Compared to other toys, cast-iron toys arrived late on the American scene. American toy companies began making cast-iron banks and cap pistols after the Civil War (1865). By the 1880s, they were making a variety of other iron toys. Pull toys, particularly horse-drawn vehicles, were very popular.

Many types of cast-iron vehicles were produced in the United States. The items displayed here were made from the 1880s to the 1940s. Most of the toy iron vehicles still around today were made between 1915 and 1930.