| INTRO | PARTS |
SETS Moubal Jumbo |
MANUALS Moubal Jumbo |
MARKETING | PRICE LISTS |
BUILDING |
MOUBAL RELATED |
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JUMBO SETS
Clearly, Mobaco didn't do well after the war. A new approach was necessary. Before the war Moubal had already created very small sets, such as Set 000 and the Small Garage, but those were obviously budget sets and not very enticing. Jumbo's innovation was to change the apparent scale of the designs, making much smaller buildings using the same parts. Their new marketing strategy was to focus on villages rather than individual houses, establishing a new paradigm. A typical pre-war house was ±20 cm tall, while an equivalent Jumbo house was only ±10 cm tall. Half the size means approximately 1/4 of the materials, significantly cutting down on cost. 
A typical pre-war Moubal house
A similar post-war Jumbo
house is about half the size
 Left
a typical pre-war house, right a typical Jumbo
house. The parts were the same but it all looked
smaller
Photo's courtesy Leen Kalden
Comparison of
number of parts required for a typical Moubal
house (left) and a Jumbo house (right)
HISTORY OF JUMBO SETS Jumbo was a brand of Hausemann & Hötte N.V. in Amsterdam. Before the second world war, H&H imported "better" toys from various European manufacturers, principally from Germany, the UK and Spain and sold these to toy stores in The Netherlands. In 1934 they added Mobaco to their assortment. Based on the number of sets they purchased from Moubal they must just have been a wholesaler and not the sole distributor. After the war there were very few toys and games available, so H&H decided to start making their own under the Jumbo brand name, mainly puzzles and a variety of simple games that involved printed cardboard parts. Thanks to the a large number of scans put online by the Amsterdam Archive from the Hausemann & Hötte archive, there is a lot of material available to piece together the history of Jumbo Mobaco sets. I can't thank H&H and the Amsterdam Archive enough for making this material available to the public. I also want to thank Nick Cranendonk for lending me his Jumbo collection for study. Despite the large amount of information available it was quite difficult to piece together an exact history of the Jumbo sets. This is what we (Mobaco collectors and historians) know so far. Probably in the middle of 1949, Jumbo issued Set A, in a simple bright red box with silver printing. Presumably, this was to test the market. Although the set is labeled "A", there are no other known sets in this series, and we refer to this as being the Axx series.  Jumbo Set A box of the Axx Series The parts were made by van Mouwerik & Bal in Zeist, but Jumbo commissioned the boxes, probably from Meyer en Couvée, who also made boxes for other Jumbo products.  The Axx series boxes had cardboard partitions covered in white paper and a "table" insert to raise the base plate. In the fall of 1949, Jumbo introduced a full line-up of three sets, Sets A, B and C in a redesigned red box with a dark-blue label. Contents of Set A were identical to the original red set. However, the boxes were constructed differently, cheaper. At the time, Hausemann & Hötte, owners of the Jumbo brand, were in negotiations to purchase Cartonnagefabriek Best Ever NV in Amsterdam, a manufacturer of inexpensive cardboard toys. The lesser quality of these ABC boxes may indicate that they were made by Best Ever and not by Meyer & Couvée.  Example of an ABC series Version 1 box with inexpensive cardboard inserts. The sides were covered with red paper, the bottom with white paper. The ABC series was a series of sets that were meant to build on each other. You first had to buy Set A, then added to that by buying Set B, then added to that by buying Set C. However, this wasn't really clear to customers. So if a parent wanted to spoil their child by giving them the largest Set C, upon unpacking this would turn into huge a disappointment as it only contained 4 columns! What could you build with that? Had they bought Sets A + B + C as Jumbo expected, they would have had 18 columns, 4x #1, 6x #1-1/2 en 8x #2. I think there were so many complaints from parents to toy stores, and from toy stores to Jumbo, that Jumbo quickly brought out "revised" sets that contained some extra columns. So in the middle of 1950, they issued a slightly revised version of these three sets. This second version had a wider/fatter A, B or C printed on the lid, and the table of contents had an overprint to show the changes. The construction of these boxes is different from the first ABC version, and identical to the initial Axx series. It appears Jumbo wasn't satisfied with the quality of the boxes made by Best Ever and went back to Meyer en Couvée. 
 Left the lid of the first version of the ABC series, with a thin, narrow "A". Right the second version with a fatter "A" Sets B and C had a similar difference.  Contents list glued to the
inside of the lid in the second version of
the ABC series. Highlighted are the
overprints.
