Featured A vintage toy crane

Hi. I just rediscovered a toy crane in the attic. It has been there since in the 1970's when it was given to me. It was considered very old already back then. It is big and heavy. The arm of the crane is about 30 inches long. Does anyone have any ideas of where it was made and how old it might be? I am in Sweden and lots of toys have been imported here. I dont think it was made in Sweden since i believe i would have seen other samples then. Could it be German, British, Japanese? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

i like da cat !!!
need better pics of the crane though...

 

Da cat always wants to be where the action is. Here are two more pictures. Better?

 

cats be like dat !!! ..............but we love em !!

Any markings on the underside?
That's a fine toy !!

 

Yeah. Cats are lovely. The underside is totally covered in rust so there are no clues there.

 

Love the cat too.
Great crane too, and yes, it would have been old when it was given to you. I wouldn't be surprised if this was 30s, at least, but others will know more.

 

See if you can make out a MFZ somewhere. Michael Fuchs Zehndorf made similar cranes in Germany. Or GAMA as well. It has that boxy well made look to me of German engineering.

 

I cant see any letters anywhere. I just googled for pictures showing Gama and MFZ cranes. I found lots of pictures but both those brands seem to have produced more detailed cranes made of thinner material. My crane is so thick i believe i could use it as a jack strand under my car.

 

was there a metal drive in Sweden during WW2.......

 

No, there was a rubber drive since the Swedish army needed tires. During WW2, just like today, Sweden exported lots of iron ore so no metal drive was needed. I would guess lots of the German weapons were made from Swedish iron...

 

Hello everyone! I checked under MFZ and GAMA on Worthpoint - nothing appears to be this crane. I also checked Marklin. I thought that possibly it was from a crane train car. I thought Meccano thinking it may have come from a building set - but that didn't turn up a match either. The main lead clue I think is that it does not have windows. Almost all the toy cranes I've seen are made with a boom which is attached to a small operating "house". I agree, the "box look" does match other German toy cranes but the wheels to operate the crane are similar to Lionel train cranes (but they were not solid). I hope someone can take these thoughts and run with it to answer OP's questions.

 

I've done some searching too and came up with nothing. Because of its weight, could it be some one-off? Isn't the color the same color as the Swedish flag where it was found? A model for an exposition? The World's Fair?

 

I've seen that kind before. My older brother was born in 1939 and I inherited some of his toys that were stuck in an attic. I remember something similar to that, also blue.

 

Here's a Structo steam shovel from approx the same era. It's being sold for $155. I was such a tomboy, I had all the boys toys when I was a kid.

 

Thank you everybody for trying to help me solve this mystery. I have been in touch with THE leading Swedish authority on vintage toys and he told me he didn't know but he guessed it might be American or made in the Soviet Union. I have been looking at pictures after reading your suggestions but everything I find seems more delicate and detailed than my crane. I just had another look at it and it might be a one-off as Carribou's house suggests but even if it is big and heavy it somehow appears to have been mass produced. And - yes, the blue color looks like the blue color of the Swedish flag but I don't think any Swedish toy factory would have the flag in mind when painting toy cranes. I really, really wish this mystery will be solved some day...