An Uplifting Website on a Cold March Day

Wednesday March 5, 2025

Cloudy and Damp

4° C / 39° F

An Uplifting Website on 

a Cold March Day

This year, it seems that it's going to be a long time before spring and 

warm weather arrive here in Montreal, Quebec,Canada.  Two weeks ago, we got two days of heavy snow. I had to go on the small roof of our sun-room, to clear the snow. The roof had a leak, and water dripped inside! 

Today, it's been raining all day!

Please clock on this sentence to visit Bill's excellent website

I decided to visit Mr. Bill Buttaggi's excellent website. I had written a blog post

 2 weeks ago, but today was cold and overcast. I decided to write about his

section on a company called "Tip-Top Toys"

Here's what Bill wrote:

"There is very little known about Tip-Top Toys. There were pre-war toys most

likely produced sometime between the mid-to-late 1920's through the mid-to-late

1930's. Although I've included them in this "Slush Mold Toys" section of this

website, "Tip-Top Toys" are classified as die-cast or pressure-cast. They were advertised as "Pewter Toys" - pewter often being the word used for lead alloy or 

pot metal. They're often marked "A TIP-TOP TOY" on the bottom, but not always.

Description:

Description Below:

Racer, no driver, boat-tail, rounded nose, grill with horizontal lines, vertical 

side louvers, metal cast wheels with eight lugs. Seen another example. with gold painted wheels, unmarked.

3 1/4" (8.25 cm) / 3 3/8" (8.57 cm)  if including front wheels

Description Below:

"Tow Car" Pickup Truck with tow trailer, curved side windows, horizontal  grill lines, openwork handrails (there is a no handrail version with. square side windows), hole at end of bed for trailer to attach, sometimes marked 

"A TIP-TOP TOY" on bottom, truck is 3 1/4" ( 8.25 cm), 

tow trailer is 2 3/16" (5.56 cm)

Description Below:

Undocumented- Large coupe, marked "A Tip-Top Toy". diecast, open windows, 

horizontal grille lines, thin gold painted wheels, 3" (7. 62 cm) long (including front wheels), 1 13/16" ( 4.60 cm) tall.

Description Below:

TTTV004- Pickup Truck with hinged tailgate. Black painted metal wheels, open windows, horizontal grille lines.

3 1/4" (7. 97 cm)

Description Below:

Undocumented - Bus, unmarked, rounded roof and hood edges, doors on both sides, rounded grille with horizontal lines, thirteen open windows, small cast in rear window and spare, plain disc wheels simiolar to Kansas & Novelty or C.A.W.,

similar in. shape to Mid-west Novelty's Bus (MW010), heavy die-cast, 

3 7/8" (9. 84 cm) long.

Description Below:

TTV002 - Tanker Truck, reads "GASOLINE" both sides, simulated rivets,

along tank edge, curved side windows, horizontal grille lines, gold painted

wheels similar to  Tootsietoy's  unmarked, 3 1/2" (8.9 cm) long, including

the front wheels.

Description Below:

TTTV010- Panel truck, "Parcel delivery" marked on both sides, open windows, horizontal grille lines, black painted metal wheels, unmarked, very small at omnly

2 1/8" (5. 4 cm)

I've selected just a few fine examples from Bill's fabulous collection.

If you decide to venture to his website, there will plenty of fine. toys to see and read about.

As always, thanks for dropping by,and have a great part 

of the day or night, wherever you may be.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman, and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr. Bill Buttaggi and his Wonderful Small Toys

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Another Huge Snow Storm

-8°C /17°F

A Revisit to Mr. Bill Buttaggi 

and his Wonderful Small Toys

It's a great day to stay inside today. Our city of Montreal (Quebec,Canada, eh!) received another big snowstorm after yesterday. Today's snowfall is predicted to be between 25-40 centimeters (9.84  -15.75 inches).When I woke up this morning, it was already snowing. As I am typing at 5:45 p.m., the snow is still falling.

I went through my posts yesterday, and decided to write a post for Mr. Bill Buttaggi. He has an exceptional collection of small toys, and I decided to write just about his Tootsietoys. These toys are small, but once you see them, you immediately take a liking to them. I've written several posts before about Bill and his toys.

Bill has been collecting these "showcase" Tootsietoys for 35 years, His collection focuses mainly on pre-war (WWII). He started collecting when he was 16 years old, and he's been collecting ever since. He's even written a book about them. What I also like is his photography.The lighting is soft, without harsh shadows, and the toys are on a white foundation (seamless paper).

Please click on this sentence to visit Mr. Bill Buttaggi's Exceptional Website

I didn't want to make this post too long, because I wanted everyone to visit

this wonderful site. His photography is excellent, and he's spent

a lot of time compiling and categorizing his wonderful toy collection.

His research is well-researched, and he writes very well.

So that's it for today. The days are getting longer, and there hadn't been much snowfall is the last couple of weeks. The temperatures were getting warmer, and our dog didn't mind going outside in the back yard, or for a walk.

Thanks for dropping by to visit my blog,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night wherever you may be.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman,

and I can always be contacted at:

toyserher@gmail.com

 

A toy that never made it to production

Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Sunny with clouds
9 C  48 F

A Toy That Never Made

it to the Production Line

During this week, I came across an interesting seller on ebay who was selling Mattel®  

Hot Wheels ® toys for $ 1000.00 plus U.S. dollars. Whoa, that's a fair amount of money, so naturally I had to investigate! I looked at the toys being presented on a signed certificate, and the name for each certificate was a Mr. Larry Wood. I didn't know who  Larry Wood was, so more investigation was necessary.

And when you visit the store Gottoyz4u where today's "special" car came from, 

you won't believe just

how many Mattel® Hot Wheels® that this store is selling.

So if you're a collector of these toys, or are curious like I was to check 

out this unique store, then by all means please go there. 

It turned out that Larry Wood is actually very famous. Initially he worked for 

GM (General Motors®), and later for Mattel® Hot Wheels®. He's been working for Mattel® since 1969, and he's famous. He designs Hot Wheels®  toys, and he's designed many, many of these toys.

For his having been with Hot Wheels® for 50 years, the company just honoured him by coming out with a special series of toy cars.

"The Larry Wood 50th Anniversary Series ("Larry Wood 50 Years of Design", or "Larry Wood 50") is the second mix of the 2019 Walmart-exclusive Premium Series. This commemorates Larry Wood's 50 years (1969-2019) at Hot Wheels. All cards have Base Code: M10 stamped on them and are made in Thailand." (Courtesy  Hot Wheels® Wiki)

Returning to that Hot Wheels® toy that I saw on  Gottoyz4u, there are many toys that have Larry Wood certificates. All of them have never been produced, but were prototypes that were presented to higher management for approval or rejection.

Please click here to visit this most amazing store 

And so now I understand why this toy and the others, with 

Larry Wood's signature on them are so valuable!

Please click here to visit this most amazing store

You might even have one of the toys that are not certified (the prototypes), 

and may be surprised at just how much your toys may be worth.

Now if my brother had saved those Mattel® Hot Wheels®!!!!!!!!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the 

day or night, wherever

you may be.

I can always be reached at my g-mail address below:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

The Lloyd Ralston Gallery has some Fine Tootsietoys for Sale

Wednesday, November 11, 2015
         Remembrance Day
                      Cloudy and cold


   One of the early auction companies that allowed me to use their photos was the Lloyd Ralston Gallery. Lloyd Ralston was a successful auctioneer who salt passed away much too young. However, his 2 sons have continued on with the tradition.

   One of my favourite small-sized die cast toy companies is the Tootsietoy company. They manufactured millions upon millions of small die cast toys from the early 1910's-the early 1960's. However, my favourites are the early toys.

  What's interesting about these toys is that  when the casting was made, any small "imperfections" were left and not filed down. So you'll see some "extensions" of window frames from the excess molten metal. The toys could be purchased individually or could be bought individually, which made the toys very popular, since everyone (rich and poor) kids could buy the toys.  I had the pleasure of being able to buy many of these fine toys on ebay, and through Thomas Toys and Classic Tin Toys was able to purchase parts to restore them. What makes them so fascinating (for myself at least) is that you could purchase a whole small town of toys, and make miniature villages with them. Of course, the average child would have a few of them to play with.

Please click here to visit this fine American Auction Company

THere were no date as to when the toys were made, but it's relatively;y easy to figure out the older from the newer toys. THe bottommost 2 trucks are very old.The reason is that the front cab tf the truck (where the driver sits) has no glass windshield.  Eventually, the windshield came later in history.

If you're a car racing fan, you would certainly know the name "Bluebird". This was the name of the famous land/water speed champion of Sir Malcolm Campbell. He set numerous land speed records with this supper, super racer in the 1930's.

THe truck below is older than the "woodies" that were manufactured later on. The "woodie" got its' name because it had wood panels and strips on the side of the wagon (station wagon in the USA). It also became famous as the American West Coast surfers would use these wagons to to toe their surfboards to the Pacific Ocean.

Antother pair of older vehicles. These 2 still did not have the glass windshields yet

 (I"m  95% sure of this!).

The Grahams were produced in about 6 models.  I was able to purchase them all at different times and photograph them. There is the rarer LaSalle car that is similar to these, but is rarer. As such, it yields higher values at auctions.

Being a professional photographer and having taught professional photography, I always liked the graphic arts segment of the industry. The graphics department of the Tootsietoy Company certainly had one of the finest groups of designers in the toy industry at the time.  Their bold colours and 'showy", but not ostentatious (too glitzy) font styles were easily recognizable and complimented the company's toys for their box design and catalogues.

The Tootsietoy Dairy truck was interesting for it's selection in the Tootsietoy group of utility trucks.

Along with the dairy truck, there were department store trucks. Tootsietoy even made "customized" name brand trucks, such as for true famous Canadian Department Store Company - Eaton's. ca

t

Th

Below are some very early Tootsietoy trucks. 

Their lack of a windshield dates them to very early 1920's.

So that's it for an early Wednesday  Morning on this Remembrance Day. It's a day when we remember WWI & WWII and what happened back then. I'm soon to be 67 and have been around to remember back 55 years ago when I  was 12 years old and would come to recognize the poppies that are sold at this time of year in Canada. It's surprising how fast time passes, and I still remember the brass plaque in the downtown Eaton's store that no longer exists. Eaton's went bankrupt, restarted up again and closed down once and for all. I always patronized (Bought merchandize) there because they Eaton;s was an excellent department store back then from 1900-1990's.

BUt what had we return time and time again was the plague on the wall.

Leading the names of soldier victims from WWII were several of the Easton family members and all of the employees who gave up their lives. I'll never forget that and as the famous expression goes:

Lest we Forget……

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always, have a great part of the day or night,

'wherever you may be,

Stacey

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Already Prepped for the New Year

Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunny and very cold

Already Prepped for the New Year

   It's almost the end of 2014, and the Lloyd Ralston Gallery auction company are presenting their next listings for their January 15, 2015 auction. Do these 2 brothers ever take a vacation? 

I guess business is business, and everyone has to be prepared and working. When you go to Liveauctioneers, you can see auctions that will be happening for months ahead of the current date. Not all of the auctions will have their merchandise displayed,but the auctions are scheduled for the viewers to take note of.

  The Lloyd Ralston Gallery has lots of items for the upcoming auction,and I though that I'd "breeze" through the 517 items listed on both Liveauctioneers, and  the Lloyd Ralston Gallery website,but I only managed to stay on page 1 of the Gallery's website! There were many toys that I had not seen before.

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

Not all the items in the auction are pre-1940 or antique (my area of writing). Nevertheless,there were some after 1940,anymore closely to the 1980's and after that interested me.I don't know the date of manufacture of the trio of Soligo toys below, but  I have to admire the person or collector who "customized" the trio. He (or she, changed them into "Woodies" - an American type of car that had wood panelling. The trio is excellent!

Tootisetoys are my favourite small-sized toys, although most people would prefer the Dinky toys.

I know I must have seen the top ca before, but it caught my eye. If you enlarge the photo below, you'll notice that "excess" metal was left in the original toy. I've seen these before, and collectors don't seem to have minded. I probably would have filed down the excess if I had purchased the toy in the 1930's, or would have returned it! 

Britains, the British company famous for their toy soldiers, also made non-soldier toys. 

I've never seen this toy before, and what I like about it is the fact that the outside blue part could be removed to expose the interior.

Nice!

This trio of "Woodies" is probably from the same collector who made the trio that I presented at the start - great job!

The convertible caught my eye.I'm sure I've seen it before, but I liked the colour combination of the convertible and the van.

WHen I bought and sold on ebay, I  purchased most of the Tootsietoy Grahams. The Grahams and the Tootsietoy LaSalles are always in demand. There are even several toy parts manufacturers, including Thomas who make parts for these fantastic small-sized toys.

What caught my eye though was the modern-made trailer by Mr. Armond Montandon.

I'll have to do more research to find out where I can contact him. There was also 1 other trailer and Tootsietoy combo in this auction.

Another nice pair of Tootsietoys.

Notice how the dark brown car has its roof painted tan.  The tan colour represented the Tootsietoy "convertible" toys. Any toy with that tan colour was a convertible!

What's nice about the Hubley die cast quintet is that you get to see the relative sizes of these toys all at once. They're larger than the Tootsietoys which measure about 4" (102 mm) in length. 

Here's a Kosuge that I never heard of until yesterday.

Matsuzo Kosuge was a Japanese toy maker who eventually formed the Marusan toy Company.

What I like about the Minics (Great Britain) is that the company  made wind-up toys that could move on their own. The green racer is probably a post-1940 toy,while the ambulance is a bi older. 

What you might have noticed is that most of the today's on today;s post are small-sized. The Lloyd Ralston Gallery does have larger toys,but you have to spook at the written descriptions to know their sizes. Overall, there is lots of diversity in this upcoming auction. If you look enough, I'm sure you'll find something that is a favourite of yours.

Thanks for dropping by and as always
have a great part of the day o right,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com