OpAmerica Revisited

Thursday, May 7, 2020
Overcast
11 C  52 F

OPAMERICA

Revisited

If you've read my last several posts, you'll know that I have been going 

back in time to visit my old blog posts.  In this way, I can select stores, companies,

or individuals who have given me their permission to write about them.

OPAMERICA  is probably one of the more-successful stores on  ebay  to say the least.

They have an excellent reputation, have excellent merchandise, including toys, and 

their photography is just super!

Please click here to visit this very fine ebay seller

Below:

Vintage  1935 Marx Rocket Racer

U.S.A.

Larger scale tin toy windup

Length:  16"  407 mm

Below:

Wells-Brimtoy

Great Britain

1935 tin toy racer

11" x 3 1/2" x 2 3/4"

Below:

Antique Tin Touring Car Toy

JLH Hess Hessmobile

Flywheel, Germany

Length:  8"  204 mm

These 3 selections were certainly in quite good conditions.

With these racers, I just thought about the INDY  500 (USA Race).

I wonder if by August 25, 2020, the race will go on.

Who knows?

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night.

I can always be reached at

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

I Thought that Antique Toy Car was a Bing!

Saturday, October 12, 2013

I Thought the Antique Car was a Bing!

  I'm writing this post of Friday, but I want it to show Saturday's date - so please don't be confused. Google enters the date when you post - what can I say!

   Anyway, yesterday's post was about the fine Bing "Motor Cars". If you read that post, you'll have read that I was easily confused by the Carette cars. I've ordered an old reproduction Carette catalogue for my next  "match the real antique toy with its catalogue sketch counterpart" post. Yesterday, I must have entered Carette, forgot, and then began screen-capturing Carette cars as Bings. After 40 minutes I realized the mistake, and threw everything out in the garbage can! So the next post obviously would be a comparison of 2 examples of Bing and Carette cars to show you how easy it is to get confused. I'm sure, somewhere there are identifying marks that specifically identify each manufacturer. However, rarely, are these presented in listings by the major auctioneers. They are very sure of what they post, so if they say Bing or Carette, you know that what they say is correct.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions outstanding website

Of course, you can see "differences" if you look hard enough.  I'll let you do the comparing rather than my writing down all of the differences -that's your "homework" for today! Of course, if you bought  a either of the 2 Carettes above and thought they were Bings, you would not have made a bad deal.  The   Carette "Four-Seat Open Tourer"  went for $4,312.50 at auction, while the above dark green Carette Limousine went for $ 15,000,00 at auction.

Thanks for visiting, 

and as always have a great weekend,

Stacey

(please feel free to write to me anytime at toysearcher@gmail.com)

INGAP

Monday, May 6, 2013
    (10th Day in a Row of Sun)

INGAP

    The INGAP toy company was an acronym (abbreviated set of letters) representing Industia Nationale Gicattoli Automatici Padova. The company was founded in 1920 in Padova, Padua, Italy.

They produced many fine toys of lithographed tip with clockwork (wind-up) mechanisms for movement.  In the 1950's, production changed from metal to plastic and the toys became smaller  in size. When I find more info on this great company, I will add it.

Please click to be redirected to Bertoia's fine Website

The orange coupe (above) is the most-expense (winning bid) of this toys posted today.

It'snot my favourite,but it probably is the rarest of the group.

 We've see the perforated side vents in other manufacturers of this era. The same can be said for the external side exhaust pipe. But what makes this toy interesting is the helmeted driver, who just "peeks" over the front part of the seated area.

The logo of INGAP can be seen in the lower right corner, but the image size and DPI (Dots/inch) prevents me from showing it better. Basically it's the INGAP letters inside a diamond shape.

The Great Gadsby movie opens in North America (May 10) and in Europe (May 10-17). I like Leonardo DiCaprio, but I don't know if he was the right person for this part.  I'm sure the American-made movie will be extravagant, as many reviewers so far have said. As usual, the  movie publicity industry is busy working into the night to grind out plenty of reviews and publicity.

What I can say with certainty without even seen the movie yet (as 99.9999% of the world hasn't either), is that it will be beautifully photographed, have great period costumes, and lots of pomp, such as lavish cars.

THat's what the 2 limousines above remind me of - the era of the 1920's (The roaring 20's (1920's),

even  though the toy cars were made in the 1930's. 

A beautiful single-propeller airplane toy.

Umm!

Simply outstanding!

The mouse charter above is called Topo Lino. The history behind this character is very interesting. Apparently,  an Italian editor by the name of Mr. Mario Nerbini, decided to produce a weekly children;s newspaper with interesting comic characters.One of these was Mickey Mouse. The cartoonist was an Italian by the name of Mr. Giove Toppi. 

A problem arose when it was discovered that the editor, Mr. Nerbini, had not properly purchased the publication rights.  As a result, the name of the mouse character was changed to Topo Lino. Nevertheless, this character turned out to be a big success without the Disney name of Mickey Mouse. Eventually Disney and Mr. Nerbini renegotiated, and Mickey Mouse was back,but the name of the mouse was changed to TopoLino.**

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topolino

If you go to the Wikipedia address above, the story is even more interesting.

Please go there - you will not be disappointed!

