Laerdal

Laerdal is a major manufacturer of medical equipment and medical training products based in Stavanger, Norway. Established in 1940 as a print shop, it soon began manufacturing popular rubber toys under the name Tomte Laerdal - the company's best-known product in the 1960s. An outgrowth of this expertise in plastics was the manufacture of medical training models and devices - the company's mainstay. Laerdal's best-known product today is a training mannequin popularly named 'CPR Annie'.

The company was started in 1940 by Aasmund Sigurd Laerdal in Stavanger, Norway. Originally a small publishing house, it specialized in greetings cards and children's books. By 1943, the company had expanded into the manufacturing of wooden toys under the name Smavare Industry.

In 1951, the company expanded into plastics and began manufacturing realistic play dolls and later produced "furniture friendly" toy cars under the name Tomte Laerdal. These were similar in concept to cars made by the Auburn Rubber Company in the United States or Galanite of Sweden, though the Galanite products sometimes appeared more promotional-like and realistic in detail and approach. The first series included an Opel, a Volkswagen, and a Mercedes 190 roadster, which are quite collectible today. Other models included a Studebaker pickup, a Renault Floride sports car, a Volkswagen transporter pickup and others.

In many cases, like the 1960 Chevrolet El Camino, the Tomte toys seem to have been recycled dies previously created by Corgi Toys and Dinky Toys for those companies' 1:43 scale diecast metal vehicle lines produced in the 1960s in the United Kingdom. The Tomte toys, however, were cast in rubber. Many models and scales were produced, but three to four inch vehicles were the most common.

Alternatively, Tomte Laerdal toys were at times marketed in different countries under different names. Around 1968, a company called Creative Playthings from Priceton, New Jersey, marketed Tomte cars (apparently unchanged) simply as 'Mini-Cars' (Citroen DS 2007-2012). Tomte rubber cars were very popular. Over 100 million were sold in over 110 countries. They were produced through 1978.

Besides toys, the company expanded its line of products to include realistic wound simulations and other rubber first aid materials. Laerdal's CPR training manikin 'Resusci Anne' is widely used throughout the world. In the US it is called 'CPR Annie', since it serves as the main training tool for modern (mouth-to-mouth method) CPR.

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Wikipedia