Also in my garage: tin toys and pedal cars

By Mario Laguna

| 2 Jan 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Also in my garage: tin toys, pedal cars and Italian supercars

Over the course of four decades, Manuel Ferrando Cabrera, now in his mid-70s, has put together one of the most extraordinary tin-toy collections to be found in Europe.

Despite having been the youngest child of a wealthy family in south-eastern Spain, Manuel was never given brand-new toys as a boy but instead got secondhand, often-battered toys handed down from his older brothers.

So 40 years ago, Manuel decided it was time to get his revenge, and he started building his own toy world.

Pre-war model vehicles are among Manuel Cabrera’s favourite vintage toys

At the same time, he had begun a project for a purpose-built garage to host his growing collection of cars, movie posters, dolls, old furniture, vintage signs, bicycles, a few training biplanes (yes, really), pedal cars, scale models and iron sculptures.

But the most elaborate gallery in this new space was dedicated to his huge collection of tin toys.

“I don’t really know how many items I have in my various collections,” he reflects, “but for sure I passed the 100,000 mark a long time ago.”

Old pedal cars hang from the walls of this toy-obsessed collector’s hideout

Making an inventory would be almost impossible, so he relies on his elephant-like memory to instantly locate specific toys, to recall where and when he got them, and how much he paid.

“In a time before the internet-connected world, I was a regular attendee at auctions, toy fairs, secondhand shops and autojumbles,” Manuel explains, “including travels to Beaulieu, Goodwood, Paris and car shows in Germany.

“In a London antiques shop, I spotted a tin train that may be the oldest piece in my collection – I overpaid, but the hand-painted decoration really seduced me.”

Tin toys are a main feature of the collection, but Manuel has begun buying plastic playthings, too

Also on display are wrapped, unopened boxes of new, unsold toys bought from closing stores.

These are true timewarps, and the quiet gallery has low lighting to preserve the colours of the fragile printed box artwork.

“When I’m stressed at work, this place is my salvation,” says the busy businessman, who also keeps a 30-strong collection of full-sized cars in his ultimate garage.

These include four Lamborghinis – a 400GT, an Espada and a Urraco, along with a Miura that’s thought to be a transition car between the S and the SV, boasting features of both models.

Manuel has travelled far and wide to search for items to add to his collections

There are also several Ferraris and three rare, Spanish-built Pegasos, two by Touring and a Spider by Serra, plus a 1939 Fiat bodied by Touring Superleggera that is rumoured to have been a gift to General Franco from his ally Benito Mussolini.

“The Serra Spider is a real film star,” says Manuel.

“Richard Kiley and Carmen Sevilla were in the 1957 film Spanish Affair, directed by Don Siegel, but for me the true star in it was the Pegaso.”

Although in unrestored condition, it’s a car he will never part with.

This Lamborghini Miura is one of the full-sized supercars in a 30-strong hoard of classic cars

Spanish-made toys, too, have a special place in Manuel’s heart.

Payá Hermanos, a toy factory founded in Ibi at the dawn of the 20th century, produced some fabulous handbuilt tin cars in the 1930s, among them a splendid 50cm-long Bugatti and a motorcycle-and-sidecar combination.

After the firm went bankrupt, Manuel helped former workers to relaunch the brand with limited editions made on the original tooling.

“As a thank-you, they gave me the actual Bugatti prototype,” he smiles. “I’m very proud of it, and will always treasure it as one of my favourite items.”

Never tiring of his ongoing mission to preserve rare and unusual toys, Manuel is now moving on to what he calls his “early plastic period”. We wish him well.

Images: Mario Laguna

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