About Me:
My name is Bob Drexelius and I live in the midwestern area of the United States, in West Chester, Ohio. As of January 2018, I’m a 54 year-old semi-retired engineer. I started my adult life by joining the US Navy when I was 17, and worked as a nuclear plant operator on a nuclear-powered Guided Missile Cruiser, the USS South Carolina (CGN-37). After about six and a half years in the Navy, I went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY and received a BS in Environmental Engineering, graduating in 1992. I then worked as an Environmental Engineer for General Electric for the next two and a half decades. In 2016, in large part due to the support and generosity of my loving wife, I was able to retire from GE to pursue a lifelong desire to work with youngsters in math and science. I currently work as an educational aide at a high school in Cincinnati, working with kids who struggle (for various reasons) to succeed in these subjects.
About my Toys:
But back to our shared interest, and that is toys. I, like many many middle-aged folks (mainly men but not always) who can never really seems to grow-up, have had a lifelong passion for toys. I’ve always been a mechanical-type thinker, hence my career pursuit in engineering. For this reason, I’ve also been primarily interested in tin toys - steam engines, transportation toys of all types, especially boats, wind-ups, robots, etc. You name it - if it’s made of tin, or any metal for that matter, and is powered by steam or any other mechanical device - I’m interested in it. In my early collecting days (late 80’s), when I started learning about these old, sturdy toys, I gained a great appreciation for the toys made in the Nuremberg area of Germany. Companies like Marklin, Bing, Fleischman, Falk, Wilesco and more recently Tucher and Walther (T&W). I mention Tucher & Walther because, although the small company wasn’t founded until 1977, it made all of it’s toys in the grand tradition of German tin toy making, using the same machinery and techniques that made Nuremberg famous on the early and middle parts of the 20th century. All hand-made and in very limited numbers, these toys have become the core of my modest collection. In 2009, I was invited to visit the small Tucher & Walther plant in Emskirchen, Germany (just a few miles from Nuremberg), and had the privilege of spending the day with the company founders Bernard Tucher and Elizabeth Walther.
Although the core of my collection contains models from Tucher & Walther, I have also collected toys from a number of other companies that I will touch on briefly below. For my website, I have separated the toys into their obvious categories, by company name. Although I have a few miscellaneous pieces from other companies (or even unknown companies), I have grouped the toys by company name: Tucher & Walther, Bernhard Tucher, Mamod, Wilesco, Schylling, Paya & Marklin.
A Little About Each Company:
Tucher & Walther
Tucher + Walther was established in 1977 by Elisabeth Walther and Bernhard Tucher in Nurnberg, Germany, the traditional toy center of the world. Since Nurnberg had a long tradition of manufacturing tin toys, many from old factories that were no longer in production, Tucher + Walther were able to get their hands on a continuous supply of world famous traditional tin toys that could be sold to collectors. As many of the toys needed repair before their re-sale, they ultimately decided to open a small repair shop. Their business took off and the antique toysproved to be best sellers.
In 1979, with hopes of expanding their business, Tucher & Walther decided they would sell not only antique tin toys, but new ones as well. As part of their expansion plans, they decided to exhibit their merchandise at the world famous Nurnberg Toy Fair. Since there were so many exhibitors, many of which were competitors also selling tin toys, they needed to differentiate themselves. In the hopes of drawing attention to their booth, they decided to hand make and display a large tin Zeppelin and tin Ferris Wheel for decoration. These 'decorations' proved to be more popular than the items they were actually selling. Shortly thereafter Tucher + Walther produced their first two original tin toys, with additional designs added each year. Their first original steam-driven items, first introduced in 1982, were a train and boat called the 'Elisabeth Joanna' (named after Mr. Tucher's daughter), similar to their 'Victoria Louise.
Bernhard Tücher Tin Toys
The company that was founded by Bernhard Tucher and Elizabeth Walther (Tucher & Walther) was closed when Bernhard retired at the end of 2009. Although the company closed in 2009, Bernhard still makes a few tin toys at his small home shop with his wife, Danuta. His creative abilities have not slowed and he still loves tinkering with new ideas, albeit on a much smaller scale. At this point, for Bernhard this is more of a hobby than a full-time job, but he still creates beautiful toys and is one of the last great tin toy makers in the world.
Wilesco
The Wilhelm Schröder GmbH & co metalworks factory was founded in 1912.
