Vintage Yonezawa/Yone Tin Lithographed Windup Chef *SOLD*

Vintage Yonezawa/Yone Tin Lithographed Windup Chef

If you haven’t seen this “Big Joe” Japanese toy toy is is has impressive action.  The toy comes with a walker/ringer and then has articulated legs and arms. The toy is painted like a French or American chef that is running about.

Wind the toy up and then the bell constantly rings and arms swing if there is a bump.  The action rolls forward then from time to time there is a left hand turn, that or a left hand circle.  It is a fun action toy.

“Joe” the chef is carrying food just for fun.

Our toy is in working original condition.

A brief history of Yonezawa Toys Co. Ltd.  (Y) of Tokyo, Japan:

Yonezawa Toys (米澤玩具 Yonezawa Gangu) (known also as Yone or simply Y) was founded in the 1950’s in Tokyo. It was one of Japan’s largest and most prodigious post-war toy manufacturers and an early participant in the growing radio control market.

The company and focused on the production of thousands of different electrically operated and mechanical toys through the early 1970’s. Some were branded not as Yonezawa but as STS. It is unclear as to the origin of the STS label, but it is presumed to be that of an importer. Yonezawa briefly dabbled in radio control in the mid-1980’s with the introduction of the 1/10-scale Wave Hunter buggy, sold in North America as the Monogram Lightning.

Under Sega’s leadership, Yonezawa Toys was briefly known as Sega-Yonezawa until the Yonezawa branding was dropped entirely in April 1998. Once Sega Sammy Holdings was formed, Sega Toys was reorganized under Sega’s entertainment contents business.

Since the early 2000’s, Sega Toys markets itself distinctively from the Sega brand, with some occasional collaboration between the two. An example of their collaboration is Sega and Sega Toys producing the UFO Catcher prize games jointly, where Sega manufactures the arcade equipment, while Sega Toys produces the prizes. (From Wikipedia)