The Fantastic "historytoy" Website

Thursday, October 6, 2016
Sunny with Clear Skies
21 Celsius / 70 Fahrenheit

The Fantastic

"historytoy" Website

Please click here to visit this great resource

   I'd seen the historytoy Website over the years and of course was tempted to write and ask them for permission. However, I forgot about that until I did a search a few days ago. Sure enough, up popped the name "historytoy". A lot of time had passed since my initial discovery, and when I went  to this website I was amazed! I worked my way around the website, and the more I moved around, the more I was enthralled. The website now was superbly organized,had loads and loads of toys, and was easy to move through the website. 

   I wrote to the website, and I got a reply from Mr. Siegfried Menzel who happens to live in Germany. He was very nice,and gave me permission. He just wanted a copy of the post, so that he could read it over, and offer suggestions. That wasn't a problem at all.

Below:

The introductory page of the website. On the top of the screen-capture, you can see the many categories of toys that there are.

Below:

I did a search in the search box for "tin toys" and up popped another page with about 100 different old and antique manufacturers. If you press on any of the manufacturer's names, you will be redirected to the respective page of the manufacturer.

 Below:

I clicked on the manufacture "Girard", and 5 items showed up. I assume that  Siegfried had not found many Girard toys, or that volunteers had not offered their toy photos to him.

Below:

When I clicked on the fist leftmost image on the top row, I got a larger image. If you clicked on "Category: Girard", you would return to the group of photos for Girard.

Below:

And when I clicked on the actual image in the above screen-capture, 

an enlarged version of the Girard airplane appeared.

Below:

I went to another page which was a search page. I typed into the search rectangle the words 

"cast iron". What appeared on a new page were cast iron toys. I screen-captured only a part of the whole page, where were lots more cast iron toy photos.

Below:

 Clicking on the image above of the green frog on the red base, gave me the enlarged image below.

As well, there was a brief description of this cast iron J. & E. Stevens Company toy, and the patented date of 1872. Also, there was a list of all of the other cast iron banks that are in 

database of images.

Below:

When I clicked on the red words (above) "Stevens Co. J.& E." , Up came the page below.

Omnce again, I only screen-captured a portion of the page.But notice at the bottom of this page, there are  13 more pages of  J.&E. Stevens Co. photos. Now that's a lot of photos for a company that produced toys more than 100 years ago!

Below:

Clicking on the AMerican company Hubley resulted in 15 pages of Hubley Toys with 18 photos to each page. Now that is a lot of toys in 1 place!

Below:

And if you click on the above photo of the bottommost middle photo 

of the orange motorcyclist, you get the enlargement below:

I've only "touched the surface" of this fascinating website,  which I most certainly will refer to in the future. From my own experience, I can't even imagine how many hours Siegfried  Menzel has put ion this massive undertaking. However, it's certainly a superb website to visit, and I thank Siegfried for the pleasure of writing about this exceptional and important resource open to everyone.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com