Lido Toy Corporation was an American based toy maker that began operations in 1947. It was started by the brothers Seymour and Effrem Arenstein. It could be the same Lido that made this vintage Disney metal target game as it was sold in 1964 with most of its assets destroyed, but this target game was made in 1961. There are many plastic and metal toys attributed to the Lido name from the 1940s thru to the 1960s, so we’ll assume we have a match!
So now let’s have a look at the game itself, along with some discrepancies:
I purchased this game for $40.00 CAN at a local antique shop. It didn’t come with any kind of shooting device. It was most likely that it had a toy pistol that shot suction cup darts. Perhaps three darts after which you would add up your score and pass the pistol to the next player. You can find different versions of the target boards online, but none of them seem to have the shooting device, which would be easy for a child to lose.
I feel that the choice of characters for the targets constitute the discrepancies I mentioned earlier. There is unnecessary duplication of some characters with other main Disney characters being unrepresented. For example, we have Mickey being used twice but Minnie is not used at all. It can’t be that they didn’t want a female character shot at, as Daisy Duck is included. Donald, Goofy, and Von Drake are also used twice, with Pluto being used three times. Only one of Donald’s nephews are used, while they could have used all three if they didn’t double up on other characters.
The swivel targets are also a discrepancy. We have Donald Duck on the left, then Pluto, then Goofy, and then Pluto again? Why not use Mickey to make the famous foursome complete?
This would have been one the first appearances in merchandise of Professor Ludwig Von Drake, who was created in 1961 for Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color television program broadcast on NBC.
This metal target game was made in the United States by Lido. It is branded as a Walt Disney Productions product.
As mentioned already, having only one of Donald’s nephews (specifically Dewey, in blue) is definitely a discrepancy. Why only one nephew, and why the middle one? And why isn’t he in the middle? I feel that the bottom row could have been Huey on the left, Dewey in the middle, and Louie on the right. Visually, it would have been amazing!
The back is nothing to look at. You can see that the metal tray is unfinished and the swivel targets are hollow molds.
Target games today are less common likely due to the current problem with gun violence affecting children around the world. But back in the 1950s and 1960s it was definitely different times!
