How La Isla gave Mickey and Felix a Spanish accent and a bad habit

The origin of La Isla – the Spanish company behind those fantastic prewar tinplate sparklers and windup toys of Mickey Mouse, Felix the Cat and other comic characters engaged in oddball activities – is one that lay cloaked in mystery for several decades. Outside of specialist toy dealers with contacts in Spain, few buyers of comic character toys knew anything about La Isla prior to the mid 1990s, when Disney authorities Doug and Pat Wengel revealed the results of their research project delving into the firm’s history.

La Isla toys were the product of an obviously super-charged imagination: Minnie Mouse carrying Felix the Cat twins in cages, Felix stowed away in a picnic basket, playing hide and seek with Mickey; and craziest of all, Mickey and Felix alternately lighting cigars, the flame of a sparking candle serving as their lighter. These were not the ideas of either Walt Disney or Felix creator Otto Messmer – Disney would have keeled over at the thought of his all-American rodent character encouraging children to smoke.

In fact, La Isla character toys were the work of Rogelio Sanchis, who, for many years, was mistakenly identified as Rogelio Sanchez. This, and many other revelations, came to light after the Wengels and their colleague, toy dealer Andres Diego, wrapped their investigation into La Isla’s brief production era.

“We had spent several years trying to find out the background on these marvelous toys – some of which were marked La Isla, Isla or R.S., with a castle logo,” said Doug Wengel. “We found it very difficult to turn up any information. Because of the name ‘La Isla,’ which is Spanish for ‘The Island,’ everyone had been looking for an island somewhere near Spain as the place where the toys were produced.” But that turned out to be a false lead. When the Wengels enlisted the help of Spain-based Diego, who was in a position to conduct on-the-spot research, the project gathered steam. Ultimately, it was Diego who cracked the case.

It turned out that both the castle logo and the name “La Isla” referred to the company’s imposing, chateau-like premises in a small Spanish town. Diego tracked down the actual castle and even took a picture of it for the Wengels. Sanchis – whose surname’s spelling was verified through the discovery of a 1933 invoice – apparently was the prosperous owner of a fruit-packing business headquartered inside the castle known to locals as “La Isla.” There is some indication, Wengel noted, that Sanchis may have inherited the landmark structure.

In 1926, Sanchis started up a tin toy company at the castle, naming the firm “La Isla.” “I don’t think he had any previous experience in toy manufacture,” said Wengel. “He started in fruit packing and somehow got interested in toys. That’s amazing, because the toys are of such great quality and are so complex.”

La Isla’s first productions were toy automobiles, but it is the subsequently produced comic character toys that are most sought after by collectors. Wengel believes the earliest La Isla comic toys were the Mickey Mouse/Felix the Cat sparkler, the Minnie carrying Felix twins in cages, and the Minnie pushing Felix in a pram, the latter being one of the rarest of all La Isla toys.

Wengel believes the next series in La Isla’s range was the movie star sparklers, featuring such screen icons of the day as Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. “These comedians were wildly popular in Europe,” said Wengel. “We’ve know there was also a Charlie Chaplin sparkler, but we’ve never seen one.” He describes the mechanisms on the movie star sparkler toys as “ingenious and complicated … the legs move, and sparks can be seen through the gels of their eyes.”

La Isla toys probably were intended for the Spanish market, Wengel said, “although some got to France. Pat and I have found some there, as well as a few in Germany and the U.S.A. They’re exceedingly rare, and we think they’re far and away the finest Disney windups ever made.”

Initially, La Isla did not have a licensing agreement with Disney, so the earliest productions were unauthorized – making them even more desirable to today’s collectors. Eventually, Sanchis took steps to ensure his business was lawful. “In 1934, Sanchis received the first Disney license in Spain,” Wengel said. “We have a big shovel with great images marked La Isla and Copyright Walt Disney. Also, we have a Three Pigs watering can that has the same image as (U.S.-made) Ohio Art’s Three Pigs watering can, but it’s marked R.S. and says in Spanish Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

La Isla’s production came to an abrupt end in 1936, Wengel said, when Sanchis volunteered to fight with Generalissimo Franco’s army in the Spanish Civil War. “He was killed very shortly after that.” Ironically, one of the photographs Andres Diego unearthed during his research was of Sanchis with his comrade, Franco.

Values on La Isla toys have seen swings in both directions. “When we started buying them, they were quite expensive,” said Wengel. In the late 1980s we paid $9,500 for a Mickey and Felix sparkler, which we bought from the Sadagurskys (pioneering toy dealers Paul and Stephanie). Then Bill Bertoia (legendary toy dealer and co-founder of Bertoia Auctions) found us a Minnie carrying Felix in the cages in Spain, from someone who had an extensive collection. It turned out to be the best example known. We owe an awful lot to Bill.”

“After that, we bought one of the picnic basket toys and the Minnie pushing the pram. As far as I know, only two of the pram toys are known; the other is in a collection in Baltimore.”

Doug and Pat Wengel sold 15 of the best pieces in their Disney collection in Bertoia Auctions’ Mickey and His Friends Fall Toy Festival, held Oct. 13-14, 2000. Their timing could not have been more perfect in terms of market interest, and their Rogelio Sanchis La Isla toys knocked down record auction prices.

The Mickey and Felix cigar smokers puffed up a $22,000 selling price. The Minnie and Felix baby pram sold to a phone bidder for $35,200; and their outstanding Minnie carrying Felix in cages windup garnered audience applause when it hammered $52,800. (All prices quoted include 10 percent buyer’s premium.)

Since then, the market for La Isla toys has had a mind of its own, and Doug Wengel believes now is an excellent time to buy them, should they become available. “At the time our toys sold, La Isla toys were getting so expensive, it scared people off. It’s a different marketplace, now. There are opportunities to buy.”

Bertoia Auctions has been a trailblazer in terms of bringing La Isla and other rare Disney toys to auction. Company associate Rich Bertoia agrees with Wengel’s assessment that anyone with aspirations of owning a La Isla-made toy should be on the lookout now. “The smart guys know it’s time to buy,” he told Toy Collector Magazine. “The Disney world is not going anywhere. Sophistication goes backwards.”