NOSCO Plastics, now known for their toys, originally started out as a of subsidiary of National Organ Supply Co.
National Organ Supply* was formed in 1920 as a manufacturer of metal organ pipes, by Anton Gottfried, Henry Kugel, and Kugel’s son Harry Kugel. 14 years later, after some company restructuring and diversifying, the NOSCO Plastics division was created in 1934 to manufacture injection-molded plastic parts for electric organs.
Then in the 1940s, they decided to wet their feet in a a completely different market, producing a number of plastic art-deco style animal figurines fashioned by New York designer Don Manning. These included stylized horses, deer, giraffes, unicorns, elephants, dogs and other animals, and came in a variety of bright colors.
In 1948, the company adopted a new, state-of-the-art process call screw injection molding, which allowed plastic objects to be produced more rapidly and cheaply. This enabled NOSCO to become a major early producer of “slum”: small, cheap plastic toys which were commonly used as promotional giveaways and prizes in carnival games and Cracker Jack boxes. Between 1948 and 1960, NOSCO produced millions of toys for Cracker Jack.
NOSCO started creating larger, more complicated toys like the ones pictured here starting in 1950. One of their biggest hits was their 1952 Hot’See Hot Rod, which featured a mechanism that simulated engine piston action, invented by NOSCO employees Bruno Roehrl and Harold Cloyd (for which they were granted a patent in 1955). The piston action, which was visible through clear plastic, became a common feature in many of the company’s other toys. NOSCO plastics continued to produce a number of planes, trains and automobiles over the following decade until they were purchased by another company in 1959.
Check out some of the NOSCO toys available in our antique toy shop!
*After a number of mergers over the past century, the company is now called Organ Supply Industries Inc. and is still located where it began in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is one of the largest suppliers of organ parts in North America.
Sources:
Blog post by Kevin404. April 3, 2015. “Plastic Animals | Don Manning | Nosco Plastics, Pennsylvania, United States”. Object<>Plastic. http://www.objectplastic.com/2015/02/stylized-art-deco-horse-animal-figurines-Don-Manning-NOSCO.html
Organ Supply Industries. “History”. n.d. Accessed March 24, 2021. https://www.organsupply.com/about-osi/
Wikipedia. “Nosco Plastics”. Last edited on 24 July 2020. Accessed March 24, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosco_Plastics
Wikipedia. “Prize (Marketing)”. Last edited January 2, 2021. Accessed March 24, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prize_(marketing)