Hey Ma! Christopher is making more toys!!!

Saturday, April 23, 2020
Sunny with clouds
1 C  34 F

Hey Ma!

Christopher is Making More Toys

A few days ago, I had seen. one of my posts of Christopher Ferrone. The blog post

came up because I was searching for something. I hadn't written Chris in several years, and so this was one of those "eureka moments"! I wrote to Christopher and asked how everything was, including his family. All was well. Wouldn't you know it, that about 20 minutes later, he had sent me photos of one of his latest projects. I resized his photos, added the copyright notice to them, and then created a blog post.

So? What happened today? I get 3 e-mails from Chris for one of his next projects. It's to be a fire engine. This time, he has 2 different toys that he will dismantle and reconstruct for a brand new toy of an old large firetruck with its' long  with its' long  "rear mount". That's what that long part of the firetruck is called directly behind the truck itself. What impressed me most was the large file sizes that I received.The photos were taken with his cell phone.  I dislike telling anyone that I don't have a cellphone. She says I need one, and I think she thinks I'm a dinosaur!

The photo below is of a 1940's-early 1950's truck and rear mount.

A New Fire Engine Under Construction

Part 1

In this stage, Chris is going to use 2 different toys. He's going to dismantle them and then make the newer toy from the parts of the original 2 toys. You can see the progress from the image below. They are positioned (top to bottom) in the  stages of the dismantlement.

Part II

In this stage, Christopher is priming the toys with grey primer. Notice how he carefully places the parts, so that he will be able to assemble them easily. I don't think that Chris draws up plans for his new designs. I'm sure with the experience that Chris has,  he can imagine in his head how the truck will look.

In the picture above, you can see that he's starting to assemble the new truck and 

rear mount from parts of both toys.

Below, the new truck portion of the toy is getting a priming job.

I've stopped here for now because Chris still has

more work to do on this latest toy. I'll wait

until he sends me more photos,

so please stay tuned.

So have a great part of the day or night,

and please watch out, there's a horrific disease out there,

and you want to be healthy.

Stacey Bindman

Contact me anytime at:

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Christopher Ferrone Revisited

Wednesday, April 6, 2020
Sunny with some cloud
7 C   44.6 F

Christopher Ferrone Revisited

       The other day, I was browsing on the internet, when I came across a reference to one of my posts.  This post was from a "friend" I know of in Chicago. I say friend because he has helped me out with my block by providing me with at least enough material for 7 posts. His name is Christopher Ferrone. 

I decided to send him an e-mail, and see how he and his family are doing. These times are most disruptive and dangerous, and I wanted to see how Chris was. He is fine, and his children are all home with him and his wife. 

No sooner had Chris returned my e-mail, when I received another e-mail with one of his fine creations. What Chris does is take old toys that might be in need of repair, and he restores then.  In this case, and a big surprise for me, was the fact that he used 4 different toys by 3 different manufacturers. His final creation was marvellous!

"I will be sending you some recent photos of my recent truck creation.
It is made from 3 different broken toys:

1. Ty Nee Tot Cab
Tonka shovel
3 Nylint chassis (note the outriggers for stability
4.Nylint crane boom

put all together and you get this.
Thanks for checking in.
Chris"

This post was  a great surprise,  

'and I have to thank Christopher for  another fine contribution.

If anyone out there has something interesting that they would like to share, please send 
me an e-mail. I'm always looking for new sources.

Please take care, and as always

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Another Fine Restoration of an old Keystone Toy

Monday, October 22, 2018
Clear skies and Sunny
7 C  43 F

Another Fine restoration

of an Old Keystone Toy

     I was chatting with Mr. Christopher Ferrone last week.  Chris is a successful businessman in the bus industry. However, one of his hobbies, for those who don't know, is taking old toys and restoring them with modifications. Being in the bus industry, Chris's company has lots of machinery to repair busses. What Chris does is to use this machinery to create his "masterpieces".

    His latest masterpiece is an old Keystone riding truck (circa 1940's) that was in good body shape, but quite rusted. Chris sandblasted this riding toy, and metamorphosed (changed) it into a superb steam-shovel/truck riding toy.  

As you can see, this toy is in very good condition. It even has its' rubber tires and wheels.

Below:

Chris decided to change the riding truck into a riding stream-shovel truck. You can see how much work that Chris put into designing, and then machining the new parts. He also did a fantastic job in  sandblasting and priming the old rusted and new parts.

Below: The Finished New Toy

This certainly is a fantastic new toy. It looks brand new! ALso, the toy can be ridden or it can be pushed. Notice that there are 2 handles on this toy. One for a small child when seated on the to of the steam-shovel  cabin, and another at the end of the steam-shovel grey part, which would be used to push the toy.

Chris even added a new "old" Keystone label 

in the back of the truck cab.

I did some restorations on smaller toys, but never did I do such

exhaustive and quality work as Chris. I just wonder where he finds the time to

create his wonderful toys!

