Already Prepped for the New Year

Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunny and very cold

Already Prepped for the New Year

   It's almost the end of 2014, and the Lloyd Ralston Gallery auction company are presenting their next listings for their January 15, 2015 auction. Do these 2 brothers ever take a vacation? 

I guess business is business, and everyone has to be prepared and working. When you go to Liveauctioneers, you can see auctions that will be happening for months ahead of the current date. Not all of the auctions will have their merchandise displayed,but the auctions are scheduled for the viewers to take note of.

  The Lloyd Ralston Gallery has lots of items for the upcoming auction,and I though that I'd "breeze" through the 517 items listed on both Liveauctioneers, and  the Lloyd Ralston Gallery website,but I only managed to stay on page 1 of the Gallery's website! There were many toys that I had not seen before.

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

Not all the items in the auction are pre-1940 or antique (my area of writing). Nevertheless,there were some after 1940,anymore closely to the 1980's and after that interested me.I don't know the date of manufacture of the trio of Soligo toys below, but  I have to admire the person or collector who "customized" the trio. He (or she, changed them into "Woodies" - an American type of car that had wood panelling. The trio is excellent!

Tootisetoys are my favourite small-sized toys, although most people would prefer the Dinky toys.

I know I must have seen the top ca before, but it caught my eye. If you enlarge the photo below, you'll notice that "excess" metal was left in the original toy. I've seen these before, and collectors don't seem to have minded. I probably would have filed down the excess if I had purchased the toy in the 1930's, or would have returned it! 

Britains, the British company famous for their toy soldiers, also made non-soldier toys. 

I've never seen this toy before, and what I like about it is the fact that the outside blue part could be removed to expose the interior.

Nice!

This trio of "Woodies" is probably from the same collector who made the trio that I presented at the start - great job!

The convertible caught my eye.I'm sure I've seen it before, but I liked the colour combination of the convertible and the van.

WHen I bought and sold on ebay, I  purchased most of the Tootsietoy Grahams. The Grahams and the Tootsietoy LaSalles are always in demand. There are even several toy parts manufacturers, including Thomas who make parts for these fantastic small-sized toys.

What caught my eye though was the modern-made trailer by Mr. Armond Montandon.

I'll have to do more research to find out where I can contact him. There was also 1 other trailer and Tootsietoy combo in this auction.

Another nice pair of Tootsietoys.

Notice how the dark brown car has its roof painted tan.  The tan colour represented the Tootsietoy "convertible" toys. Any toy with that tan colour was a convertible!

What's nice about the Hubley die cast quintet is that you get to see the relative sizes of these toys all at once. They're larger than the Tootsietoys which measure about 4" (102 mm) in length. 

Here's a Kosuge that I never heard of until yesterday.

Matsuzo Kosuge was a Japanese toy maker who eventually formed the Marusan toy Company.

What I like about the Minics (Great Britain) is that the company  made wind-up toys that could move on their own. The green racer is probably a post-1940 toy,while the ambulance is a bi older. 

What you might have noticed is that most of the today's on today;s post are small-sized. The Lloyd Ralston Gallery does have larger toys,but you have to spook at the written descriptions to know their sizes. Overall, there is lots of diversity in this upcoming auction. If you look enough, I'm sure you'll find something that is a favourite of yours.

Thanks for dropping by and as always
have a great part of the day o right,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com

Minic Tin Toys-Part III

Wednesday, November 20, 2013
   ( Sunny & Cold  19.4  Fahrenheit -7 Celcius)

Minic Tin Toys

(Part III)

   In the previous 2 days, I wrote about the Minic cars and trucks from Pre-WWII.Today's post has to do with other toys that Minic made in the same years. The common characteristics to them were that they were made of tin, had rubber tires, and of course had a great key windup clockwork mechanism. 

