#178 FEBER – HEIDI (Ref. 145) (Around 1976)

Feber Toys (or in Spanish, Juguetes Feber) is a Spanish toymaker. Currently, Feber is part of the Famosa Holding, and is specialized in garden plastic houses and motorized vehicles for children, although it was not always like this.

It was founded in 1956 in the in the province of Alicante. We have mentioned this part of Spain a lot of times, since the Spanish toy industry was (and still is) mainly congregated there. The two main focuses were Ibi (also mentioned a lot of times) and Onil. Its founder was José Rodríguez Zurita, and the origin of Feber is actually another smaller toy company named Rosvi, also founded by himself and two other people (Vicente Saéz Patiño and Ramón Vilaplana) in 1952. The name Rosvi is an acronym of the surnames of the founders: ROSVI: ROdríguez Saéz VIlaplana.

These two partners would later leave Rosvi (for reasons I do not know, probably, they sold their part of the company), and new partners would take the place of the old ones, and would rename the company Feber after their own names. The new proprietors were the Ferre brothers, José Bernabeu (previously worker of Rosvi) and José Rodríguez Zurita. FEBER: FErre, BErnabeu, Rodríguez.

This picture is courtesy of Raimundo Payá Moltó - Juguetes Antiguos de Ibi

The Ferre Brothers would later purchase a pyrotechnic factory, named Pirotécnica Mirafé and based in Ibi, from which Feber had a part. Feber and Mirafé produced toy-pistols with some explosives capsules. In 1968, a terrible accident in this company would kill 33 people. Since it was summer (16^th August), many children were working there together with their mothers, mostly without a contract. The Ferre Brothers (Juan and Francisco Ferre Planelles) also died in that accident. Despite the fact that they were working illegally, the Spanish Government provided economic help for all the victims, and a collection of money was started in Ibi together with very moving gestures of solidarity from many different points of Spain.

This type of pistols were banned after the accident, so Feber had to move its production to other toy types, mostly dolls for girls and motorized toys for boys. After the accident and the relatively dark 70s, in the 80s, Feber improved their production and expanded their importance in the national toy market.

It’s in the 80s when Feber designed and launched Chabel, the competitor to Mattel´s Barbie, that was based on a Japanese doll named “Licca” (by Takara) or the super-popular Baby-Feber. Another dolls were Pocas-Pecas or Family Feber. For boys, the most popular toy-line at this time was the Multi-Hobby, different sets of DIY tools, some of them motorized.

In 1989, Feber created Creadisa, their own R&D department, and started their international expansion. In 1990, the popularity was increased enormously after tv commercials hosted by tv-celebrities. By the end of 1991, the company had a turnover of 11500 million pesetas (69 million euros) and employed around 300 people.

Surprinsingly, the following year, Feber had to suspend payments leaving a debt of 6500 million pesetas (39 million euros). After a feasibility plan in 1993, Feber stopped producing dolls and focused on what they’re producing nowadays: outdoor houses and motorized vehicles for children between 1 and 7 years. Their president at the time was José Manuel Rodríguez Ferre, son of the original founder.

In 2006, however, their competitor Famosa took over the company but keep the brand and the production plans, as it can be read in their official website: www.famosa.es

The doll presented today was made around 1976 and represents Heidi, although it is not written anywhere in the box (clearly unlicensed product).The TV-series came to Spain in 1975, and was very popular among children, in a time in which there were only two television channels. It is a clockwork toy (note the “key” in the back of the doll) that walks and moves its hands. It was bought by my father a few months ago, since he found it very charming… and I must agree.

The toy is relatively poor, since we were in 1976 and the company hadn't increased the quality of their products yet. Maybe that adds an extra point of charm!

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HEIDI (Ref. 145) (well, actually this toy doesn't have a name)
• Year: 1976
• Company: Feber (Spain)
• Size of the Figure: Around 20 cm