Ferries

Monday, October 7, 2013

Ferries

     I was looking for something else, when I thought of the expression "by land, sea or air". I then thought of ferries, and decided to do a search. I've been on 4-5 ferries in my life. Once as children, we took (with my parents) a ferry to cross Lake Champlain from  (Burlington Vermont) to Plattsburgh (New York) in the U.S.A. I've taken a ferry across to Martha's Vineyard with my wife Heidi. I've also used a 4 car ferry to cross one of the rivers near Montreal. There is a ferry that crosses the Saguenay River at Tadoussac (Quebec) that empties into the Saint-Lautent river (Quebec). The span across this river is not far, but because of the very fast river, at the time only a ferry was possible, as compared to a bridge.   Then my last ferry crossing was from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. Because Vancouver Island is very large and has a large population, there is a huge system of ferries to transport people across. The ride takes about 2 hours, and there must be at least 10 ferries that each transports about 200 cars!

    I was surprised to not find very many old and different ferry toys. I'll check in the future and see if any other auctioneers have sold other types and brands.  Bing (Germany) made several models, as did Wolverine (USA). Of course, the Bing ferries went for a lot more at auction than did the Wolverines, but I was surprised at how low the Wolverine toys sold for ($ 150.00 - $ 250.00 US), since they were made well and are almost as old. Then there was a new company by the name of  Walbert.

Please click here to visit the fine website of Bertoia Auctions

The Bing ferry above is my favourite.  I could imagine a real ferry looking like this, and I especially like the simulated glass skylights on the roof. I also like the colour scheme.

I just noticed the wind-up key  in the above model. So the question for me is: Did the Wolverine company make 2 models of ferries? One a pull toy, and the other a wind-up self-moving toy?

What's interesting about the Walbert ferry is how it so closely resembles the Wolverine model or vice-versa.  So this poses another question. Are the 2 companies related in the sense that one owns the other, or is this a case of "let sleeping dogs lay" in terms of allowing each other to produce a toy that so closely resembles the other. I have seen this before, and always bring up my Apple-Samsung lawsuit over patent infringement.  In the lengthy lawsuit, one of Apple's points about the copyright infringement of their IPhone was the "rounded corners" that Samsung had "copied" to their cell phone. Imagine! Apple won their lawsuit in the USA, but not in Europe.

If you've never taken a ferry ride, you might want to try one.  You can select a slow or fast one depending on the distance to cross and the size of the ferry.  There's lots to see on a ferry if you're a curious person like me, and you can meet some interesting travellers. Of course, if you are prone to seasickness (like my wife), ferry-crossing may not be for you.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Noah's Arks

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Noah's Arks

  It's May 29 and another day of rain. March and April weren't the best months. MArch started off sunny, then mostly cloudy. April was cold,cloudy, and rainy. Then May arrived, and miraculously, we had 10 straight days of sun, and I thought "wow, this is going to be a great summer!". Well, May 's sunshine last those days.Most of the remaining days except yesterday were cold and rainy. It was great for my grass growing, as I didn't have to water, and the sewn seeds grew! So as you can see, it wasn't hard to come up with today's post.

Please click to be redirected to Bertoia's fine website

If you look closely on the roof,  you'll see a bird. This was typical of the German-made arks, and they could have 1 or 2 bird of the roof of an ark. 

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day, rain or shine,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Mr. Dick Claus' Auction Sale

Through Bertoia Auctions

http://www.bertoiaauctions.com

(Please press on the link above to visit Bertoia Auctions)

      I was working on this post for Saturday, when I realized this fantastic collection of toys from Mr. Dick Claus will be auctioned off this Saturday, November 10, 2012. Needless to say, I wanted to share this with everyone, so please visit the Bertoia site as these fine toys are presented on the site in a good size to see fine details.

     I've added the sizes of these toys as they are BIG! I'm going to write about the history of the Bing toy company in the future, but you might want to visit Wikedpedia to get some information. The history of toys and the Bing COmpany, in particular is quite interesting.

   So for today, I'm just presenting the finely-photographed ships and boats of the Dick Claus Collection.

If you're a movie fan, the boat above should "ring a bell" in your head.

One of my favourite movies is the 1951 movie African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. It takes place in Africa, at the time when WWI breaks out in Europe.

The boat above is a "cousin"to the one found in the movie. However, this "cousin" is far more glamorous than the one in the movie

     I hope many of you will drop by Bertoia's to view the Dick Claus collection, because these are some outstanding toys. It's unbelievable that some privileged children back then could have their parents buy them such toys. I've been in some restaurants and companies that displayed models of ships and boats, and these "toys" stand their own to any "models"

Thanks for dropping by, and have a nice weekend.

And as always, have a great part of the day, wherever you may be.

Stacey