Sets B and C each contained 4 extra columns and Set C also had 2 extra cantilever trusses #89. The latter was to correct a mistake: in order to build the "Brug met Brugwachtershuis" (Bridge with bridge keeper's house) you needed four of these and initially there were only 2 in the box.  Example of an ABC series Version 2 box with cardboard partitions covered in white paper and a "table" insert to raise the base plate. The sides were again white. The construction of these boxes is identical to the very first Axx series, indicating they were made by the same company With the ABC series came three manuals labeled A, B and C, with progressively larger buildings. Confusingly, the designs did not correspond to the parts in the set of the same name. For instance, to build the church shown in Manual C, you needed two Sets A, two Sets B, one Set C and spare parts:  Model of a church from Manual C requiring two Sets A, two Sets B, one Set C and spare parts. The note at the bottom indicates that the manual was published by Hausemann & Hötte N.V. and the manufacturer was van Mouwerik & Bal in Zeist All known sets of the first version of the ABC series (issued in the fall of 1949) have a special price sticker on the bottom:  It states: Gebruikersprijs Mobaco A/B/C "Dorpen en Steden" Vastgesteld volgens calculatie No. 3623/0362/705 d.d. 25-5-'47, which translates as: User Price Mobaco A/B/C "Villages and Cities" set according to calculation no. 3623/0362/705 dated 27 May 1947. The prices on these labels are about 30% lower than the prices listed in the 1949 catalog. There are also several Moubal Mobaco sets, which were also being produced at the time, that have such a sticker with a similar 30% price reduction. After the war, there were strict price controls. For toys, there was the Prijzenbeschikking Handelsmarges Speelgoederen 1947, which roughly translates as 1947 Trade Margin Pricing Mandates for Toys. My explanation for these stickers is that soon after the Jumbo and Moubal price lists were issued in November 1949 there was a complaint about pricing. As a result of this complaint, Jumbo and Moubal were forced by the government to reduce the price of their Mobaco sets by 30% and put these stickers on their boxes. This was short-lived. The second version of of the ABC sets which came out mid-1950 have no such stickers, which indicates that they were no longer mandated. This jives with the fact that many price controls were lifted in 1950. Interestingly, Moubal issued a price list in May 1950, which is very unusual, as they always issued their price lists in the fall. My speculation is that the price controls were lifted in April, which was a reason to issue a new price list with higher prices in May. All in all, I think that these labels were in use from December 1949 through April 1950. Obviously, Jumbo's chosen approach of sets that build on each other didn't work well, so they quickly replaced this series with an entirely new series of progressive series. In the fall of 1950, Jumbo introduced 4 progressively larger sets, and 3 corresponding make-ups sets: - Progressive sets: A, B, C, D - Make-up sets: AB, BC, CD Set A + Set AB = Set B, etc. So starting with a Set A, you could work your way up to the contents of Set D by buying sets AB, BC and CD. The contents of these Sets A, B and C were very different from the contents of the earlier A, B and C sets. A new light-blue label with children playing with Mobaco graced the boxes. Each set had a different manual, so there were 4 manuals.  Example of a Set from the ABCD/E series. This general design remained until the end of production, with some small changes. The construction of these boxes
was very different. They were
partitioned with wood dividers covered in white
paper, and nailed into place. Sometimes there was
a cardboard "table" insert to elevate Mobaco
parts, such as the base plate.
In early 1950, the owners of Jumbo bought into the Best Ever factory and renamed it the Nederlandse Spellenfabriek - NSF (= Netherlands Games Factory). These new Mobaco boxes were made there. They must have gotten new tooling to make the wood partitions. Parts were still made by Moubal in Zeist.  Example of an ABCD/E series box with 4 mm-thick wood partitions covered with white paper and nailed into place. Here a large and a small "table" insert raised the parts, giving the appearance of a fuller box than it actually was. The construction of the boxes remained pretty much the same until the end of production with some minor changes, such as replacing the nails with staples and replacing glued labels with printed lid paper. Starting in February 1955, Jumbo stamped a date inside the box, presumably the date the box was filled. The last known date is April 1959 which suggests that boxes sold after that date were from stock. That could mean that Moubal made the last Mobaco parts in 1959, 35 years after making the first parts in 1924. Jumbo Mobaco was last featured in the 1961-1962 Jumbo catalog. The last sets were sold in 1962, ending a 38-year run that started with Moubal Mobaco in 1924. In summary: mid 1949 - Axx (test?) series introduced in simple red box fall 1949 - ABC version 1 series introduced with dark blue label, with manuals A, B and C mid 1950 - ABC version 2 series introduced, with added columns fall 1950 - ABCD progressive series introduced + make up sets AB, BC and CD, with light blue labels and new manuals A, B, C and D fall 1951 - E and DE added to the line-up and all manuals replaced with a common A-E manual fall 1961 - last year that Mobaco was featured in the Jumbo catalog 1962 - last year that Mobaco was sold (see graph below)   As these graphs show, sales of Jumbo Mobaco peaked in 1956 and dropped sharply in 1959. It is said that interest in Mobaco waned when Lego was introduced. This may very well be true. Lego came to market in The Netherlands in the fall of 1957, the year we see the first dip in the Jumbo Mobaco numbers. Set A was by far the most popular set. Only 988 Set E's were ever sold, and they are quite rare today. All in all, Jumbo sold 216,000 sets which contained 8,4 million parts! |
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JUMBO SET A (from ABC series) VERSION 1 This is the very first Jumbo set, probably issued in early 1949. It's not known if there is a similar B and C box.  Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm 22 parts Came with manual Voorbeeldenboek A |
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VERSION 2 Part of the initial ABC series of sets issued in 1949. Contents and interior of the box are identical to Version 1 above. Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET B (from ABC series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET C (from ABC series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET A (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO make-up SET AB (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET B (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO make-up SET BC (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET C (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO make-up SET CD (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET D (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO make-up SET DE (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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JUMBO SET E (from ABCDE series) Box lid dimensions yyy x yyy mm xxx parts xxxx kg Came with manual xxxxxxxxx xxx designs Photo courtesy Leen Kalden |
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