The type for success

It's hard to imagine that a piece of machinery invented for the printing industry might change the course of toy history. But innovation and imagination are, after all, the essence of the trade. And so it was back in 1893 during the Columbian World Exposition in Chicago when the Mergenthaler Linotype caught the eye of Samuel Dowst.

Samuel and brother, Charles O., were publishers of the National Laundry Journal, a business they started in 1876. Dowst Brothers Company diversified through the years to produce collar buttons and other supplies for the laundry trade. As for the linotype machine, Sam Dowst envisioned it as a means to mass-produce die-cast collar buttons instead of alphabet letters.

But the Dowst brothers did not stop at buttons. They experimented with die-cut trinkets, which led to a robust business producing custom-ordered promotional items. One was a flat iron for the appropriately named Flat Iron Laundry Company.

In fact, says Dan Shure, recounting the evolution of Strombecker Corporation from its Dowst genesis, Monopoly markers and Clue markers are actually replicas of former premiums made by the company in the 1880s. Dowst trinkets, he adds, also found their way into Cracker Jax boxes becoming a mainstay there until replaced by paper and plastic 'surprises.' Shure is president and CEO of Strombecker, parent of Tootsietoy, the oldest toy manufacturer in the United States.

It was creation of the first die-cast model car, however, that really moved the company into the radar, also launching the die-cast vehicle industry. In addition to cars and trucks, the company manufactured other types of die-cast toys, fully immersing itself in the business of children's playthings and far from its publishing origins.

To reflect its new direction, in 1924 the company registered itself as Tootsietoy—the name immortalizing Charles Dowst's granddaughter, Tootsie. Two years later, the company was purchased by its competitor, Cosmo Manufacturing Company, which was owned by Nathan Shure. Tootsietoy and the Shure family are now practically synonymous.

For two decades the Tootsietoy line of die-cast vehicles enjoyed exponential growth—flourishing even during the Great Depression—thanks to subsidies from the likes of Mack Truck and Graham Automobiles, which paid the company to manufacture models of their vehicles. Those die-cast miniature trucks and cars were then used by the automotive companies as promotional items.

While WWII put a halt to manufacture of toys, the company made use of its die-cast facilities for the U.S. war effort, producing small detonators for hand grenades and mines, as well as parachute and military belt buckles.

The connection between Tootsie-toy and Strombecker came in 1961 when Myron Shure purchased the Strombeck-Becker Company's hobby division.

Throughout the years, Dan Shure tells PLAYTHINGS, Strombecker has bought companies that are niche players along product or seasonal lines. In this way, the business has so diversified its product line that it can sell throughout the entire year. In fact, he says, "Fifty percent of our sales are made in the first half of the year and 50 percent in the second half."

Shure says the company is "pretty well represented" with a line that includes items for boys, girls, outdoors and role-playing, as well as wooden playthings. "We like to find the niches," he adds, noting the purchase ChemToy in 1979 positioned the company as a major player in bubble products.

Our goal is "to be the leading supplier of basic toys in the world—long-term," says Shure, stressing that the success of the company has always been its ability to be flexible and resilient. "When we couldn't make metal toys during WWII, we made paper toys." At the end of the day, says Shure, "After retailers buy what they 'have to,' we want them to come to us."

Next month: Galt