The Wilesco trademark was born out of the name Wilhelm Schröder & Co.
To begin with, when the aluminium foundry first opened, the company only produced cutlery, badges, and furniture fittings.
At the start of the 1920s, aluminium cutlery and little pans for doll’s houses (so called “domestic toys”) were introduced into their manufacturing programme.
This decision proved to have been very beneficial, as in the following economic, crisis huge amounts of these domestic toys were exported to the USA.
This meant that the company was able to thrive in an otherwise difficult economic period.
In the following years, we reduced our sales of simple aluminium cutlery bit by bit.
We constantly worked on expanding our production capacity in aluminium permanent mould casting and, from 1939, in aluminium and zinc die-casting, adapting to the demand on the market.
To this day, Wilesco’s product lines include weighing scoops with lengths of 3 to 43 cm, plus a wide range of coat hooks and hand towel hooks.
Our die-cast zinc and aluminium products are mainly used as circuit components, joints, etc., in the automotive and electronics industry.
We even make the flywheels and rods for the steam engines ourselves using this process.
We began producing model steam engines only in 1950.
After several stationary engines, the steamroller known as “Old Smoky” was first introduced to the production line as a mobile model in 1966.
This was followed by a steam tractor as well as a fire engine, inspired by an original model by the MAGIRUS co. in 1904.
The latest motorised model is the “Mighty Atom” tractor. This is a detailed model of the original from 1932.
The phrase “Quality and Safety” not only stands for Wilesco steam engines, but also represents the overarching policies of our company.
Mamod
Mamod is a British toy manufacturer specialising in manufacturing live steam models. The company was founded in 1937 in Birmingham in the UK by Geoffrey Malins. The name is a portmanteau of 'Ma' lins 'Mod' els'. Malins started off making steam engines which were sold under the Hobbies brand name but he soon started selling them under the Mamod brand name. The first models produced were of stationary steam engines. Much later the company also began creating models of road rollers, traction engines, steam wagons and other steam road vehicles. These models were aimed at the toy market, so were simple to operate and ran at low boiler pressures for safety but were not accurate scale models.
Most Mamod models use simple but effective oscillating cylinders, usually single-acting. Some of these engines have regulators either in the steam feed or exhaust but many others run unregulated (in the simpler models) or have a simple reversing mechanism to alter the cutoff, thus controlling the power/speed and direction of the engine. Early models had single or multi-wick lamps or vapourising spirit burners but in the mid-1970s the company changed to hexamine solid fuel which came in tablet form and provided low heat in a relatively safe form.
Marklin
Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accessories, today it is best known for model railways and technical toys. In some parts of Germany and in Sweden, the company's name is almost synonymous with model railroads.
Märklin released its first wind-up train with carriages that ran on standardised track in 1891, noting that railroad toys had the potential to follow the common practice of doll houses, in which the initial purchase would be enhanced and expanded with more accessories for years after the initial purchase. To this end, Märklin offered additional rolling stock and track with which to expand its boxed sets.
Märklin is responsible for the creation of several popular model railroad gauges or scale, noteworthy exceptions being N scale and Wide gauge. In 1891, Märklin defined gauges 1-5 as standards for toy trains and presented them at the Leipzig Toy Fair. They soon became international standards. Märklin followed with 0 gauge (by some accounts as early as 1895 or as late as 1901), H0 scale in 1935, and the diminutive Z scale, 1:220, in 1972 — smallest in the world for decades — under the name Mini-Club (the scale of Z was assigned after the product line was introduced). Mini-Club was developed as Märklin's answer to Arnold Rapido's introduction of N gauge.
Today, Märklin manufactures and markets trains and accessories in Gauge 1, H0 scale, and Z scale. In 1994 Märklin acquired a Nuremberg based model train manufacturer Trix. Today Trix is another brand of Märklin Holding and covers N-scale and DC-operated H0 scale. Märklin's older trains are considered highly collectible today, and Märklin's current offerings enjoy premium status among hobbyists.
Although Märklin is best known for its trains, from 1914 to 1999, the company produced mechanical construction sets similar to Meccano and Erector. Between 1967 and 1982, the company produced a slotcar system called Märklin Sprint. Märklin also produced numerous other toys over the years, including lithographed tinplate toy automobiles and boats. From 1909 until well into the 1950s they sold a range of alcohol-burning model steam engines. These were very educational toys, and could be linked to dynamos to provide lighting. In the late 1990s and Märklin purchased the assets of Trix in January 1997, thus adding N gauge to their scale lineup.
