It is with great pleasure to have on this site a vintage tin toy that represents perhaps the best example of a KdF Wagen in scale form. It is one of the most sought after amongst collectors and has always been hard to find because of its scarcity. Only a few have been known to exist years ago. What makes it so desirable is the lithograph details used and the likeness of the KdF Wagen of the era. The toy car was produced from about 1938 through the early 1940s during the time period in German history when Dr. Ferdinand Porsche and Der Führer introduced the “Peoples Car.” This tin lithographed KdF Wagen is easily identified with a license plate registration of “FH-126” and was produced by the toy manufacturer of Friedrich Hörndlein Spiel und Metallwarenfabrik, which was located in Fürth, near the larger city of Nürnberg, Germany. The Company was founded by Friedrich Hörndlein in 1932 and went out of business (due to the war) in the early 1940’s. They produced tinplate cars, boats and submarines as well as doll house accessories. It was most probably located in Nürnberg or possibly Fürth, Germany. Fact is that on June 1, 1945, Friedrich Hörndlein was asked by the US Military Forces to become head (German: Landrat) of the district Fürth and help rebuild the district as it was in complete ruins. Friedrich Hörndlein did very well and he stayed in office for 13 years till May 1, 1958. It is unknown whether his Landrat position has been the cause that the Company was not rebuilt after the war. Instead, the Firm Streng & Co acquired what was left of the Company and started producing toys as well.
The body of this KdF Wagen toy was stamped out of tin plate with a very detailed lithographed design that featured the official blue/gray color of the real size KdF Wagen of the time. There were indentations for the front hood, doors, windows including the rear split window and bumblebee wing rear deck lid and the wheel wells were cut out. The windows were a light gray color with people’s faces seen in the windows and wiper blades in the windshield parked to the left. By the way, people’s faces printed in the windows of the lithograph design were common practice of the toy carmakers of the time. This was to represent a happy German family cruising along the autobahn in their "Peoples Car" as depicted in the 1939 KdF Wagen German postage stamp and other KdF literature as well. Additional detailing in the design were the large air louvers, red taillights and the wartime style license plate frame with FH-126 on the rear deck lid. The headlights were shiny metal buttons, raised in the center, attached to the front fenders of the body. The red semaphores and silver door handles finish off the awesome detailing of the body lithograph.
The chassis was also stamped tin plate and was usually lithographed black and included a key wound clockwerk motor with the key hole on the passenger side of the body. There was also a brake lever for the clockwerk motor protruding out the rear deck lid. The well-known German mechanical specialist company, Gebrüder Bühler, Nürnberg, made the clockwerk motors and their trademark was the fir tree symbol stamped on the original key. There was also a version made with no clockwerk motor or brake lever which is seldom found. The chassis was stamped out with extensions that when bent upwards formed the front and rear bumpers which were lithographed silver with black line along the bumper guards and FH126 on the front bumper. There were metal button wheels with a grey lithograph design to include tire tread edges and blue rim lines with silver hubcaps. There was a round indentation in the chassis with two bent tabs that contained the mechanism for front wheel steering. The chassis was secured to the body with 8 bent over tabs of the body. The Hörndlein FH-126 KdF Wagen toy is 1/30 scale, 130mm or 5.25” in length.
As mentioned before, this FH-126 KdF Wagen was very scarce and nearly impossible to find years ago. In July, 2001, a discovery was made in the closed down warehouse of a former East Germany bankrupt wholesaler named ERICH HÖHN in Scheibe-Alsbach, Thuringia, near Sonneberg, Germany. Found in the warehouse inventory were twelve boxes, each box containing six each of the FH-126 KdF Wagen toys. The FH-126s in the boxes were in pristine condition and luckily the boxes were not stored in a damp environment that would over time have rusted out the cars. This warehouse discovery represented a huge breakthrough for those collectors looking to have a FH-126 in their collection, especially in such pristine condition. Most of the FH-126s found were sold on the online auctions in Germany and getting $800 to $2500 a pop back then.
Shown here on the site is the Hörndlein FH-126 I received from the German auction in 2001. It was really exciting holding and looking at this fine example of a KdF Wagen era toy that was probably over 60 years old in such mint condition. It certainly would be a highlight in my collection! I have seen a couple of the other KdF Wagen toys with their original boxes such as from Köra or CKO. I thought this FH-126 needed a special box to be displayed with. I scanned the artwork from one of the German GEOBRA KdF Savers banks depicting a KdF Wagen speeding along the autobahn. I then created a special fantasy box for the FH-126 using other KdF era artwork and even had the FH-126 license plate transposed on the car on the box. Even the box end flaps had a special round end tab. The fantasy box creation turned out so original looking photographed along with the FH-126. I ended up making 80 of the boxes with most of them going to two German toy dealers who bought several of the Hörndlein FH-126 six box sets. They then sold the single FH-126 with one of my fantasy boxes. From time to time, I have seen the Hörndlein FH-126 being sold with my fantasy box stating that the box is original or a reproduction, which it is not.
Around the time period of the late 1940s, the FH-126 reappeared in a different form and they were produced by WÜCO, the German toy firm of Wünnerlein & Company located in Zirndorf. WÜCO is believed to have acquired the metal dies and set up to manufacture their version of the VW Sedan. The lithograph design was removed and the tin stamped body was painted in a solid color of red, blue, green or black. All of the indentations in the later painted body match the body of the FH-126 and there is no question they are from the same body stamping when compared side by side. The only difference in the later body is the location of the keyhole, which is located on the driver’s side, and the button headlights are painted white. The white painted chassis is nearly identical except the gear for the clockwerk motor is covered and there is no steering and the steel wheels have been replaced with rubber tires. The chassis also features a key wound clockwerk motor but has no brake lever protruding out the rear deck lid. Just the basic "wind up and let it go" action.
