ZZ Riesenzoo - a rather unknown company

My first post and I'm being a know-it-all...sorry!

ZZ is the mark for/are a Hong Kong outfit, possibly still producing (if they are the factory will almost certainly be in mainland China now), I have two repro. tin-plates of 1920's style arcade or street-seller type toys by them which were mint a couple of years ago. They also produced swoppet style copies of Cowboys and Indians in 70mm from the Italian firm of Fontanini.

I thought for a while they might be a former East German concern as they seem to turn up in Germany (and your card is aimed at the German speaking market) but correspondence with German collectors says no, Hong Kong.

Also...my German's not good, but isn't Riesen a brand of chocolate-coated toffee? Could these be premiums or a mail-away?

(I tried to include an image but the upload kept failing?)

Dear Smallscale ! You are NOT being a know-it-all at all !!! You are being very helpful and your info is highly appreciated   

Welcome here Smallscaleworld   

STS forum needs know-it-all like you    People who likes to share their knowledge with the Collectors community are true gems. I wish you will enjoy the place, and I hope the vintage section will increased in topics and quality   

Kikimalou wrote:

Welcome here Smallscaleworld   

STS forum needs know-it-all like you    People who likes to share their knowledge with the Collectors community are true gems. I wish you will enjoy the place, and I hope the vintage section will increased in topics and quality   

Hear ! Hear !   

smallscaleworld wrote:

My first post and I'm being a know-it-all...sorry!

ZZ is the mark for/are a Hong Kong outfit, possibly still producing (if they are the factory will almost certainly be in mainland China now), I have two repro. tin-plates of 1920's style arcade or street-seller type toys by them which were mint a couple of years ago. They also produced swoppet style copies of Cowboys and Indians in 70mm from the Italian firm of Fontanini.

I thought for a while they might be a former East German concern as they seem to turn up in Germany (and your card is aimed at the German speaking market) but correspondence with German collectors says no, Hong Kong.

Also...my German's not good, but isn't Riesen a brand of chocolate-coated toffee? Could these be premiums or a mail-away?

(I tried to include an image but the upload kept failing?)

Thanks for the informations, i am sure you will give us mny more interesting informations     But i think with Riesen you mean the Storck Riesen, that are bonbons   

Very welcome indeed Smallscaleworld indeed! Any knowledge is always welcome here in this miniature world of animals! I was aware these copies were made in Hong Kong, or maybe Singapore, as they originated in the 1970's, but nobody was sure where they came from.
And it was quit common to copy any known brand in this time, so Britains, Hausser or even other brands were made like these VEB Plaho's, although they were even from Hausser or Lineol from the old days...
Nowerdays almost impossible with all of those was in copying, thankfully, that makes things clearer!  

I took this from a rather fractured Stork Foods page...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is what I was on about, the long pack to the top, is the old 1970's logo, I remember buying them in the little shop in Neuhausen ob Eck and it seems very similar to the 'Riesen' zoo and 'Riesen' farm, I suspect they were mail-aways or some similar promotion, as the Cowboys & Indians came in plain ZZ packaging, with blue header cards?

smallscaleworld wrote:

I took this from a rather fractured Stork Foods page...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

This is what I was on about, the long pack to the top, is the old 1970's logo, I remember buying them in the little shop in Neuhausen ob Eck and it seems very similar to the 'Riesen' zoo and 'Riesen' farm, I suspect they were mail-aways or some similar promotion, as the Cowboys & Indians came in plain ZZ packaging, with blue header cards?

It could be possible but i think not. The animal figurines are in extra packages.

Sorry Widukind, but I'm going to insist!

I've put this together from less than adequate images;

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

It clearly shows similarities between the Riesen Farm and the earlier smaller chocolate pack (yellow) and the Riesen Zoo and the later tube/block I remember buying around 1977/'79.

The chances of two companies - whether Hong Kong or not - operating in the same place [Germany] at the same time [late 1960's-mid-70's - Farm (?) and mid-to-late 1970's - Zoo (?)] with almost identical Logotypes [two of them] saying the same thing [Riesen] are millions-to-one!

