More than three decades after the manufacturer stopped making toys, the products of J. Chein & Co. shine on.

They can be found in thousands of general antique shops and co-ops, at shows and auctions, and on the shelves of collectors in a vast array of categories. Though there are better-known American toymakers, such as Marx, Mattel, Ives and Ideal, the Chein name (pronounced like the word “chain”) is linked to a long, diverse series of playthings and has a distinct place in the Golden Age of tin toys.

And even now, after the publication of a wealth of books and articles, after the global reach of eBay, Chein can still surprise an advanced collector with the appearance of some undocumented variation on a toy theme. The creativity and ingenuity of the Chein factory had no end.

Most toy collectors know the basic timeline: Julius Chein founded a metal stamping operation in Manhattan in 1903, supplying small toys for five and dimes and Cracker Jack prizes. But the one-armed inventor was soon developing more sophisticated, lithographed items, including toy musical instruments and pony carts. In 1910, the company moved to larger quarters in Harrison, N.J.

At the height of his success in 1926, Chein died of a stroke while riding his horse in Central Park. The company passed on to his wife Elizabeth, who soon turned it over to her younger brother, Samuel Hoffman, who had experience in both vaudeville and with his own firm, the Mohawk Metal Toy Co. The Chein catalog grew and flourished under Hoffman, who oversaw a fleet of windup boats, cars, trucks, and amusement park rides. He also pioneered the licensing of comic characters for a range of toys and developed toy lines for holidays and summertime play.

After World War II, Hoffman’s sons-in-law, Irving Sachs and Robert Beckelman, joined the company, which moved to a modern plant in Burlington, N.J., in 1949. By 1960, Chein was churning out 100,000 toys a day.

But later that decade the federal government drew up new regulations regarding tin toys; the sharp edges were deemed a hazard to children. The company’s move into plastic toy production was not successful enough to keep the toy division viable, and it closed in 1976. Chein turned exclusively to housewares, until the company folded in 1992.

What Chein produced over a 73-year span offers something for almost any toy collector.

There were at least 60 different banks, including a few well-known mechanical pieces depicting Uncle Wiggily, the Monkey, Elephant and Clown made between the 1930s and ’60s. They frequently come up for auction in the $100 to $400 range. Chein’s still banks, such as the Child’s Safe, date back to the 1900s, but versions of the Globe Bank were produced right up to the 1970s. The Globes seem to be omnipresent; it’s hard to wander through an antique shop without spotting one on a bookcase shelf, and their affordability, under $50, reflects their availability.

It’s also easy to find many of the Chein holiday toys. The lithographed tin eggs, a warren of different bunnies and windup chicks are relatively inexpensive and make wonderful Easter displays. For Halloween, there were rattles and tambourines decorated with pumpkins, witches, cats and costumed kids. And for Christmas there was a Walking Santa carrying gifts; the Yuletide figure can bring several hundred dollars at auction these days.

For the summer months, Chein turned sand pails into an art form. Images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Krazy Kat appear on the scarcest pails from the 1930s, now valued at hundreds of dollars. Ducks, rabbits, kittens, fish, fish, nursery rhymes, patriotic themes, and children at play adorn the pails, sieves and sand toys made in every decade of Chein’s existence. A collection that includes representatives of each era would trace the evolving interests and tastes of the American child, and many examples can be found at toy shows and auctions for $100 to $200.

It is mainly at auctions that collectors can find the most valuable Chein toys, the comic characters. The more common pieces – Happy Hooligan and Popeye Walkers – can be found for a few hundred dollars. But the rare items bring much more. Hoffman enlisted Popeye’s creator, E.C. Segar, to decorate some of the boxes and to approve the art and designs for Chein’s Popeye toys, which can bring thousands of dollars today. A fantastic platform toy, the Felix Frolic, which depicts a 9in Felix the Cat pursuing two red mice, sold for $29,100 (including buyer’s premium) at Morphy Auctions’ spring 2006 sale. The toy was made by Chein in 1926 for the distributor Geo. Borgfeldt Co., and only a handful of examples are known to exist.

In the 1930s, Chein dabbled in wooden toys, producing jointed renditions of Krazy Kat, Ignatz and Popeye, all hard to find today in any condition.

From its early days, the company was interested in transportation toys. There were the horse-drawn carts in the 1900s, sedans, taxis, racers, trolleys and trucks in the 1910s and early 20s, and the highly desirable Hercules line of trucks and luxury autos in the mid-1920s. There were also beautiful buses, trains, planes and a fleet of boats made from the 1910s through the 1960s, tracking the evolution of 20th-century transportation.

There are other categories for which is Chein is well known – spinning tops, tin tea sets, sparklers, windup animals, soldiers, drums and music boxes. But the company is perhaps best characterized by its carnival rides, the large, elaborate, mechanical toys made from the 1930s to 1960s which epitomized the imagination of the toy designers and the spirit of childhood.

In 1903, Julius Chein filed a patent for a looping track over which a small, rolling car would ride. It isn’t known if such a toy was every produced. In the early 1930s, Hoffman introduced the Hercules Ferris Wheel, which became one of the company’s most successful sellers for the next 40 years. He also guided production of the Aeroplane Whirler and Aero Swing, the Roller Coaster, Merry-Go-Round, Ride A Rocket, and Whip. Disney-themed versions of the Ferris Wheel and Roller Coaster would follow, and the Coaster was also transformed into a Ski Ride in the early 1950s. The Aero Swing was updated into the Space Ride in the late 1950s, a rare and very appealing toy that followed the sci-fi trend. The carnival rides can sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars now.

Extremely unusual versions of the amusement park rides have come to light in collections, and occasionally at auction, in recent years. The Chein toy specialist George Warden, who has sold many of his pieces through the Atlanta Antique Gallery, came upon a Chein Ferris Wheel apparently produced for the Geo. Borgfeldt Nifty line. The toy is operated by a push-button, chain-driven mechanism instead of the usual windup spring. It has a light green base, and the familiar smiling face on the hub of the wheel is winking.

An equally extraordinary, earlier Chein Ferris Wheel can also be found in Warden’s collection. It is 9in high, as opposed to the 17in of the well-known version, and rests on a simple, thin metal frame, with four small cups that serve as the gondolas. There is no smiling face, just the words “Ferris Wheel” on the centerpiece. The early logo design reveals it was made in the 1910s to 20s – a primitive yet elegant toy design.