<p><span class="deck"> Animals a-coming two by two: Up went the lid and you could stuff them in, Noah and all. Or you could throw them at Brother. A toy is pretty adaptable.</span> </p>
<p>The celebrated novelist and historian John Dos Passos wrote a prose poem about the visit that Albert Einstein paid to Charles Steinmetz, the "The Wizard of Schenectady."</p>
<p><span class="deck">50 years ago, these rough-and-ready tin soldiers were sold from bins cheap and by the handful. Today, collectors are seeking them for their bright, simple vitality.</span></p>
<p><span class="deck">Forty years ago, Cold War technology and memories of a still-recent World War II combined to make a plastic paradise of great toys which wistful baby boomers can now revisit.</span></p>
