Merkurtoys
| Merkurtoys sro | |
|---|---|
| legal form | sro |
| founding | 1920 |
| Seat | Police nad Metují , Czech Republic |
| sales | 1.7 million euros (2013) |
| Branch | Toy industry |
| Website | www.merkurtoys.cz |
Merkurtoys sro (until 2017 MERKUR TOYS sro ) is a toy manufacturer in Police nad Metují in the Czech Republic . Merkur manufactures metal construction kits and model trains and sells them worldwide.
history
The company was founded in 1920 by the Czech inventor Jaroslav Vancl (1890–1980). Vancl had patented metal toys under the company name Inventor , in which the metal parts were connected with hooks, similar to scaffolding. In 1925, the first Merkur construction kit was created with color-coated metal parts that could be connected with screws and nuts. In the same year the company was renamed Merkur . In the 1930s and 1940s, the product range was expanded to include up to seven different Merkur metal construction kits. The Elektrus electrical kit was developed from 1933 .
Around 1930, Merkur began building 0-gauge model railways with AC drives . There were various 0-gauge locomotive models and a limited number of car models in different colors.
During the Second World War , toy production was largely stopped due to a lack of raw materials and resumed in 1947. In the early 1950s, Vancouver's factory was nationalized and relocated to Broumov in 1953 under the company name Kovopodnik . From 1955 the company manufactured new series of construction kits and model railways and sold them throughout Europe. The production of the metal 0-gauge model railways was discontinued in 1968. After the Velvet Revolution , the company was initially continued by the workforce under the name Komeb , went bankrupt in 1993 and was taken over by the Cross company owned by the engineer Jaromír Kříž. Production was resumed in the mid-1990s and the product range was expanded considerably.
museum
The Merkur Building Kit Museum was founded in Police nad Metují in 2006 . The exhibits include a large model of Jules Verne's steel city made from Merkur construction parts, model trains and metal construction kits, the oldest Inventor kit from 1920, and technical toys from all over the world.
Web links
- Official website
- Muzeum stavebnice Merkur - Merkur modular museum
- Czech Europe postage stamp with Merkur construction kit , Czech Ministry of Industry and Commerce, May 12, 2015 ( Czech )
- Martina Schneibergová: “Merkur” construction kit from the Roaring Twenties is still a hit , report on the exhibition in the Prague City Museum, Radio Praha , January 19, 2010
- Janka Holitzka: The Mercurist with its own orbit , Darmstädter Echo , April 2, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gerit Schulze: The Czech toy industry is growing at double digits , Germany Trade and Invest , February 20, 2015
- ↑ a b c The story of Merkur ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Company website
- ↑ a b Martina Schneibergová: Merkur construction kit from the Roaring Twenties is still a hit , Radio Praha , January 19, 2010
