Items in later years were more complex. The dresser has working drawers, the radio door opens and closes, and the icebox door opens to reveal drawers and shelves.
tootsietoy is known for its die-cast toys. It is said that Charles and Samuel Dowst were as foundational to the toy industry as Henry Ford was to the automobile. The brothers made a good living in Chicago in the laundry industry and even founded a publishing company which produced the first laundry trade magazine before they started making toys.
Charles attended the Columbia Exposition of 1893 and saw a presentation of the Line-O-Type machine. He applied this process to manufacture small die-cast items and in 1910 was producing metal toys. The Dowst Brothers Manufacturing company started producing small trinket items including Cracker Jack toys and later producing Monopoly game pieces. They produced planes, trains, cars, trucks and even battleships.