The Pressed Steel Metal Toys Website

Sunday, November 27,2016
Overcast
1 Celsius  34 Fahrenheit

The Pressed Steel Metal Toys Website

I'd seen this fabulous website many times, but I'd never written about them. So, this past Monday, I decided to write to them and ask for permission. I received a very nice letter from Mr. Mike Yolles.

"Hi Stacey, I was an ardent toy collector specialist in 4 manufacturer's . I am also a member of The Antique Toy Collector's of America Inc. This organization is dedicated to the preservation of antique toys. I focused my collecting to specialize in Pressed Steel Toys with steering wheels or steeming handles. My interest was mainly with Buddy L (Moline, Il), Keystone (Boston, MA), Kingsbury (Keane,  NH) & Sturditoy (Pawtucket , RI). My reason for posting my website was to help other collectors identify  the variations and color combinations that these manufacturers offered. Also other Web sites don't  specifically  identify themselves As Virtual MUSEUM. People think they are dealing with  the manufactures museum. Not true!!!!  I get many questions each week concerning condition & approximate  values. I enjoy helping people in pursuit of there hobby or just as an info source. I have no problem letting you use my pictures etc, Mike Yolles."

Mike's website has lots and lots of toys from the four manufacturers that he has filled his museum with.  Not only that, but each of the four toy manufacturers have been divided into sub-categories. 

Even better, Mike hhas presented many of the different variations of a standard toy, such as a car.

I decided to start first with Kingsbury company as they manufactured many nice toys, especially the cars and race cars of that ere (1920's-1930's).Also the racer that they manufactured were based on some of the fastest cars that raced on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (USA).

Please click here to visit this fabulous toy museum

The  Pressed Steel Metal Toys Museum is dedicated to showing some of the many toy variations

that were common in the heyday of pressed steel toy manufacturing during the1920's and 1930's. The four toy manufacturers if this time period which will be showcased on this site are as follows:

- Buddy L Toys

- Keystone Toys

- Kingsbury Toys

- Sturditoys

Kingsbury Toys

Kingsbury, the Wilkins Toy Company, manufacturer of tin novelties was founded by James S. Wilkins in Keene, New Hampshire in 1890. By the turn of the century, toy automobiles were introduced to the line and quickly became popular. The early Wilkins automotive toys were equipped with specially-designed disc wheels with real, white rubber non- skid tires vulcanized to the wheel. Automotive models could be purchased with metal spoke wheels or equipped with rubber tires at slightly more cost. Wilkins toys were made of steel ranging in size from 7 to 18 inches. The vehicles were powered by a long-running, flat spring mechanical motor, mounted horizontally at the end of the toy. In 1919, Kingsbury changed the name of the company to the Kingsbury Manufacturing Company. By 1926, Kingsbury introduced a new line of mechanical toys which were some of the finest automotive models ever produced. Leading the line was the 34-inch "Aerial Ladder Truck", the 25 inch long "Motor Driven Truck", and the "Fire Engine." Each toy was equipped with a front-end crank for winding the toy's flat spring motor. The 1927 line included the new Deluxe Custom Built Cars, featuring the "Town Car" and the "Sport Sedan." In 1930, Kingsbury announced that all Kingsbury passenger cars were now being designed and built with "Bodies by Fisher," just as real cars of the day were so equipped. Kingsbury's automotive toys received battery-operated lights in 1931. Kingsbury continued to manufacture toys until the beginning of World War II. After the war, the tooling was sold to the Keystone Manufacturing Company of Boston, Massachusetts.*

* Courtesy of Pressed Steel Metal Toys

The Automobiles

The car immediately below was quite sophisticated at the time. Most cars that were battery-operated usually had just the front lights go on. With this car below, it also had a battery-operated tail light.

Mike has taken lots of excellent photos of his toys, which most certainly was a big job to do, but well worth it to the many readers, whom I'm sure have visited his website.

The Racers

The Kingsbury Racers were very popular at the time, and were manufactured with wind-up mechanisms to have the racers move. I'm sure children had lots of fun with these nice race cars.

