More of Tom Sander's Fine Work

Saturday, June 8, 2014
          Sunny, windy and hot

More of Tom Sander's Fine Work

   When Mr. Tom Sanders wrote to me earlier this week, I wasn't expecting  all of the work and photographs that he'd be sending me. We communicated back and forth, and the next thing I knew, Tom had sent me 4 posts worth of excellent material for my blog. Today's post, is another fine example how Tom is able to take old toys and "make them new" again, but "with a twist". You'll see what I mean as you view the photos and read Tom's own words.

 Please click here to visit Tom Sander's interesting website

In Tom's Own Words:

Here are my two “pinches” of Philosophy that I, on occasion, have to pinch myself as a reminder. These are specifically geared to the airplane toy projects since I also work on vintage aircraft models. 1) The vintage toy is not a scale airplane but simply a design “suggestion” to sell the product when new. 2) Toy airplane collectors are unique in that they do want the toy to be as good as new or better. This is probably due to the fact that they are mostly pilots and any ugly airplane is an unsafe airplane in their mind’s eye.

Ok, first past project…

The Wyandotte Lindbergh Sirius: I found this toy in average to rough shape about 3 years ago at the Allegan Antique Show in Michigan. The guy selling it was around when Wyandotte was still in business and he saved this as a unique item during the 1960’s. The threaded rods imbedded into the wing was one of the factors of interest. The other, for, me was the panted gear which was not normally installed with these particular toy airplanes.   Always playing the sleuth, I investigated the Lindbergh Sirius and found he used of both wheeled landing gear and pontoons with the same airplane. Rumors came to light that Wyandotte went as far as to contact Strombecker in Moline, Illinois for producing wood pontoons for the project. Apparently none of this gelled and probably only a few marketing prototypes were ever finished and the project squashed due to multiple factors. These include, #1-cost, #2 production changes, #3 Too unique for the market, TOO novel! And, #4, the airplane with the pontoons attached would not float. This particular inability and cost probably killed the concept. What company wants to receive calls from consumers that, “I spent a lot of money to buy that airplane for Johnny and with just one day at the lake and it’s gone! Why sell a float plane that doesn’t float!”  

I wrote Tom to thank him that he had been able to find the time to send me such great material for all the posts. I suggested that he join Facebook and even write his own blog. However,  he's still working and is excellent at what he does  and of course needs to spend lots of time in his profession (I'll ask him if I can inform my readers what he does).

So much for the back story. Here is the overhaul and restoration…

     First shot shows two of the same toys. The one on foreground is the typical (although rare on its own) version of the Sirius. These were the smallest of the Lockheed Vega series that Wyandotte produced and the version that offered the most variation. They were Depression toys so the smallest design received the most attention because they sold more. The one in back is the “special” undergoing an overhaul.

     And more shots of a stock unit. This is one of the Green and black versions. These were less common to the popular Orange and black ala’ Lindbergh.

 Here is a shot of the panted gear with the thumbscrew attachment cleaned-up.

 First shot of the new pontoon assembly in place. 

I did use some scale drawings to at least get the proportions close.

With painted gear

 First shot finished. Has new solid Plexiglas canopy 

(hand carved and polished) and new prop with prop shaft.

Another Perspective

The fantastic thing about this particular work that Tom created is that it's "convertible".

The airplane can either have pontoons or  wheels. The conversion is done by unscrewing the pontoons vis the brass screws and installing the wheels.

Glamour shot. 

Photo of Photographer taking a picture with Lindbergh and the airplane. 

Figures are vintage lead and both are “Britains” figures. Camera is a square piece of mahogany,

brass tube lens, 3 toothpicks and electrical wire.

 I like the final "glamour shot" above. The low camera angle combined with a wide-angle lens creates a fine finishing for today's post. What I especially like is Tom's creation of the camera with an authentic Britain's lead figure!

Blogging doesn't get any better than this.

Thanks Tom!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

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

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com