Toy Violin from Tomy

This toy violin was made about 20 years ago by the Tomy toy company of Japan. Battery powered, it enables anyone - small children mostly - to play a tune on the violin. A range of tunes in fact.

The mechanism is very clever. There is a little friction pad, where the bow touches the violin, and this has a soft surface that enables the plastic bow to slide smoothly and silently. However this pad is a two way switch. As long as you keep moving the bow in one direction, the violin will keep playing that particular note. However the pad detects whenever the bow changes direction. When this happens, the violin then plays the next note in the tune. This allows the person playing to bring a certain amount of expression to the tune.

Tomy are a very big toy company in Japan. They were founded in 1924, and they make an enormous range of toys which are sold all round the world.