Minic Tin Toys-Part III

Wednesday, November 20, 2013
   ( Sunny & Cold  19.4  Fahrenheit -7 Celcius)

Minic Tin Toys

(Part III)

   In the previous 2 days, I wrote about the Minic cars and trucks from Pre-WWII.Today's post has to do with other toys that Minic made in the same years. The common characteristics to them were that they were made of tin, had rubber tires, and of course had a great key windup clockwork mechanism. 

Please click here to visit the LLoyd Ralston Gallery

Minic made several variations of the race car shown above.  Since the Ralston GAllery didnlt provide dates for many of their listings, I'm unsure about the red model racer being a pre-WWII model. The plastic canopy with the lithograph of the racer is my reason for that.

The above model was a prototype that never made it to production.

For those who like trucks,the milk tanker is certainly a fine toy.

Like other toy manufacturers, Minic would simply add different decals to rename the type ytuvk. Above is an oil (petrol) tanker instead of a milk truck.

It's too bad there aren't other photos accompanying these toys. I would guess that both rear wheels (larger and smaller) probably rotated from the key clockwork mechanism.  In this case, the rollers are wood,rather than rubber or metal.

Here's a great accessory that Minic made.  I would think that several children with Minic cars and trucks would be able to play with this gas station.

Above is a fantastic collectible. It's a construction set of cars, trucks and a tractor. All of the parts are enclosed,and the kit even included paint. If I was a British kid way back, I'd be screaming for this one. Of course, at the time, my parents weren't that well off, so I'd have received  1 Minic car or truck . I could always have looked forward to the future.

After WWII, the company continued manufacturing. However like all other companies worldwide, times were changing. Production costs were becoming higher, and , dare I say it, plastic was the big buzz of the time. Minic , like most others adapted to making plastic toys. However, the great era of toys  from 1890-1940 (in my opinion) was gradually starting to disappear.

As I have written, modern-era toys and models today replace the past. Some companies producing toys today most certainly match the toys of the bygone era in quality, realism, and variety. I'm sure kids of today in 50 years will look back and say their toys were great. Of course today's "toys" are mass-produced, and many kids today today focus on cell phones, Playstation, iPads and the like. But as the lyrics of the Bob Dylan song go  -"the times they are a changing".

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

(toysearcher@gmail.com)