Old Antique Toys

This blog discusses old toys from the early 1920's to the end of the 1950's. All kinds of topics are discussed. The time span was the greatest period for "hands-on" toys, where a young child could actually go outside and play for hours at a time. You can see the elegance but simple design of these toys. It was a time when huge machines, and people made and finished toys by hand. The era has long passed, but many of the toys are still around, and that is what I would like to share.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Hubley Stake truck Restoration - Continued

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Hubley Stake Truck Restoration

(Continued)

The restoration is looking to come to an end. Today, I sanded the repair,

and then added a primer coat.

Result After Sanding With a 220 Grade Sandpaper.

I didin;t want to make the repair too smooth as the surrounding area is very rough or coarse.

The Appearance of the Hubley Stake Truck After Applying the First Coat

A Close-up View of the Repair.

The Repair in Silhouette.

I used a back light position to silhouette or outline the shape of the repair.

This was just to check if the shape of the repair was OK.

It looks good.

What I need to do is to add another coat of primer, and then add 2 layers of finishing paint colour.

So thanks for dropping by,

and have a restful and nice Saturday,

wherever you may be.

Friday, April 27, 2012

E-Bay Listing Photos for the End of April 2012

Saturday, April 28, 2012

E-Bay Listing Photos

for the End of April 2012

E-Bay is going to allow sellers to upload 12 images for free. Naturally, that will help everyone sell, and for me (please excuse the bragging),it's a way to present high-quality images of my photos.

Right now, I only show 1 composite photo of 4 smaller images, and this obviously diminishes the detail and quality of the items for sale. I've done this ever since I started selling toys on E-Bay to save on costs.

E-Bay gives you 1 free image, but charges you 15 cents for every other one.
You can also buy 6 photos for 75 cents and 12 photos for $ 1.00

They have a package deal if you add at least 6 images. The problem is that doing this for 50 listings a month can be costly! Also, it's hard to find American toys up here in Montreal, and when I do, they're too costly compared with E-Bay.

This week E-Bay had a free 5000 "Buy It Now" promotion. That sounds great, but E-Bay doesn't give anything away for nothing. In this case, the "Buy-It-Now option, which to be fair is my choice, costs 10-11%% of the sale of the toy on average. Ouch! So probably everyone adds a bit more to their pricing, and sales most likely are fewer.

Personally, I have purchased toys at the "Buy-It-Now" price, but like everyone else, I'm sure that they all think that bidding ends up being less-costly.

So below are most of my items for sale this week at the "Buy-It-Now" option.Naturally, I'll probably write in some future blog how this method of selling fared. Right now, selling is slower, either due to the continued weak US economy and the approaching warm seasons. Coincidentally, the same thing of a slowdown happened last year at the same time.

I'll add the details of the items later if I have the time.

If you want to know the details, simply go to E-Bay.

My ID is sib2048w, and you can then do a search by seller for "items for sale by seller".

Wyandotte Pressed Steel Convertible Car

Tootsietoy Die Cast Fageol Bus

For E-Bay Visitors, you can click on any image to enlarge it.

Also, you can even have a "slide show" of larger-sized images.

I'm sure you can figure out how that works.

So thanks to everyone for dropping by.

And as usual, have a restful and nice weekend,

wherever you may be.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Vintage Literature Reproductions-A Great Antique Toy Reference Resource

Friday, April 27, 2012

Vintage Literature Reproductions

(A Great Antique Toy Reference Resource)

Whether you are a collector, seller, or buyer of old toys, you need to be knowledgeable about what you are buying, and from whom. I've been seeing the name of Vintage Literature Reproductions on E-Bay many times, especially when I do a search for an Arcade toy.

Vintage Literature Reproductions is a company that produces (to quote them) "digital reproductions of rare antique catalogs and books on CD/DVD". So after almost 1 1/2 years of buying and selling toys, I finally decided to purchase a CD from them on the topic of Arcade Cast Iron Toys. The cost was $ 12.95 US including shipping and I purchased the CD on E-Bay.

They also have a website at: http://www.VintageLiterature.ca

Most of the toys are excellent hand-drawn illustrations in B & W. However the descriptions of the toys are included. This is important and certainly balances with the illustrations. The descriptions include size, details such as "rubber tires", and of course the colour scheme of the toys.

I write to the company to ask if I might use their images and pages and they agreed. Thank you Vintage Literature Reproductions. So all of the copied pages below are courtesy of the company and they maintain all of the rights to the images.

Being a photographer and someone who pays attention to detail, I liked how the company designed their CD cover. AS well, when I received the CD, it had a nice black sleeve, a cardboard insert to protect the CD, a small card about the company, and of course an invoice and a thank you.

