Toys of Times Past Auctions' Latest Upcoming Auction

Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
8 C  46 F

Toys of Times Past Auctions'

Latest Upcoming Auction

    If you've been following be of late, you'd see that I've returned to writing. I can't promise for how long, but there have been nice upcoming auctions that have given me the impetus (incentive) to write. I ventured over to  Toys of Times Past Auctions and was surprised to see so many toys that I had not yet seen before. Also, the owner is quite knowledgeable, as the dates of when these toys were around are inclusive in the descriptions.

Please click here to visit their website

Like many auctioneers recently have done, Toys of Times Past Auctions have

decided to use an auction service company to have their bidders bid. The auction

service organizes the auction, takes bids, and of course receives a commission for their work on -line. Below is the auctioneer organizer's (Invaluable) website for Toys of Times Past Auctions.

This auction consists mostly of an exceptional 
collection of Schuco (Germany) toys in very good conditions.
I have not seen so many of the same toys in an auction before!

This auction is scheduled for November 3, 2018

Please click here to visit this auction on Invaluable's website

Made in Germany. 

Rare & very hard to find 1923 

Nifty Barney Google Riding Spark Plug horse 

early comic character tin windup toy with original box. 

Measures 7" ( 178 mm) L x 7.25" (185 mm) H.

Made in Germany by Schuco. Rare & hard to find 1933 tin wind up 853 Mouse Riding Tricycle Scooter with original celluloid balloon and attached key. This is the largest version of all of the Schuco tricycle scooter toys that they produced. 5" long x : 4.5 high.

 Made in USA by Marx. 1920's tin litho windup 

Ring A Ling Circus with the rare & hard to find rose base 

version of this circus performing act toy. 

All four of the circus performing acts work correctly 

and as they should! 

Measures 7.5" (191 mm) in Diameter x 8"(203 mm) T.

Made in Germany by Schuco. 

1930 fabric covered tin wind up 940 

Short Tails Jacket Version 

Dancing Charlie Chaplin with original key. 

6.5" (166 mm) high.

Made in Germany by Schuco. 

Scarce & hard to find 1937 tin wind up s:

1.  # 496 Walt Disney Dancing Donald Duck with Umbrella and original key. 5.5" high.

2.  # 495 Walt Disney Dancing Donald Duck with Back Pack and original key. 5.5" high.

3. # 497/1 Walt Disney Dancing Donald Duck Drummer and original key. 5.5" high.

 5.5" =  140 mm

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

Marx Toys

Sunday, December 17,2017
Overcast with Sunny Periods
-10 C  14 F

Some Newfound Marx Toys 

Come to Market

Please click here to visit this fine auctioneers

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions on LiveAuctioneers

A Cover Photo of Louis Marx on Time Magazine

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Austrian Jewish parents, Marx graduated from high school at age 15 and started his career working for Ferdinand Strauss, a manufacturer of mechanical toys. By 1916, Marx was managing Strauss' plant inEast Rutherford, New Jersey. But within a year, Marx was fired by Strauss' board of directors over a disagreement about sales practices.

Marx then entered the United States Army as a private and attained the rank of sergeant before returning to civilian life in 1918. Marx's passion for the Army was reflected throughout his life; most of Marx's military toys represented Army equipment, and Marx would later make a practice of befriending generals and naming his sons after them.

Following military service, Marx then went to work selling for a Vermont-based manufacturer of wood toys, redesigned the product line, and increased the company's sales tenfold.^[

In 1919 Marx and his brother David incorporated, founding the company that bore his name. Initially working as a middle man, Marx was soon able to purchase tooling to manufacture toys himself. When Strauss fell on hard financial times, Marx was able to buy the dies for two Strauss toys and turn them into best-sellers. By age 26, three years after founding his company, Marx was a millionaire.

