The Art of Play: A Metal Mechanical Toy Turkey, 1948

The Victoria & Albert Museum

When did we, as a collective culture, discover that metal toys might be dangerous? Not before 1948 when this mechanical toy of painted metal was created in German. This colorful turkey was made by the German firm of Blomer and Schüler. Blomer and Schüler, in addition to their own lines of toys like this, made clockwork mechanisms for other companies. The company was best known for its wind-up animals.


This has "US Zone Germany" printed on it—a common practice in post-Second World War manufacture. When wound, the legs move and the tail fans out. Gobble. Gobble.