This might be "small stuff" to most people or most people wouldn't even notice this, but I do. This provides a sense of "professionalism to the company , which I admire.

The CD Design

The CD comes with 2 large Adobe PDF files.

One is a smaller-sized 36 page catalogue (# 51), and the other is a 136 page booklet of all of the arcade toys for the 1930's.

The Book cover of the larger 136 page catalogue.

I decided to select images of toys that I have seen listed on E-Bay.

Browsing through the pages, I noticed that Arcade had also manufactured many other items beside toys. They made games, cast iron book ends, and miniature furniture.

I've seen this "Andy Gump" item several times on E-Bay.

Of course, it's beyond my price range that I limit to $ 125.00 US.

What's interesting is that the toy came in 3 versions.

I've seen this beautiful bus on E-Bay and at that great auction house Bertoia.

Bertoia auctions beautiful antique toys that you you hardly ever see on E-Bay. Also, they produce high-quality coloured and hard-covered auction catalogues.

I just saw the Arcade "Toy Wrecking Car" listed this week on E-Bay.

It's a rarer item that I have never seen before.

I didn't know that arcade made vises, but I did know that they made miniature nickel-plated tools.

What's more interesting is that they also copper-plated these tools. I've never seen the miniatures in copper listed anywhere, so I wonder if they're rarer and more valuable.

Here's another interesting coincidence.

Troy Bettridge is one of my readers who has been communicating with me about miniature Arcade furniture. He's an architect and miniature antique toy furniture collector. He asked for my advise as to how to repair a cast iron missing leg on a piece of furniture. As well, he gave me a "Eureka moment" as to how to finish the surface of a toy that I am repairing (the Hubley Stake Truck).

The company also manufactured cast iron banks.

I did purchase a Hubley bank of a child dressed in a sailor's outfit. You can read that instalment if you check in the list of all of my blog writings.

Above is one of the pages of Vintage Literature Reproductions with their internet address.

They have a huge library/inventory of all kinds of subjects, and of course antique toys. So if you're interested, by all means drop by their website.

http://www.VintageLiterature.ca

Thanks as usual for dropping by, and have

a good morning,afternoon, or evening, whereever you may be.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Arcade Cast Iron Toy Restoration - Part III

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Arcade Cast Iron Truck Restoration

Part III

I waited overnight for the Lepage's Epoxy Steel to harden and cure completely. The word "cure" is simply a term that is applied to a glue for it to harden. Fortunately today was sunny and I was able to go outdoors to cut the excess epoxy from the toy.

wThe above 2 photos were what happened after the epoxy dried.

I now had to use my high-speed Dremel with several different cutting heads.

I used a higher speed of about 10,000-15,000 RPM's (revolutions per Minute) to cut off the unneeded and excess epoxy.

I used a small-headed cutting tip to bore through the spaces.

ONce I had a hole, I then carefully moved the cutting head sideways to open up the 3 openings.

wI then used a wire-head drill bit to remove the rest of the excess material.

I couldn't get the drill bit into the corner,

so I used on of my tiny had files to file away the excess in the corner.

One thing that I don't like is how the wire-head brush stains the cast iron metal and smooths it.

I'm worried that the smooth surface form using the wire head brush will be too smooth,

and will show differently from the untouched surrounding areas.

Oops!

I cut too much off the top.

Next time I'm doing a repair of this nature, I'll use a small piece of wood as a guide.

That will make sure that I keep the level of the area needing grinding level with the rest of the toy.

"Live and Learn" or Practise Makes Perfect" are 2 commons expressions that certainly apply to any new skill that you want to learn.

I still have plenty of epoxy.

I added some more on top.

IHere is the result after I ground down the extra epoxy.

I only waited 1 hour for the glue to dry, before I ground down the extra epoxy.

I'll still need to use a fine # 400 sandpaper to smooth pout the rough surface.

For that, I will wait the full 24 hours for the epoxy to cure properly.

Another factor that impresses me with the Lepage's Epoxy Steel is that the instructions actually work. I can't tell you how many times that I've placed the cap of a glue tube back on the tube, and when you come back 1 month later to use the glue it's solid as a rock inside.

I only used the glue 3 times in 1 week, and the 2 liquids of the epoxy (epoxy and hardener) still pour out well. I still had to use a nail to poke holes in each side, but the glue still flows!

The glue did not fill in those tiny cracks. What I'll do is perhaps add several layers of primer to seal the cracks and add some strength.

So that's it for today.

Today's procedure did not work out to 100%, but I learned something.

Thanks for continuing to follow this blog, and as always,

have a good morning, afternoon, or evening,

wherever you may be.