By utilizing techniques of mass production and reusing old designs as much as possible – Marx utilized some of his toy train tooling developed in the early 1930s until 1972 – Marx was able to sell a broad line of inexpensive toys. All US-made toy trains would come from a plant in Girard, Pennsylvania which produced millions of lithographed tin, and plastic toy trains.^[

By 1951, the Marx company had 12 factories worldwide, and for much of the 1950s it was the largest toy manufacturer in the world, with much of the success coming from Sears, Roebuck, & Company catalog sales and the many the med play sets available. As World War II drew to a close, Marx had toured Europe and acted as a consultant on how toy manufacturing could aid reconstruction efforts. Marx used the contacts he made in this manner to forge partnerships and open factories in Europe and Japan Marx was featured on the cover of Time magazine on December 12, 1955, with his portrait eclipsing an image of Santa Claus, while examples of his toys swirl in the background.

Please go to Wikipedia to read the excellent article

 Most of the Marx toys above range in date from the 1930's - 1940's.

They were manufactured from thin-gauge pressed steel, and  lithographed for their colour. 

At one time (1951), as the article from Wikipedia indicates, Marx was the largest producer of toys in the world. Eventually, after WWII, Japan, during its' comeback years started to make toys for the world market. This had a large effect on the Marx company manufacturing. By the 1960's and later, toys were being produced around the world in countries with low-paying jobs.  Mr. Marx sold the company to Quaker Oats for $ 58 million dollars at the age of 76. After that the toy company was faced with too much competition from around the world.  Quaker sold its struggling Marx division to the British conglomerate Dunbee-Combex-Marx, who had bought the former Marx UK subsidiary in 1967. By 1980, the last Marx toy factory in the US closed, the Marx brand disappeared and  the company  Dunbee-Combex-Marx filed for bankruptcy.

* Written material from Wikipedia  (2017)

Some Newfound Toys

Saturday, December 10, 2016
Cloud with sun
-6 C 21 F

Some Newfound Toys

Please click here to visit this ebay American merchant

Vintage Dick Tracy Police Wind-up Car

Lithographed Metal

L x W:  11" x 4"  279 mm x 102 mm

Vintage Marx Toys Wind-Up Car

Lithographed Metal

Girard Pressed Steel Stake Bed Truck

L x W:  10" x 4" 254 mm x 101 mm

Marx City Sanitation Dept. Truck

Circa 1940s-1950's

Lithographed metal with moveable back door

L x W :  13" x 4 1/2"  330mm x 115 mm 

Vintage Marx Tidy Tim Wind-up Walking Toy

 Height xWidth:  9" x 3"  228 mm x 76 mm

Lithographed Metal

Lupor Emergency Rescue Squad

Lithographed Metal 

L x W: 10 1/2" x 4 1/2"  266mm x 104 mm

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

ebay golfer3105 - A New Guest

Thursday, December 8, 2016
Overcast
-2 C 28 F

ebay Golfer3105

A New Guest

Please click here to visit this fine ebay merchant

"In his own words"

"Feel free to use my pictures. My name is Livio from Switzerland and my goal is only to restore toys if they are broken or poorly restored from somebody before, who didn't have the skills and "destroyed it before. In my case,a fire destroyed almost all of my toys, and I had to rebuild from scratch. That means that I will save any toys in their original condition as possible."


When I received the reply from golfer3105 ( a merchant on ebay), I was surprised at the reply.
In my letter, I had mentioned the fine "restored" items that he had. Livio replied that I had his permission to use his photos, and, he mentioned that he likes to  restore items. Lately, I've seen and presented a good amount of restored items, and obviously they do sell.

I also like restored toys, because it presents them at their best. I've restored small toys like the Tootsietoys, and they also sold well.

Extremely Rare Wyandotte LaSalle Version with Removable Hood

Beautifully restored, painted pressed steel with rubber tires

Circa: 1930's

Wyandotte "Coast to Coast Bus with Rear Door

Beautifully restored pressed steel bus with decals

Rubber tires on metal rims

Circa: 1940's

Rare Marx # 3 Race  Car

Painted pressed steel with rubber tires on metal rims

Circa 1930's

Packard Collectible Automobilia Wyandotte Toy

Painted pressed steel with original white rubber tires

Battery-operated lights in front

Beautifully restored wind-up toy

Pressed steel, with working battery-operated headlights and taillight

Rubber tires mounted on steel rims

Rare Working Marx G-Man Toy Gun

Lithographed tin, with working part that emits sparks

Circa: 1930

AS you can see, golfer3105 had a very nice collection of toys for sell.
Moreover, the restored toys are quite nice as well.  In 50 years, 
I wonder what the value of these toys will be, because these
toys will have been true antiques (100 years or older), and will some people care?