The fact that the Cowboys & Indians were sold in non-Reisen packaging, with the ZZ logo (but no Riesen) and a different colour scheme/design would seem to make ZZ the maker/originator, and Riesen/Storck only a contractor/client? I'm going to suggest again, that they were a promotional for Riesen toffees, and that the farm animals were an earlier promotion, the zoo animals coming afterwards. The separate bags would be explained by the fact that you either mailed away for them, or exchanged tokens over the counter...or something like that?

The extra serif on the 'R' of the Riesen Zoo is explained as a quirk of the art-studio! This was the era of Lettraset and Mechanorama-based artwork, maybe the artist used a similar font, rather than a Storck-supplied one, who knows?

Hello Smallscale world! I doubt your vision very much, as i was living in Germany in the 1970's, and i bought my ZZ models new in the known warehouses partly in that time! I never saw any connection to that brand of sweets or chocolate in one or the other way. I am quit sure they have anything to do with eachother in one or the other way! I bought them, or let them given to me by my parents, because they resambled the Britains models or Hausser Elastolin models, which i didn't had at that particular moment.
I understand your point of view, as many German manufacturers of products gave away toys with their own products, but that was mainly in the 1950's and 1960's, later far more less.
This is a far much smaller sized model of the Britains Bison made by Riesen ZZ.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This is a far more bigger model of the Hausser Elastolin model of the lioness in hollow hardplastic, instead of softplastic.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
These flamingo's are a direct copy of Britains, only somewhat bigger.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This is another original package of Riesen ZZ, copies of Britains Zookeepers.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Thanks Willy :)

Hi Willy

More pictures of animals doesn't answer the glaring question-marks! Nor does where you lived, I too lived in Germany in the [late] 70's and people living in the US could buy both in the early 1980's, as imported 'clearance', perhaps the ones your parents bought from a warehouse were similar left-over's? I don't know, what I do know is that the company (ZZ) also produced two sets of wild-west figures (54mm and 60/70mm) and tin-plate toys through until at least the 1990's, without the Riesen branding!


Therefore, this thread should probably be under ZZ in "Jeol and Hong Kong makers", and the questions remain, re-graphics, etc...which you haven't addressed?


To match graphics once is a coincidence, to do it twice is to raise the odds considerably, to do it twice in the same country as the other product, without doing it to several more of your own products is not coincidence, at those odds!

And I'm not doubting that they are taken from Britains and Elastolin sculpts?

So, at least, let me move this topic

Maybe someone could ask Riesen about this ?

Am I seeing Willy or am I drinking too much? Why I never have my glasses when I need to find them?
Well, very interesting to read all this discussion, I hope you find the right answer to that ZZ mistery.

Kikimalou wrote:

 Maybe someone could ask Riesen about this ?

The logical way forward.

!

I can not reason with you on USA terms or experience Small world, as i can't tell anything about that from my experience. I only know what i got in the 46 years i am collecting!
Still i doubt very much that Riesen sold stuff there, as this was far before the brand was known there, it is even rare known here in Europe to be fair. But of course it is possible that it was sold aferwards in the USA under this name, which is very common in toy-brands,which makes things more complicated for us!

Kikimalou wrote:

Maybe someone could ask Riesen about this ?

Do you know the person or company to write at mon ami?

Yes, the company is.... Riesen

A really interesting topic. Yes, Riesen is produced by the German company Storck.
Riesen is the name of a fine candy that is manufactured by Storck.
On their homepage there is also a very interesting story about the company.
For year 1953 you find about history of company Storck these informtions:

1953
Das Exportzeitalter beginnt
Das Exportzeitalter beginnt: Besonders gefüllte Storck-Bonbons sind begehrt. Hauptabnehmer sind die USA, Schweden und Hongkong. Außerdem gibt es Lizenzverträge für viele Storck Produkte in Italien, Frankreich und Österreich.

In English:
1953
The Export Age begins : Especially Storck filled candies are popular. The main customers are the United States , Sweden and Hong Kong . In addition, there are license agreements for many Storck products in Italy, France and Austria.

More about history of company Storck:
http://www.storck.com/de/geschichte/

Homepage of company Storck:
http://www.storck.com/de/

I have now called simply at the company Storck.
They are very friendly and want to help to find a solution to our question.
I should send them the photos with the ZZ figures by mail.
They will ask their archivist for help and give me an answer soon.
That´s all for moment.

Yvette