Radio Flyer, company behind iconic red wagons, celebrates 100 years

Sellers looking to grow their business and reach more interested buyers can use Etsy’s advertising platform to promote their items. You’ll see ad results based on factors like relevancy, and the amount sellers pay per click. Fortunately for her and her family, Advocate Children’s had a Radio Flyer Wagon that allowed Everly to explore and wonder beyond the four walls of her hospital room. Everly spent long periods of time in the ICU at Advocate Children’s Hospital. In times like this, the Radio Flyer Wagon is a welcome sight to a patient, parent or a sibling in a hospital. Starlight Kid Everly was born with a congenital heart defect and had three open-heart surgeries, two cardiac catheterizations, and one infection washout surgery before her first birthday.

This example had peeling paint, rust, and a partially missing decal on the side. A Streak-O-Light wagon from the 1930s in very rough condition is still worth $100 to $125. Give today to help radio flyer wagon deliver the Hero Wagon to seriously ill kids across the country. A Hero Wagon can truly make a difference in a child’s day when they are spending days on end inside a hospital room.

Each of them has the ability to handle more cargo because the bodies have higher sides so you can stack more cargo inside. During the redesign process, the team made use of Radio Flyer’s prototype shop where they were able to experiment with sewing, metal fabrication, welding, and 3-D printing. They deployed various wagon prototypes at the Advocate Children’s Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, to gather feedback on the new features and ideas for tweaks. The “World’s Largest Wagon” is a sculpture commissioned by Radio Flyer in honor of their 80th anniversary. It is nine times the size of a little red wagon, and weighs 15,000 pounds . In 2016, Radio Flyer introduced a new partnership product, the Tesla Model S for Kids.

radio flyer wagon

In the 1990s, Radio Flyer worked to expand its product line and step up its marketing to maintain its market share. It used the Radio Flyer name on toy bicycles, such as the Totally Rad Flyer Bicycle. Its name received wide press in 1992 with the release of a movie called ‘Radio Flyer,’ the story of the imaginary journeys of two boys in their Radio Flyer wagon. Already by the year 1930, Radio Steel was the world’s largest producer of children’s coaster wagons, and it set the standard for what a wagon should look like.

When the United States entered World War II, many industries converted to making wartime products. Radio Steel halted its production of wagons to manufacture so-called blitz cans. These were five-gallon containers used for either fuel or water, mounted on tanks, trucks, and jeeps.

Antonio Pasin started building wooden toy wagons in Chicago in 1917, selling them to area shops. He was working as a craftsman at the time, mostly selling phonograph cabinets, and built small wooden wagons to carry around his tools. After he received razor ride ons numerous requests from customers of phonograph cabinets to buy the wagons as well, he refocused his business on the wagons. His business grew until the Liberty Coaster Company, named in honour of the Statue of Liberty, was formed in 1923.