An Uplifting Website on a Cold March Day

Wednesday March 5, 2025

Cloudy and Damp

4° C / 39° F

An Uplifting Website on 

a Cold March Day

This year, it seems that it's going to be a long time before spring and 

warm weather arrive here in Montreal, Quebec,Canada.  Two weeks ago, we got two days of heavy snow. I had to go on the small roof of our sun-room, to clear the snow. The roof had a leak, and water dripped inside! 

Today, it's been raining all day!

Please clock on this sentence to visit Bill's excellent website

I decided to visit Mr. Bill Buttaggi's excellent website. I had written a blog post

 2 weeks ago, but today was cold and overcast. I decided to write about his

section on a company called "Tip-Top Toys"

Here's what Bill wrote:

"There is very little known about Tip-Top Toys. There were pre-war toys most

likely produced sometime between the mid-to-late 1920's through the mid-to-late

1930's. Although I've included them in this "Slush Mold Toys" section of this

website, "Tip-Top Toys" are classified as die-cast or pressure-cast. They were advertised as "Pewter Toys" - pewter often being the word used for lead alloy or 

pot metal. They're often marked "A TIP-TOP TOY" on the bottom, but not always.

Description:

Description Below:

Racer, no driver, boat-tail, rounded nose, grill with horizontal lines, vertical 

side louvers, metal cast wheels with eight lugs. Seen another example. with gold painted wheels, unmarked.

3 1/4" (8.25 cm) / 3 3/8" (8.57 cm)  if including front wheels

Description Below:

"Tow Car" Pickup Truck with tow trailer, curved side windows, horizontal  grill lines, openwork handrails (there is a no handrail version with. square side windows), hole at end of bed for trailer to attach, sometimes marked 

"A TIP-TOP TOY" on bottom, truck is 3 1/4" ( 8.25 cm), 

tow trailer is 2 3/16" (5.56 cm)

Description Below:

Undocumented- Large coupe, marked "A Tip-Top Toy". diecast, open windows, 

horizontal grille lines, thin gold painted wheels, 3" (7. 62 cm) long (including front wheels), 1 13/16" ( 4.60 cm) tall.

Description Below:

TTTV004- Pickup Truck with hinged tailgate. Black painted metal wheels, open windows, horizontal grille lines.

3 1/4" (7. 97 cm)

Description Below:

Undocumented - Bus, unmarked, rounded roof and hood edges, doors on both sides, rounded grille with horizontal lines, thirteen open windows, small cast in rear window and spare, plain disc wheels simiolar to Kansas & Novelty or C.A.W.,

similar in. shape to Mid-west Novelty's Bus (MW010), heavy die-cast, 

3 7/8" (9. 84 cm) long.

Description Below:

TTV002 - Tanker Truck, reads "GASOLINE" both sides, simulated rivets,

along tank edge, curved side windows, horizontal grille lines, gold painted

wheels similar to  Tootsietoy's  unmarked, 3 1/2" (8.9 cm) long, including

the front wheels.

Description Below:

TTTV010- Panel truck, "Parcel delivery" marked on both sides, open windows, horizontal grille lines, black painted metal wheels, unmarked, very small at omnly

2 1/8" (5. 4 cm)

I've selected just a few fine examples from Bill's fabulous collection.

If you decide to venture to his website, there will plenty of fine. toys to see and read about.

As always, thanks for dropping by,and have a great part 

of the day or night, wherever you may be.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman, and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Toys-Part 2 (Die cast Toys)

Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Overcast with some sun
-4 C 24 F

Toys -Part 2

Die-Cast Toys

The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method. The toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber, or glass details. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two are rarely confused. The metal used is either a lead alloy (in the first toys), or more commonly Zamak (or Mazak in the UK), an alloy of zinc with small quantities of aluminium and copper. Lead, as previously so widely used for cast metal toys, or iron are impurities that must be carefully avoided in this alloy, as they give rise to zinc pest. These alloys are also referred to casually as white metal or pot metal, although these terms are also confused with the lead toy alloys. The most common die-cast toys are scale models of automobiles, aircraft, construction equipment, and trains, although almost anything can be produced by this method.

History:

Diecast (or die cast, or die-cast) toys were first produced early in the 20th century by manufacturers such as Meccano (Dinky Toys) in the United Kingdom, Dowst Brothers (TootsieToys) in the United States and Fonderie de précision de Nanterre (Solido) in France. The first models on the market were basic, consisting of a small car or van body with no interior. In the early days, it was common for impurities in the alloy to result in zinc pest; the casting would distort or crack for no apparent reason. As a result, diecast toys made before World War II are difficult to find in good condition. The later high-purity Zamak alloy avoided this problem.

Lesney began making diecast toys in 1947. Their popular Matchbox 1-75 series was so named because there were always 75 different vehicles in the line, each packaged in a small box designed to look like those used for matches. These toys became so popular that "Matchbox" was widely used as a generic term for any diecast toy car, regardless of who the actual manufacturer was.

The popularity of diecast toys as collectibles developed in the 1950s as their detail and quality increased. Consequently, more companies entered the field, including the Corgi brand, produced by Mettoy, which appeared in 1956 and pioneered the use of interiors in their models.

In 1968, Hot Wheels were introduced in the United States by Mattel to address the complaint that they had no line of toys for boys to balance their line of Barbie dolls for girls. Because they looked fast and were fast (they were equipped with a low-friction wheel/axle assembly), Hot Wheels quickly gained an important niche in the diecast toy market, becoming one of the world's top sellers and challenging the Matchbox 1-75 series in popularity.

Although this practice has been used by Meccano (Dinky Toys) as far as 1934, during the 1960s various companies began to use diecast vehicles as promotional items for advertising. The idea that children can play a large part in a family's decision as to what products to buy came into wide circulation. In addition, by the 1980s it was apparent that many diecast vehicles were being purchased by adults as collectibles, not as toys for children. Companies such as McDonald's, Sears Roebuck, Kodak and Texaco commissioned toymakers to produce promotional models featuring their names and logos or licensed their use. One early example was an American Airlines London bus produced by Matchbox, an idea some other airlines quickly copied.*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die-cast_toy*

All of the toys below are Tootsietoys - an American company manufactured them. It's name was Dowst Manufacturing Company that was located in Chicago, Illinois (USA). THese toys were manufactured in the 19209's and 1930's. Most of these toys are about 3 inches long.Becuase of their small size, the name Tootsietoy was used, with "tootsie" being used to describe something small.

Copyright © 2016              Stacey Bindman

Please do not copy without my written permission

Thanks for dropping by,
and as always,
Have a great part of the day or night
wherever you may be.

Stacvey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com