The 1930's Hubley Cast Iron Boat

Saturday, June 9, 2012

The 1930's Hubley Cast Iron

Pull Toy Boat

     Yesterday, today, and tomorrow is the F1 Grand Prix in Montreal. Hopefully all will go well. If you've been following the news here in Montreal, our students in the junior colleges here (called CEGEPS) and some university students have been demonstrating, rioting, and causing civil disobedience by smoking bombing our Metro (Subway). This has been going on for the last 100 days!

   Returning to toys, today I received  a toy that I've always wanted to see up close. It's a Hubley Cast Iron Boat.

Dimension:

4" (L) x 1 1/4" (W) x 1 1/2" (H)

102mm x 33mm x 38mm

Weight:

4.7 ounces or 133 grams.

The reason that I've always wanted to buy one of these is that my father used to fish and he naturally taught myself and my brothers to also. I haven't fished that much in the last 45 years, but my brother still does. He lives in Calgary, and likes to fish for salmon on the British Columbia coast, which is on the Pacific side of Canada.

What I  like most about his toy is the artistry in it.

The man is "sculpted" into the  boat, and seems to meld with it

I like how the steering arm is fully extended and how the  driver is looking straight ahead.

Those who have have been following my blog will probably know that this toy is called a pull toy.

A small piece of cord would be tied in the small hole that you see in the photo above this one.

The steel wheels would make the pulling easy as the toy was pulled by a child.

You have to be careful when looking for this toy. There are lots of "fakes" out there.

Usually the fakes have a threaded screw joining the 2 halves of the cast iron toy.

The authentic one has a smooth bolt that is cut off at one end and hammered in order to hold the 2 halves together.

I did see one with a screw being advertised as "authentic", so perhaps there might be ones with a screw. Personally, I'd stay away form that one unless the seller gave me a guarantee as to the authenticity of the toy.

I have seen this toy in a red, yellow, brown and black theme.

Also, this version was selling for less than $ 50.00 US. and also had a bolt.

Usually this toy sells for anywhere from $ 100.00 -300.00 U.S. so you definitely have to be very careful when buying one of these toys.

That's it for today.

I wrote this instalment on Friday, so I'm just keeping up with the actual calendar.

Toy selling is slowing down like last year at time, so I'll be trying to sell all of my toys and wait until the fall, if selling doesn't improve.

As always, thanks for dropping by, and have a nice weekend 

wherever you may be.