Bill Buttaggi's Kansas Toys

Friday, April 24, 2020
Sun with cloudy periods
11 C 52 F

Bill Buttaggi's Kansas Toys

This is the third instalment of Bill Buttaggi's

Kansas toy collection

"Kansas Toy and Novelty" was started in 1923 by Arthus Haynes in Clifton, Kansas.  He believed that it was he who invented the slush cast toy when he accidentally dropped a recently poured mold.

Beginning with toy #8, a coupe, the stock number was cast into the side of the car.  This may have been done so that salesmen could peddle them without needing to carry boxes of catalogs.  All toys had metal wheels and many had a metallic lacquer finish.  Unless there were several parts, bodies were all one color with black painted wheels."*                              

 * Description Courtesy of HobbyDB

Please click here to visit this wonderful and informative website

There's a website by the name of Blurb, that allows people to write a book and add photographs. Below is the author's Blurb page where you can peruse the book, and purchase a copy from him. His name is Rodney Hopson, and there is a lot of history about the Kansas Toy and Novelty Company there.

Please click here to view Rodney's Blurb book

Many of the Kansas  Toy and Novelty Company's toys had a lustrous paint added to the toy.

Several examples below illustrate this.

Below is the patent for a slush casting device. A reverse mould was made for the  toy

from a higher-melting point metal. The liquid and molten "slush" metal alloy was poured through the top opening of the casting device. Once the metal cooled down enough, the casting machine would open (the bottom drawing), and the new toy would be removed.  At this stage, the toy was "rough, and would have some additional metal attached to the basic car. This "extra" metal would be cut off, and the remaining surface would be smoothed down with sanding.

You can visit Bill Buttaggi's Blurb Book at the address below:

Please click here to visit Bill's excellent collection of diecast (slush) toys

So this another instalment  of Bill's excellent collection of diecast toys.

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

Stacey Bindman

Bill Buttaggi's Barclay Toys

Thursday, April 23, 2020
Sunny
7 C  43F

Bill Buttaggi's

Barclay Toys

Please click here to visit Bill's fine collection of slush (die-cast) toys

     The last post that I wrote about was Bill's excellent collection of die-cast (slush) toys. If you haven't followed 4 posts about Bill, then I'll explain. Bill asked me if I would write a post to promote a very good book on his toy collection of these toys. I did so, then asked if I could use his other photos to post more about him and his toys. This is part II of a four-part series. First I did the Tootsietoys, Now Barclay, then C.A.W., Kansas Toy and Novelty .

A History of the Barclay Toy Company

"The Barclay Manufacturing Company was an American metal toy company based in New Jersey that specialised in diecast toy cars and hollowcast toy soldiers. Due to their common availability at five and dime stores, collectors often refer to Barclay's toy soldiers as "Dimestore soldiers"."

"Barclay Manufacturing was formed by Leon Donze and Michael Levy in about 1922 (O'Brien 1997, 62). The name of the company came from Barclay Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. During the 1930s, the company was later based in North Bergen, New Jersey."

"Some of Barclay's first vehicles were slush cast white metal made in the 1930s. Some of the most interesting models were in art deco style. One intriguing selection was a "Coast to Coast" art deco style bus – another a two tone oil tanker with pontoon fenders – on both models, fenders were different colors from the bodies. One available set had a cartoon-like strip on the box lid that stated it was a "Build and Paint Your Own Auto Set" which was "Loads of fun". The set included a four-door sedan, a two-door, and a tanker truck. It included paint and the cars had white rubber wheels.

Also about this time, and into the 1940s, the company made a variety of military vehicles – tanks, trucks with cannon and other cars painted brown."**

Please click here to learn more about the Barclay company (Wikipedia)

What made these toys so popular was their design and cost.  They were nicknamed  

"dimestore toys" because most small toys in the dimestores  of the time would  cost 10 cents.

Interestingly, these toys are still very much in demand. However, for some of these toys, they would cost you 100-500 times their original cost of 10 cents. 

Talk about what investments you could invest in to retain the value of your money!

That's it for today.

I phoned a couple of friends that I meet at McDonald's every day (before the Covid-19 virus came. 

They're fine, and some of the other people are fine also. I've been trying to get more facemasks and latex gloves, but it's impossible to find them!

Thanks for visiting my blog,and please take care of yourselves and loves ones.

As always,

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

Also, I can always be reached by e-mail at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

Bill Buttaggi's Fine Collection of Slush Toys

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Cloudy with rain,
10 C 50 F

Bill Buttaggi's 

Fine Collection of Slush Toys

Please click here to visit this  excellent website about slush toys

Yesterday, I posted a blog post about Mr. Bill Buttaggi's new book.  Bill had asked me if could write a blog about a book that he was writing and would be selling, and of course I said yes. While researching his website, and where one could buy his book, I came across  his website that was all about slush toys. Bill had been collecting since he was 16, some 34 years ago, and had amassed an excellent collection.

When I went to Bill's website, there was a fantastic collection of "slush" toys. I wasn't sure how I would present them, so I decided to present them by brand name. The ones presented today are:

Tootsietoys

A Brief History of the Tootsietoy Company

The Tootsietoy company was created by Samuel Dowst. He visited the World's Fair in 1893,and saw a new casting machine (die-casting). Mr. Dowst was in the business of making buttons for the collars of shirts of the time. He decided to buy one of the new casting machines, and see if he could make buttone from them. He most certainly did. As well, he decided to get into the die-cast toy making business. From there, as they say, "the rest is history". Initially, made miniature trinkets, such as miniature irons, shoes, and frypans.These "charms" would be sold to candy companies who would place these miniatures as a "treat" for having bought the candy. The name "Tootsetoy" was not always used for all of the toys. However, when one of the Dowst brothers had a grand-daughter who was named "Toots", the name "Tootsietoy" was used for all the toys that would be produced by them.

Notice the prices for 1929

For example, the top-most upper left convertible

sold wholesale for $ 9.25 for a gross (144 toys), or

80 cents for a dozen.

This post will be the first of 4 posts based on Bill Buttaggi's fine collection of die-cast(Slush toys). 

The other brand to follow will be: C.A.W., Kansas, and Barclay.

So thanks for visiting,

And as always, have a 

great part of the day or evening.

And for sure, "play it safe", during this terrible Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic!

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Bill Buttaggi's New Book on the Lincoln White Metal Works Company

Monday, April 20, 2020
Sunny but Cold
6 C 41 F

Bill Buttaggi's New Book on the 

Lincoln White Metal Works Company

I received a most-interesting e-mail from Mr. Bill Buttaggi. Bill is an avid collector of  slush toys.

A slush toy is made by pouring molten alloy of lead into a mould. Afterwards, the mould is left to cool, and the toy in then removed. Later, it is painted, and wheels are added to the toy.

Bill had written an excellent book on the slush toys of the 

Lincoln White Metal Works Company.

      THE SLUSH MOLD TOYS OF LINCOLN WHITE METAL WORKS

        A complete history of Clayton E. Stevenson and his slush mold toy company Lincoln White Metal Works. 

                         This 102 page book showcases all the known toys from the company and a few newly 

                     discovered as well. Each toy is beautifully photographed in multiple views so no detail is lost. 

                 Also included are screenshots from a film of the Lincoln White Metal Works factory, interesting 

                  comparisons to real vehicles, information on the slush molding process and an index of LWMW 

                                       wheel and propeller types, sizes and bottom pan variations.

                                                Please click here to see Bill's website and to order the book

Copyright 2020                   Bill Buttaggi

Please do not copy without his written permission

In this modern 21st century, anyone can now create their own books, and this is how Bill  made and published.

For those of you who want to leaf through the book, and even purchase it, please

click on the link below and you will redirect to the publisher, Blurb Books.

Please click here to visit Blurb and Bill's Book

So that's it for today. 

Please take care of yourself and have a great part of the day or evening.

As always,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com