Grand Prix Racer

[poliphilo]

This tin-plate toy car emerged from one of the cupboards we've been spring cleaning.

It was mine but I never played with it much because once you've wound it up and let it bounce off the skirting boards a few times you've pretty much exhausted the fun to be had out of it. That's why it's still mostly in one piece. I don't have the key so I don't know if the clockwork still works- but I can't see why it shouldn't.

Stamped on the bottom is "Schuco 1070 Grand Prix Racer Made in US Zone Germany- which dates it nicely. I remember my father bringing it back from a business trip in the '50s.

The Schuco company has been making tin-plate toys since 1912- and is still going. Remarkably a version of my little Mercedes racing car is still in production.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Nice little piece.

We still have some of his dinky and corgi models.

[poliphilo]

Me too.

Hold onto these things long enough and they go up in value.

[basefinder]

I wish that when I was young there was a magical dumbwaiter; so that instead of giving toys away, or donating them, or whatever -- I could have placed them in the dumbwaiter and made them disappear, only to be able to bring them back in my advancing years!

An enterprising young maker could probably produce a key for that car in no time at all.

[poliphilo]

There are lots of keys lying about in this house- and I have a suspicion I might be able to find one that'll fit.