Maker record

Orobr

Orobr was the trade name of Oro Works, a German maker of lithographed tinplate toys based in Brandenburg. Its products included clockwork cars, trucks, trams, fire engines, ships, motorcycles and dolls’ houses. Many toys used spring-driven mechanisms and tab-and-slot construction. The surviving examples date from the early twentieth century, including a clockwork battleship made around 1910 and toys documented in Brandenburg around 1920.

Locations: Unknown
Founders: Unknown

The story of Orobr

Orobr was the trademark of Oro Works (Orowerke), a tin toy maker in Brandenburg, Germany. The Powerhouse Collection identifies the firm as Oro Works of Reil, Blechschmidt & Müller and dates an Orobr clockwork battleship to about 1910. The firm made tinplate transport toys, including cars, trams, fire engines and ships, as well as dolls’ houses. Its toys used lithographed tin and clockwork mechanisms; some were assembled from pressed pieces joined by metal tabs.

Oro-Werke toys are documented in Brandenburg around 1920. A surviving truck described by BR Fernsehen is made of lithographed sheet metal and runs by a wind-up spring mechanism; the broadcaster also notes the firm’s cars, motorcycles and dolls’ houses. The Powerhouse Collection’s production notes say the firm made inexpensive tin toys before the First World War and again until 1922. The Brighton Toy and Model Index instead gives a dissolution date of 1931. These accounts establish production across the early twentieth century, but leave the firm’s final year uncertain.