Happy Hooligan was a popular and influential early American comic strip, the first major strip by the already celebrated cartoonist Frederick Burr Opper. It debuted with a Sunday strip on March 11, 1900 in the William Randolph Hearst newspapers, and was one of the first popular comics with

King Features Syndicate.** 

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hooligan

   That's it for today - another great find of period toys form the 1930's. It's amazing how I can still find great toys that I've never knew before.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Hull and Stafford - Early American Tin Toys

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hull and Stafford

(Early American Tin Toys)

   The warm weather is starting, so readership is slightly down. As for myself, I raked, leaf blew, and filled  5 large-sized paper bags full  of leaves. We had a large snow storm 10 days ago, but now the snow is almost gone! 

  I found the name Hull and Stafford  when I was collecting images for the Fallows post on  April 4, 2013. What I've always found interesting is how the many different companies would make similar toys both in character and design. I've never read (so far) that 1 company would sue another for design or character. Yet Apple in 2012 sued Samsung over their Galaxy III smartphone. Part of the lawsuit was  over something like the "rounded corners" on the Galaxy, while other parts of the lawsuit centred on other software infringements (more serious).

* Addenda 

(Information provided by Mr. John Evans on May 13, 2014)

"The reason Hull and Strafford horses look the same as George Brown and other tin toy makers is because they did not make the horse itself, they purchased the horses from jobbers who sold to a few of these makers then they soldered the parts together and then painted them in their shops.

 I hope this info helps." 

John Evans

 Hull and Stafford manufactured hand-painted tin pull toys. For those who don't know, you attach a piece of cord or string to the front of the toy, and it moves on a platform and wheels (usually cast-iron). Many of the manufacturers of the time would have galloping horses with carriages, lambs or other similar characters.  For myself, it's hard to know which company made which item, since the different companies items look so similar.  Hull and Stafford  made their toys from the early 1880's - until the early 1900's. I'll need to do more research to add more storyline later.

Please click to be redirected to the fine Bertoia website

* The site above will direct you to a search page from Bertoia. 

Just add the words or name of the toy company and the toys that they've sold in the last 4-7 years will appear. For  a broader search, go to Liveauctioneers. There you will find a list of their previously and current toys that list even farther back to 2006 , and sometimes even earlier. When one thinks about the computer and the Internet, it's amazing how fast and what a broad range on information can appear in so short a timespan!

The above toy was made similarly by at least 1 other manufacturer. It's too bad the sellers don't add the logo or establishing references to specifically identify the exact manufacturer. As the circular shape rotates, the horse rocks up and down but always remains horizontal to the floor.

This pair of riders is one of my Hull and Stafford toys, because of its unique concept of a pair of riders, side by side.

Ummmph!  Here's a self-propelled toy that moves after its wound up. The colours are magnificent. But what I like most id the exaggerated large-sized wheels of the cart.

You can see the small hole through the horse's lower jaw in the top photo. What I like most about this toy is how the simple red, black and white colour theme stand out against the plain white background!

The 3 sets of photos above are typical examples of toys that many of the manufacturers of the day made.  Lambs and horses were very prominent toys of the era. What differentiates some of the Hull and Stafford designs of their toys is the embossed texture of their platforms. Notice the rough and 3D surface that the horse is trotting on. 

The above toy is quite large, measuring 18" or .457M long! A carved out mould (shape) woukld be made of 1/2 of the design (e.g. horse). The malleable tin would then be cut out, and gently hammered to the shape of the mould, by using a soft hammer made most likely from wood. After,  the 2 tin halves would be soldered together with lead.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day,

whereer you may be.

Stacey

Orobr Toys - Part II

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Orobr Toys - Part II

     Yesterday, I wrote about the Orobr  brand of toys. I liked them so much, that I decided to add another post, which of course is today's post. What I liked about them is their design, attention to detail, and their cost. As it turned out, the company was able to produce these nice toys at a lower cost than most, yet the detail, and adding a mechanical movement for motion was also included. 

Please click this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia Auctions

I have no idea what that yellow ribbon is doing in the bed of the truck.

This truck not only was able to move, but it could stop or move backwards!

This particular car did not yield as high a final bid as other toys. I have a feeling that it must have been very popular and/or less costly to purchase. As a result, there are a lot of them on today;s market in North America.

I particularly like that "extra touch", by having included the spare wheel and tire!

Again, notice the extra wheel and tire. But what's even more interesting is that the 2 rear passenger doors open and close. There is even a small license plate at the back of the taxi.

I like the design of the wheels  and the gold-colour.

The Packard Roadster (above) certainly is beautiful. The rear "rumble seat" opens and closes . Then there is the added spare tire at the rear, and the beautiful grill with the name "Packard". Also, take a look at those large headlights. What also attracted my attention is the rear design of the car top. Look at the right rear part of the back top to see all of the bends needed on an assembly line , as well as that small rod that is angled between the roof and the side.

Finally, this  paddlewheel cruiser. I especially like the flag that was bent to simulate its movement in the wind. Also, that small lifeboat is just so "cute".  The key-wind barrel spring mechanism transferred power to the 2 large wheel on each side of the boat. They would turn and propel the boat on the ground.

It's amazing that these toys are in such great shape for having been around for almost 100 years. I'm sure they'll be around for another 100 years!

If you're reading this today (April 14, 2013), then have a great Sunday, and if you've stopped by at some other time, then have a great part of the day, wherever you my be.

Also, thanks for dropping by to visit.

Stacey