Tin Woodman

Nick Chopper The Tin Woodman
Oz character
The Tin Woodman as illustrated by William Wallace Denslow (1900)
First appearance	The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Created by	L. Frank Baum
Portrayed by	Jack Haley
Information
Nickname(s)	The Tin Woodman
Aliases	The Tin Man, Rusty Tin Man
Species	Former human (in the novels, not in the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz)
Gender	Male
Occupation	Ruler of the Winkies
Title	Emperor
Significant other(s)	Nimmie Amee
Relatives	Chopfyt (made with some of his human parts)
Nationality	Munchkinland

The Tin Woodman, better known as either the Tin Man or (incorrectly) the Tin Woodsman (the third name appears only in adaptations, the first—and in rare instances, the second—was used by Baum), is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. Baum's Tin Woodman first appeared in his classic 1900 book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and reappeared in many other Oz books. In late 19th-century America, men made out of various tin pieces were used in advertising and political cartoons. Baum, who was editing a magazine on decorating shop windows when he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, was reportedly inspired to invent the Tin Woodman by a figure he had built out of metal parts for a shop display.

Originally an ordinary man by the name of Nick Chopper (the name first appearing in The Marvelous Land of Oz), the Tin Woodman used to make his living chopping down trees in the forests of Oz, as his father had before him. The Wicked Witch of the East enchanted his axe to prevent him from marrying his sweetheart, after being bribed by the lazy old woman who kept the Munchkin maiden as a servant, and did not wish to lose her. (In a later book of the series, The Tin Woodman of Oz, the woman is said to be the Witch's servant, and it is the Witch herself who decides to enchant Nick's axe.) The enchanted axe chopped off his limbs, one by one. Each time he lost a limb, Ku-Klip the tinsmith replaced it with a prosthetic limb made of tin. Finally, nothing was left of him but tin. However, Ku-Klip, the tinsmith who helped him, neglected to replace his heart. Once Nick Chopper was made entirely of tin, he was no longer able to love the lady he had fallen for.