My third (technically 4th) in the series of mini cooking and today I’ll be talking about vintage toy stoves for kids. Definitely not safe for operation by children, but that’s why you can totally use them for real mini cooking today.
These are a bit larger than the current mini cooking fad, but because of that they allow for more versatility in cookware. More on that later.
By bigger, I mean these make portions about right for an 18″ doll.
Also check out:
- Working Miniature Kitchens (1:12 and 1:6 scale and the mini cooking hysteria in general)
- Alternative Mini Cooking Options (candy, clay, foam and powder based ways to make mini foods)
There are many electric or light bulb based toy ovens such as Easy Bake Oven and it’s predecessors. I have left these off the below list as this is more geared toward those of you who want to be able to make mini cooking videos.
The below can be found all over ebay or Etsy and their prices fluctuate greatly. I have not included links as by the time you clicked through most listings would have ended. Simply search the bolded titles, or check out the search results listed below. As these are vintage make sure to read product descriptions to learn whether they’re working or not.
To know which ones are the ones you’re looking for in the 2 search result lists here – glance at the pictures to see if an electric cord is attached to the stove.
1960s Kenner’s Big Burger Grill
1930s Little Lady Kingston Products Model #514 Kids Oven
Suzy Homemaker Super Grill
1916 Electric Kids Toy Oven – Hughes Electric Heating Company
1970s Japanese Toy Stove
1950’s Little Lady Kids Toy Stove – Oven
Little Chef 1940’s Vintage Kids Toy Oven
1950s Little Chef by Tacoma
Other readily available brands:
- 1960s Frankonia Aromatic Range
- 1930/40s Empire Metal Electric Toy Stove
- 1950s MFZ Tin Toy Stove (German)
- 1960s Wagner Play Stove (German)
Need more accessories for your oven? Since these are scaled for little ones, you can buy any real metal kid cookware you find in store to go along with them. Like this one from Melissa and Doug. Click on the image to go to the purchase page.
Also, there are apparently vintage toy washing machines that really work. I don’t see that concept going viral any time soon, but let me know if you ‘d like to learn more about it or any other mini musing.