Sometimes I venture into the 1950's

Thursday, August 14, 2014 
                  Cloud and rain

Sometimes I Venture 

into the 1950's

  If you've read enough of my posts, you'll know that my daily schedule is to get up in the morning, go for a coffee and low-fat muffin, walk our dog Buddy, open the computer, check the mail, then start looking for inspiration for the next several posts.

  Yesterday, I was looking on Liveauctioneers, when I saw an eye-catching rubber train from  AmbroseBauerTrains. The Company promotes themselves as "The Nation's Foremost Marketplace of Toy Trains & Toy Train Auctions". If I had the time, AmbroseBauerTrains and the vast archives would keep me busy for the next 20 years writing just about model trains! However, I've learned in my writing a blog, to always look what else an auctioneer might sell, and I've had many pleasant surprises on the AmbroseBauerTrains website finding items that were not train-related.

  I was this beautiful intense orange diesel engine yesterday made by Auburn Rubber. The company had made rubber toys in the 1940's and I discovered them a few years ago on my journey of writing this blog. I even purchased a few Auburn, and other manufacturer's toys to see them "up close". I was amazed at how well made they were, and how thy had lasted for so long. 

Please click here to visit this most fascinating model train auctioneer's website

Of course, whenever an original box, abbreviated "OB" in the description is included, the value of 

any toy escalates.  However, what attracts me to this toy is the ability for the rubber and the mould process to capture small detail. An example (without even enlarging these images) is the windshield wiper blade.

Today rubber toys have mostly been replaced with plastic toys. What I especially like about rubber is how long these toys last. Also, rubber (like plastic) is able to form and contour into small impressions in the mould to which the hot material is poured into.

The wheels are not  that impressive, but they're functional. The toy designers were smart enough to make the sides of the toy low-profile (low to the ground) so that the body covered the black wheels!

Nevertheless, you can see how the Auburn Rubber company was still producing fine toys into the 1950's - a place that I rarely visit, but if I live long enough I will - for my next blog!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

'wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Fabulous Old Rubber Vehicles

Friday, April 11, 2014
            (Sunny and cooler)

Fabulous Old Rubber Vehicles

  I've been starting to do spring chores around the house, so I wasn't motivated to write.  I patched up a piece of my asphalt driveway right in front of the steel threshold where the garage door meets it. Then I cleaned my dog Buddy's "poops" in the backyard, when we too lazy to go outdoors in very cold weather and walk him (ugh!).  Then yesterday, was the removal and fixing up of fibreglass and reflector posts for the driveway. These are used to keep tell the gardener where the grass is, under the snow and ice, when he clears it.

   You have to be motivated to write a post every day, and some bloggers gradually tire, and post a few times a week, then once a month, then eventually just stop. However, I still was looking on the Net, and found a recent auction with lots of nice rubber toys from mostly the 1930's. The first time that I saw a rubber toy, I couldn't believe that, when there was so much inexpensive iron ore to make metal toys. However, I got "hooked' to liking these toys, and many of them are still around. I even purchased several to see exactly how they looked, and they were great! The Lloyd Ralston Gallery, a fine auctioneer run by the sons of the late Lloyd ralston, had a nice grouping of rubber toys, so I simply whitened them up, and together they "sparkle" against the white.

Please click here to visit the very nice site of the Lloyd Ralston Gallery

Everything was simpler back in the 1930's and earlier. This is true of most cars that were made for everyone, and were within the reach of many people. Of course the "fancy" cars were another story.

Wha'ts interesting is that when you go to a website and don;t enlarge the images, the toys are very similar from  car manufacturer to manufacturer. When you enlarge them , you start to see the differences from Ford to Chrysler, and others.   

I don't think I had ever seen a Chrysler Airflow made of rubber. This particular "real" car from Chrysler is one of my favourites. If you do a search for the "real" car, you will see a beautiful car. Unfortunately, the timing and the public were not as enthusiastic as I am, and the car never sold well. Production was discontinued after 3 years.

"Double lucky". 

Another Chrysler Airflow in one auction.

 Beautiful!

Not all of the toy cars were made by toy companies, or perhaps the one above was made by a toy company but for Firestone Tires. The one above was made in 1936 for the Great Lakes Exhibition.  

The name Seiberling seemed familiar to me regarding tires.  I did a fast Wikipedia check and  Charles Goodyear. Charles Goodyear was the American who invented thee process of vulcanizing rubber in 1839. By the way, Frank Seiberling's company is called the Goodyear  Tire & Rubber Company. If you go to wikipedia, you'' be able to read 2 excellent articles about Charles Goodyear and Frank Seiberling. By the way, vulcanization is a process whereby the gummy and sticky nature of raw latex (rubber) is changed to manageable properties to be able to work with it. The first product Charles Goodyear made were rubber shoes!

There's always something to be learned when researching material for a blog post!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

My e-mail address is:

toysearcher@gmail.com