My latest acquisition Arnold Circle C Jeep

[manayunkman]

Haven’t received it yet but I’m very pleased.

 

These were souvenirs sold in Germany to American servicemen who were on occupation duty.

 

You wind them up with a key and you watch it scoot across the floor.

 

[doyler]

Thats really cool. Congrats.

[Proud Kraut]

Very nice! I have the same but in rather poor condition. Your´s an excellent example!

[manayunkman]

Thanks guys, I’m really excited.

[otter42]

Super neat! I assume that Arnold was a German company?

[manayunkman]

Yes Arnold is a German company.

 

 What’s really cool is the label on the bottom saying it’s made in the US zone.

 

 

[Old Marine]

That’s a great piece.  

[Tony V]

Congratulations, wonderful jeep! 

 

Tony

 

[manayunkman]

Thanks guys.

 

I always wanted one.

[earlymb]

They're not souvenirs but toys, there is a nice privately printed book about them. The Arnold jeeps came in many versions, the most common one being the OD 'Military Police'-version (hoodnumber 002500) but there's also the (uncommon) plain OD jeep (002100), the white MP jeep, the Constabulary (this one) and a bunch of civilian colours; the latter ones being very rare. My father has almost all of them in his collection. All versions came in either wind-up drive and winding remote control-drive.

 

Here are mine:

 

 

The middle one is made by Philips in Eindhoven around 1945, the red car on the left is also an Arnold, the Primat with winding remote control. This one is near mint and I also have the original box for it.

 

There are a lot of differences between years of production, like the later white plastic steering wheels and many others. It is very common that rear seat back rest and the mirror are missing, and the hinge points of the windshield is another weak point.

 

Germany had a well-deserved reputation for extremely well made tin toys since the late 1800's, with makers like Märklin, Carl Bub, Prämeta, Gunthermann, TippCo, Lehmann, Schuco, Distler, Gama and Arnold is certainly not the least in that lineup.  Most of these companies started production again soon after the war (most being in the US zone) and some are still going strong today, mostly with model trains and metal scale models of cars.

 

 

[manayunkman]

5 hours ago, earlymb said:

They're not souvenirs but toys, there is a nice privately printed book about them. The Arnold jeeps came in many versions, the most common one being the OD 'Military Police'-version (hoodnumber 002500) but there's also the (uncommon) plain OD jeep (002100), the white MP jeep, the Constabulary (this one) and a bunch of civilian colours; the latter ones being very rare. My father has almost all of them in his collection. All versions came in either wind-up drive and winding remote control-drive.

 

Here are mine:

 

 

The middle one is made by Philips in Eindhoven around 1945, the red car on the left is also an Arnold, the Primat with winding remote control. This one is near mint and I also have the original box for it.

 

There are a lot of differences between years of production, like the later white plastic steering wheels and many others. It is very common that rear seat back rest and the mirror are missing, and the hinge points of the windshield is another weak point.

 

Germany had a well-deserved reputation for extremely well made tin toys since the late 1800's, with makers like Märklin, Carl Bub, Prämeta, Gunthermann, TippCo, Lehmann, Schuco, Distler, Gama and Arnold is certainly not the least in that lineup.  Most of these companies started production again soon after the war (most being in the US zone) and some are still going strong today, mostly with model trains and metal scale models of cars.

 

 

Of course they are toys but GIs bought them as souvenirs.

 

Did German kids play with them? 

 

Great information and thank you for taking the time to post it.

[Proud Kraut]

2 hours ago, manayunkman said:

Did German kids play with them?

 

Yes they did! Here are my dad´s ones he got as a kid in the late 40´s / early 50´s.

 

 

 

 

[earlymb]

Yes, they were normal (be it expensive) toys.

 

Some parts are being reproduced and sold on eBay.