On 11 May 2006, the company, which had until then been owned by the three families Märklin, Friz and Safft, was sold to the British investment group Kingsbridge Capital, with the support of the employees. The purchase price was approximately $38 million. At the time, Märklin had approximately $70.5 million in debt, as a result of several years of slumping sales.[1]
In 2007, the company expanded its product offering by buying the remaining assets of the bankrupt firm, Ernst Paul Lehmann Patentwerk, who owned the LGB brand and product line of G scale model railways.
On 4 February 2009 Märklin filed for insolvency at the Göppingen municipal court.[2] A year and a day later, on 5 February 2010, Märklin announced a return to profitability.[3]
In 2013 Märklin was acquired by the Simba Dickie Group.[4]
Paya
https://www.tintoyarcade.com/paya-reproductions
The Paya company dates back to 1902 when tinsmith Rafael Paya begin making toys. His sons Emilio, Pascual and Vincente expanded the business into the company called Hermaños Paya (hermaños means brothers in Spanish). This name is represented by the trademark monogram HP used since ca. 1906-1910(see Fig. 3). By the 1920s-30s, Paya's mechanical toys were competing with the more traditional established toy companies of Germany and France.
Like the rest of the European toy industry, Paya essentially shut down during WW II. Following the war, it struggled financially. In 1985, a decision was made to reissue the toys Paya made during the first half of the century using original tools, dies and molds. According to a present day Paya sales brochure, 2,000 different toys were made between 1906 and 1940. Currently, 50 toys are being made as reissues.
Many original Paya toys are in the $200-$2000 price range in today's antique market. One of Paya's most sought after toys, a Bugatti race car from the 1930s, has sold for over $10,000.
The new reissues are produced with the same trademarks that appeared on original pre-1940 Paya toys. This includes the HP mark (Fig. 3) and a stylized version of the word Paya in which the P forms the body of a locomotive (Fig. 4). One or both marks appear one or more times on all the reissues. Both old and new marks are in various sizes and color combinations. There is no way the marks can be used to establish age.
Old or New?
Since old dies are being used, there is no easy way for the average buyer to tell old from new. Toy buyers with years of specialized experience claim to be able to distinguish between new and old paint and minute details in how the metal is finished. But as a practical matter, this is very difficult to learn.
Fortunately Paya markets the new reissues as "limited editions" and permanently marks each piece by stamping an edition number into the metal. Unfortunately, if an unethical seller wanted to misrepresent a piece, most buyers wouldn't have a clue as to what the stamped number means. It looks like a typical model number or production code.
If you can't inspect a piece before buying–through the mail, over the Internet or bidding absentee–make sure the seller provides a written guarantee clearly stating age and authenticity of any Paya pieces.
Schylling
For over forty years, Schylling, Inc. has specialized in timeless toys. We started out making delightful playthings from a bygone era. Over time we’ve built a distinctive collection of innovative gifts and traditional toys with nostalgic appeal for all ages. As an award-winning toy company located in North Andover, MA on the beautiful North Shore of Boston, Schylling works to create the future in toys by captivating new designs and intriguing refreshes and innovations of toys from the past. Schylling offers original and distributed lines of toys. Among these lines are the iconic tin toys that have been an important part of the history of the company. Schylling is the world leader in the manufacture of Jack-in-the-Box toys and tin Kaleidoscopes, among others. Toy lines include the Nanoblock, PaperNano and Terrablock family of products, the Steelworks line of construction toys, the original Lava Lamp series, Turbospoke, Crazy Foam, Fisher-Price Classics, the Zuru Bunch-o-Balloons, illooms LED balloons, the Lottie line of dolls, the Style Model line, the recently added Tiger Tribe arts and crafts playset line. Schylling’s long list of toy categories including Classics, Games, Retro Toys, Ride-Ons, Pretend Play, Just for Fun, Magic, Arts & Crafts, Great Outdoors, Tents, Die-Cast, Money Matters, Music, Sock Monkey, and BeBots tin wind-ups featuring Star Wars and Pixar characters as well as Curious George. Schylling is proud of its heritage and in offering high quality, safe and creative products that lead the toy industry.