The Tootsietoy Grahams

August 11, 2011

The Tootsietoy Grahams

The Tootsietoy Grahams were beautifully designed cars that were manufactured from 1933-1939. What makes them particular;ly "special" is that you could assemble different parts together. One kind was the "Bild-A-Car" which had clips to attach the chassis to the body. The other had a nail running through the centre that also kept the 2 pieces together. I'm basically paraphrasing from a great book by David E. Richter, published in 1999 by Collectors Books. It's title is "Collector's Guide To Tootsietoys, Second Edition) on p.97.

I'm not sure exactly what I read and wrote, because I would have to disassemble these toys to actually see how they go together and come apart. However, these toys are very fragile, especially the aged and dried-out tires. So for now, I leave them alone! I've "touched" or more like strangled these small toys, and when you destroy one with the slightest pressure, you just want to cry!

When I know the difference between the Bild-A-Car and the running-nail assembly, I'll let you know.

And when I get the finesse of a surgeon's pair of hands, I'll try and dismantle one to see how these toys go together and come apart!

The great thing about vintage old collectible toy cars and trucks, is that there are enough collectors out there, especially in the USA, to have small companies and individuals manufacture spare parts.

The front grill with headlights and bumper is one example of a part. Because the different models of Grahams all have some commonality to them, the grill-headlights-bumper unit is interchangeable with most of the models. 

When I figure out the difference between the models (P. 97 - from David A. Richter), I will label them.

There are the coupe, the roadster, sedan, and town car which I will eventually figure out which is which.

Then there are "easy" labelled vehicles like the wrecker, ambulance, commercial tire van, and the dairy van.

Front View of 7 Different Tootsietoy Graham Models

Back View of 7 Different Tootsietoy Graham Models

This one is easy - it's an ambulance!

Here's a newer acquisition - Painted!

This one looks very fancy, so I'm guessing it's a town car.

Notice that it comes with 6 tires.

Here are the sedan car and ambulance side-by-side.

Here's either a roadster or a coupe.

The Town Car.

Detail of the Town Car

 

More detail (Close-up) of the Town Car

The Town Car looks like the fancy limousines of the 1930's in the movies

A nice Graham sedan with 5 tires.

Another nice Graham sedan with 6 tires.

Another sedan or town car with 5 tires. 

The only difference from the one above it is the colour combination.

What I forgot to mention is that these cars have wonderful colour combinations.

Before, especially with the cast iron cars and trucks, the colours were usually 1 colour for the whole vehicle.

A coupe?

A roadster or a covertible coupe with a "rumble seat".

I especially like the steering wheel.

A 4-wheeled sedan

A 5-wheeled sedan or touring car

Beautiful detail of a coupe or is this called a roadster?

Another detail photo

and one more detail photo of the roadster or coupe?

Sedan Detail Photo

Another Sedan Detail Photo

Convertible coupe detail

More Detail of a coupe with its' "rumble seat"

Notice the oxidation on the front firewall part of the car in front of the steering wheel.

Do I sand it away or leave it as is?

The front of the coupe is like the other cars

I just received this Tootsietoy Graham on August 19, 2011

So this makes 8 different models of Tootsietoy to date.

If you've been following my blog, please don't be shy. Write me if you know which car is which, or if you have any comments or questions.

I hope this instalment perks your interest as it did mine in terms of purchasing these toys.

Unfortunately, I'll be selling them in a few weeks on E-Bay.

In this way, I'll be able to purchase more toys for this blog.    

Have a nice day or evening, depending where in the world you live.

** Well, as I was just doing a search for Tootsietoy Graham Assembly", I found the site below:

http://www.tootsietoys.info/TootsieGrahamBild-a-Car.jpg

That looks to be the answer as to how to dismantle these Grahams.