1700s and remained popular collectibles and playthings into the 20th century. The production of miniature soldiers expanded in the 18th century, using hollow casting to make them lighter and cheaper. When the production of lead toys ceased in the 1940s, other metal army men—and later plastic ones—entered the market.

It was always hoped that Barbie could be in Toy Story. "Barbie was in one of the early drafts that Joss Whedon wrote," says Taylor. But it wasn't until the success of the first feature that she debuted in Toy Story 2 as Tour Guide Barbie.

"Since Toy Story was an unknown property and Mattel was very protective of her brand, they decided not to participate. Of course, when Mattel saw the movie, they understood that it was reverent of toys and they allowed Barbie and other Mattel toys to join the franchise," says Friedland.

In the franchise, Barbie (voiced by Jodie Benson) starts out as a bubble-headed plastic doll who eventually comes into her own in the third feature. "Originally released in 1959, Barbie generally changes with the times and has evolved from a fashion doll to a lifestyle doll," Friedland says. Rather than simply model clothes, the brand now encompasses a wide range of careers, hobbies, identities and experiences