An Excellent Writer and Authority on Cast Iron Toys Contacts Me. Wow!

 Thursday, March 24, 2022

 Overcast and Raining with some snow

 6 C    42.8 F 

An Excellent writer and Authority

on Cast Iron Toys Contacts Me 

Wow!

        It's funny how certain lines from movies remain with you. The 1994 movie "Forrest Gump" starring a great cast with Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Sally Field, and Gary Sinise is one of those movies.

        The famous line at the beginning of the movie has Forrest (Tom Hanks) speaking to a lady sitting next to him at a bust stop and saying:

"My mom always said life is like a box of chocolates.

You never know what you're gonna get"

      Of course most of you are probably wondering where I'm going with that line. The answer is that I received an e-mail from Mr. Rick Walston. He's a successful author of the book  Cast Iron Floor Trains, An Encyclopedia with Rarity & Price Guide.

        Rick wrote:

"Thank you for your research on Champion Toys. It is interesting that most of their toys were marked CHAMPIONwhen few other iron toys were marked by the manufacturer. 

Have you identified any Champion Toys not marked?

 I recently had a page from Champion's 1922 catalog brought to my attention that was shown what was offered in cast floor trains. The selection was limited to only three individual items, a loco, passenger car and a gondola they called a coal car. There were no tender to go with the loco and no sets.  These trains were not marked with Champion. Wish they had been.

In my book: CAST IRON FLOOR TRAINS, I had mis-attributed them to A.C. Williams.

    

    I asked for and received photos from Rick's fine book,  but the size of the photos needed to be larger. I will be writing more to this post later on, when Rick sends me larger photos.     In the meantime, is there anyone out there who can answer Rick's question about whether or not there were any Champion toys that were not marked "Champion"

To be continued.......

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

       

Other Cast Iron Motorcycles - Besides "Those Hubleys"

Thursday, December 18, 2014
Overcast with flurries, mild

Other Cast Iron Motorcycles-

Besides "Those" Hubleys

   Ive written innumerable times about the exceptional Hubley cast iron motorcycles. They are so fantastic, that I don't  see the other brands of cast iron motorcycles that were made at the time.  I know as a kid (child), I wanted what other kids had, and I'm sure it was like that with "those" Hubleys.  But the other companies,rare as they were, and even rarer than made a few models did make these toys.  And so, as the expression goes, "I stopped to smell the roses"  (slowed down to appreciate the view) and found some nice "other" cast iron motorcycles.

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

The toy below was made by the Champion Toy Company.

Those nickel-plated wheels are exceptional and you don't  often see such a fine casting and design as these! The balancing small wheels under the motorcycle rotate and are apart from the casting.These are different from the next toy below that has these wheels integrated and cast into the mould.

The gold paint on the toy had to be hand-painted. That included the badge, the buttons,the name and the headlight.  

Most of the Champion motorcycles have the brand-name embossed into the original casting.

What's interesting not this toy below is that it does not have the name 

"Champion" embossed into the toy. Also the gas tank has hard lines to the gas tank, compared with all of the other Champion motorcycles.

Like other manufacturers, some toys such as motorcycles came in several sizes and colours.

I found these 2 Globe brand of cast iron motorcycles. I like the face of the policemen below,but overall, this Globe is a fine example of a toy motorcycle. The condition for this toy at the time of the original auction was rated excellent. It really is a fine toy!

Here's a slightly different design - the sidecar. Most of the manufacturers would have these sidecars added to both the civilian and the police models. THey also had passenger in the form of again civilians (lady our man or boy) and of course an second police officer in the sidecar.

I wonder what happened to the passenger, 

or could the passenger have been an "option" at the time?

Thanks for dropping by and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com