Gotham City Toys Comes to My Aid

Friday, March 14, 2014
     Cold and clear, changing to 
              cloud and snow

Gotham City Toys

Comes to My Aid

   Sometimes when writing,you get "giddy" or think funny.  I'd already posted for today, but that post was not the most interesting and doesn't appeal to everyone. It had to do with statistics, and how many people visit my site and from where, and so forth.  I checked 6 hours later, and sure enough, the number of visits were low, but not that bad. I decided to search my computer, and then I became very, very elated! Mr. Clifford Olsen, a collector of cast iron toys and a seller on ebay, had answered an e-mail  that I had sent him a few weeks earlier. I had visited ebay  and his store, but there was nothing for sale. So I wrote to see if everything was alright.  

 Clifford had sent me a "whole lot of photos" of his collection. He's only been collecting for about a year, but his collection  is fantastic! What's even better is that Clifford had attend type (writing) to identify many of his toys. Now how much better could that be? I just did some minor photo-editing to brighten the walls, and added Clifford's logo as a watermark, and the copyright notice.

Please click here to visit Clifford Olsen's fine website

  I completely forgot that Clifford has his own website, and it's quite nice in terms of how items are presented and how the layout (writing and distribution) of photos are positioned. But the best, as I mentioned is how Clifford responded to my email and sent me his collection!

I don't think that I've ever seen that red convertible with the rumble seat in the front row.   I also like that mauve-coloured (light purple) truck. I've occasionally seen this colour before, and often wondered if that colour was actually used way, way back.

What I often marvel at is the fact that nickel-plating was used on many of the bumpers and grill of these toys. And when you look at the grilles, they look like they were made yesterday! Take a look at the small red flag on the green base and stand. Arcade, among several other companies made these "accessories" at the time, and they're quite collectible by themselves. When you think that in the 1920's-1930's roads in the States (USA)were still unpaved, kids could have lots of fun playing in earth to make roads.

I have a small Hubley Airflow sitting on my computer stand as I write. I've bought and sold the smaller Hubley Airflows, but never had purchased the larger one that you see on the front right side.

If you've never read my post about Hubley Airflows, you absolutely must do a search on the Net for "Chrysler Airflow". These are timeless beautiful cars that sadly never became a success in the marketplace. After a few years, production stopped. But the Airflow lives on forever in the form of toys!

I almost forgot. Those 2 large-sized black and grey Chevy and  Ford cars, almost hidden away in the upper right corner is  always in demand and goes for higher prices in bidding and at auction. That car also is larger -sized that the rest presented here.

This is a much better view to illustrate the relative sizes of the different cars. And if you look closely enough, you can see that Clifford has the 3 sizes of Airflow that  Arcade and Hubley made at the time. I even think that there is 1 larger size that was made. 

That "slow" orange cast iron sign in the upper left corner is great! But my favourites are the larger blue Hubley Studebaker Town Car (Blue) and the Roadster Convertible (red). Of course, those green Zephyrs are also great!

That green mailbox in the back, the  red railroad sign, and the nickel-plated shovels and sledge hammer are also great. I purchased a set of tools for my wife that were made by the Arcade company. Notice that striped canopy with the cast iron Arcade 1939 NY World's Fair. These are interesting collectibles, as are some the other  American World's fair toys.

Of course, to build roads, you needed to have trucks and sreamshovels!

The nickel-plated cast iron ax, hoe, and rake give you a nice idea as to the relative size of these smaller toys. Clifford actually wrote in 4 inches ( 102 mm),but it's naive to have a reference in the photo. 

If you've been reading my blog, you'll already know that the toys above and below are take-apart toys. All of the major hardware companies of the time got into the toy-making business.  What's interesting to me is that the designs for the take-aprts toys form the different manufacturers  are similar, but I've never read about one company suing the other for patent infringements.

What is fun for me, and I'm sure for all of the children at the time, was the ability to dismantle  and reassemble the top parts of a car or truck with the lower pasts (chassis). Some of the above toys could be purchased separately, or in complete sets of 4-6 cars and trucks.

 A beautiful shelf of more cast iron vehicles. What I always am amazed at is the fact that the wooden red rims (almost a standard at the time) and the rubber tires are still intact on some of the cars - after 80 years, plus!

That telephone truck came as a kit, complete with the large-sized hole driller (on top of the truck), the ladder, the boom, the signage, and the long round-headed shovels. I always like to look at old American  or Canadian photos of cities in the 1900's and see hundreds and hundreds of telegraph and telephone poles all over city streets!

That particular truck has that silver-toned canister which I assume was for gas or oil. And of course, with all of the traffic of cars, and trucks, you had to have lop ice and police motorcycles. Once agin, notice those rubber tires are still intact!

I like the way Clifford has paired police and telephone trucks together in the 2 previous photos. Notice that behind the red Bell truck is a small hauler that holds a telephone pole. Also, you have to remember that horses and carts were still commonplace in cities up to the later 1920's, so police hoped out separating 19th century travel from the 20th century travel.

Wow!

I haven't spent so much time writing so much in such a long time! Toys will do that to you, even if your not a kid anymore (in size). I'm still one at heart!

That you Clifford, for your inspiration and help with this post!

I had lots of fun writing it.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com