Sometimes the scrap toys are recycled versions of traditional playthings in the creator's culture, including kites, puppets, masks, dolls, and games. Other times the handmade toys replicate the most contemporary products of modern technology -- film projectors, boom boxes, even the latest war vehicles.

Whether made for fun or profit -- to resemble the old or mimic the new -- scrap toys appeal to the creative impulse in each of us.

If the symbols of Western mass media have penetrated the most remote corners of the globe, their whimsical representation is not far behind. Televisions, "boom boxes," film projectors, and still cameras are favorite subjects for the scrap toymaking set, some of whose most admiring fans are Western collectors and visiting tourists.

In many parts of the world, the United States included, children play war games, using either toy replicas of traditional weapons such as shields, spears, and arrows, or models of contemporary combat. In some cases, these lifesized prototypes -- tanks, helicopters, machine guns, and bombs -- are too familiar reminders of wartime events in the children's lives.

When American armed forces stationed themselves on the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1994, local boys entertained themselves for hours designing miniature replicas of their heroes' impressive military vehicles. From popular plastic soft drink containers they cut and painted pint-sized copies of standard camouflaged tanks, helicopters, and military cars, as well as more specialized versions of the well-known Chinook helicopter and humvee vehicle.

The helicopter shown here was made by, and purchased from, three local teenage boys: Sony Fradeis, Geutchine Desir, and Louis Max David.