From the colonial period into the 19th and early 20th century, traditional handcrafted toys could be found all over Mexico, generally sold at tianguis markets, other traditional markets and stands set up for festivals, especially in larger cities such as Mexico City . After Mexico’s Independence, European toys became very fashionable, especially cloth-bodied dolls with porcelain heads and hands. However, these were very expensive, which prompted locally made imitations that eventually took on a Mexican character. Other popular toys included dollhouses with furniture, tea sets, wooden horses, puppets, rope tied into human or animal shapes—and toy trains made of wood, sheet metal and cartonería. Another important category from the colonial period to the present have been miniatures, with those of painted clay and wire extremely common in all parts of Mexico up to the mid 20th century. Until this time, they were played with by generations of Mexican children, reaching their greatest popularity in the rural areas of the country. Since the 1970s, they have almost entirely been replaced by plastic, commercial toys, due to children’s interest in commercial toys, especially electronic ones.