These notes were put together in September 2002, by Jean Hall (nee Stanley).

After some time , George Mc Conachie moved his factory to its second site, the site of an old bakery, situated on the left, just past the Park as the road rises , as one travels south towards the town of Timaru (just past the Pak-n-Save complex) I can remember it was on high piles at one end.

When I visited this factory with my father and Andy, I can vividly remember seeing all the tractor pieces and implements hanging on their wires, around the walls of the interior of the big corrugated iron shed, drying from their dunking in the paint.

George said he used to go down to Guthries and buy up any cheap paint; he said he used to chuck it all together and mix it up. He later had a conveyor that took all the pieces through the paint, and when they came out he would dry them by the big blue light heater.

George wanted to speed up the manufacturing process as when the dies were used, they became very hot from the molten aluminium, and it took time to cool them before they could be handled again.

So Dad made him a stand that held the dies, for quick and easy access. It had rails which the dies ran back to open, then it could be closed again, the pins would be fitted and the molten aluminium re-filled it.

The whole contraption stood upright; George still has the blueprints for it.

After my Dad, Charles Stanley, died, I found a 1957 diary of his, with all the relatives and neighbours names with orders for the tractors sets, for Christmas presents. When asked at the time if I wanted any, I was most indignant, as I was teenaged girl...what would I want with toy tractors!!

Thankfully, some thirty five years later, I managed to find three tractors for our three children's families.

George made the comment that he didn't sell any toys to the North Island, but sold heaps in the South Island as this was where the farming boys were in the real pastoral land!

When I spoke to him in June 2002 he was aged 75 years and still working with his wife at their clothing factory.

Andrew Baxter, of Timaru, has recently researched Tiger Toys history.

He has told me of other names connected in past years, like Jim Duncan, Sid Sutton and Norm (Earie) Hunter.

Apparently the brand name was sold to the Japanese for a mere $100.

In the blue book entitled 'Blokes and Sheds' (ISBN 1 86950 278,) by Jim Hopkins, another convert, Bill Drake, mentions Tiger Toys on page 78.

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