A Brief History of Wind Up Toys and Z Wind Ups

It's hard to tell the story of Z Wind Ups without first giving a little background on wind up toys in general.

During the late 1880's, European toy makers created and mass produced the first tin windup toys (or spring driven toys) based on the clock mechanism. Prior to this time, wind up toys were mainly a specialty craft.

Although their original function was simple, the magic of a toy that could move using its own power source proved to be widely appealing to both children and adults. As more manufacturers created wind up toys, their functions and details became more intricate. This continued for the next 60 to 70 years until the introduction of the Eveready battery in the late 1950's. This new small power source allowed motors to run without a wind up mechanism. Over the next 20 years, wind up toys lost popularity.

Plastic Wind Up Toys

In 1977, TOMY of Japan created their first plastic wind up toy (the Rascal Robot). TOMY's ability to build small precision plastic gears and parts, allowed them to greatly reduce the size of the gear box (spring drive). This in turn, allowed the toy to be created in a much smaller size. Over the next six years, TOMY created some of the finest plastic wind up toys ever produced, including toys that could do a back flip, swim while spouting water, and much more. They were the only plastic toys of their time that could rival some of the more intricate single function tin toys.

New Distribution

In 1986, Mark Dinges, a partner of a company called SoMuchFun, successfully negotiated with TOMY to begin exclusively marketing their wind up toys to the specialty stores within the US and Canada. This successful relationship has continued almost uninterrupted until today. Through most of these years, the relationship has been through TOMY and Mark's new company, California Creations.

In 2007, TOMY and California Creations created a new relationship where California Creations would actually produce the toys and TOMY would receive a royalty. This change is significant because it allowed California Creations to develop the brand name "Z Wind Ups", and it freed them up to create other wind up toys to add to the original TOMY line.

Z Wind Ups Today
Today, Z Wind Ups is the fastest growing collectible, plastic wind up toy company in the world. New designs and functions are changing the way people view both design and the intricate functions of plastic wind up toys.

In addition, wind up toy enthusiasts around the world love the simple innovation of using translucent plastic that allows people to see the intricate details inside the toy as it performs.

In the coming months and years, Z Wind Ups will continue to release functions that have never been seen before in a wind up toy of any kind (including tin).

Our goal is to bring back the simplicity and innovation of toys. We believe that every Z Wind Up can put a smile on a face, no matter how young or how old, because when you wind up a Z Wind Up, it comes to life!