A Return to the Auburn Rubber Company

Friday, December 12, 2014
Overcast, some flurries, mild

A Return to the 

Auburn Rubber Company

   During the time that I was buying and selling toys on ebay, I discovered the fascinating world of rubber toys. One of the largest manufacturers was the Auburn Rubber Company.  What fascinated me was the fact that these toys have survived for so long considering that they were made from rubber.  I know nowadays that my car tires do not last as long as my earlier cars.Are the manufacturers using "different" materials so tires do not last 50,000 miles  (80,000 km)? I had to replace both my summer and winter tires (on rims) last year, yet I only had  45, 000 km or 27,000 miles. Worst of all, summer tires are used for 8 months of the year and winter tires for only 4 months. Yet when I received my 1940's and later rubber toys, the rubber was still flexible on most of the toys.

   What I also liked from the rubber toys was the fact that rubber contoured superbly well in moulds. Consequently, lots of small detail could easily be designed to eventually come up with detail in the final product.  When I would photograph the rubber toys,I had a lot of fun and satisfaction, by being able to light these toys up so fine. Of course,  the photography was lost on most ebay buyers. As long as you are honest and show a fair image of what you're selling most don't care how great the photo looks! However, photography on ebay, is improving - finally!

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

I hadn't added a post lately from the Lloyd Ralston Gallery, so it was good to be able to. 

The two sons of the late Lloyd Ralston have continued the fine company. Also, they were one of the first people to help me with my blog by allowing me to use their images, 

after I had stopped buying and selling on ebay.

Not all of the toys below are Auburn Rubber Company toys. Nevertheless, I selected this image as a great example of the some of the many different toys that were made in that period. Also the arrangement and composition of the photo is excellent.

Here's another sampling of rubber toys from different manufacturers. Obvously, although there are no dates provided, the jets most certainly have to be from the mid-1950's.,give or take a few years.

The 4 trucks are from the 1940's, and I can;t tell you when the 3 propeller airplanes were made.

 The name of the company on the side of the car is easily read if you enlarge this image in Google Blogger slide view. That illustrates how much fine detail can be transferred from the mould to the actual finished toy.

 You can easily appreciate the large catalogue of toys that the Auburn Rubber Company had at the time. Today's presentation is merely a "taste". As I was searching for what to present today, I had come across a fine set of rubber soldiers from the company.  I almost decided to add a post on the Auburn Rubber Company soldiers, but decided to present something different. Too many posts of a similar nature tends to keep readers from reading the later posts.  However, in a few weeks, I 'll see if I can find enough listings to write a post on the Auburn soldiers.

I like the depth and design of the many different racers and cars that the company produced. I didn't even get them all! 

I don't know why the company would make 2 very similar racers that were only 1/2" 13 mm) difference in length? However, the nicely-detailed tractor came with the racers, so I left all 3 together. I like how the hand of the driver are relaxed on the steering wheel,and how his head is turned downwards and to the side.  That's quite different from the normal  position of looking straight ahead.

Of course, if you like old cars,you'd like old toy cars.  What's great about rubber toys is that they're within easy reach (cost to purchase) of most collectors,and they'd make great items to display in anyones den or on house walls.

I would think that since rubber was fairly inexpensive at the time, the rubber toy companies could make lots of different moulds with lots of different models, toy types, and colours. You can easily see how the 2 motorcycles below are quite similar,yet have enough differences.

I've heard of the Cord car, but now that I think of it, I don't think I ever presented a metallic Cord!

What I like about this racer is how large the real racer was. at the time. Some racers were huge and I canlt even imagine the noise, vibrations and exhaust times that these produced.

Pastel colours were not used that much, and primary colours were. If you look at the overall toys shown today, there are a few toys that have 2 different shades of the same colour or are  totally different (red/silver, yellow/green, blue/white, and red/yellow). I don't know how the 2-toned or 2 different colours were applied to the rubber,so that's a question I'll have to find the answer to.

I think  I sometimes give myself too much homework to do!

If you want to do a search for my very early posts on my own bought and sold rubber cars, simply do a search for Auburn, Rubber Toys,Sun Rubber Toys, and Arcor. That should be able to  have some results come up.

Thanks for dropping by and as always,

have a great past of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toy earcher@gmail.com