Were Champion Cast Iron Toys Always Stamped?

 Saturday, March 19, 2022                                                                                              Overcast and Raining                                                                                   3-9 Celsius 37.4 - 48.2 Fahrenheit                   

                       Was the Pressed Stamp Name Ever Omitted                         on Cast Iron Champion Toys ?

Please click on this sentence to redirect to the opamerica website

    Well! As luck would have it, Blogger is "acting up" again. If I enlarge my screen, all the letters become misaligned and move all over the window. So much for my having found a solution to the misbehavior of Blogger! 

    Coincidentally, another writer wrote me last week and asked a similar question to the previous blog post. Rick Walston's question asked specifically about Champion cast iron toys. I couldn't find any information about his question, but I did find something else. 

    Most of the Champion toys had raised lettering for their identification. However, when I went today to ebay, I did a search for "Champion toys" and found a Champion racer at a great ebay seller OpAmerica.  I've written innumerable times about OpAmerica, and I was fortunate to find something that I could continue from the previous post, albeit not quite 100%.

In the photo above, an arrow points to a hammered impression
of the words "Champion HDWD. Co.


So that's it for this post. I'll still be looking for more information as to
whether or not some companies ever manufactured their toys without
labelling, imprinting or embossing their name on or into them.

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

A Superbly Engineered Bing Mobile Crane of 1920

Wednesday, May 14, 2014
               Cool and cloudy, 
         changing to rain and hot

A Superbly Engineered Bing Mobile Crane

of 1920

   I always like to visit Opamerica's fine store on ebay. I never know what I'll see,but I always know there will be some rare and exciting toy to marvel at. And I wasn't disappointed when I saw today's Bing crane.

Rare 1920's Large Bing Steel Tower Crane Germany 22x33

---

I am pleased to offer this Antique 1920's Bing Large Pressed Steel Metal Toy Tower Crane that features a maroon exterior throughout, a four-wheeled base, turn crank (s), horizontal jib with lock lever, and claw piece marked by Bing, Bavaria. Two cranks turn to either rotate the crane or move the jib back and forth; base wheels roll well across flat surfaces. There is another rope type crank in the middle (no rope present). May show paint wear, marks, patina, and oxidation from use and age overall. Slight dent present on one end of the crane from previous use. Sturdy condition.

A fantastic and rare antique toy!

Measurements: approx. base 14-1/2" inches long x 10-1/2" inches wide; 22" inches tall x 33" inches wide. 

* Description Courtesy of Opamerica

Please click here to visit this excellent merchant on ebay (USA)

   I used Opamerica's written description because  the amount of writing would be too much in proportion to the size of the first photo. AS well, I decided to leave the photos show without any distractions,except for m usual copyright and company logo placement.

  For my European readers, the size of this toy is:

Base:     368 mm (length) x 268 mm (width)

Height:      559 mm

Width:     838 mm

This certainly is a large toy, and I can;t even imagine the lifting power of such a machine.

Children of the time much have had lots of fun - for sure! I tried to find illustrations of this crane in my 1912 Bing catalogue, but couldn't. By the way, this particular toy was produced in 1920.

 There are several several wheels that are used to lift and turn the bucket, but as the description describes, one set of ropes is missing. This could easily be added and restrung. 

I like how the design of the boom  looks quite similar to today's  immobile location building

cranes. In modern Europe, these building crane as we see today in North America was used much earlier on before it came to North America.

A close-up of the Bing name and logo on the side of the bucket.

I especially like this link chain that looks like brass.

The top lever has a lock to keep the bucket fixed in one position.

In the unlocked position, I assume that the bucket moved back and forth along 

the horizontal crane boom.

I'm unsure what the bottom wheel is for.

The lower handle on the left, has an auger-syle gearing that  connects to a circular gearing wheel. This allows for the entire crane  tower and crane to rotate in a 360 degree circle.

As you can see, this toy has certainly stood the test of time, having been made in 1920 - 

Wunderbar 

(Wonderful in English)

It's time for me to do some more spring chores - gardening and mowing. I hope that it rains as fore case, because the lawn (my task) is my responsibility. The garden flowers are my wife Heidi's "exclusivity".

Thanks for dropping by,

and , as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Opamerica -Some Nice Mechanical Banks

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Opamerica

Some Nice Mechanical Banks 

   I'm very fortunate to be able to have many companies and individuals  who have allowed me  the use of their toy photographs. One of them is Opamerica, who has an excellent store on E-Bay. I try to find people, auction houses, or seller who have high-quality images, lots of images,well-explained information, and of course great toys. Of course, Opamerica, of course fits of of my criteria.

   I write about about mechanical banks before, but today's content had great explanations of how these 2 mechanical banks actually operate. What's more, there are 2 short videos that illustrate how the coin gets into the collection part of the bank. I've added the links both to Opamerica E-Bay site, and the locations for the 2 videos on You-Tube. 

   There are 2 types of cast iron banks. One is titled a still bank. With this banks, a coin is simply placed into a slot and the coin drops into a collection area. You may either need a key, or you can simply open a small hole at the bottom. The other type of cast iron bank is the mechanical bank. The mechanical bank has a trigger or cocking mechanism. After the coin is placed on a part of the toy, the trigger is released,and the coin is propelled or drops into the holding area.

  Once upon a time, a long time ago (no, I'm not writing a story),  children were encouraged to save money (pennies). The cast iron bank was a way to store the money, and actually have fun with a toy.  There are thousands and thousands of different types of these banks from all of the major manufacturers from the 1860's- 1920's  when these items were popular. There is even a mechanical bank club or association on the Net where you an find all kinds of information.

  Because the patents have lapsed (expired), or the companies have long ago  gone pout of business, or nobody else bought the company or own the patents, there are lots of legal reproductions of these toys. As such, you have to be aware of this whenever you think of seeing one at a flea market or even in a department store.  What's  disturbing for me is that you may even see the name of the original company and patent dates embossed on the modern-era reproductions!

  However, if you look at companies such as Opamerica or any of the auctioneers that I write about, you can be sure, you're not going to get a "reproduction", being described as an original!

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Opamerica's fine store

The Bank above does not have a YouTube video.

However, I'm sure with all of the images, you can figure out the mechanics of bank.

Please click to be redirected to the YouTube Video

For those who don't know,  the "Punch and Judy"  characters date back over  340  years. The 2 were a pair of puppets - Mr. & Mrs. Punch. On stage, they would always argue and get into violent fights.  In the olden times, the audience members were "encouraged" to warn Judy (Mrs. Punch) or even Mr Punch to watch out for unexpected hits by an array of any number of "weapons". These included plates, rolling pins, and so forth. 

For those who would like more  information, simply  do a search and add the words Punch and Judy and Wikipedia together.

I intentionally left out much narrative today about how the banks work, because I thought you'd  better understand an actual video rather than a written narrative. You may have to rewind the video several times, as the actual motion of the banks go very fast.

It's another rainy day today here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada which most appropriately applies to the old  expression "save for a rainy day"!

And the weather "experts" are forecasting a warm summer!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey