Who Made This Nice Fire Truck?

Saturday February 14, 2015
Cloudy and very cold

Who Made This Nice Firetruck?

   I received a fine grouping of fire truck photos early in the week. Mr.Peter Zobnian had sent them to me, and asked if I could help identify them. I searched on the Internet, and on Liveauctioneers, but didn't find any trucks matching this one. I did find a tuck that had similar and different features to this one, and it was a Schieble, but still no luck in answering Peter's question. So to everyone who reads this post, could someone please help us out, and help with this nice truck's identity? 

   I sent Peter a link to a toy that was "somewhat" similar, but when I just looked at the link as I was writing this post, it certainly is very,very different. I selected this link because the side oval holes on the side of the truck were quite similar, however, most of the other features are different.

Please click here to visit a Schieble Toy that is vaguely is similar to Peter's

If anyone finds the identity to this toy, please e-mail me. My address is at the bottom of this post. I'll then e-mail Peter. What I'll also do is ask Peter if it would be alright to attach his e-mail to this post. In this way, I won't have to be the "go-between", even though I don't mind.

The truck is 24"  (610 mm) in length. Also, it's not a Schieble because it doesn't have a flywheel mechanism to make it move. The flywheel allowed toys to ascend steep elevations, hence these type of toys were called "hillclimbers".

I hope someone will be able to help Peter out, so if you have some time, please try and solve the identity of this toy. Also, if you find the link, send it to me, so I can add it top the post. Of course, if you haste a toy like this, send me the photos, and I'll add a post for you on this blog.

If you're living in the Northern Hemisphere, dress warmly. This February, up here in Montreal has been exceptionally cold, and for myself, I'm thinking maybe it could rank as one of the coldest Februarys on record. Of course, each year it always is the same - winter never wants to go away, and it's always cold.

If you're living in the southern hemisphere, you're having a nice summer and are warm, except Antarctica, where I absolutely have no desire to visit!

Thanks for visiting and as always
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey Bindman
toyserarcher@gmail.com

An Old Friend Sends Photos

Friday, January 16, 2015
Snowing and warmer, become very cold

An Old Friend

Send Photos

  I was surprised yesterday when I opened up my email and found 3 e-mails with attachments from Mr. Joseph Desaulniers. The name was familiar, so I decided to check on my computer. As it turned out, Joseph had helped me out on a post on April 15, 2011. That certainly seem a long time ago! Joseph collects cast iron toys and was able to help me out back then. Joseph send  photo of 2 different toys. I liked the way he had photographed them, so I decided ro simply present them as they were photographed. 

The cast iron toy below is a Hubley Pierce-Arrow that measures 6 1/4" ( 158 mm) in  length. It's obviously been repainted, and Joseph explained to me that when he had purchase fit, it was painted entirely in black. He did an excellent job in the repaint, but the lighting  and the aged wood foundation and background make the photo excellent.  The lighting is soft, probably from an cloudy day. This helps to reduce the contrast, and thus you can easily see the detail all over.

Although there aren't any photos of the underside of these toys, I believe they are the Hubley take=aprt toys. Underneath would be a spring of different designs that would secure the top and bottom parts of the toy. When the spring was removed, the 2 parts came apart.  IN some cases of the take-apart toys, the parts could be interchanged with other Hbley toys - sort of a mix-and-match scenario.

Below is  another Pierce-Arrow, but in its original condition. WHat's of interest is the fact that this car and many of the same period (time) only had 1 brake light. You can see the light on the left side, just in back of the green rear fender. It is below where the license plate would have been. THe green box in back is a "trunk, where items would be stored. Obviously the car did not have much room inside for a 2-door coupe.

The toy below also looks like a Pierce-Arrow, but the Sedan version, with 4 doors.

It's always nice to be able to have closely-related toys in a collection. I decided to remove the foundation and background for the sedan because they were a gold-yellow countertop that distracted from the nice toy.

Joseph said that he'd send me more photos which would be great to present to everyone.

So that's it for this snowy day here in Montreal. The good news is that for now, the temperature is warm.

Thanks for dropping by and ask always

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Reporting from the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville (Iowa,USA)

Sunday, November 16, 2014
Cloud, cold and snow later in the day

Reporting from the National Farm Toy Show

in Dyersville 

(Iowa, USA)

I have a reader who writes to me and also asks some good questions. He wrote to me on November 3, to say that he was boing to the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville (Iowa, USA), the farm belt of the USA. Farming is a serious profession in Iowa, but so is farm toy collecting! I can;t believe that it's 2 weeks ago that Mr. Bob Walden write to me. He wrote back to me on November 9, and here's what Bob had to say.

"Well,  first the bad news. It was cold and windy. General admission to the museum and toy venders was $7 a person. That was fine. But to sit in the auction and bid was an additional $10 for a good seat. I'm old. Don't see all that well or hear that well. The $5 bleacher seats were out of the question. We arrived early because I did want to bid on a few items but wanted to see them first and I wanted to get a few pictures of the Vindex toys for you. Well, they used a tiny area for viewing and they was a constant SLOW line. I gave up! Also as you can kind of see in photo 810 the Vindex and most of the old toys I was interested in were in cases and not available for close inspection! Most of the people were there for the newer stuff that were in boxes. This being Dyersville, Iowa home of Ertl.  So before I could even bid on something we would have been into it (my wife and I) $37! and I couldn't even get a close look at what I wanted to buy. So we left. 

Then the sun came out. I walked through the tons of inside vendors. Had a ball! My wife, not so much! Items were priced very high which I expected but fun to look at.  Many of the toys I was interested in were painted and/or restored(?)  And looked it!  Then on to the museum! Wonderful! Many displays and items to see. I loved it! My wife, well ok. They had tons of places to sit and one room had old Roy Rodgers and Rin Tin Tin playing on an old tv. (Rin Tin Tin of my Rin Tin Tin Dexterity Puzzles!) The museum did have some nice Vindex farm items so that's where the pictures are from. I also sent some Arcade pictures as they are my kind of collectables. And the tin toys are always pretty and interesting to me. Also thought you might enjoy the picture of the tractors hanging to dry. They had a section laid out showing how some of the toys were made. I have sent these jpegs as sized for the web. But I do have the psd's if you would like those for their larger size. Hope you enjoy these.

Bob W."*
Reporting Courtesy of Bob Walden

 I understand what Bob meant when he said how costly it is just to enter an exhibition such as a home improvement show, or a food tasting fair. My wife and I used to go to the Fete de Gourmand here in Montreal,. It was in September on Ile Notre Dame, where our World's fair was in 1967 to commemorate the 100th birthday of Canada. It was a great place to go since I always was a bit risqué (challenging) and liked out of the ordinary food. There we would try alligator, ostrich, red deer, bison, and a few other things. Just to enter the fair at the time (at least 10 years ago) was $10.00 for parking, $15.00 to enter the grounds, and then of course you had to pay for mere tidbits of the exotica. We went anyway, but the year ofter, the fair was no longer. The cost must have been too prohibitive. The same I could say for the home improvement show, but I have to add one other "party pooper" - everything is in French. And so is the car show. But like Bob said , you can't touch anything, there are long lines to look at everything,and you have to keep moving.

Bob did send back some nice photos of old toys. 

However, they were behind glass, and "you couldn't touch!

Bob came well prepared. 

I'm assuming he's using a flashlight to examine the toy because it is under glass. 

I've made the photos larger than usual, so you can view them best in Blogger's slide mode setting.

I did my "usual" whitening effect to illustrate how the detail pops out better when you remove the distractions. Of course, it reporting, the big rule is to not alter a photo, especially with photo-eidting software!

However, for toys, I'll make an exception as the editor!

The Vindex Toy Company specialized in farm machinery, and made some of the finest cast iron toys of that era in America!

 Here's a nice Hubley cast iron set. I've revered the straightforward image and the "retouched" one. 

Notice how you see the nice round portholes on the sides of the cart. IN the straightforward image, you might miss these fine details,and as you know - I like details!

Below is another colour variation of the Hubley ice cart that you see above.

  

A wall of photographs of a factory from long ago.

Those green items hanging are cast iron tractors.

Below are some nice Arcade toys.

  Some fine farm machinery from Vindex.

A window  full of Marx toys.

I'm wondering why the  yellow and red tractor on the upper right shelf

has had parts taped up on the side and front.

If you ever search for a Marx tractor,you'll most likely to find a dozen different ones.

For myself, out's as if Mr. Louis Marx's "mission" was to create enough toys and variety for everyone, as well as to sell lots of toys for the company.

Below are some fine close-up photos from the window above.

At one time, close to 1/3 of all toys produced in the USA were manufactured

 by the Marx toy company.

I can say with certainty that Bob did a great job with his assignment covering the 

National  Farm Toy Show.

I'll have to wait to see what his next mission will be.

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com