The Radio Flyer Ranger wagon has a full-sized seamless all-steel body with no-scratch edges and a seat back for comfortable rides. This wagon includes a child seat belt, and extra long handle for easy pulling and durable molded wheels. Radio Flyer has one of those incredible rags-to-riches stories attached. The Chicago-based company, known for its iconic little red wagons, was launched by a young Italian immigrant named Antonio Pasin, who came to Chicago practically penniless in 1914. A cabinetmaker who had trouble getting work in that field, Pasin dug ditches, washed vegetables, and took whatever work he could find, carrying his tools in a wooden wagon of his own design. After the war, the factory went back to making wagons and developed several new models in tune with the times.
Another unique attribute is that one side of the wagon bed unzips, turning your wagon into a bench. You wouldn’t want to pull it around with legs dangling, but if you’re parked the bench mode is quite comfortable for three bigger kids who just need a place to sit. Its seat cushions wipe clean pretty easily, and it has two external cup holders and a very easy one-hand fold. To fold, simply pull up a handle in the center of the seat and it collapses into a rectangle. The ability to fold up this Radio Flyer compactly is a unique feature among this group of basic wagons.
It’s not easy nowadays to pick a gift that kids will love as much as their parents do. Low-tech toys that spark creativity and imaginative play are the answer. And nothing fits the radio flyer wagon bill like Radio Flyer’s iconic red wagon. But no one remains on top forever, and when Little Tykes and Step2 introduced plastic wagons in the early 1990s, Radio Flyer faltered.
Radio Steel continued production unabated, even though the toy industry in the United States began to change. In the 1970s, the industry consolidated, with many small, private firms being bought out by bigger competitors. These large firms, including Mattel and Hasbro, made inroads into the wagon market with branded products of their own. By the 1980s, the market had swayed away from simple, classic toys to increasingly high-tech items like video games. Big toy companies also poured money into faddish toys and toys that could be marketed through licensing tie-ins to movies and television shows. Despite these developments, Radio Steel plugged away in much the same way it always had.
The June 24, 2013 episode of Let’s Make a Deal parodied this wagon as a Zonk being offered under the name “Zonk Flyer”. Radio Flyer said that as part of its anniversary celebrations, it will donate 2,000 wagons to children’s hospitals across the country in partnership with Starlight Children’s Foundation. He wanted to know about their needs, wants and habits, how kids played, how parents transported their families. He hired market research firms and dispatched product designers to go out into the field — zoos, ballparks, playgrounds — and observe. From the reverence with which Pasin talks about Radio Flyer’s history, you get the sense that he sees himself as the steward of the little red wagon’s legacy. The Radio Flyer corporate headquarters sits on the Northwest edge of Chicago, about a half hour’s drive from downtown, as it has for the past century.
As of next year, the company will have been around a full century, with roots stretching back to the early 1900s when the future founder of the company, Antonio Pasin, arrived in America. The red test bike, an aluminum-framed M880 with a cloth front basket and a water bottle holder, is on the large side, and gives off an air of solidity. The styling is low-slung and retro, perhaps suggesting a 1930s motorcycle.
Starlight plays an integral role in the partnership, ultimately connecting Radio Flyer with the patients. Starlight Radio Flyer Wagons distributed to hospitals across the country and played an integral part of a child’s pediatric care. Doctors, nurses, child life specialists and caregivers across the US rely on these wagons every day as an integral part of a child’s pediatric care.