So that's it for today. For sure, I will be returning to Mike's excellent museum website in the future. His toy collection is certainly exhaustive, and is great for referring to. He is also always looking to but new toys, or to sell or trade some of his toys for ones that his museum does not have.

So you might want to contact Mike of you have something interesting that you think he might be interested in.

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

Some Early Dinky Toys

Friday, November 4, 2016
Cloudy with Rain
8 Celsius 46 Fahrenheit

Some Early Dinky Toys

I've been posting about Dinky Toys lately, and this week, I was able to find some very early Dinky Toy photos along with some of their original catalogue drawings). So that is what I wanted to post about today.

I was fortunate enough to find 2 exceptional websites. 

Please click here to visit the Brighton Toy Museum

Please click here to visit this excellent auctioneer

Please click here to see the Special-Auction-Services photos on The-Salesroom

One is the  Brighton Toy Museum. This great website has a large amount of photos, catalogue photos, and a lot of information about toys.The other fine website was found through The-Salesroom. The-Salesroom website has a fantastic amount of high-quality and large-sized images of Dinky Toys. The-Salesroom wrote to me to say that they could not give me permission to use the photos because they were not the owners-Special-Auction-Services was. Having received permission from both websites to use their photos and drawings, I was able to cross-reference original photos (or scans) of catalogue drawings with real Dinky Toys from the 1934-35  and the 1939-1940 catalogue.

 Mr. Nick Gibson is the Museum Manager of the Brighton Toy and Model Museum.  I've visited the website, and it's encyclopaedic in scope in terms of the photos and information available about Dinky Toys.

Old Dinky toys are in high demand as collectibles, just like Tootsietoys, but more so. They're especially in demand in the U.K. Considering most of the toys presented today are more than 70-80 years old, they're still in great shape!

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

Royal Museums Greenwich

Thursday, January 17, 2013
      (Post # 2 of the Day)

Wednesday, February, 13, 2013

Royal Museums Greenwich

   I had waited and sent several e-mails, but hadn't heard from the museum. So I returned today to the site, and checked out the copyright page below.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/page/7d7ded6fb50d6031e2884961a200be58.html

    I don't make any income from this blog, and provide the blog more for the public's interest, and the pleasure that I get form writing and learning about the subject of old toys. So I decided that I'd take the initiative and post. I'll also send a third e-mail and see if I get a reply.

  Looking for old toys photos and information on the Net is like that famous expression from the movie Forest Gump - " Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get". And so it is! Last Sunday, I was searching out Paya toys, when I accidently came upon 

Royal Museums Greenwich. The sight didn't seem to have many toys initially,but for the Paya toys that I had found. 

    I had written on  Sunday ( 5 weeks ago) to the Royal to ask for permission to use some of their photos for a post, and early Monday morning I had an answer from  Sarah Beighton, the E-Commerce and Print Executive for the Museum. I was slightly, but mildly taken aback, when she asked which photos I might be using and in what context. I say slightly, as I woke up at 4:00 A.M. However, I like a challenge, and as the expression goes "times does not for for no man (or woman)". 

   So I quickly perused the site, found my Paya toys, and some other images, and captured them for after my regular coffee at Dunkin Donuts.

   I waited,  but I knew that I'd hear from Sarah Breighton eventually.  I figured that she was very busy, and eventually I'd here from her. And so I did today. I already had written the blog a while back, so all I had to do for today is write this small paragraph, re-set the posting date,and here it is the beautiful toys from the Royal Museums Greenwich.

   So below is my blog for today. Not all of the photos are of toys, but I'll certainly bet that if someone had that nice montage of the 4 images of the barge, they certainly didn't let it sit on their mantle place - looking. At least, I would have taken it for a tryout in the park! I'd be playing with that fine item, even if it was a model for a large-sized shipping company!  

   Now that I have the "OK", I'd like to return to the Museum and look at more of their beautifully photographed toys, and probably writ another post.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk

(please press on the above address to be redirected to the Royal Museums Grenwich site.

