The Best Resource on the Net for Old Architectural Toys - Period!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

The Best Resource on the Net for Old Architectural Toys - Period!

  Originally, I wrote a post about an exceptional website and of course the owner , Jackie Britton.  I thought that I wrote a nice post ,but about 6 months later, someone (I assume it was a friend) wrote a comment for this post.  I was taken aback, and had to read and reread to see how I might have offended a viewer, and more importantly my exceptional guest - Jackie Britton. The friend thought that I had grossly understated the person and her great achievement in collection an unbelievable group of architectural toys. More so, if I understood the  the friend's writing (British expressions) , I was told that I had  extreme "nerve" to steal all of this material!

  I had to think a while, because I can get quite angry! So I sat myself down, thought for a while, and wrote a comment to the reader and friend. It's too bad I never heard from her again, but perhaps Jackie will send her an e-mail and I will. Of course, I never use anyone's photos or narrative without their permission.

  I replied to the comment, and promised the friend that I would write another post about Jackie, and this time I would try and write (if one can) the true greatness of what Jackie has done. She has managed over time to amass a vast collection of architectural toys, while keeping busy working in museums for the last 25 years, having acquired a degree in engineering, and when I had wrote to her for her permission, had been travelling in India, almost a year ago.  I'll be sending Jackie an 

e-mail, and hope to hear from her.

That's Jackie as a young lady, and below her is her logo

Please click here to visit Jackie's blog

Please click here to visit Jackie's website

Please click here to visit Flickr and Jackie's Collection of Photos

Please click here to visit the original post about Jackie

  I only selected a "mere" 9 images from just the A list - imagine! There are still hundreds of different companies and 25 more letters in the alphabet to do!

   

   I was glad to hear from the read and Jackie's friend. I have lots of readers,but rarely do people write to me.I guess that's part an parcel of being a blogger.  So when the friend wrote, I appreciated her candour and honesty.  As the old expression goes from Mahatma Ghandi "out of the fry pan and into the fire". Basically, that means think carefully and well before you or write anything. I'm still learning at 65 years young.

By the way, Jackie, can I come over and play with your architectural toys, and can your friend come and play too (without any disrespect to anyone)?

Thanks for dropping by, 

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Architectural Toys

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Architectural Toys

Introduction

    I was scouring the Net as usual, when I came across a site containing a huge "warehouse" of  content that I had always been looking for. I call this group construction or building toys, but the owner of the site who is quite educated, and likes to study architecture, prefers to call the grouping architectural toys.

Jackie Britton is quite an interesting young woman. She studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bath,  although she never worked as an engineer.  She joined the Science Museum in London, and worked her way up , eventually  becoming Project  developer and Executive Assistant to the  Head of the Museum.  At the same time, she managed to find time to get an MSc in the History of Technology in the History of Technology. Jackie then was fortunate enough to get a great job at the Victoria and Albert Museum (across the street from the Science Museum), where she is the head of technical services, managing the teams who move, install, pack, transport, store, clean, and make mounts for the exhibits.

I'm tired just writing all of this, and yet there's even more to tell on her site. I feel like I should be doing lots more than just writing a toy blog!

I rearranged the above montage from Jackie's intro page on her blog.

I hope that she won't mind.  I especially like her logo of the letter "A" for

"Architoys".

http://architoys.net/blog/

http://www.architoys.net

The first address is Jackies's blog,while the second one is her website.

You can click on either address to see lots of interesting architectural sets, as well as interesting information.

And if that is not enough, Jackie has added photos to Flickr:  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25270435@N03/collections/

    I'm going to be writing a few posts about Jackie Britton and her marvellous architectural toy collection, so for today, I'm just presenting you with some of the items in her collection. 

I actually had a set of Minibrix when I was about 8 years old. The "trick" to  easily attach the rubber pieces to each other was to wet the small rounded ends, and then push or press them into the small holes. 

I'll be writing more on Jackie later, but for now this is the "intro". Drop by her fine sites,  as well as her Flickr site. I'm going to add my photo site in the future .I've taken lots of nice photos when I was buying and selling on E-Bay, and I'd like to share them with you.

That's it for today.I have to get up and walk Buddie, our dog.

As well, my neck is "killing me" from bending down over the keyboard and monitor.

As always, thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day or evening or morning, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey