The Best Tin Toys
Tin toys were made from lithographed steel -- the same material as paint cans and food tins -- shaped into biplanes, robots, drums, and automobiles. They rattled, they wound up, they rang. The best ones still do. These are the tin toys in production today that are made the same way they were made in 1950.
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How to Choose
Tin toys range from decorative reproductions to genuinely mechanical pieces with working wind-up mechanisms. For children who will actually play with them, look for sturdy lithography with no sharp edges and mechanisms robust enough for repeated use. For collectors and display, the lithography quality and the accuracy of the reproduction matter most. Schylling is the most reliable manufacturer in the American market today for authentic-style tin toys.
Schylling Classic Tin Carnival Carousel
Schylling has been the leading American importer of classic-style tin toys since 1975. The Carnival Carousel is a wind-up musical tin toy with horses that rise and fall as the carousel rotates. Lithographed in the bright primary colors of a 1950s traveling carnival. The mechanism is robust enough for children while being detailed enough for display.
The tin toy that adults buy for children and end up keeping for themselves. The mechanism is genuinely charming.
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Schylling Tin Litho Bi-Plane
A friction-powered tin biplane in bright red and yellow lithography. The wings are formed from a single piece of lithographed tin; the body is assembled from four pieces. The friction mechanism is activated by rolling it on a surface. The design is based on 1930s American biplane toys, made in the same construction style as the originals.
The simplest possible mechanical tin toy. No batteries, no electronics -- just friction and momentum.
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Schylling Tin Robot Wind-Up
The robot toy is the signature image of 1950s American toy culture. Schylling's tin robot is lithographed in silver and green with glowing red eyes, and winds up to walk with a clicking gear mechanism. The lithography is detailed, the gait is recognizable, and the tin construction is what separates it from every plastic robot made since 1980.
The icon of 1950s toy design in an honest tin plate construction. No plastic substitutes.
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Tin Toy Drum with Drumsticks
A lithographed tin drum on a neck strap with wooden drumsticks. The tin resonates the way only tin does -- not as loud as a plastic shell drum, but with a distinctly warm, metallic rattle that is immediately recognizable as the sound of childhood. The lithography depicts marching band imagery in the tradition of 19th-century toy drums. Sized for children aged three and up.
The toy that has taught rhythm to children for two hundred years. Tin resonates; plastic does not.
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Schylling Tin Tea Set
A six-piece tin tea set with lithographed floral decoration: teapot, creamer, sugar bowl, and three cups. Sized for children's play. The tin plate construction is the same as the original American toy tea sets made from the 1890s through the 1960s. No plastics, no coatings -- just lithographed steel shaped by pressing dies.
The toy that connects children to the actual material their great-grandparents' toys were made from.
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