1935: A new Toy Company was born

Smurf house and figures
created by Schleich

The company Schleich was originally founded in the year 1935 by the German Friedrich Schleich. It started off as a supplier of different industrial parts and plastic components and only started producing toys in 1946. These original toys were a series of dolls made from simple wood and wire that got covered in velvet, making them very labour-intensive and hard to produce. This could have gone bad for the company due to the high costs but their innovative idea won out in the end and it turned into a success. They evolved this simple toy concept into a new sort of toy with rubbery materials and a metal frame. This bendable toy was very popular in Germany and gave them the basis to start producing toys of famous brands such as Snoopy, Disney, and DC Comics. The popularity came to a peak as they started producing Smurf toys in 1965, which gave them worldwide recognition as they started to branch off and produce their own toy lines. These new unbendable toy lines consisted of several animal series such as wildlife, dinosaurs and farm animals with different creatures like elephants, a kangaroo and sea lions. From this point onwards Schleich has been shaped into the company it is today. They have released many sets of toys ranging from animals to fantasy creatures, and our dragon rider is only a small part of this massive catalogue. 

Schleich sea lion figurine

In 2022 Schleich launched the largest advertising campaign in their almost 90-year history. This campaign followed a rebrand with a new company message as the company launched their now slogan; where stories begin. The idea is to communicate the joy of storytelling to children by using their toys to spark questions in children. Some examples that the company poses in their advertisements are: Do giraffes grow in the rain? And can lions keep a secret?