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