Emerald City Toys - Revisited

Monday, January, 4, 2016
Clear skies and very cold ( -18 degrees C or 32 degrees F)

Emerald City Toys-

Revisited

   It's been a long time since I've been posting regularly. I decided  today to search for past posts and contributors, and found Emerald City Toys. Early on, when I had decided not to buy and sell anymore, Emerald City Toys most graciously allowed me to use their fine toy photos. You can find them on the internet by clicking on the link below underneath their nice logo.

Please click here to visit this fine American toy store

The first toy is a tin lithographed Ubilda car. The original car came was a kit with all the parts, and would be assembled with the instructions on the box. It's in quite good condition, considering how old it is (65++ years). Also, the original box always adds a premium cost to the item. Collectors like to collect toys that come with the original box and of course the instructions. What makes this hard is the fact that most children and parents would throw away the box, but keep the toy.

Below is a fine French-made windup (clockwork) toy. ONe has to remember that the 1930's were a mere 2 decades ahead in time when the fist Model T's (Ford) rolled off the assembly line. By that time, car production had advanced by leaps and bounds.  With the car being a machine meant four travel and speed, the 1920's and the 1930's were considered the golden era of racing. Not only did cars become popular for racing on circuits and across the contents (Mostly Europe and Africa), but airplanes and boats also were "speed demons".

Thanks for dropping by to visit,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com

A Reader Asks for Help with his Racing Cars

Wednesday, July 3,2014
   (post # 2 of the day)
   Overcast, hot with potential rain

A Reader Asks for Help

with his Racing Cars

   After I visit Tim Horton's for a coffee and muffin and chat with several friends there, I return home to walk my dog Buddy. After that, I settle down to the computer and check my mail . This morning I received several no thank you e-mails from people who didm;t want  me to use their photos.  However, the good news was that I had an interesting e-mail from someone who wanted to know if I knew who might have made his newly-acquired purchase. Mr. Mark Beamer had sent me photos of nice-sized toy racers, but I didn't know who might have made them.  They looked like those 1920's-1940's  American gas powered tethered cot racers. However they didn't have places to attach cord, not small engines to run them.  I tried to improve the image quality,and sent Mark the edited image with the old one, and asked if I might write a post. Perhaps someone might be able to identify the manufacturer. Mark answered, and gave me the "OK" to post. So this is the pot asking anyone if they might help in the identification of these interesting toys.

 The cars measure about 9 3/8" or 240 mm.

Also, there is an internal steering mechanism to allow the cars to turn.

It's possible that the toys might have been home-made, or made by a hobbyist.

Here's a nice photo of the underside of the car.

You can see the cable linkage from the steering wheel to the right wheel connection.

They're quite sophisticated to be able to turn with that linkage of the steering wheel to the front wheel, and they are made quite well.

So, if someone out there can help Mark and myself, this would be a nice story to follow.

I once posted a car similar to this but without the steering. I'll have to find the photos and add them here , and see if that will help with the search for the ID's of these 2 interesting toys.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

F1 Race Day In Montreal

Sunday, June 8, 2014
             Sunny and hot

F1 Race Day in Montreal

   It's the annual F1 race day in Montreal, so I decide to select a fine car in memory of Gilles Villeneuve  who died racing. He was a local home grown Quebecer who came to become very famous with his racing skills. Sadly he died in a racing car crash. His son later also became a famous race car driver and even won the Indy 500. 

   For a whole week the city is abuzz with lots of activity, street displays, and lots of people.  The city just signed a new $ 187,000,000.00 deal with the F1 company to have the race stay in Montreal for another 10 years. 

  Both Father and son raced for Ferrari, so for today, I chose a nice vintage red Distler toy racer from Bertoia Auctions. Ferrari's racing colour has always been red.

Please click here to fine the exceptional website of Bertoia Auctions

Description:

DISTLER RACE CAR  Germany, a fabulous oversized tin litho racer, striking graphic pipe images on sides, bonnet vents embossed, spare wheel graphics on tail rear, seated tin driver, features electric headlights and clockwork mechanism, condition is unplayed with. 20''  (508 mm) long.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr. Jim Hartman Helps Out Some More

Monday, July 8, 2013

Mr. Jim (James) Hartman

Helps Out Some More

   When you write a blog post each day, time goes by very fast. Too fast in fact, when you're approaching 65! It was June 28, when I posted about Mr. Jim Hartman's  beautiful Arcor rubber truck and cab.

Please click here to go to Jim's June 28th post

    We corresponded back and forth, and Jim sent me a funny story that I then asked him if I might share with everyone. He was busy that week with his 2 daughters moving to the East Coast from the West Coast (USA), but he said he'd get back to me. And so he did. I had the story from out correspondence during the last week of June, and now I had the photos.  Not only that, but Jim also sent me photos of original rubber toy animals that came with that fine Auburn GMC truck and cab.

   I mentioned in the previous post that Jim is an E-Bay seller, and has a great photographic eye for taking photos. I always appreciate sellers , auctioneers, or collectors who take the time to present their merchandise or collectibles nicely to share with others.

Please click here to visit Jim Hartman's E-Bay "My World" page

This is one of the photos from the June 28th post.

Jim photographed these items to send me.It's such a great gesture to take the time to help me out with my blog.You can also see his very good mastery of the digital camera and photographic composition!

To quote Jim, "Some of the Auburn cars and trucks were rather generic but many were very authentic in their styling, as was the case with the GMC. I have another ARCOR GMC with its' original load of rubber farm animals. This one is nice because the driver is factory painted, the trailer is not warped and I have a copy of the original box lid.

Jim wrote that as far as toy preferences go "I love any toy car, truck, or motorcycle but tinplate from the Golden Era of the 1950's, especially Japanese tin, is my preferred genre of collecting".

I've written briefly about  a Japanese merchant on E-Bay who sells fine Japanese tin toys from that era. I'm often amazed at  how high a price these toys achieve on E-Bay or at auction houses.This seems to be especially true for the 1950's and early 1960's monsters and robots.  I remember when there were many movies and even TV series about the same topics  -monsters and robots, especially space robots! 

You certainly have to look carefully to see all of the different toys on these shelves.

That's Jim's Arcor bronzed Lincoln and a real one for reference. 

   Of course, I had to save the best for last, as Jim's story goes.

"I just turned 60 and still have many toy cars and trucks from my youth, many of them rubber. 

My mother loved them because I was running the toys over the furniture and the rubber toys were much easier on the tables (and my mom) that the metal ones were. My very first toy was a convertible Lincoln about 4" in length made by Auburn. I remember it well and put many pretend miles on it. When I was 16 I bought my first full size car with my paper route money, a '63 Ford Falcon. 

My mom said actually that wasn't my first car, and promptly had the rubber Auburn Lincoln bronzed and mounted it on a marble base. It now sits front and center in my in my eclectic toy car collection case."

I should be contracting Jim to do my blogging - his story and photos  are fantastic,

 and it does make my blogging all the more worthwhile.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey