A Fine Collection of Rubber Toys-Part III

Sunday, February 1, 2015
Sunny,and very, very cold

A Fine Collection of Rubber Toys

Part III

  This is the third part presenting the fine rubber toy collection of Mr. Michael Lapova. I've already presented his automobiles and racers . Today is his nice trucks. I did purchase some rubber toys when I was buying and selling, and I was always fascinated with the fact that these toys lasted so long, and were still "rubbery", having maintained their ability to compress well  or"squeezability". 

Please click here to visit Michael Lavopa's exceptional web site

When viewing these images, I would suggest viewing them in Google Blogger's slide mode. The images are larger, and you'll be able to see just the photos, and not the text.  What I really like about the rubber toys is that the moulds were well made, and the viscosity of the hot melted rubber was able to fill the crevices of the mould to transfer fine detail. You can see the windshield wipers, the door handles, and the small windows with all of their detail. 

The toys below are relatively "large. Further down , there are very small rubber toys,

 and they too show quite fine details.

I like the 4 pairs of grooves in the top car carrier. This would allow 2 cars to be placed in those notches, and keep them from rolling off.

Below are the 3 different versions of the Cary-Cars.  I did some photo-editing to glamorize the trucks with some nice bright areas called highlights. 

This camera angle illiterates the differences between 2 trailers - one with a moveable rear gate,

 and one with a fixed gate.

The left rear truck has bent sides.

I wonder if the rubber can be re-formed to have straight sides again?

The Auburn Rubber Company was one of the more-successful and larger companies in the USA.

Here, Michael Lavopa presents 2 cabs spanning 13 years apart.  The more-modern cab is interesting for its colour - cyan, which is like a "sky blue".  All of the rubber companies of the time liked to stay with strong and vibrant colours  or the primaries - red, green, and blue.

I', still amazed that rubber toys were being made and sold in 1949.

Here's a very small toy measuring 4 1/4" or 113 mm. Notice what I mentioned much earlier - the fine detail that could be transferred from the mould to the cooled-down toy.  THis was certainly one of the great characteristics of rubber.

Sometimes the driver of a truck or car would be hand painted. Toy can see the flesh-toned skin of the driver on the left-most toy.

All of the toys presented today were manufacture red by the Auburn Rubber Company. However there were a few other companies, one of them being the Sun Rubber Company. When I visited Wikipedia to read more on the Auburn Rubber Company, I found out that they they played their part in WWII. Most American companies at the time had to change their production for the war effort. The Auburn Rubber Company retooled to make soles (tread part) for rubber boots, and rubber gaskets for "jerry cans" (gasoline cans).

After the war, the company continued making newer rubber toys, and continued into the late 1950's.

If you visit Wikipedia, you can read the nice story about this rubber toy company.