Please click here to visit the LLoyd Ralston Gallery

Minic made several variations of the race car shown above.  Since the Ralston GAllery didnlt provide dates for many of their listings, I'm unsure about the red model racer being a pre-WWII model. The plastic canopy with the lithograph of the racer is my reason for that.

The above model was a prototype that never made it to production.

For those who like trucks,the milk tanker is certainly a fine toy.

Like other toy manufacturers, Minic would simply add different decals to rename the type ytuvk. Above is an oil (petrol) tanker instead of a milk truck.

It's too bad there aren't other photos accompanying these toys. I would guess that both rear wheels (larger and smaller) probably rotated from the key clockwork mechanism.  In this case, the rollers are wood,rather than rubber or metal.

Here's a great accessory that Minic made.  I would think that several children with Minic cars and trucks would be able to play with this gas station.

Above is a fantastic collectible. It's a construction set of cars, trucks and a tractor. All of the parts are enclosed,and the kit even included paint. If I was a British kid way back, I'd be screaming for this one. Of course, at the time, my parents weren't that well off, so I'd have received  1 Minic car or truck . I could always have looked forward to the future.

After WWII, the company continued manufacturing. However like all other companies worldwide, times were changing. Production costs were becoming higher, and , dare I say it, plastic was the big buzz of the time. Minic , like most others adapted to making plastic toys. However, the great era of toys  from 1890-1940 (in my opinion) was gradually starting to disappear.

As I have written, modern-era toys and models today replace the past. Some companies producing toys today most certainly match the toys of the bygone era in quality, realism, and variety. I'm sure kids of today in 50 years will look back and say their toys were great. Of course today's "toys" are mass-produced, and many kids today today focus on cell phones, Playstation, iPads and the like. But as the lyrics of the Bob Dylan song go  -"the times they are a changing".

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

(toysearcher@gmail.com)

Minic Tin Toys - Part II

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Minic Tin Toys

Part II

My 600th Post

    Yesterday, I posted a "revisit" of the Minic (British) toy company. Because I'm using Lloyd Ralston's photographs, I can post a few extra images,since there usually is only 1 photos for each listing.  As I was looking on ebay (Britain), I noticed that even there, there were not that many different  items form The Lloyd Ralston Gallery. I was fortunate to be able to present a good amount of Minic's toys.  Today's presentation are cars, and mostly pre-WWII and some perhaps early post-WWII.

    All of these toys were key windup clockwork toys. Once you wound up the coiled spring, you releases the toy, and it would run around from the built up energy. Some of these toys came with electricity (batteries) and had lights that could be turned on and off. 

Please click here to visit the nice website of the Lloyd Ralston Gallery

The trailer or as the British call, a "caravan" has what in my opinion is a more modern box.

That item was in fact made earlier, but inthis case is probably newer than the car.

I like those large-sized keys. Not only would they be easy for small hands of young children to use to wind the toy, but the keys would be harder to lose.

I have a feeling that these toys were all hand made. The noise in the factory must have been very loud, and I'm sure the workers had to produce many toys during their shift at the factory.

I particularly like this taxi because of the added details.  The curved metal piece off of the rrear Landau roof, and the taxi meter add to the beauty of this toy.

This toy came with human figures. L also like the small Shell brand gas tank. I wonder if cars had these tanks on the side, and if they did, did they have something to tie they down?

Take a look at the lower photo and the gear mechanism. The brass-tomned gear is the main working gear, so the material is probably harder than the silver-coloured gears.  Even after so many years, these toys are still working!

Since there weren't any specific dates for all of these toys, I do not  know the age of the toys.

I'd be curious to know just how old this particular toy and similar others in such nice condition are.

The  above 2 convertible  cars are the same model but for their different colour themes.

My final thought for this post and these Minic toys would be how many of these toys would be purchased by parents for their children? Because each one probably would have been more expensive than the Dinky or Matchbox brands (without wind-up movements) of the times, why would a parent spend the extra money for a toy that did the same thing (move on its own)?

