Those wonderful wind-up toys that we love today have been around for years, to be exact about 500 of them. A German inventor by the name of Karel Grod was one of the first to use metal and gears to create mechanical toys. His first attempts were said to including an eagle and fly. Leonardo da Vinci created a wind-up lion for a gift for King Louis. Wind-ups of the early years tended to be more complex and elaborate and were meant for kings and queens. There is even a strange legend involving a man by the name of Rene’ Descartes who built a life sized wind-up of a human girl however when it was discovered in his luggage on a voyage to Sweden the ship’s Captain ordered it to walk the plank.
In the 1880’s European toy makers began to mass produce tin toys and the race was on to create the most intricate of designs. However the production of wind-up toys sadly came to a halt with the coming of the battery which allowed toys to run without winding.
Here around Cowboy Creek tin toys stand proudly amid the country décor, memories of a simpler time, providing giggles and laughter from family and company alike.We are pleased to carry an ever growing collection of vintage tin toy reproductions. We offer toys of tin from Germany, India, and China.A big thank you to the folks at Wikipedia for sharing their wonderful knowledge on the history of wind-up tin toys. We are pleased to offer you memories in motion.
On the journey