About us

About the company...

Merkurtoys s.r.o. is a purely Czech company, known worldwide for its Merkur metal building kit, which it has been producing since 1920. In recent years, the company has also focused on teaching aids, robotics and mechatronics. It offers dozens of educational aids for schools not only in the Czech Republic, which teach children manual skills and technical thinking.

History...

The beginnings of building kit production date back to 1920, when Mr. Jaroslav Vancl founded the company Inventor. Even before the company was founded, Mr. Vancl patented the original design of a children's metal building kit under the name Inventor. Today, it is difficult to determine whether it was his idea or whether he was inspired by the model of another building kit.

Originally, the metal parts of the Inventor building kit were connected to each other with metal hooks - a similar system to that used today in the construction scaffolding "haki". The metal building kit under the name Inventor did not survive, but this name was still used and popularized in Police nad Metují.

In 1925, the manufacturer switched to a new system, which has remained unchanged to this day. The metal parts of the kit are now connected with screws and nuts of size M 3.5. This step brought the kit closer to real construction and thus allowed greater possibilities for children's play and creative work. With the transition to the new system, a new trademark MERKUR was registered for the kit. The first series of kits ranged from No. 1 to No. 3. At the turn of the thirties and forties of the last century, the series of kits grew to include the large kit No. 7.

A boom in MERKUR kit sets began. At that time, the now-forgotten METROPOL building kit and the complementary POPULAR kit were created, where completely new parts were used. In 1933, the kit began to be produced with the possibility of building some MERKUR ELEKTRUS electric models. Development continued until the beginning of World War II, with only minor modifications to the boxes, instructions and components.

Around 1930, the development of MERKUR sheet metal electric trains began. Originally, the railway vehicles were conceived as an addition to the Merkur kit, they were produced in the form of kit parts that were connected with screws and nuts. The size "0" that was widespread in Europe at that time was chosen. Since the market demanded products that were already assembled, independent production of trains was quickly developed. The main designer was Mr. František Jirman, Mr. Vancel's son-in-law. The model for the first locomotive was the very popular express locomotive Mikádo at the time. In modest conditions, the model was greatly simplified. Two-axle service, passenger and freight cars were supplied with the locomotive.

It turned out that even this simplified model was very well received on the market, and therefore in 1935, designer F. Jirman designed a larger type of express locomotive. The locomotive was supplemented by a tender and, together with four-axle bogie cars, formed a very successful express train set. This was also the beginning of the success of the Merkur trains, which later became the most widespread and popular type of electric trains in our country.

In 1940, production was stopped in connection with the wartime shortage of non-ferrous metals. At that time, a limited series of cars with the bilingual protectorate marking ČMD/BMB was produced. Production was resumed after the war in 1947. Gradually, the range was supplemented with new types of cars such as platform, stanchion, open and closed freight, tank and refrigerated. In the last period, the original steam locomotive was replaced by a shortened version in the B1 layout in light blue. The change occurred after nationalization, which in its second wave also affected medium and small manufacturers and tradesmen. In the early 1950s, Mr. Vancel's private company was closed down and production became part of the District Combine in Broumov in 1953.

A new application for registration of the MERKUR trademark for the construction kit and trains with rails and a transformer was submitted only in February 1955. Production of the construction kit continued in almost the entire pre-war range. Production of MERKUR trains was finally stopped in 1968. Unfortunately, in the following years, the tools for producing trains were liquidated. Since the 1960s, the MERKUR construction kit has been exported by the Broumov metalworks through Pragoexport to all of Europe.

After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Broumov Metalworks was privatized in the early 1990s. A privatization project was developed by former employees and the Komeb company was founded. For some time, it continued to produce MERKUR building kits by inertia, but in 1993 it was already out of breath. There was another change in the numbering of the kits, and the M310, M320, M330 and M340 kits were created.

It was very interesting that in English the kit was referred to in the instructions as the Meccano system. The original meaning of this word in English was “building kit” - this name was questioned in the nineties by the MECCANO company, which demanded compensation at the international court in The Hague. The lawsuit did not arise due to the dissolution of Kovopodnik and Komeb.

The next chapter in the company's history was the entry of Ing. Jaromír Kříž. He started a business in metal production in a building that he acquired through restitution from his grandfather. From the original