The Times They Are a-Changin'

 Sunday, December 31, 2023                                                                                                         

-3 Celcius / 26.6 F

Overcast with some flurries

    There's a song title by the famous American folk singer, Bob Dylan. The name of the song is

"The Times They Are a-Changin". And so it goes with toys and toy auctions. In the last couple of years, well-known American toy auctioneers have joined an ever-growing auction website by the name 

liveauctioneers.   

    I haven't contacted the many auctioneers whom have allowed me to write about them, and of course use their excellently-photographed toys at their auction websites.  But in the last 2 years, I've noticed that several respected and renowned auctioneers have joined 

liveauctioneers.

    Interestingly, many of them still retain and maintain their websites, along with the ability to view their auctions. Bidding takes place on LiveAuctioneers, and I'll have to contact one of the fine American toy auctioneers to see if bidders can still bid on both their websites, as well as on

 liveauctioneers.

Liveauctioneers is a website that  has become very popular and has got quite large. It's a website that allows all kinds of different types of auctioneer companies to present their merchandise and auctions there. If you go there, you will see all kinds of different types of merchandise. Naturally, I've only written and presented old and antique toy auctioneers.  I've only presented a small number of companies that I've written about, but there are also, many more that you will find on this website.

CYBERTOYAUCTIONS is another well-known American auction company that now can be found on liveauctioneers.   

The 3 companies shown below happen to be owned by CYBERTOYAUCTIONS. Old Toy Soldier Auctions USA, is a special auction company that specializes in "old toy soldiers". 

You can go to the liveauctioneers website by clicking on the link below:

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/

Once you are on the liveauctioneers opening page, you can search for the auctioneers that I've

listed today, and you will be redirected to any of the companies that I've added to this post today. 

You will also be able to search out for other toy auctioneer companies.

As always,

Thanks for dropping by.

Have a great part of the day or night.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

And one final note:

To all of my readers, thanks for dropping by,

and have a Healthy and Happy New Year.

  

                                                                                                           

                                                                                                         

Blogger Isn't So Hard To Learn

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

32° F / 0° C

Cloudy

Why Not Create Your Own Blog?

    I thought that I would write a different post today. So, today's post is about Blogger and its' parts. 

It's quite user-friendly, although it will take you some time to eventually use it. I haven't searched out any websites that have learning how to use Blogger, but I'm sure there are.

You'll have to excuse the quality of my screen-captures. I don't know what's happening, but

the quality of the captures is very soft, and you won'y be able to read any writing easily on some screen-captures.

All of the screen-captures are from  the first year (2011) 

August 25, 2011

How the time flies!

The above image is the opening page of a post.

The letters and symbols at the top of the above image

are the components for writing. 

You have choices for letters of:

1. size

2. colour

3. Italic or normal

4. Bold or normal letter

5. Underline

The list to the left of the photos shows you all kinds

of different type that you can use.

Above:

Your choice of the size of the type that you'd like

The colour (color) selection that

you have at your disposal for your type (writing)

Places where you can upload photos from.

Of course, I always ask for permission from whomever or wherever

 I'm going to use their photos.

Above:

This screen-capture shows you how you might want your writing to be position.

For today, I selected "Center align"

Above: More Options

The globe (world) icon allows you to select

all kinds of languages (see below some of these languages)

to write your blog post.

Above:

Some of the many different language options to be used

Above:

I Photoshop all of my images, and those of people who allow me to use their photos.

Sometimes however, I need to enlarge a photo. So rather than rezie in Photoshop, 

I can "capture (or highlight in blue) a photo, by  then stretch and enlarge it, 

by placing the arrow or crosshairs anywhere at the pictures sides or 

bottoms and stretching out the image to a new size.

Above:  

This screen-capture shows you 3 things:

1. Pressing "Preview post" allows you to see how the post will look on the Net

2. Pressing update saves your content at any point in time. It's a good idea to save

your writing several times during any post, in case there's a power failure or any other disruption.

Above:

Pressing another button will allow you to save your content

Above:

You can upload content from your computer

or from Youtube. Of course, you'd need the permission

of the person's content on YouTube!

Speling words wrong will be pickked up by Blogger

Blogger also has a "spell-checker".

The small red-dotted lines under 2 misspelled words

illustrates that I have made 2 spelling errors.

I'll try and work on another post on Blogger on the weekend.

If you have any suggestions or questions on today's post,

please feel free to write to me.

My e-mail address is toysearcher@gmail.com

As always, thanks for dropping by,

And have a great part of the day or 

night wherever you may be.

(Mr.) Stacey Bindman

 

Those Magnificent Machines from a Long Time Ago

  Monday, December 4, 2023

  Overcast,

  27 F -2.77 C

Those Magnificent Steam Engine Machines

from a Long Time Ago

    Whenever I get an e-mail from a reader, I'm always reminded of the 1995 Tom Hanks movie Forrest Gump, for which Tom won an Oscar award for Best Actor. I still remember that famous line in the movie where Forrest is seated at a bus stop and says to the lady seated next to him, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get". 

    And so it was with today's post. I received an e-mail from Mr. Richard Rominger, III, asking if I knew something about a specific type of steam engine. The engine was  an Empire B-44 D-Cell Electric Engine that would have been produced between 1933-1938.

    Richard is searching for that rare B-44 Engine. So if there is anyone out there who has one or knows of someone who has one for sale, could you please contact me. 

I'll then forward the information to Richard.

    Unfortunately, I am 99.9% sure that I never ever wrote a post about these most-interesting machines. I called these engines machines because in my humble opinion, I felt that they were made for older children due to their complexity, and their needing care and caution when "working" with them.

