A Parade Toy and Some Others

Sunday, March 31, 2013

A Parade Toy and Some Others

     I was checking out LiveAuctioneers when I came across an interesting large-sized toy from Louis Marx. The last time I had written about the Louis Marx toy company, I had found out that his company at one time (1950's) was manufacturing 1 in 4 toys sold in the USA. Mr. Marx even made the cover of Time Magazine! Anyway, I saw this very interesting toy, which was called "The Parade".  SInce today is the Easter Parade in NYC (New York City), I thought the idea of finding the "Parade" toy and posting it today would work well.

Please click this sentence to be redirected to their fine website

     The toy below is a "copy" of the Marx original! Nevertheless, it's also quite interesting.

     It's too bad that the resolution of the original photos wasn't larger, as there is so much to see in these 3 items.

     I happened to find "Main Street" on the same auction as "The Parade". Both of these fine toys were auctioned in September 2010 by Bertoia Auctions, and came from Mr. Donald Kaufman, a renowned American toy collector.  His toy collection was so vast and extensive, that Bertoia Auctions auctioned off the extensive collection over a period of several days and weeks.

    I hope that everone is having a fine Sunday today, whether or not you are celebrating Easter, Passover, some other holiday, or just relaxing.

 Thanks for dropping by,

and have a pleasant part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Early Fokker Toy Airplanes

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Early Fokker Toy Airplanes

History

   Fokker was a Dutch (Holland) aircraft manufacturer created by its founder - Mr. Anthony Fokker. The company started in 1912 in Germany, and eventually moved to Holland (The Netherlands) in 1919.  It was a very successful airplane manufacturer seeing its most prosperous periods in the 1920's and 1930's. Sadly,in 1996 the company went into bankruptcy, and its operations were purchased by its competitors. The tri-motor passenger aircraft that you'll see examples of below were one of tis most successful  aircraft. 54 international airplanes used the airplane, and Fokker captured 40% of the American market.

   The history of the Fokker Company is even more interesting, but I've abridged the first part from Wikipedia. You might want to venture to Wikipedia for the full story.

(Courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokker).

Please click this sentence to be redirected to their fine website

Thanks for visiting,

and I hope everyone is having a restful Easter holiday

or nice spring day.

Stacey

There's a Train Car for That!

Friday, March 29, 2013

There's a Train Car for That!

   For today's post, I ended up using only 1 listing from AmbroseBauer Trains LLC. It turns out, there are probably more different train cars for carrying merchandise and materials that I originally had thought about.  Also, all of the cars were made by American Flyer. It turns out that American Flyer is still in business, but is owned by the Lionel Company. At one time, way back, American Flyer was a successful model train company.hit on hard times. However, it had trouble in the marketplace, and was eventually purchased by A.C. Gilbert, known most for their American erector sets. They owned American Flyer from 1938-1966, and the Lionel Company acquired it.

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to AmbroseBauer's fine website

   I don't see too many freight cars near me, so I don't see cars like the above. When I was young and we lived near a freight train track line, I'd see the usual coal, and oil tanker, but never the "rarer" searchlights, or  wrecker cars. Today, near me, I see the oil cars(rarely), the specialized compressed liquified gas cars,  the ship cargo  boxes, finished lumber , and of course, the car  transporters.  I'll probably add another post for other different cars that I didn't add today, in the near future.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day, wherever you may be.

And by the way, 

Happy Easter, and Passover.

Stacey

Modern Era Die Cast Farm Machinery Models

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Modern-Era Die Cast 

Farm Machinery Models

    Spring arrived last week, so I'm sure farmers around the world are busy doing something. I thought I'd  post today about farm machinery. I don't know what I'm more impressed with - the actual models or the "real" machines.  The models have so many parts, and some of these items weight up to 5 pounds ( 2.3 Kilos). Yet price wise, they';re not as expensive in cost as the large-sized earth movers or cranes. The farmers certainly are getting a great deal here (they like to collect farm machinery models)!

    It's hard to believe that about 102 years ago, most farming was done with horses, and now almost all farming is today done with machines. Of course, there are  some groups of People who still use horses (e.g. Amish, Mennonites). 

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the Diecastmodels Website

The  machine aboive is called a "seed drill". What it does is to make holes in the soil, and then drop  seeds precisely in the  holes. However, these machines are very precise in order to plae the seeds at exact increments and distances fromeach other.

The Gregoire  Besson is a tiller that "churns up the soil before planting. 

The company is French.

The Class Volto 1320 T is a machine called a "tedder". What this does is to fluff up hay after it has been cut. The fluffing or aeration allows the hay to dry faster in the sun, before it will be arranged ir narrow long piles. At that point a baler will come and form bundles (bales)  of the dry hay.

The machines above and below will make bales (piles of hay) so that the hay can then be stored in barns.

 The Kuhn SPV 14 mixer wagon must be extremely popular as a model. When I did a search, all I got were die cast models, whereupon, I had to add the word "farming" to the search. At that point I found the "real" machine. What this machine does is to mix different food that would be used for feeding cows on a dairy farm.