Like the USA, Great Britain was famous for their piers. Piers were huge attractions from the 1870's-1950's,and in some places they still are. I remember going to Atlantic City in the 1950's with my brothers and sister and parents and going on the piers. There was the diving horse that jumped into the water with a rider. There was a giant net that lifted up every 24 hours to show you the fish that were caught in it. And of course, there were hotdog stands, popcorn, and most-famously - salt water taffy!

Now we're talking! What a beautiful model.

I wonder if model builders tested their boats in water to see if their watertight?

Thanks for dropping by,

and as usual, 

have a great morning, afternoon, or evening

wherever you may be.

Stacey

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Victoria and Albert Museum

    Yesterday, I had just finished my post for the day, when I checked my e-mail. I had received permission to use the fine toys and great photography from the Victoria and Albert Museum (England, Great Britain). Roxanne Peters, the Project Manager: Rights Management Review, had replied to my request and  given me the OK.  I had sent the letter a while ago, and so I initially thought that it was from another museum. I had to do a double-check, and this was great! I'll have to send another note toi the other museum, but Roxanne Peters came to my rescue for today - thanks Roxanne!

    I've never been to the Museum, but from their website, I would have to say that it must be an exceptional place to visit. If I get to do some travelling, I know that I'll be visiting a lot of contacts to who have allowed me to use their photographs and write about them. The website is a very broad-based site of all kinds of content and subjects. THe front page of the site describes the Museum as 

"the world's greatest museum of arts and design".

    One of the exceptional things about museums and the Victoria and Albert Museum is that  all items are carefully catalogued and written up as much as can be done in terms of content. And of course, the photography is excellent!

   I checked on Wikipedia, and found some exceptional statistics to confirm what I said before. The Museum was established in 1852, and has 145 galleries occupying 12.5 acres (51,000 square meters). There are 4,500,000 objects in the permanent collection.  The closet museum to rival that was The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. (USA).  I spent 3 days years ago with my wife, and I probably only saw 1/10 of what there was to see!  Years later, and museum over time collect even more items, so one never even is ever able to "catch up" and see everything!

   There are 1000's of toys on the website so I decided to focus on the rarer, older and more-different items. 

http://www.vam.ac.uk/contentapi/search/?q=search+the+collections&search-submit=Go

(Please click on the above address to be redirected to the Victoria and Albert Search Page)

I always wanted to add this toy to a blog, and finally I got the opportunity.

     It's interesting to see that some museum benefactors (donors) let their names be added to the toy descriptions, and so I decided to add them here as well. If I had any toys that were of value, I might think of donating them too.I know people my age and younger whose parents have recently passed away, and the children and grandchildren have no interest in collections such as stamps, coins, or other collectibles. It's a nice thought for people to have donate to a museum. This is especially more true for me, because I like to browse museums to get a glimpse of history through objects, as well as reading.

I've been busy writing, that I missed noticing the  300th post that I wrote  this week. Today's is the 305th. If someone would have said 18 months ago that I'd get tired and stop, I might have got a bid hot under the collar. And there was a period where I did stop, since the readership was low. However, I stuck it out, and continued to write, and the readership is up - thank you everyone!

So thanks again for dropping by,

And have a great weekend wherever you may be.

Stacey

Old Airplane Toys

Sunday, November 3, 2012
   Cold & Rainy - Winter is Coming!

Old Airplane Toys

Introduction - Chapter 1 

   

 I never know what I'm going to write until I start collecting photos. Once again, I have to thank The Strong for allowing me to use their fine collection.

    I thought that I'd write about the earlier airplane toys from the 1920's-1940's, since those are the era's that I've always written about and bought and sold on E-Bay. As I was gathering my "collection" for today, I found my main point for today, which is how "time marches on". I like to use those old expressions, and today is no different.

