Schuco
The history of Schuco is inseparable from the name Heinrich Mueller. Born in 1887, he developed his own ideas for toys from the age of 17, producing cars, torpedo-boats, zeppelins and planes, together with his brother.
At the age of 22, he began work as a designer in the internationally renowned company BING, where he worked for three years. Together with the trader Heinrich Schreyer, he founded the toy factory Schreyer & Co. in 1912. In an area of around 150 m2, production of felt and plush-covered toys began in Nuremberg, Germany.
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Schuco |
Traders immediately took to the articles because of their quality and ingenious mechanisms, and they soon began to sell well. However, the First World War changed all hopes of growth. In the spring of 1919, the company was reopened with another investor, Adolf Kahn, fabric merchant. The new factory was located in the basement of the Wagner drive belt factory, in Singerstrasse. Sales gradually increased again, since the German toy industry was prepared to win back lost markets. In 1921, the new company named Schuco was introduced, a brand that later achieved international fame. |
The Heinrich Mueller mechanical toys were what the market wanted at the time: they moved, had a horn and sound effects and were full of tricks. The most successful article in the 1920s was the “Pick-Pick”, a metal bird covered in soft leather, with an incredible production of 20 million at one time.
When the company exceeded production of one million items (at the end of the 1920s) it moved to bigger production rooms on the Fuerther Strasse. The Schuco legend only began to grow when production started on miniature cars in the mid-1930s. The “Turning Car” became a bestseller, as did the “Studio Car”, the name of the legendary Mercedes Silver Arrow that led the stars of the German races of the era – Lang, von Brauchitsch and Caracciola. It was not only the shape of this car that impressed, but also its technology.
The Second World War brought toy production to a complete halt, but by 1946, the Nuremberg toys were back in the American shops. Heinrich Mueller was already 64 years old, but his power of work and invention seemed unstoppable. Almost all the Schuco designs and patents were his own work. He got to the point of testing his cars time and time again to improve them. It is said that he threw one designer’s new toys to the ground to test their resistance. His products had to withstand any violent treatment that they could suffer at the hands of a child.
In 1952, a new factory was made on the Fuerther Strasse. Production now occupied 13,000 m2 and even then was not enough. With 800 employees, Schuco was the biggest toy factory in Nuremberg. And over 100 million toys sold (in 1962) confirm the impressive distribution of Schuco products internationally.
However, almost as fast as its rise, the end came within a few years. In 1966/67 sales fell sharply and metal toy production had to be largely abandoned. The attempt to return to making metal and plastic toys came too late. Cheap products from abroad and the new electronic toys were conquering the German market. The end of metal toys was also the end of Schuco, which irrevocably went into bankruptcy in 1976.
The history of the “new” Schuco is undoubtedly closely linked to the “old” Schuco.
When the “old” Schuco went into bankruptcy in 1976, it was sold to the English company, DCM. There the Schuco products were made with a certain “indifference” and the manufacture, especially of miniature cars (1/43 and 1/66) was distributed across sites all over the world. The opportunities and resources that the rival of the metal toy market offered failed to be recognised. In 1980, Schuco production came to an end with the bankruptcy of DCM.
From then, the “new” history of Schuco can be divided into two parts: the Schuco led by the Mangold family and later by the Sieber family.
In 1980, the Schuco brand was bought by the GAMA company, which had already shown an interest in the company during its financial crisis in 1972. In this way, one of its greatest competitors became owner of the Schuco brand. GAMA was particularly interested in entering the collectable nostalgia of metal toys, which began to be increasingly attractive. The most representative examples were the “Studio Racing” car and the “Oldtime” series, which continue in Schuco production today.
In 1993, the TRIX and GAMA companies merged in Nuremberg. At the same time, the management was split into two: TRIX and SCHUCO. Once again, the independence of Schuco was revived. The brand and quality profile of the Schuco collection were re-established.
Through close contacts with the car industry, the targets on the 1/43 scale were quickly reached and Schuco obtained a considerable range of models in a short space of time. Together with its reputation with the car industry and with specialised toy shops, the Schuco name was once again held in high esteem.
Due to its success with the Schuco brand, the company became independent again in 1996.
After the Mangold family pulled out of the toy business, the Schuco division was sold to the Sieber family. The family had been established in Fuerth for a long time and boasted three generations of toy manufacturers from Erzgebirge, an area of wooden toy makers. Schuco was incorporated into a group including the brands Simba, Dickie, Carson, Eichhorn and the sales of Tamiya in Germany, becoming part of the list of the top five in the toy business.
Under the leadership of Michael Sieber as head of the company and Heinrich Sieber as director, the brand expanded, helped along by the addition of numerous new groups of products and as a result of a creative and innovative selection policy.
Just like before, Schuco was focused on the traditional and classic collector’s market and managed to attract new groups of collectors with innovative lines of products such as the historic models of motorbikes on a 1/10 scale, current planes, on a 1/1500 scale, and historic and commercial vehicles on a 1/43 scale. From its introduction in 2000, the junior line was highly successful, bringing Schuco back into the scope of children.
Schuco is on the way to gaining back its international reputation of days gone by, together with young promising descendants of the Schuco family. More recent products include the 1:87 edition introduced in 2002, cars and lorries that correspond in size to the HO model of trains, and figures on a 1/24 scale introduced in 2003.
SCHUCO – a name with tradition and future.