However, now some 50-75 years later, collectors want every one for their collections go figure?

After I just added this post to the blog, I noticed that this was my 600th post to date.
That's a lot of posts considering the short time that I've been posting. I started on January 19, 2011.
I started slowly with a post every so often, and usually discussed just 1 toy. At the time, I used my own toys and photos, and then sold the toys on ebay. I don' know what will happen in the future, but I've fun writing. As well, I occasionally get compliments for the blog.

So thank  you  everyone, and keep on reading.
And I'm always open to suggestions and people who would want to share their stories and toys on this blog.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Minic Revisited - Part I

Monday, November 18, 2013

Minic Revisited- Part I

   I finished Photoshopping Lloyd RalstonGallery's nice Minic toys earlier in the day. I needed a break, so I went for a snack and decided to see if I could buy a toy. I decided to go to a local toy store and see if I could buy a die cast toy to photograph. I'd like to have manufacturers send me their toys for evaluation and assessment.  So I have to start somewhere. I've sent a few requests to manufacturers,but haven't got any replies.  So "plan B" was to go to a store, buy a die cast metal toy, photograph it and assess and evaluate. The store that I had in mind moved from one part of a large nearby shopping centre, and my original memory of it wasn't what I expected when I went through the aisles searching for  a nice toy to assess. First of all, my the toys (1:43 scale) were plastic, made in China, and cost $ 5.95. 

I can't figure out how toys can be made so "inexpensively" (make sure not to use the word "cheap"), ship halfway around the world, and then sell in the store. The store of course has to make a profit, as does the local importer or sales agency for the Chinese manufacturer.  These toys looked too "plastic", and the features did not present the parts sharply. I'm assuming that for so low a cost, the quality of the plastic extrusion or mould components just can;t miniaturize the parts to that standard. Or perhaps, you can only do so much with plastic. Of course,  I now have to ask myself, what is the difference between resin and plastic? I also looked at the larger scale toys (1:16), but they just didn't  present themselves like the very expensive resin "models" or die cast metal models!

    So I went to the Target store to see what they sold. They had some Matchbox toys,but they didn't meet my criteria for lots of detail and that metallic finish. Also. I don't think what I'm looking for will be found at the larger department stores such as Target, or our American-owned "The Bay".  I've been to a few hobby stores in and around Montreal (where I live), and I've seem the higher-quality "models". For those who don't know, models are more for collectors to place on a mantle for viewing, whereas toys are for playing with.

    Returning to the Minic toys, it made me realize what quality and value there was way back then and for most toys up to the early 1950's. Of course, you still can find nice toys, more in the category of  models, but you have to pay about $65.00 Canadian plus another 15% in taxes!  I originally wrote about Minic toys on December 18 & 19th of 2012. Time certainly goes by fast!

Please click here to visit the fine website of Lloyd Ralston Gallery

When you visit the Lloyd Ralston Gallery Website, you will only be able to see the toys up to mid-2012. Half of the toy images today were from the Liveauctioneers website, and the photos were of course those of the Ralston Gallery. So you'l be seeing 2 different sizes of photos today.

I plan to make the Minic Revisited Post a 3-part series, with today being pre-war trucks. Tomorrow, will most likely be their pre-war cars. I might even have to add a fourth post, but we'll see.

The sizes weren't presented by the Gallery, but these toys are small! What I particularly like is the artwork on the boxes. Also, many of these toys still work!

The above "Searchlight Lorry" is probably larger than the other toys. Since I don't think that AAA or AA batteries were around before 1940 or slightly later, the toy probably had to use a larger C battery - thus my "educated guess".

It's too bad this brand of toys is no  longer around. The owners of the company who had many other companies ( e.g the Hornby trains) got into deep financial problems.  As a consequence, the company was liquidated, and sold part by part to many different companies.  For those interested in the history of the company, simply type in the words "History of Triang Minic" and you'll find plenty of reference material.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Feel free to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com