Collectible Tin Toys

I had an interesting conversation with a customer last week in recalling the toys we had when we were children, which was many years ago! I often have people in the shop, usually grandparents, picking up toys and remembering them from their childhood days long ago, and we got talking about the replica wind up tin toys that we sell.

Now I am going back to the late 1950's and early 1960's when I was just a young boy and and at that time there were no rules about buying tin toys that I can remember unlike today where we have stricter regulations. They are now more for adult collectors and we cannot sell them to children under 14 as they do not comply with toy safety legislation.

Now the one he fondly remembered best of all was Robbie the Robot or Planet Robot as its sometimes called. I do remember my brother having one, which I wasn't allowed near, but then in those days toys were far more expensive and we had few to play with, and for that reason were more cherished. It is probably our best selling robot in the shop and online and I believe most people associate it with the film 'Forbidden Planet'.

My fondest memories were a small wind up tin train set. I don't think it was a named brand, but to me it was the best toy ever. Comprising of a circular track with a few carriages you could have endless adventures with it. Also I had a few wind up tin cars and in those days there was not a battery in sight. Many a time when they stopped working I would give the broken toy to my father and he would miraculously take it apart and before long it would be working again.

On Saturdays I would go to the local toy shop in Liskeard, which if I remember correctly was called 'Glanvilles' and it was full of every kind of tin toy you could imagine. I would spend ages in there before deciding what toy to spend my pocket money on.

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at some of the history of tin toys and didn't realise that they originated in Germany around the 1850's, being assembled and painted by hand and a few decades later lithography was used to print the designs onto tinplate, where they were shaped by machine and tin tabs used to hold the item together. It wasn't long before America, France and England began making tin toys in earnest with Japan soon producing them after the the second world war.

As always cheaper plastic toys took over in the 1960's and popularity for the tin toys waned but with an ever increasing market now for collectibles, tin toys seem to be making a comeback and China has now become a leading producer of replica tin toys.

If you are looking for a memorable present for someone, or you yourself are a collector then have a look at our range of not only tin robots but also our replica tin wind up Ferris wheels, motorcycles, planes, cars and animals and hopefully they will bring as much pleasure to you as they brought me when I owned them.