Information

Ferrero is an Italian company, until today in private hands. It sold the first Kinders in Italy in 1972. Soon Germany and then the rest of Europe followed. Today they are sold in almost every country, except the USA and Africa. Today Kinders are the largest sold children toys in the world. Daily around 2.5 Million toys are produced - which means about 1.2 billion toys a year!!! Until today probably over 3000 different toys were produced.

Every year Italy and Germany releasing each around 100 new toys. The German toys are available only in Germany while the Italian toys are sold everywhere else. But not all countries get the same toys. Some have to wait a year to get the latest toys and some get a different set of hand painted figures. Check my news page for more details.
The differences between German and Italian toys are the following:

almost all of the Italian toys have a number on them, like K97 2, which easily identifies them. The same number is on the paper/flier that comes with the toy. The K97 means that they first came out in 1997 in Italy. Many of the hand painted figures have a year and a letter for identification, like 1993 A.
the German toys have a paper/flier in German and most of the time there is no number on the toy. Ferrero Germany gives each toy a name, like "Danny Dance". There is also a 6-digit number on the paper/flier but it is probably some kind of producer/production code.

Here are a few tips about collecing Kinders:

Please don't assemble your duplicates so other people still have the fun of putting them together if you swap.
Put your toys/duplicates somewhere save, for example in small plastic bags or leave them in the egg shells.
Don't throw away the papers/fliers. Some people keep them in a photo album.
Keep any spare parts that you have. Someone else might need it.
If you want, you can also save the 'warning' sheets and the foil wrappers too.

About prices:
Many people ask me why we don't have the prices of the toys on our lists. The value of a toy is very hard to determine. In Germany there are catalogues for hand painted figures, stick figures and metal figures. But these catalogues are not always up-to-date and were printed some time ago. Also different catalogues have different prices for the same toy. And the value often depends on the market.
Older toys have a much higher value than toys issued after 1990. Hand painted figures are considered more valuable than 'normal' toys. Some people value metal figure higher, others toys with more than 5 pieces. I think every collector has to decide themselves.

If you have something that should be on this page please send me an email.

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