Have you Ever Heard of the Freeport Toy Company?

Thursday, September 22, 2016,
Sun with Cloud,
19 Celcius / 66 Fahrenheit

Have you ever Heard of the Freeport Toy Company?

   Lately, I've been getting reader requests asking me for information about a particular toy company. These questions always perk my curiosity and help me to continue writing. 

  Today's post is about Mr. Kevin Wernick and his question. Here's what Kevin Wernick wrote:

"Hello Mr. Bindman. Thank you for replying. I'm sending you pictures of the bus made by the Freeport Toy Company. I am very familiar with the old Arcade factory as I had relatives on Arcade Ave for many years. The Bauschers, I'm sure you've heard of them. But I don't recall ever hearing of the Freeport Toy Company. Any information you could gather would be extremely interesting to me, and probably to you as well. Thanks again, and hope to hear from you. My name is Kevin Wernick"

Interestingly, Kevin is related to a family by the name of Bauscher, which again perked my curiosity. I wrote Kevin back to ask who these people were. I inferred that they perhaps had a connection to the Arcade Toy Company, which is famous for having made cast iron toys in the 1900's and into the 1940's. Another interesting fact that I discovered is that the Arcade Toy COmpany was located in Freeport, Illinois.

 THe photo below shows the name of the Freeport Toy Company

punched into the inner sides opt the toy.

The paint appears to be original, but is quite "rough" in terms of painting

 preciously on different parts of the toy.

Below is the front view of the bus. By the way, the bus is a Greyhound , and I believe the toy is also very small. I sent Kevin another e-mail asking him to send me the dimensions.

What's interesting below, is the fact that there are nuts and bolts

 that attach the 2 halves of the toy at the front and back.

Also, the bus design would appear to be a Greyhound bus from the 1940's, 

ergo the approximate time period, when this toy would have been made.

So that's it for today. If anyone from Freeport, Illinois is reading this post, could you please help myself and my readers by providing information about the Freeport Toy Company, and any other toys that they may have made. However, anyone from elsewhere is also free to help us out.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great time of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

(toysearcher@gmail.com)

The Arcade 1927 Buick Sedan

Monday,December 1, 2014
Cloudy to some sun, and dropping temperatures

The Arcade 1927 

Buick Sedan

  Yesterday, I had written about the very classic and rarer Hubley cast iron 1920's Packard.  It's a beautiful car with lots of features. I decided to present an Arcade 1927 Buick today.It doesn't have the many features (hood opens up, fancy straight 8 engine, front doors open), but it's beautiful 

nevertheless.  Some people even consider this one of Arcade's finest pieces ever made.

  Yesterday, I also added some additional text with regard to the slight variations that you might find a toy in. I decided to continue this today. 

Please click here to redirect to the Bertoia Auctions website

I couldn't find a Wikipedia photo that was large enough to use to match the 1927 Buick Sedan. Instead,I selected a 1928 convertible. However, most of the common features of the 1927 car are there.What's amazing to see on the "real" car are all of the details. The running boards with the rubber step matts,the large grilled Buick logo on the rear wheel well, the beautiful grille and logo,and of course the large headlights! Also the spokes on the wheels were made from wood!

The 1927 Arcade toy catalogue offered customers a choice of either a 2-door coupe or a 4-door sedan. I decided to add the coupe to show you this model.

The Coupe

The Sedan

   The sedan changed a bit over a few years. Below you can see nickel-plated rims with rubber tires.

Most of the time the wheels are nickel-plated. The choices of colours were the rare yellow (really orange in appearance), blue, green and red. In some cases, the rear spare tire is nickel-plated, while in other cases the spare tire is painted black. Sometimes the roof was painted black to vary with the colour body,while other times the entire car was painted one colour. Also, in some cases the normal gold-trim along the side of the car is replaced with a silver trim.

   It's difficult to see on small-siezed photos,but there are some very nice details to the sedan. The  running boards have fine textured  lines on them, and the grille has a patterned mesh on the front.

Personally,this isn't my favourite Arcade cast iron toy, but it does rate highly. What I do adore quite greatly are nickel-plated features to any old truck or car. In the case of the Arcade Sedan, one sees the wheels, and the driver. Arcade certainly could have spent less on the wheels (including the spare tire), but chose to spend to present a fine toy of a fine "real" car.

You can't argue with the toy writers and experts who have called this Arcade toy

"one of the finest Arcade toys ever built".

Thanks for dropping, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may  be, 

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com