Vintage Toys

By Garrett Wade

Many years ago, on a trip to Germany, we met Hans. He is an exceptionally well-dressed man in his late 50’s who is usually found wearing a wool suit with a bow tie and playing with some old-world toys like an 8-year-old boy.

Hans has been in the Tin Toy business since he was 12, when he helped set up first Düsseldorf Christmas market. He lives by the motto of the late 1800’s toy maker Ernst Paul Lehmann “Give your tin toy a name and it'll get a soul.”

From the moment we walked through his warehouse of Limited-Edition Vintage Toys, our holiday gift offering changed. Every holiday we roll out a “new” selection of limited-edition toys; this year is no exception (thought the quantities are slimmer this year so you might want to order early). Hans has managed to find for us some incredible Vintage Schuco Cars. My current vintage favorites are these Go-Kart Racers, and the Electron Retro Robots.

These are from another era– literally and figuratively. These fully working collectibles were made decades ago. The Robot marches forward, its chest bursts open to unleashes a devastating blast (and awesome light show) before closing up and lumbering forward again in search of its next target. It’s available in 5 colors all in extremely limited quantities.

Other fun, totally unique, Vintage gift suggestions are our Flying Saucer, the set of four charming "Gnomy" cars from the Lehmann company (these are old enough that the original packaging says "Made in Western Germany”), and our Vintage Tin Cars (they remind me of the Japanese comic I watched as a kid).

This is a fun time of year for us. We get to present our totally unique offer of Toys, Vintage Collectibles, and other Tin Toys. We only carry these toys and gifts during the holidays, so we have very limited stock.

Enjoy!