Characteristic of Sio's situation in the late 1970s and early 1980s was the DCM booth at Nuremberg in 1980. Sio, as one of the subsidiaries, was hidden behind a large front of DCM.
In February 1980, DCM went bankrupt. The large, long booth of DCM was divided by partition walls so that the former subsidiaries could have their own separate booths again. The letters 'DCM' were ceremoniously removed.
1982 Fire at Sio factory hall in Vroomshoop
On the night of September 1st to 2nd, 1982, the entire factory hall burned down. All departments (sawmill, spray booth, Sioliet, assembly), machinery, products, and archives were lost.
Over the years, Sio had always invested in new machines that allowed for the production of new products. The latest acquisition was a special printing machine that could apply colour to pre-drilled assembly blocks using a flexible rubber pad (pad printing). The innovation was that the flexible pad could print right up to the edges of the blocks. Corry and Rokus had created new designs that utilized this new technique. There were various model kits available, including a train, fire truck, tractor, helicopter, and crane.
Each colour required a separate printing process and had its own metal plate with the corresponding design for that particular color, called a cliché.
A large number of clichés were able to be saved after the fire.
1983 Neurenberg Stand
Although the fire in September 1982 completely destroyed Sio's production hall, the toy sales of Sio continued as usual. The stand from 1972 was retrieved from storage and rebuilt for the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1983.
