A Revisit to the Buddy "L" Museum

Monday, December 23, 2024

-8°C / 14° F

Overcast and Damp

A Revisit to the Buddy 'L' Museum

The time is moving fast now, and it's getting closer to Christmas. I had to get in one more post before the holiday, and so I decided to see what's up at the

Buddy L Museum.  I'd written many times about the museum and the 

specialization in collecting Buddy 'L' toys from the past. 

The Museum is located in Florida, USA

The museum is always buying Buddy 'L' toys for their museum, 

and their website is a great resource and reference locale for

anyone interested in learning about the Buddy 'L' company and  their toys

that they once made.

 

Could you please click on this sentence to redirect to the Buddy L Museum

Below:

1929 Buddy L Fliver one ton Huckster Delivery Truck

Length:  14" / 35.56 cm

Below:

One of their services is appraising Buddy L toys.

The screen-capture shows the authentication certificate

Below:

1930 Buddy L Baggage Truck with Dual Rear Firestone 

rubber tires, doors, nickel-plated headlights and bumper

Height x length x width

12" x 26" x 9"

30.5 cm x  66 cm x 22.9 cm

Below:

1925 Keystone Packard Dump Truck 

with perforated radiator grill

length: 28" (71.1 cm) 

Below:

1929 Keystone Sonny US Army Truck

Length x Height

26" x 10.5" (66 cm x 26.7 cm)

Below:

1925 Buddy L Camshell Dredge

Length: 19" (48.26 cm)

The Buddy 'L' toys were made of pressed steel, and you can see how they've 

lasted over the years.While I writing this post, I had to search for the 

dimensions of these toys. When I did so, I was amazed at how many of these toys were produced. Doing the search with Google brought a plethora (a large amount)  of results. I was surprised to see how many toys must have been produced by the Buddy L Company.  

I was also amazed to see how many of these toys appear in very good condition.

I would not even be surprised if some collector did not put away his "collectibles", and the next thing the father or mother saw, was their children were busy in the back yard sandbox playing with the parents' toys.

I had a good laugh with that thought, 

and I'm sure this has happened!

So thanks for dropping by, and I'd like to wish

everyone a happy holiday for whichever

holiday that you celebrate during December, as well

as a Healthy and Happy New Year to everyone.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

and I can always be reached at 

toysearcher@gmail.com

 

Mr. Ken McGee Revisited

Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Overcast and Raining
6 Celsius 41 Fahrenheit

Mr. Ken McGee Revisited

Please click here to visit this most-interesting ebay seller

It must be that Christmas is approaching. I've been revisiting old friends who have helped me out,and so it was, that I happened to visit Mr. Ken McGee.  Ken has a Chevrolet dealership in Ontario (Canada), but he also happens to be a fascinating seller on ebay. His specialty are is car manual ephemera or simply put, car manuals.  He has thousands and thousands of old car manuals for sale, but visiting him today was a big surprise.

I've been fortunate to lately find toys that are either in excellent condition or that have been restored. 

So when I visited Ken yesterday, I was awestruck. He had a whole nice grouping of very old toys that had been superbly restored.  Naturally, I had to download two examples for todays post., but if you venture over to his ebay store, you'll see at least a dozen fine examples of toys from olden times as they might have appeared 90 years ago!

1926-1929 Buddy 'L'  Pressed Steel Toy Ice Delivery Truck Restored

A beautifully restored example of the Buddy 'L' ice delivery truck, complete

with a canvas bed cover that slides on bed rails,and three glass "ice" blocks.

An excceptional restoration with clean paint and decals.

Measures (L x W x H)  25 1/2" x 9" x 12 1/2"  647 mm x 228 mm x 317 mm.

1925-1929 Buddy 'L' Fire Pumper Pressed Steel Toy

Proper decals on the front grill, floorboard, and sides. Working steering linkage

Brass bell, brightly polished boiler, and moving flywheels 

and rods on the piston  piston pump unit.

