Metal House Robots facts for kids
Metal House is a famous Japanese company known for making cool tin toys, especially robots! It started way back in 1943, but it was called Marumiya then. For many years, Marumiya made toys for bigger companies like Horikawa, Nomura, and Yonezawa. This was after World War II, when tin toys were super popular.
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Famous Robot Toys
Marumiya made many popular toys. One of their first big hits in the 1950s was the Zoomer Robot for Nomura. They also made robots based on Robby the Robot from the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, like the Piston Robot and Mechanized Robot. These robots are still very popular with collectors today.
For Horikawa, Marumiya helped create many well-known robot toys. Some of these include the Smoking Spaceman, Machine Robot, Fighting Robot, and Attacking Martian. These robots were very new and exciting for their time, and they were made for many years.
Changes in the Toy World
From the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, the Japanese tin toy industry grew a lot. But the 1980s brought big changes. Kids started wanting different kinds of toys, and toys from other countries were cheaper. Also, new rules for toy safety made things harder for tin toy makers. Because of these reasons, many tin toy companies went out of business by the end of the 1980s.
Metal House Today
Horikawa, one of Marumiya's main customers, closed down in the late 1980s. After that, Marumiya changed its name and became Metal House in 1989. Metal House continued to make many of Horikawa's popular designs, like the Super Space Giant and the Star Strider. The Star Strider is special because it was Horikawa's last robot made completely of tin. For a while, both "Horikawa" and "Metal House" names appeared on the boxes of Star Strider robots. Metal House also made new toys like Space Evil, which looked a lot like the older Horikawa toys from the 1960s and 1970s.
Today, Metal House is led by Katsumasa Miyazawa. It is the only traditional Japanese company still making battery-operated tin robot toys. Metal House keeps its fans happy by creating new robot models regularly, and collectors all over the world love their toys.
Images for kids
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Metal House Space Giant Robot
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Horikawa Star Strider
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Space Evil or Mars Demon
More Information
- You can visit the official Metal House website here: Metal House
