Toy Germany

Schuco Tin Toys

The internationally well known and loved German Company, Schuco, can be traced as far back as 1887, infact right back to the birth of one, Heinrich Muller.  As a teenager, Muller began making his own toys and pretty soon started working for another famous German toy company, Bing.  However, in 1912, Muller left the Bing Company and, together with Heinrich Schreyer (a local merchant), formed their own company, Schreyer & Co.  In 1921, this company became known as the now famous Schuco Company.

Schuco began by making small felt and plush figures and animals, but like all other German toy companies, like Steiff for example, the outbreak of the Fist World War halted their business.

However, once back in business, Schuco introduced it’s Schuco-Patent-Motor-Car.  The great success of this product quickly gave way to Schuco producing a wonderful range of tinplate vehicles.  The Patent Car is powered by clockwork, but what really makes this tinplate car so very desirable is the fact that it “turns back from the edge”, or,  in other words, the car will never fall from a table or play surface as, when it reaches the edge, it simply will not fall off – Amazing Isn’t It !!  This incredible model, which we must not forget was made in the mid 1930′s.  This idea was, as you can imagine greatly copied by many other toy companies, despite the fact that this model was ‘patented’.

Once again, the outbreak of the Second World War stopped toy production at Schuco.  As early as 1946, the Schuco toy company had started to become a legend in the toy world and was talked about all over Europe and on both sides of the Atlantic.  Just like so many other German toy companies, such as Steiff, the toys produced in Germany had a quality which really were second to none and it was this great quality that was greatly impressing the American market.  Muller was personally responsible for all Schuco designs and he was also responsible for quality.  It is rumoured that Muller would throw each new model on the floor, to test it’s resilience when the model was put into the hands of a child.

Tin Toys boomed in the late 1940′s – 1950′s, but then sadly, sales started to decline in the mid 1960′s.  Tin toys started to be deemed as ‘unsafe’ for children, due to their sharp edges, but also a further contributory factor to the tin toy decline was the introduction of plastics to the toy world, which were both safer and more affordable.  Sadly then, Schuco went out of business in 1976.

In 1980, Gama (Georg Adam Mangold) who ironically was once a rival to the Shuco company, obtained the Schuco brand name and began creating reproductions of the old Schuco models.  In 1999, Schuco was sold to the Simba-Dickie Group (one of the largest toy companies in Europe).  Today Schuco’s main aim is to re-establish the same quality as Schuco’s past models.  They also tend to make reproductions of the tin toys that Schuco made iconic in the past.

Many grown-up’s collect the old Schuco tin toys today, as they are small and extremely worthy works of art.  They certainly look amazing either shown as a collection, or as a single display item.  A Schuco tin toy model will almost certainly provoke a reaction from your friends, regardless of their age.

The condition of a Schuco tin model is, like so many other collectables, very important in terms of it’s financial value, unused and also boxed items of course, being the ultimate.  However, sometimes a small amount of playwear, the odd dent or chip, adds a great amount of age history and character to a model.  Just like the old teddy bear that is age-worn, you wonder about the toy’s history and this can sometimes add to the toy’s desirability, depending of course on the collector.

There is always the option of having the model ‘restored’.  Restoration such as having a repaint to body work will, almost always de-value an old model but then, on the plus-side some things are acceptable such as replacing a broken windscreen or repairing a clockwork spring, which leads us on to the Schuco Keys.  Owning an original Schuco tin toy, together with it’s original key is always very desirable and, once again, adds to the model’s value.  It really is down to the collector alone to decide whether or not he wants to collect just ‘mint’ models or whether he wants to collect ‘used’, perhaps like so many collectors he would prefer to seek a compromise.

Many toy companies around the world has indeed made really good tin toys and today’s standards are very high, but setting aside modern replica tin toys, we find it highly unlikely that today’s toys would even come close to the old Schuco models.

How many old and battered tinplate cars, for example, would still run?  After sixty years an old Schuco model will still run, infact it is very hard to find an old Schuco model that will not run.  Simply Amazing !!

Schuco tin toys is worthy of collectors.  They always have been and certainly always will be.

About the Author

Gino loves fast cars, especially fast italian cars.  Gino also loves anything Italian. Gino heads a specialist teddy bear site but now has a section called Gino Racing where you can find motoring memorabilia, limited edition Ferrari models and some collectible tin cars and toys.

Please visit his website at www.ginosbears.co.uk

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