|
Pressed-steel
toys were in production roughly the same time as tin toys,
and the process for making pressed-steel toys is not all that
different than that for crafting tin toys. Pressed-steel toys
are stamped out of steel that is rolled flat into large sheets.
Large stamping presses cut the parts out of the sheets, while
other stamping tools further down the assembly line bend and
form it into the correct shape. While tin toys were also stamped
out of metal sheets, the thinner metal allowed hand tools
and human hands to do most of the forming, allowing for less
automation (i.e. expensive presses) in Japan's post-war toy
factories. Pressed steel toys required more machinery in the
production process, but the final products were also heavier
and more durable - an attribute that certainly came in handy
once the toy landed in the hands of a young boy or girl eager
to take their toy on its first test drive!
|
