A Fine Collection of Rubber Toys-Part III

Sunday, February 1, 2015
Sunny,and very, very cold

A Fine Collection of Rubber Toys

Part III

  This is the third part presenting the fine rubber toy collection of Mr. Michael Lapova. I've already presented his automobiles and racers . Today is his nice trucks. I did purchase some rubber toys when I was buying and selling, and I was always fascinated with the fact that these toys lasted so long, and were still "rubbery", having maintained their ability to compress well  or"squeezability". 

Please click here to visit Michael Lavopa's exceptional web site

When viewing these images, I would suggest viewing them in Google Blogger's slide mode. The images are larger, and you'll be able to see just the photos, and not the text.  What I really like about the rubber toys is that the moulds were well made, and the viscosity of the hot melted rubber was able to fill the crevices of the mould to transfer fine detail. You can see the windshield wipers, the door handles, and the small windows with all of their detail. 

The toys below are relatively "large. Further down , there are very small rubber toys,

 and they too show quite fine details.

I like the 4 pairs of grooves in the top car carrier. This would allow 2 cars to be placed in those notches, and keep them from rolling off.

Below are the 3 different versions of the Cary-Cars.  I did some photo-editing to glamorize the trucks with some nice bright areas called highlights. 

This camera angle illiterates the differences between 2 trailers - one with a moveable rear gate,

 and one with a fixed gate.

The left rear truck has bent sides.

I wonder if the rubber can be re-formed to have straight sides again?

The Auburn Rubber Company was one of the more-successful and larger companies in the USA.

Here, Michael Lavopa presents 2 cabs spanning 13 years apart.  The more-modern cab is interesting for its colour - cyan, which is like a "sky blue".  All of the rubber companies of the time liked to stay with strong and vibrant colours  or the primaries - red, green, and blue.

I', still amazed that rubber toys were being made and sold in 1949.

Here's a very small toy measuring 4 1/4" or 113 mm. Notice what I mentioned much earlier - the fine detail that could be transferred from the mould to the cooled-down toy.  THis was certainly one of the great characteristics of rubber.

Sometimes the driver of a truck or car would be hand painted. Toy can see the flesh-toned skin of the driver on the left-most toy.

All of the toys presented today were manufacture red by the Auburn Rubber Company. However there were a few other companies, one of them being the Sun Rubber Company. When I visited Wikipedia to read more on the Auburn Rubber Company, I found out that they they played their part in WWII. Most American companies at the time had to change their production for the war effort. The Auburn Rubber Company retooled to make soles (tread part) for rubber boots, and rubber gaskets for "jerry cans" (gasoline cans).

After the war, the company continued making newer rubber toys, and continued into the late 1950's.

If you visit Wikipedia, you can read the nice story about this rubber toy company.

An Exceptional Collector of Rubber Toy Vehicles - Part II

Friday, January 23, 2015
Cloudy and very cloud, partly sunny later

An Exceptional Collector

of Rubber Toy Vehicles

(Part II)

I already introduced you to Mr. Michael Lavova, whom I'm continuing to write about today.  Michael had written to me last Sunday, and invited to help me out.  I always appreciate readers who write to me. It gives me solace that people are reading my blog, and keeps me going. However, he even wrote to say if he could help. I wrote back , thanking him, and said that I'd like to write about his collection of rubber toys that he's been collecting for 30 years. I wrote about his car collection, and for today, it's his toy racers.

Please click here to visit Michael Lavopa's exception toy website

Please click here to visit my first post on Michael Lavopa

What I like about Michael's website is that he likes to present his fine rubber toys differently from each other. You'' have hight camera angles,and lower camera angles, cars angled to the left, or to the right. Two cars and one car.This makes for  more interesting viewing.

What amazes me most about rubber toys ( I bought and sold a few on ebay) is that they have lasted so long.  The toys below are from the 1930's-1940's and they're still intact. I don;lt know what they put in the rubber to allow for the rubber to stay so firm and not crack. I know when my I keep elastics from my newspaper in my car for a week, they crack and break from the heat.

It's also interesting that Michael has made an effort to collect different variations of the same model, but with different colours or colour combinations.

This is a great photo for its' wide-angle effect.

I like this model because it had round surfaces compared 

with the other racers with straight edges and lines.

I don;t know if the toy below was ever modelled after a "real" racer that had this shape and design.

For those who don't know, Akron, Ohio (USA) is famous for its annual "Soap Box Derby.

Young children get to build and race their entry cars there. The cars do not have any pedals or mortars, but have to move down a hill on their own with the due driver. The cars have to be designed for safety, durability, lightness and speed. The fastest one to the finis line is the winner, and

gets to advance to the next round of races. At one point, as many as 70,000 people would come to Akron to watch the races.

Some companies, like other toy companies would offer 2 

different sizes of the same model to their young customers.

All of the companies here are American, but when I did write 1 instalment of my own 

about rubber toys, I did find 1 that was not American. However, what is amazing is that  toy companies could make rubber toys and sell them well for almost 20 years.

For these photos I added some bright areas called "highlights". These small toys are just so wonderful, I felt I had to make them jump off the page!

Thanks for visiting and as always

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com