L x W x H:  23 1/2" x 8 1/2" x 10 1/2"   596 mm x  215 mm x 266 mm

I've only selected two examples to present for today. However, if you happen to read this post within the next week (November 29-December 5, 2016), you will see a great selection of restored pressed steel American toys from the 1920's-1930's. You won't be sorry if you venture over there at  Ken's 

ebay store. And if you had a favourite car then check out his car manuals. 

You might even find your first car manual!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Newly-Discovered ebay Merchant with Very Nice Toys

Saturday, December 4, 2016
Sunny
1 Celsius 34 Fahrenheit

A Newly-Discovered ebay Merchant

with Some Very Nice Toys

Please click here to visit this fine ebay merchant

I'm always searching for new toys, and ebay has lots and lots of them. So when I found some nice old toys from the 1930's, I had to write the ebay seller. Mr. Chris Moore goes by the "moniker" Iowa-Dirtman. I like that "nickname. I can just see Chris digging up the earth searching for those old toys! ANyway, he gave me his permission to use his photos, and he had 2 very nice toys, as you'll see below.

Vintage Buddy 'L' Wrecking Wrecker Tow Truck

Circa: probably 1920's

Black cab with red truck, wheels are silver with red centers.

L x W x H:  29" x 8 1/2" x 12" at the back  crane  (737 mm x 216 mm x 305 mm)

Approximate weight:  15 pounds 6.82 Kg

Buddy 'L' Aerial Ladder Fire Truck

Circa: LAte 1920's-Early 1930's

All-red painted pressed steel which steel wheels. 

L X W X H:  29.5" x 10" x 10"  ( 750 mm x 250 mm x 250 mm)

Weight: 15 pounds ( 6.82 Kg)

These 2 toys are quite large, and are very hands-on" toys to play with. Both steer to the left or right, as well as being able to crank up a wrecked car, or extend the ladders. I'm sure that children at the time must have had loads of fun playing with these marvellous toys.

This is one of the few times where someone has included the weight of the toys, and these certainly are "heavyweights" weighing near 15 pounds  (6.82 kg). What's of course  interesting is the great condition that these 2 toys are in. Naturally, being rarer and in such condition, they come at a well-deserved high price to buy!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be. 

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

The Exceptional 1920's Buddy 'L' Construction Toys

Monday, August 5, 2014
           Cloudy, hot and humid

The Exceptional 1920's Buddy 'L'

Construction Toys

  I recently wrote about the the WWII (1939-45) wooden Buddy 'L' toys. However, their earlier 1920 and later toys were also magnificent, especially if you liked toys with lots of movement. I'd written about 1 or 2 of these toys, but with the upcoming Bertoia AUctions September 19-20, 2014 auction, I had the opportunity to use 4 of the Buddy 'L' construction toys. When I was buying and selling toys, the closest that I came to construction toys were the Doepke sand movers - the truck version and the stand alone version. If I was 4-8 and had been given one of these, I'd have been in the sandbox for the day! But looking at the Buddy 'L' construction toys of the 1920's , my patents would have wondered where I disappeared to !

Please click here to visit the is exceptional American auctioneer

The toys would appear to have been modelled after 'real construction toys of the era. I'm assuming that the boiler was use to power this mobile concrete mixer.  There's a water tank with a brass (?) tap above a bucket that would pour the mixture into the tumbler. A crank would then turn the mixture and the cement would be able to be poured out. There's even a small door to the boiler to add fuel.

The main theme that is prevalent to all of these Buddy 'L" toys is movement. With this Buddy 'L" trench (below), there is enough movement to keep you hypnotized to all of the action. the bucker "diggers" or scoops, would dig up sand or small pebbles, lift them up to the top where there is a protected red hood. Thee kept the sand or pebbles from being thrown all over. The hood would guide the stone on to the coverer belt, which ten moved the material to an awaiting truck!

Please have a look at the treads of both the concrete mixer and the trencher. There is a small spring and guide that would move the tracks up and down as the toy moved along an irregular surface - just the the "real" machine! This is a great feature, that as you can see, the company took great lengths to create a very real "toy".

