Alexander Calder, renowned for his monumental sculptures and mobiles, also brought his inventive spirit to creating toys and household objects, demonstrating his broad artistic range and playful engagement with everyday life. Beginning in the 1920s, Calder crafted a variety of toys, including rocking and pull-toys shaped as horses, kangaroos, birds, and fish from materials such as wood, wire, and string. He also transformed everyday items like cigar boxes and tin cans into toy cars. Among his creations, perhaps the most celebrated is his traveling circus, meticulously constructed and animated using strings, air hoses, and levers. This miniature circus, which found a permanent home at the Whitney Museum of American Art, was presented in over 200 live performances, captivating audiences that included fellow artists and critics who recognized it as a serious art form​ (Artsy)​.

Calder's childhood tinkering laid the groundwork for his later innovations. Growing up in an artistic household, he demonstrated extraordinary manual dexterity from a young age, creating toys and other objects, which pointed him towards a career blending engineering with art. His formative years, rich in experimentation and a keen sense of the physical and spatial dynamics of objects, fueled his later artistic endeavors. Calder's toys were not mere playthings but extensions of his artistic philosophy, blending his engineering background with his sculptural vision to produce objects that were both playful and deeply rooted in the principles of kinetic art and abstraction​ (Encyclopedia Britannica)​.

These endeavors underscore Calder's belief in the importance of play and interaction within art. His toys and household objects invite a hands-on engagement, embodying his experimental approach to movement and form. By infusing everyday objects with his artistic sensibility, Calder blurred the boundaries between art, play, and daily life, offering a glimpse into his creative genius and the joy he found in exploration and invention.