Mr. Jim Hartman Helps Out Some More

Monday, July 8, 2013

Mr. Jim (James) Hartman

Helps Out Some More

   When you write a blog post each day, time goes by very fast. Too fast in fact, when you're approaching 65! It was June 28, when I posted about Mr. Jim Hartman's  beautiful Arcor rubber truck and cab.

Please click here to go to Jim's June 28th post

    We corresponded back and forth, and Jim sent me a funny story that I then asked him if I might share with everyone. He was busy that week with his 2 daughters moving to the East Coast from the West Coast (USA), but he said he'd get back to me. And so he did. I had the story from out correspondence during the last week of June, and now I had the photos.  Not only that, but Jim also sent me photos of original rubber toy animals that came with that fine Auburn GMC truck and cab.

   I mentioned in the previous post that Jim is an E-Bay seller, and has a great photographic eye for taking photos. I always appreciate sellers , auctioneers, or collectors who take the time to present their merchandise or collectibles nicely to share with others.

Please click here to visit Jim Hartman's E-Bay "My World" page

This is one of the photos from the June 28th post.

Jim photographed these items to send me.It's such a great gesture to take the time to help me out with my blog.You can also see his very good mastery of the digital camera and photographic composition!

To quote Jim, "Some of the Auburn cars and trucks were rather generic but many were very authentic in their styling, as was the case with the GMC. I have another ARCOR GMC with its' original load of rubber farm animals. This one is nice because the driver is factory painted, the trailer is not warped and I have a copy of the original box lid.

Jim wrote that as far as toy preferences go "I love any toy car, truck, or motorcycle but tinplate from the Golden Era of the 1950's, especially Japanese tin, is my preferred genre of collecting".

I've written briefly about  a Japanese merchant on E-Bay who sells fine Japanese tin toys from that era. I'm often amazed at  how high a price these toys achieve on E-Bay or at auction houses.This seems to be especially true for the 1950's and early 1960's monsters and robots.  I remember when there were many movies and even TV series about the same topics  -monsters and robots, especially space robots! 

You certainly have to look carefully to see all of the different toys on these shelves.

That's Jim's Arcor bronzed Lincoln and a real one for reference. 

   Of course, I had to save the best for last, as Jim's story goes.

"I just turned 60 and still have many toy cars and trucks from my youth, many of them rubber. 

My mother loved them because I was running the toys over the furniture and the rubber toys were much easier on the tables (and my mom) that the metal ones were. My very first toy was a convertible Lincoln about 4" in length made by Auburn. I remember it well and put many pretend miles on it. When I was 16 I bought my first full size car with my paper route money, a '63 Ford Falcon. 

My mom said actually that wasn't my first car, and promptly had the rubber Auburn Lincoln bronzed and mounted it on a marble base. It now sits front and center in my in my eclectic toy car collection case."

I should be contracting Jim to do my blogging - his story and photos  are fantastic,

 and it does make my blogging all the more worthwhile.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

A Fine Rubber Truck Toy from A Fine E-Bay Seller

Sunday, June 30, 2013

A Fine Rubber Truck Toy from

A Fine E-Bay Seller

   I wrote this post earlier in the week as I would have been toy busy on Sunday to write. Therefore you are not confused if you are reading this post on Friday or Saturday (june 28, 2013).

   I like to go to E-Bay to see what  toys there are for sale. Another good feature on E-Bay is that you can view about a month's worth or previous toy sales from the past if you do a search for finished auctions or bidding.  With both live auctions and finished  auctions, there certainly are a lot of toys to be found that I can write about. 

   I was doing a search on E-Bay,when I came across today's new seller - Mr. Jim Hartman. He has some very nice toys for sale currently. However, I wanted to see his other toys that had been sold, and lo and behold, I came across a fine rubber toy that I had not seen before. I'll return to the toy later, but first an an introduction about Mr, Jim Hartman.

Jim's store name on E-Bay is Tootoy. He's been selling on E-Bay since 1998 and has sold  4650 toys as of today's writing. He also  has an excellent reputation when you check  what people have to say about him on the feedback page.

* Courtesy of Mr. Jim Hartman

I liked Jim'e e-mail to me, and asked if I might use it for this post. When I was buying and selling toys on E-Bay, the thought of having "safe toys" for children never really occurred to me. However, a memory that I completely forgot came back to me. My youngest late brother Jay, was about 2 years old when he decided to crayon a very old coffee table in our living room. The coffee table never moved with us when we moved in 1963, so I guess he did  some great "artwork" on it.

What Jim wrote about his mother buying rubber toys was a real "treat" for me. I never thought about rubber toys in that way. I have often though about cast iron toys of the 1920's and 1930's and how some children must have has very sore toes after dropping these toys. I also have seen some pressed steel toys with sharp edges (heavens forbid in the 21st century!). But those times were certainly different then. Children could play outdoors, people left their doors open, and most parents didn't think about whether or no a toy met the US Government's safety list - there weren't even safety departments then!

Tootoy

Please click on this to be redirected to Jim Hartman's "About Me" page an then his items for sale

What I always like in an auctioneer or seller is their presentation of an item. Not only does Jim write a  thorough description of a toy, but he knows his toys.  He also takes lots of photos even for this toy, that  as far as price goes is within easy reach for most toy collectors. For myself, that says something about a seller - taking the time even for a less-costly toy!

What I also liked and wrote to Jim, is that I said that he seems to have an excellent "eye" from camera angle and composition.  He also knows lighting as in some cases you can tell that he either used 2 lights or  1 light and a reflector. Doing this adds extra detail into the shadow areas, as we;ll as adding some shinier areas on the toy which are called "highlights" in photographic terms.

Casting in Rubber has the nice quality and ability to create fine detail. The front view of this toy, as well as Jim's lighting on the toy, certainly illustrates that point well. 

 Great Camera Angle!

 Another example of the fine detail that rubber can reproduce from a mould.

A great trio of images!

That logo from Arcor says it all - "Arcor Safe Play Toys"!

I forgot to include the description and information about the toy, so here it is:

Arcor*  1937 GMC Cabover (c.o.e or cab over engine) Truck

Coloured rubber with metal axles and rubber tires.

(Auburn Rubber Company (USA)

Circa mid-1940's (After WWII)

Length:   10 1/2"    .266M)

* The Auburn Rubber Company manufactured toys under several different labels or names. 

Arcor was one of them. 

I usually don't present so many photos for 1 item, but I'm glad I did for this toy.With Jim's talent for taking photos, and the toy itself, that GMC truck and cab were certainly presented very well!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a restful part of the day,

 wherever you may be.

Stacey