Friday, March 7, 2014
Warmer and partly sunny
Marvin"
Warmer and partly sunny
Tootsietoys Revisited
A Major Project
One of my favourite American toy companies is Tootsietoys, who salt are no longer in business. They were to America what Dinky is to the United Kingdom (Great Britain). When I started to wrote about toys, I knew very little,and 3 years later, I still know very little, but a lot less "very little" than before. At the beginning of my blog, I'd buy and resell toys on ebay. I'd see these very small toys, and eventually tarted to buy them. I think the most I ever paid for a Tootsietoy was close to $ 80.00, and that was a Lasalle. There are more costly Tootsietoys, but the Lasalle was the premium car, after of course the Grahams.
So why do i like these small toys so much? For one, there are still many of them around in germ of the early production (1930's). The company did continue into the 1950's and slightly later, but closed down. I've mentioned before that America was a relatively new county even after 1900. Millions of people came from all over the world to try and make a better life in the "land of Opportunity",and many people came by boat and passed the famous Statue of Liberty. With the people came children, and those individuals who would marry and have children. Of course, children needed toys, and where better to make toys than in your own country.
Tootsietoys were small and inexpensive, but the smart idea behind the company (my own deduction) was the fact that as child, you couldn't just have 1 toy like the "giant" Steelcraft or even the somewhat smaller Hubley trucks. The "huge' Tootsietoys were in fact about 5" (107mm), while many of the smaller Tootsietoys were even smaller still.
The company produced airplanes, trucks, tractors, cars and some other toys. And the toys could be purchased individually or in boxed sets, which are the "numero uno" among people that collect old or antique toys. If your patents could afford a set, you would certainly be a very fortunate child. If not, and your parents could but just one Tootsietoy, you'd still be very fortunate. And on top of the many different types of vehicles, there were colours, and lots and lots of bright and brilliant colours.
If you look on the Net, or on ebay, you will find many many sotres that sell replacement parts for the Tootsietoys. That in itself tells you about the lasting demand for these fascinating toys.
In order to work on this large project, I'll have to contact lots of people. I have my regular great people, but I wanted to present the Tootiseotys in a more modern style that I've been doing lately, so I needed to make a special request from one of them who had sold thousands. I decided to also write to several ebay people and Marvo4 wrote back within a day and said MArvin wrote me back a day later, and his message was short and sweet. Sometimes, when I see an interesting person's items or store, I will phone and speak with them. But I'm beginning to understand that people who are working have their businesses to run,and don't have time to "chat". So I'm learning not to phone!
"Hi Stacey,
That is fine with me. Good luck in your endeavours. Marvin"
Marvin is an merchant on ebay, who has an excellent feedback record. He's been on ebay for 15 years, which is in the digital and Internet era a long time. He has sold lots of toys, and currently (First week of March 2014) is selling some very nice Tootsietoys.
What I like about Marvin is of course his short message, bout also the fat that he trusted me to go ahead with my newer style of toy presentation, which you'll see below. I hope Marvin will like the style, and if not, I can always return to the traditional. For those who are visiting my blog today for the first time, my newer style is to present toys against a white background, and to add some highlights (brighter reflections) to some parts of the toys.
I like how the toys came out today on the page. Marvin has a nice way with composing his toys, What I did is to whiten the background, and I left a black line that was in all of his photos. It was a border between a background and a tabletop. Of course, the final say is Marvin, so I'll reply on his opinion as to how he likes what I did. When I have time, I readjust the backgrounds on some of the photos that are greyish. Sometimes, you don't see this when working with photo-editing software.
Details, details……
Thanks for dropping by,
and 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
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