    Naturally, I wrote Richard back, and said that I did not know anything about  these special class of machines, but if he could send me some photos, I would gladly write a post about them.

    These machines ran on electricity, and would produce heat (steam) by heating up water in an enclosed system.

Below is the cover page of a 1935 Empire

(The Metal Ware Corporation) Catalogue

                                                                                    

Below are 5 pages from this 

     excellent catalogue 

I normally add a copyright notice to each and every photo that

I use. However, in this case, Richard is not the owner of the of the copyright, and the manufacturer has not been in business for a long time.

If anyone knows about what happens to copyrights when a company or publisher closes down, please write to me, and give me the information, so that I 

can share it with others.

Above:  Dry Cell B32

1930-1942

8"x 6"x 6" (20.32 cm x 15.4 cm x 15.4 cm)

Dry Cell Battery Supplied Power (4 Volts)

Above: Hot Air B40

1924-1941

12 1/8" x 6 1/4" x 5" (30.8 cm x 15.8.75 cm x12.7 cm)

Above: Large Wheel 

1930-1933

15" x 14" x 6" ( 38.1 cm x 35.5 cm x 15.24 cm)

Above: Dry Cell B32

1930 - 1942

8" x 6" x 6"  (20.32 cm x 15.25 cmx 15.24 cm 

2 lbs  (.907 Kg)

Above: Water Twin B42

1926 -1930

9" x 8" x 7"  (20.32 cm x 15.25 cmx 15.24 cm 

12 lbs  (5.44 Kg)

Accessories

Top Left: 6 1/4" x 4 1/4"

No. 32 Variable Speed Unit 

1930-1935

Top Right:

6 1/4" x 4 3/4"

No.50 Water Pump

1939-?

Bottom Middle:

7" x 5" x 4"

1/8 scale B34 Windlass Variable Speed Unit

1930 - 1935

Water B31

1921-1931

7" x 6" x 10"  ( 17.8 cm x 14.25 cm x 25.4 cm

If you want to see one of these machines  working, 

please go to the address below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwQ4umV7rBs

Just copy and paste the youtube address,

Below are 2 additional images that Richard sent me 

after he had proofread his post.

I would like to personally thank Richard for

sending me so many images and taking the time to scan 

or photograph those 1935 catalogue pages.

What an effort!

In closing,

Have a great part of the day or night wherever you may be,

and by all means, feel free to contact me anytime.

I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

and my name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

A Few Suffragate Toys

Friday, November 24, 2023

Cloudy and Cold

-6 Celsius / 21.2 Fahrenheit 

 

 Some Suffragette Toys

    The Suffragette movement was a movement in the early 20th century that related to women who wanted the right to vote. At the time, women were not allowed to vote. The first country to allow women to vote was New Zealand. That was in 1893. Eventually many women in countries worldwide started to march, protest, and pressure legislatures to allow women to vote. The USA Congress passed legislation on June 4, 1919. On August 18, 1920, the legislation was ratified, and the 19th amendment was ratified, granting women in America to vote.

    I was searching the Internet for a topic to write about today, and decided to search out Althof Bergman Bell Toys. I came across one website, and lo and behold, there were several of their toys described as "Patriotic Suffragette toys".

   Whoa!   Did I just read that? That toys were made to honour women who  fought for the right to be allowed to vote? And that's how today's post evolved!  I was euphoric, and I learned a great history lesson!! 

       Most of the Althof Bergmann Suffragette toys were made in the 1870's. There are a few more that were made at the time, and when I have more time, I will look for them.

So thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman,

and you are always welcome 

to send questions, or even send me photos of your

special toys, that you might want me to write a post.

   

An Exceptional Collector and his Website are Rediscovered

 Thursday, November 23, 2023

 Cloudy

 3.9 Celsius / 39 Fahrenheit

An Exceptional Collector

and his website are Rediscovered

    I recently contacted ATCA (Antique Toy Collectors of America) to ask for permission to write about their website and this great resource for toy collectors. Coincidentally, the person who replied to my inquiry was Mr. Derrick Clow. I received the permission, and posted recently on ATCA.  

    This week, I found an exceptional website, and it just happened to be written by Mr. Derrick Clow. What a coincidence. However, I didn't make the association, because lately, I've been very tired probably from the flu. I contacted Derrick, not remembering that he had had answered me 2 weeks before on behalf of ATCA. Nevertheless, I had a "Eureka moment", and recalled that I had just written to Derrick at ATCA, and now I was asking if I might write about his excellent website. I even checked my website, and sure enough, about 10 years ago, I had written a post about Derrick!  Needless to say, I was very embarrassed, and apologized to Derrick for my memory lapses.

  Derrick happens to specialize in collecting Keystone toys, catalogues, and even old invoices of a renowned American toy Company by the name of Keystone. Not only did Keystone once manufacture toys, but they also were known with regard to their having manufactured movie cameras and movie projectors.

Please click on the address below to visit Mr. derrick Clow's fine website

http://www.collectingkeystone.com/author/derrickclow/

        I've just presented a very small "introduction" to Derrick's exceptional website and resource for anyone collecting Keystone toys, or wanting to know about this once very popular company.

    I'll be returning to this great website, and will write another post some time soon. In the meantime, please have a look at Derrick's website. It has lots of information, and of course lots of photos of toys for anyone interested in learning about Keystone.

                                                       That's all for today.

                                                   Thanks for dropping by,

                                   And as always, have a great part of day or night,

                                                   Wherever you may be.

                                                   I can always be reached at

                                                     toysearcher@gmail.com

                                         (Mr.) Stacey Bindman