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or evening,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

A Big Surprise on A Fine Autumn Day

Thursday, October 18, 2018
Sunny and Clear Skies
3 C   37 F

A Big Surprise on 
a Fine Autumn Day

    Yesterday, I received a pleasant surprise from a friend in Chicago. I call Chris a friend because I know him a bit, and he has helped me with my blog. For those who don't know, Chris owned a sightseeing bus company in Chicago, as well as a garage for maintenance on the busses. When he had the time, Chris was busy making new toys out of old ones. I just checked and I've been able to write  10 posts about this very-talented man. Today will be my 11th post. 

     Chris sent me photos of a toy that was wasn't 100% happy with in the past, and so he improved on it and added a hauler/loader as a second toy. I also liked his original toy that is the first one shown below.

                                      

Below is the original superb toy that Chris restored

back on May 7, 2015. Wow, the time certainly went by fast!

Please click here to revisit Chris' post on his first restoration

 Below is Chris' ( or Chris's) remodelled  truck/dumpster. I like both variations of this toy.

In the toy above, I like the sheet metal that was used for the dumpster portion of this nice truck.. The metal looks like the type of flooring that one might find on the steps of a bus.

I also like the new wood variation of the  truck/hauler. Using a combination of wood and metal, gives the toy a more old and "retro" appearance. In either case, both are superb!

Below  is a screen-capture of all the posts that I've had the pleasure in writing about Chris and his 

exceptional talent in restoring old toys with his own personal touch. 

  When I had searched for the date when Chris send me the original remodelling of this old toy, I got an idea for a new post about Chris. I'm going to have a post about all of the fine toys Chris has created, and I'm going to title it 

"A Retrospective of a Master Toy Restorer".

So that's it for today.

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 Magical Talent of Christopher Ferrone

Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Sunny with Clouds
+7 C 44.6 F

The Magical Talents

of Christopher Ferrone

A few years ago, I received a letter from Mr. Christopher Ferrone with some nice photos of a refurbished and restored toy. I thanked Christopher for the photos and naturally, I added a post about him and his super skills at toy restoration. From time to time, I receive "surprises" in my e-mail account from Christopher.  Each time, I am more and more impressed with his mastery of toy restoration, and even metamorphosing old toys into new designs.

Christopher happens to be president of Americoach Systems, Inc., which also is affiliated  with the Chicago Sightseeing Company, and I'm sure is owned by Christopher. Chris not only has the sight-seeing company, but I decided to check up on him for writing purposes. I discovered that he has a location where he also repairs and maintains his fleet of sightseeing busses. Aha! So that's where he got his skills to be able to make such nice toys.

Today's toy happens to be a Canadian-made Lincoln toy toy truck

from the 1950's. Lincoln toys were well made and included both trucks and farm toys.

The toys were produced by Milner Metal Products t6hat was located in Windsor,  & Tilbury,Ontario, Canada.

All photos copyright  © 2018 by Mr. Christopher Ferrone.

Please do not copy without his written permission.

The toy truck was separated in the middle.

Chris wanted to add a centre elevation

to the middle of the truck.

Below is a photo of the newly-installed

centre of the truck.

The toy was sandblasted to remove

all of the old paint. A paint primer was then 

sprayed over the exposed pressed steel.

The primed parts were then sprayed with a

finishing coat of bright red paint.

The parts were then assembled together.

The old 1950's truck was changed into a 

beautiful retro fire truck.

So that's it for today,

Thanks for dropping by,

And have a great day or evening.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

The Master Toymaker Sends me Photos of Another Toy

Thursday, June 22, 2017
Sunny with Clouds
25 C  77 F

The Master Toymaker Sends me

Photos of Another Toy

Christopher Ferrone

     If you follow my blog, you will recognize the name of Mr. Christopher Ferrone. He's the president of  a company called Americoach Systems, Inc in Chicago, Illinois.The company is invoked in Specialized Transport Technology, safety, management and logistics.

    I don't know where Christopher finds the time to make his wonderful toys when he is the President of a company, but he does. He's quite a craftsman, and he manages to find old toys to make his unique "newer" toys. 

   The photo below illustrates the unfinished parts of this steam-shovel. The truck is a  Ty-nee-tot,

while the steam shovel component is from a Structo toy. Both are from the 1940's. Chris also made some new parts for his composite brand-new steam-shovel truck.

   Chris must have  a great tool are and presses in order to make his toys. I even wonder if he works on his large-sized "real" coaches.

    I've paraphrased (rewrote Chris's words)  below:

THe boom has a hand crank to move the shovel up and down. This is not how the original toy was made. The rear stabilizers are also made, and are a modern-era component. The roof winch is from an old tow truck for the boom control for the boom control and for the payout (I assume "payout" means the unloading of the contents of the bucket).

Below is a photo of the finished toy. It certainly is beautiful, and still maintains an old look to it.

The image below is a well-taken photograph. It

illustrates how the shovel and bucket work to open the bucket to unload its' payload.

Below is an even better photograph.

 You can tell from the front of the truck that it is from around the late 1930's-early 1950's. Chris knows his toys, and informed me that both toys are from the 1930's.

Below: A nice close-up photo of  working mechanism for cranking the bucket up and down.

Below: 

A nice side view of the finished toy

If you search looking for Christopher Ferrone's name, you'll find his other fine toys that he has made over the years. It's always a pleasure to receive these "surprises", and to call Chris, a friend.

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