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

A Tale of Two Tow Trucks

  Thursday, May 8, 2014
Sunny and warm , but seasonally cool.

A Tale of Two Tow Trucks

  I saw two nice tow trucks that Ron Michaud from Maine had sold  and decided to compare the two. Ron always seems to have very nice old toys up for sale, and like all the people that help me out, I really appreciate his help. I decided to compare the 2 toys because Mr. Marx had at one time worked for Ferdinand Strauss.

Please click here to visit Ron Michaud's fine ebay site

I don't have the dates of manufacture of these 2 toys, but they look similar as to the type of tow truck that they were modelled from. What I'd like to comment on, is the nature of the construction and lithography of the toys. I had once read that the Marx company once had used discard metal from other companies to make their toys. As such, perhaps there was either a shortage of materials or they could save money in this manner. Of course the paint or printing was on the inside.

When you start to compare the 2 toys, you can see (in my opinion) that more money would have been spent on the Ferdinand Strauss toy.

1. There is more lithography on the Strauss as compared with more solid colour painting.

2. The Strauss toy is painted all over and more thoroughly. look at the underside photos to compare.

The Marx toy has extensive surface rust.

3. The wind-up mechanism is covered on the Strauss toy, compared with the Marx toy.

I don't know if that was for safety or cosmetic appearance, but this would of course cost more in labour and materials.

4. The Marx toy  has 6 wheels, while the Strauss toy has 4.

However, the Strauss toy  had the better lithography (more colours)and is finished on the inside. 

5. The Marx toy has small hubcaps on the wheels.

6. The Strauss toy is larger in size.

7. The Strauss toy has more extensive design which would have required more cutting and shaping on the large presses of the time.

I don't know what the original costs of the toys were at the time. And both companies were quite successful. In the end, the Marx company outlasted the Ferdinad Struass company, and at one time Mr. Marx even made the time magazine cover. His company at one time was making almost 1 in 4 toys made in the U.S.A. So although the Marx toy company toys might have been less costly both in production and at the marketplace, the company certainly would have been on the top 50 toy manufacturers of the last century.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr.Tom Harkness - A fine e-bay Seller

Wednesday, January 29, 2014
                 (Very cold and sunny)

Mr. Tom Harkness

(A Fine ebay seller)

Yesterday, I posted about an exemplary Doepke Jaguar convertible toy car that originally came as a kit to be assembled. That item was being sold by Mr. Tom Harkness a fine ebay seller. Today, I'm introducing you to Tom.  He's been on  ebay since 1988, which is a long span. Tom prefers any toy that was made before 1970.  What I noticed about Tom, and recently several other people, is that they like to use their Apple iPads to communicate. I would't be surprised if they also use their iPads to list new merchandise on ebay. He certainly has some nice items for sale this week on ebay,  and that's what I decided to post for today. 

Tom Harkness

Please click here to visit Tom Harkness' fine ebay store

Doepke certainly made their toys to be played with hard. This earth mover has a lever that allows earth to be spread out through the bottom of the holding unit. When you look at the 2 lower photos in the image below, notice how the bottom 2 photographs illustrate the opening of the bottom.

The gearing  movement mechanism certainly were built well.

Remember, that this is a toy made in the 1930's

Wolverine is a lessr-known toy company,but it did make some very interesting toys.

This Marx certainly is a colourful toy that has lots of nice lithographed detailing. What's of interest is the fact that the roof is canvas. It's rare that a car part would be made form canvas when metal would be more readmit available and easier to work with. Being a 1956 toy, plastic was now being used more, and you can see this in the windows.

Here's another great-looking and in very good condition Marx toy from 1931-1932.

More than 80 years old, and it still can be played with!

Tom's selective process certainly is excellent, and he has good luck in finding and reselling his toys.

What's more is that they are very good shape, and certainly present themselves well on today's post.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part  of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com