    As with everything else in the world, farming has become big. The farms are larger, the herds of cows are larger, and the machines are larger. All of these have led to bigger production of crops and produce such as milk. When you go to a supermarket these days, it's unbelievable how many different dairy products there are form around the world. As well, I never even heard of yogurt 55 years ago, when I was an adolescent. Nowadays, yogurt is extremely popular in North America. Of course, with the larger farms and production, as well as population growth in North America, more uses for dairy products needed to be created. I also forgot to mention 1 more thing. Today's 2013 cow produces lots more milk that here great-great-great grandmother 100 years ago!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day,

Stacey

Electric Models of Electric Trains

Wednesday, March 25, 2013

Electric Models of Electric Trains

   Most train models that have been produced have been reproductions of either coal or diesel engines. Since the USA has always had an abundant supply of coal, and then oil, that's the reason.  Europe on the other hand, alwys had large supplies of coal, but they chose to go the route of electric,when coal as a fuel supply became outdated.However, there are a few that are electric. Of course, in North America, the majority of the "real" machines have been coal or diesel. In browsing AmbroseBauer Trains,I did find some electric models, and their interesting. Most of the models are by Lionel (USA), so there is some slight deviation. I did concentrate on the more recent models, although there are some models (nor shown today) that have been made prior to the 1940's.

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the AmbroseBauer website

     Electrically-operated "real" trains operate by having a special connection on top of the train called a pantograph. There are usually 2 of them, and they make contact with the electrical lines about the train. There are 2 contacts (side by side) on each pantograph. I assume that's to always keep the electrical contact ,so that if the train turns sharply, one contact is always live, even if the higher one might be less taught on the wire.

    I was surprised to find several USA models. I mistakenly assumed that there never were or are any electrical trains in the USA, but there are.  Most of the engines have very large vents on top of their roofs. Since these engines produce a lot of heat, the fans and exhausts on top are needed to cool off the engines. I assume that there are batteries within the engines to  power and elevate the pantographs when they need to make contact with the electrical grid (wiring) above them. You can see the pantographs in the down and up positions. 

   As for the toy telectirc models, their power comes from the track as all models do. It would be too complicated and dangerous to have an electrical grid as the "real" trains.

 Many times, AmbroseBauer  takes apart  a train model for bidder viewing. That's certainly a lot of work to do and then to photograph. THey also take loads of photos of each listing, but for today, I just concentrated on presenting the different models that I found on their site. THe uncovered train above is the power for the model train. The "real" train is entirely different.

I enjoyed looking at these electric model trains as I worked with them in Photoshop. They're very different form the coal and diesel engines.  In  the movies made in Europe, I've always enjoyed looking at the electrical trains and the passenger cars. They're certainly different from the ones that you mostly see in North America.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great day.

Stacey

JeP - Their Airplane Toys

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

JeP

Their Airplane Toys

   When I originally found the JeP (France) company,  there were plenty of cars,a few trucks, some boats, and lots of airplanes. As I started to screen-capture with SnagIt, I decided that there were too many nice cars and airplanes to keep them in 1 post. I therefore decided to separate the 2 groups of toys into 2 posts. If you want to find out about the history of the JEP company, please visit yesterday's post.

   As far as the JEP airplanes go, their beautiful, and large-sized.

Please click this sentence to be Redirected to Bertoia's Website

If you look just behind the wing and slightly above or behind the pilot, you'll see a small lever.

It's different for different airplanes. I'm thinking that that was for assembling the wing to the mainframe of the airplane body.

If you compared some airplanes that are similar, you'll not in fact that they are very much so. The paint theme is different. However, in all of the airplanes they have either a duck (Seaplane) or a crane (e.g. above) on the sides of the body. Also, the number of the airplane is different for different models.

If you happen to be reading this post on Monday, March 25, 2013, I haven't made a mistake in the date. I posted early, and I wanted to be "ahead of the game".

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

JEP

Monday, March 25, 2013

JeP Cars

(France)

     The JeP toy company was originally founded in Paris, France in 1899, and became known as JeP in 1929, after having merged with 2 other toy companies. Their toys (cars, trucks,boats,and airplanes) were very ornate, and complex (e.g. open and close doors), and were modelled after the famous "real" cars of the time. These included of course the French cars such as Delage, Renault, and Talbot, as well as Rolls-Royce and Hispano Suiza. The company eventually closed in 1965, but the name lives on, having been purchased buy the company Jouet Montblanc.

****My guardian angel ,Mr. Philippe de Lespinay, a collector whom I recently wrote about has helped me several times. In this case, I need to redo all of the photos presented today to their proper ID. The name of the toy company is JeP and not JEP as I have written below on all  of the photos.

I'm going to go fir a 30 km (25 mile) bike ride, and correct this later today (May 2, 2013).

I've been having several symptoms that create dizziness (when walking) and  loss of detail and contrast visually. My white dog buddy disappears on a white sidewalk on a sunny day. So I've returned to cycling to try and strengthen my muscles and heart until some kind of specialist doctor can figure out the problem!

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  As you can see, the details of the cars are quite interesting.  Nickel plating on some of the grills, finely-detailed lithography on the car body, and the drivers, and the cast-iron horn (klaxon in French). Of course, having Bertoia Auctions take excellent photographs allow us to see the toys well! 


Thanks as always for dropping by,
and have a great part of the day,
wherever you may be.
Stacey