   Before I get to my main theme, I'll talk briefly about my mother-in -law Lorna. She just made that big step into one of those modern apartment buildings with autonomous living. That's where older people (like I'm almost 64) go when they feel they need to. In Lorna's case, she finally had to, since she has a serious visual syndrome called macular degeneration. There are 2 kinds of this problem - wet and dry, and she has the "bad one", which I can't remember. Here eyesight has deteriorated over the last 4 years, and is getting worse. As such, she gave up driving, has a special phone with large type and numbers, and barely sees TV. The centre of the eye loses its sight, and only the edges (peripheral vision) can be seen.  I went to visit her today, and she had a telephone problem. Living here in Quebec, Canada - a French province, her problem was that her answering service (part of a "package deal") was only talking in French. Her daughter had to phone for her, and it took 1 hour to finally get a technician who know how to solve the problem! Of course, you have to press the keypad on the phone  in succession to change to English, then you have to press a code to access the messages, then another to enter the password, and so on. She was "frustrated" by all of the new technology!

Chapter 2    

  For myself, I don't own a cellphone since my wife says I don't speak to enough people to need one!

Thank you Heidi!. Also, I just purchased a used Sharp "air purifier".  I purchased this one after doing research and found it to be one of the best. It retails for $ 350.00 ++ Canadian, but the Kijiji lister was selling it for $ 150.00. If anyone wants to know why I bought this one, please e-mail me. 

I had to go about 25 km (16 miles) to a city near me to pick up the "air purifier", where I never go. I tried MapQuest, which couldn't find the address location, and then I used Google maps - that worked!

  However, I live in Quebec, and here the province likes to do things their own way! So, instead of signs every 1/2 mile (.6 km) like in the USA, with approaching exit signs every 100 yards (90 meters), we have 1 lousy sign 3 miles before the exit. Of course, there are 7 other signs at where I have to get off, and I usually end up going to the wrong place, and having to turn back. Of course my wife says "you don;t go anywhere - you don't need a Tom Tom and you can use Mapquest! I never could read a map, nor follow instructions anyway!

 Chapter 3

  I often think about how things have changed so far in my lifetime. In 1953, when we moved to Outremont ( a suburb of Greater Montreal), I  saw the last of the streetcars on the street. A few years later, I saw the end of the old coal /steam locomotives. My father's automatic Dodge station wagon automatic had push buttons to change gears,  and a few years later, the jet started to replace the propeller airplane.  I received the Polio vaccine,and about 1964 barbershops started to introduce female hair stylists.  I stop here for now.

Chapter 4 

   Anyway, back to the main point - my introduction to old toy airplanes. The Wright brothers first took flight on December 17, 1903.They were the first to create mechanical control to be able to fly. The USA was only 38 years from having fought the Civil War, many US states were not yet even states, and Canada. The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta  only entered into the union of Canada (Confederation) on September 1, 1905.  

   After the Wright brothers first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, history never looked back. Eventually the Wrights travelled the world and sold countries around the world their invention and product. By the 1920's there was public air travel, and air mail, and so forth. The greatest achievement in 1927 occurred with Charles Lindburgh  winning the Orteig Prize on his solo flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21 1927.  

Chapter 5

Finally - the Subject of Toy Airplanes!

   As I was gathering my images for today's presentation, I noticed that there were other kinds of materials and mechanics that I did not existed with old airplane toys. Some were made of tin, some with multiple materials (cardboard, wood, and metal). Some were for looking at, some were pull string toys, some were friction toys, some were wind-ups, and one even could be spun around in the air. I certainly learned something there!

   Of course, the colours of the planes were like the cars and trucks - brilliant colours, although there were some plain just metallic planes. Also, the models reflected the different types of planes at the time, with my favourites being the multiple-engine types, and of course those large float planes like the Wyandotte that crossed the Pacific to deliver mail to the American "possessions" (islands) at the time.

So below is my selection for today - from the great resource that I discovered last week - The Strong. 

     You'll probably have noticed that I intentionally enlarged certain photos.  I did that to emphasize the permission agreement that I follow with The Strong. They're quite generous in sharing their photos, as long as you agree to follow their terms. I'm quite thankful for their letting me use their photos.

                                     So that's another post.

                       Thanks for dropping by, and have a 

                  great part of the day, wherever you may be.

                                     Stacey Bindman

                            (Toysearcher@gmail.com)