Vintage toys history & sales of tin toys and dolls
600+ tin toys, dolls & companies | welcome to Fabtintoys!
Welcome to Fabulous Tin Toys! On-line resource on vintage tin toys & dolls
Find lots of info on manufactures and search easily through auctions in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, France, Deutschland, Espana, Schweiz, Italia, Österreich, Ireland, Belgie & Nederland!
For example, if you're looking for 'Louis Marx' toys, click on 'M - P ' and find Marx in the manufactures list.
Or for 'Reborn Doll', click on 'Q - T' and find 'Reborn baby doll'. You can also use a short-cut by clicking on one of the pictures below. Have fun!
Top 50 toys searched by collectors on Fabtintoys
History of tin toys
In the early 19th century, pedlars and street traders sold cheap toys carved from a single piece of wood, mainly produced by rural craftsmen or in small backstreet factories and sweatshops.
In the late 19th century these toys were replaced by even cheaper toys stamped out of tinplate which were exported from Germany. Many of the toys were clockwork and were developed as a sideline of watchmaking. They were originally made in the 1830s for the amusement of adults.
Much of the tinplate trade was based in Nürnberg and companies such as Bing and Issmayer began production there in the 1860s.
There were three main methods of printing designs onto tinplate:
- directly from a lithographic stone
- transfer printing with paper
- offset lithography using a rubber roller
The range of tinplate toys was varied and included penny toys as well as more expensive lithographed models.
Collecting toys from Germany? History of German toys
In the early years of the 20th century, Germany was the leading producer of tin toys. German tin toys were innovative and well made and they dominated the market up to the outbreak of World War II.
Once the toy industry was (back) in full production, Japan assumed the lead and began to control the market with the addition of many new novelties. Not just wind-up and friction driven, some Japanese tin toys were powered by batteries and able to provide flashing lights and sounds. In the 1950's and early 1960's, the Japanese had flooded the market with many appealingly designed tin toys and a large percentage of them were aimed at the USA with items familiar to Americans. But despite tin toy popularity in the post-war era, tin toy manufacturing was faced with increasing difficulties. They included changing consumer demands, new safety regulations and competition from plastic toy makers. By the 1970's, Japan had reduced the tin toy output so dramatically that many factories had ceased production altogether. Examples of German tin toy producers: Lehmann, Louis Marx toys, Bing toys, Gunthermann, Tipp & Co, Schuco toys and Levy.
Collecting toys from Japan? History of Japanese toys
The word 'Buriki' which means tin plate in Japanese, has originally derived from the Dutch word 'blik' (tin toys in Dutch is 'blikken speelgoed') meaning 'tinned iron'. In Germany, it's called 'blechspielzeug'. Until Mid 1870's, most of the imported tin plates were used for the production of oil cans. When Japanese companies noticed the enormous popularity of imported tin plate toys, they began to produce them themselves. While German craftsman specialized in highly artistic ornamental toys that include trains and boats, Japanese crafted conventional tin plate toys such as rattles, a toy Jinrikisha (a rick shaw) and so on.
Initially, toy business in Japan was sluggish. After the Sino-Japanese war of 1894, the business started picking up. Introduction of printing machines for the tin plate and technology of clockwork from Germany accelerated Japan's tin toy industry. Eventually Japan became the tin toy producing center, leaving behind Germany which was totally devasted by the First World War.
The political uncertainty since 1938 had a devastating effect on the tin toy business. Many toy manufactures closed down. The Second World War broke out and effected the industry. Actually 1947 was the year when luck finally turned to Japan's favour. Under the American occupation, tin plate toy industry was granted a right to resume its operation and to export. In 1948, friction toys such as trains, fire engine trucks and automobiles emerged. Around 1955, electronic toys took over friction and wind-up toys. In the year of 1963, about 60% of the exported toys in Japan were made out of tin plate.
Unfortunately, this trend only remained untill the mid 60's. The tin plate toys gradually disappeared as plastic and superalloy toys emerged. Examples of Japanese manufactures are Marusan, Masudaya, Nomura (TN), Yoshiya (Kobe Yoko or KO), Masuya (SM), Bandai, Sankei (NK), Horikawa and Yonezawa (Yone).
Collecting toys from China? History of Chinese toys
China began to produce tin toys in the early 20's. They were primitive and poorly made. After the decline of Japanese tin toy manufacturing, China assumed the role of the leading tin toy maker in the world. Early Chinese toys were noted for their cheap prices, which often reflected in their quality. Nowadays they are made to a much higher standard, yet retain the edge of being very affordable. China produces a very wide range of reproduction tin toys with new ones being continually introduced to the market each year.
Dolls history
Since the old ages, dolls are created and played with. Early puppets & dolls were made from simple materials from nature like wood, clay, and fur. Dolls were often used as playthings or to resemble religious figures. Unfortunately, there are no dolls left from these ages, although they found a piece of an puppet (alabaster) with movable parts from the period of Babylon was discovered. Lots of dolls were found in Egyptian tombs dating back to 2000 BC. These dolls were made of wood, with hair made of (wooden) beads or clay and painted in various designs. Wealthy Egyptian families had pottery dolls included in their tombs. People treated them as treasures. Puppets were also found in Greek and Roman children's graves. Greek and Roman girls dedicated their -usually wooden- dolls to goddesses after they were too "old" to play with them.
Most dolls found in young children's graves were very simple toys, usually made from materials as such as rags, wood, bone or clay. The more 'unique' and luxury puppets were made with wax and/or ivory. The main ideal was to make the doll as "lifelike" as possible. That goal lead to the production of dolls with movable arms, legs and removable garments, even dating back to 600 B.C.
Europe played a very important role in doll creation, following the era of the ancient dolls. These were usually wooden dolls. Simple wooden puppets from England from the16th & 17th century number less than 30 today. The Grodnertal area of Germany produced many peg wooden dolls, a type of doll that has very simple peg joints and resembles a clothespin. In the 1800s people developed alternatives to wood. Composition is a collective term for mixtures of (pulped) wood or paper that were used to make puppet heads & bodies. These mixtures were molded (under pressure), creating a durable puppets that could be mass produced. Manufacturers closely observed and guarded the recipes for these mixtures, sometimes using odd ngredients like shells from eggs or ash. Papier-mache was a very popular mixture. Not only wooden dolls, wax puppets were also popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. The German city Munich was a big manufacturing center for wax dolls, but some of the most distinctive wax dolls were created in the UK between 1850 & 1930. Wax modelers would model a doll head in clay or wax, and then use plaster to create a mold from the head. Then they poured they melted wax into the cast. The wax for the heads would be very thin, no more than 3 mm. At the beginning of the 19th century, one of the first dolls (from wax) that portrayed a baby was made in England.
When World War II ended, doll makers started to experiment with plastics. Hard plastic dolls were manufactured in the 1940s. They resembled composition dolls, but they were much more durable. Other materials used in doll manufacturing included rubber, foam rubber, and vinyl in the 1950s and 1960s. Vinyl changed doll making, allowing doll makers to root hair into the head, rather than using wigs or painting the hair. Although most dolls are now mass-manufactured using these modern materials, many modern doll makers are using the traditional materials of the past to make collectible dolls.
Nowadays there are many doll collectors of reborn dolls and reborn kits.