January 19,2011
Third Blog of the day
Some of my more favourite (favorite, for American spelling) toys are the Doepke Barber-Greene bucket loader and the Doepke Barber-Greene track loader. These were made in the late 1940's and early 1950's, and you can find information on the Doepke toy company by doing a search with any search engine.
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
Photo 4
The 4 images above are of the Doepke Barber-Greene track loader. This toy is about 14" (L) x 5" (W) x 12" (H) and weights about 3 pounds. It was a substantial toy for its' times and cost about $ 13.00, also a lot of money for a toy ,for a period just after WWII.
The top 2 images illustrate the movements of the item. This toy was meant to play with in the sand. The crank on the side turns 2 augers (earth churners) that push dirt into the small buckets. These move again, from the turning motion, and then drop on to a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt also moves, and then "dumps" its' load into a dump truck (Not shown of course) that would be positioned under the end of the belt.
I'm not sure which of the 2 Barber-Greene toys came first or if they both were released at the same time, but the other toy can be seem below. It's also substantial, and very mechanical - a great hands-on toy to play with.
