Radio Flyer, est 1917

There, he built and sold handmade furniture, wine presses, phonographs, wooden tricycles and, eventually, little wooden wagons for kids. “We weren’t asking moms what they wanted in products.” So the popularity of these plastic wagons caught them off guard. The Radio Flyer Red Wagon was a symbol of Fire Island Life. Simpler times made the wagon the perfect vehicle to transport everything we needed for a Fire Island stay. Today’s society needs more, giving way to large carts to now transport more, making our little red wagon a thing of the past.

radio flyer wagon

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication. But you don’t have to be a kid to appreciate this classic frozen ride on toy wagon. Many shoppers report using theirs for yard work or to gardening. Says one, “We have had almost 100 lbs. of weight in it already, and it performed well and needed very little effort to handle. We are anticipating many years of good use from it.”

Today, the company produces a wide range of children’s products, including scooters, tricycles, ride-ons, horses, battery ops, and wagons. Despite the depression, Antonio had his sights set on the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. He took out a $30,000 loan to build a 45-foot-tall structure of a boy atop a wagon, determined to make a statement.

So at the age of 16, his family sold their mule and he used the funds to travel to America. Little did he know that adults would find a use for those wagons on Fire Island as a way of transporting luggage, groceries and more in a place where there were no cars, and where you walked everywhere. Used all over Fire Island they were kept at the harbor where you could easily access them upon arrival.

The handle has no grip and feels a bit slippery, and the magnet designed to hold the handle upright is too weak to hold it fully extended, so it will come crashing down. Checkout The Best Wagons For Kids frozen ride on toy for a detailed review of all the top . We looked at the top and dug through the reviews from some of the most popular review sites. Through this analysis, we’ve determined the best you should buy.

Most families that buy their first Radio Flyer wagons, he said, do so before a child’s first birthday. Then, when it comes time to graduate to a tricycle, or a stroller, or a carrier bike, parents can easily dip back into the product line. Eventually, when the kids are old enough, the logic goes, they’ll have enough affinity for the brand that they’ll want an electric scooter or bike from Radio Flyer too. By 1917, Antonio saved enough money to rent a one-room workshop, where he began building phonograph cabinets and a variety of other objects upon request. Nostalgia is great, but little red wagons that need to be pulled with people power may not meet everyone’s 2022 transportation needs. Electric motors are hot for the auto industry, and for 100-year-old toy companies, too.

Did Radio Flyer ever market a wagon (circa 1930’s) with pictures and text “The Iron Duke”? My family has had this wagon since new and when looking at antique wagons, it most resembles one that is a Radio Flyer, but I can’t tell its make. People tend to forget that both of Chicago’s World’s Fairs—the Columbian Exposition in 1893 and the Century of Progress in 1933—took place razor ride ons during major economic depressions. So while every participating company did its best to showcase a brave face, joining in the city’s spending splurge wasn’t always viewed as the wisest investment. By 1933, Pasin had set up his newly rechristened business, the Radio Steel & MFG Company, at a large manufacturing facility on Grand Avenue in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.