I'd never seen this Buddy 'L' toy until when I'd been screen-capturing the images for today's post. It's similar to the Doepke earth mover. Small trowels or buckets scoop up the materials which would be a mixture of different-sized sand and stone mixtures.  The buckets move by a hand-cranked chain to the top of the machine, and turn over into a deep v-shaped container. I "think" then that the smaller material falls down to the ground  through the holes in the mesh, while the good material is moved to the large bucket that is in the vertical position. It would be tilted down to receive the material.

I've written about the Buddy 'L' steam shovel, but once again again, like the  sand screen, I had never seen the "improved" double piston version. I'm "assuming" again that the brass-coloured metal is bras. Notice the similar features on the steam shovel as some of the previous toys.  The boiler with the small opening to throw in coal to fuel the boiler to power the steam shovel. Then there are the tread guides with the respective spring-action as the toy would move. But the "piece-de resistance" is, of course, the bucket (scoop). The scoop, like most similarly-made toys would scoop up a pile of material, be raised, then be able to have it's trap door at the bottom open either to dump the load somewhere else or to load it on to a truck. 

I can imagine having 4 children playing in a sandbox, with each of them having a different Buddy 'L' toy. Those times that these kids played must have been  exciting and unbelievable.

Now did I just read somewhere that scientists are close to perfecting time travel? I'm just wondering if I travel back in time, will I also become younger?  I don't think a 65 year old would fit well in a sandbox in 1925 with a group of children, and their toys!


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

Rare Buddy "L" Wooden Toys from the War Years (WWII)

Thursday, July, 31, 2014
  Starting out sunny with some cloud

Rare Buddy "L" Wooden Toys

from the War Years (WWII)

   It's easy for us to take thing for granted in North America and Europe. However, during WWII  conditions were a lot different. The world was at war for the second time, and rationing occurred in North America for the war effort. Of course, all of Europe was in great danger. When I walk  our dog Buddy every morning, there's not a day that does;t go by where I don't pick up screws that fell off cars, or  aluminum soft drink cans that people throw on the streets. Yet during WWII, the American toy industry had rationing, and many toys had to be made of wood.

   I wrote 1 post about a wood toy from the WWII era, but I always kept the idea of posting again. So when I saw someone on ebay having sold 3 American WWII era wood toys, I know that was going to be my post for today, if of course, the seller agreed. The seller  is Mr. Shawn Hartman who goes by the name of Shawniern on ebay. However, he is selling the toys on behalf of his father, Mr. Mark Hartman, who goes by the name of toyman1955. I ended up writing both men, and eventually got the permission- from both.

   The Buddy "L" company, like most early -American companies produced fine pressed steel toys that still are in big demand today. The company called the Moline Pressed Steel Company, was located in Moline, Illinois and started in 1910 by Mr. Fred Lundahl.  Originally, the company produced fender and other body parts for the car industry, and parts for McCormick-Deering (farm machinery) , and  truck parts for the International Harvester Company. Toys started to be produced in 1921.Rhe first toy was made of scrap toy parts for his son Buddy, and soon after Mr. Lundahl made pressed steel toys until the Buddy 'L' name with the logo "toys for boys. Many of the toys were large enough for children to ride on, and others wet pull toys that were pulled with a string. The company did well until the Great Depression,when Mr. Lundahl had to sell the company.

Please click here to visit Mark L. Hartman's nice ebay store

Please click here to visit Shawn Hartman's nice ebay store

I like these wooden toys, especially the Ice truck below. It's pure design with futuristic looking  design. (at that time) 

For a wooden toy, this Pepsi-Cola deliver truck has  lots of hands-on features, with the side doors and the back doors being able to be opened and closed.

What's interesting to see is that these toys are still in playable condition after 60+ years old.

It does;t surprise me because they were well made. Even the hubcaps have not rusted or fallen off, and the axles on the undersides of the 3 trucks are still intact!

This "woody" as the real type of car (station wagon) was called in certainly a nice collectible.  The "real" car of the time had a rounded back that opened up. However, I'm sure, time and cost to produce the rounded rear door made the toy modification.

What I like about the toy is the contrast of the rounded and straight surfaces and edges, 

which work very well together. What's also interesting that although the Buddy 'L' company had to many toys from wood, they at didn't stop them from keeping the size of their toys large.

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey.

toysearcher@gmail.com