T is for Two - Timber Toys

Have we had that title before? Probably...hey-ho!

Returning to a recurring favourite of mine; wooden toys - Traditional, timeless, lots of play-value, robust material that ages with more grace than plastic or die-cast alloy.

Still going strong, now as a managed cooperative (History here) Dregano was one of the main marketers for the craftspeople of the Erzgebirge region of North-eastern Germany, falling behind the Iron Curtain for a while, they none-the-less managed to export abroad to 'the enemy' as this English language boxing shows.

It's a whole story in a box, how cool is that! Pigs can be visited, pigs can be fed, pigs can escape! Pigs or people can hide behind trees, the child rides the big pig quite well...of course I tried! Loads of play value, and something like this was pennies when I was a kid.

Another export piece. If you follow the links there are lots of catalogues to download as free PDF's, and while neither of these pieces are in there, plenty of stuff is including my favourite tractors! They still make them with all the different trailers/loads, although they seem to have more modern steering wheels, and no flywheel, but then some of mine don't!

The range of wagons with 40mm drivers are all good for 20/25mm war-gaming once you've unglued the figure and haven't changed in a hundred years, while there are some lovely sports ski-shooters in the monochrome range. The trees are lovely, and the little matchbox range is vast, but they don't seem to carry one of my childhood favourites any-more - the little sets of architectural building bricks in a matchbox?