Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Remembrance Day
Cloudy and cold
One of the early auction companies that allowed me to use their photos was the Lloyd Ralston Gallery. Lloyd Ralston was a successful auctioneer who salt passed away much too young. However, his 2 sons have continued on with the tradition.
One of my favourite small-sized die cast toy companies is the Tootsietoy company. They manufactured millions upon millions of small die cast toys from the early 1910's-the early 1960's. However, my favourites are the early toys.
What's interesting about these toys is that when the casting was made, any small "imperfections" were left and not filed down. So you'll see some "extensions" of window frames from the excess molten metal. The toys could be purchased individually or could be bought individually, which made the toys very popular, since everyone (rich and poor) kids could buy the toys. I had the pleasure of being able to buy many of these fine toys on ebay, and through Thomas Toys and Classic Tin Toys was able to purchase parts to restore them. What makes them so fascinating (for myself at least) is that you could purchase a whole small town of toys, and make miniature villages with them. Of course, the average child would have a few of them to play with.
Remembrance Day
Cloudy and cold
One of the early auction companies that allowed me to use their photos was the Lloyd Ralston Gallery. Lloyd Ralston was a successful auctioneer who salt passed away much too young. However, his 2 sons have continued on with the tradition.
One of my favourite small-sized die cast toy companies is the Tootsietoy company. They manufactured millions upon millions of small die cast toys from the early 1910's-the early 1960's. However, my favourites are the early toys.
What's interesting about these toys is that when the casting was made, any small "imperfections" were left and not filed down. So you'll see some "extensions" of window frames from the excess molten metal. The toys could be purchased individually or could be bought individually, which made the toys very popular, since everyone (rich and poor) kids could buy the toys. I had the pleasure of being able to buy many of these fine toys on ebay, and through Thomas Toys and Classic Tin Toys was able to purchase parts to restore them. What makes them so fascinating (for myself at least) is that you could purchase a whole small town of toys, and make miniature villages with them. Of course, the average child would have a few of them to play with.
THere were no date as to when the toys were made, but it's relatively;y easy to figure out the older from the newer toys. THe bottommost 2 trucks are very old.The reason is that the front cab tf the truck (where the driver sits) has no glass windshield. Eventually, the windshield came later in history.
If you're a car racing fan, you would certainly know the name "Bluebird". This was the name of the famous land/water speed champion of Sir Malcolm Campbell. He set numerous land speed records with this supper, super racer in the 1930's.
THe truck below is older than the "woodies" that were manufactured later on. The "woodie" got its' name because it had wood panels and strips on the side of the wagon (station wagon in the USA). It also became famous as the American West Coast surfers would use these wagons to to toe their surfboards to the Pacific Ocean.
Antother pair of older vehicles. These 2 still did not have the glass windshields yet
(I"m 95% sure of this!).
The Grahams were produced in about 6 models. I was able to purchase them all at different times and photograph them. There is the rarer LaSalle car that is similar to these, but is rarer. As such, it yields higher values at auctions.
Being a professional photographer and having taught professional photography, I always liked the graphic arts segment of the industry. The graphics department of the Tootsietoy Company certainly had one of the finest groups of designers in the toy industry at the time. Their bold colours and 'showy", but not ostentatious (too glitzy) font styles were easily recognizable and complimented the company's toys for their box design and catalogues.
The Tootsietoy Dairy truck was interesting for it's selection in the Tootsietoy group of utility trucks.
Along with the dairy truck, there were department store trucks. Tootsietoy even made "customized" name brand trucks, such as for true famous Canadian Department Store Company - Eaton's. ca
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Below are some very early Tootsietoy trucks.
Their lack of a windshield dates them to very early 1920's.
So that's it for an early Wednesday Morning on this Remembrance Day. It's a day when we remember WWI & WWII and what happened back then. I'm soon to be 67 and have been around to remember back 55 years ago when I was 12 years old and would come to recognize the poppies that are sold at this time of year in Canada. It's surprising how fast time passes, and I still remember the brass plaque in the downtown Eaton's store that no longer exists. Eaton's went bankrupt, restarted up again and closed down once and for all. I always patronized (Bought merchandize) there because they Eaton;s was an excellent department store back then from 1900-1990's.
BUt what had we return time and time again was the plague on the wall.
Leading the names of soldier victims from WWII were several of the Easton family members and all of the employees who gave up their lives. I'll never forget that and as the famous expression goes:
Lest we Forget……
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
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