Tuesday October 2, 2012
A K & O Johnson Outboard Motor
(Special Thanks to Mr. Tom Ozara)
I've again been fortunate enough to have another E-Bayer help me out. It's Mr. Tom Ozara, who has been listing this item this week, and I was thankful that he agreed to allow me to use his excellent quality images for this post.
The toy is a 1950's toy K & O Johnson outboard motor. A company by the name of Fleetline Marine, Inc. imported these miniature battery-operated outboard motors. I think the K & O company remained in business until 1962, whereupon the company was sold to Craftsmaster. The K & O company also made other brands of outboard motors such as Evinrude and Mercury. K & O also made small wooden boats to go along with the toy motors. Eventually, the Craftsmaster company decided to manufacture their motors in plastic. I'm sure the plastic models are not as in demand as the metal die cast ones!
I've had my eyes on this particular 25 HP (Horsepower) motor for a long time, but waited until now to bid. I purchased 1 for my brother last week,but it's not as nice as this one, and it did not come with the box, which makes this listing by Tom Ozara, all the more valuable.
The reason I wanted this particular Johnson motor is that it reminded me of a motor that my late father Carl had in the 1940's-1950's. He had a 3 HP Johnson that looked just like this one. Before he married, he was a cutter making suits. he'd take a bus on Friday nights, and go to an outfitter called Gordon Roy. Gordon was a farmer who changed to being an outfitter and renter of summer cottages. My fondest memories were of those times in "the country" when I was growing up.
What's interesting about these toys are that there are a lot of people and even a site dedicated to these fine toys. The site is toyoutboardmotors.com and it is owned by Mikee and Bob McDonald. I'm going to contact them later to see if I can write about them on my blog. The motor that I purchased needs a part, and 1 replacement, as well as wires to connect the motor to the batteries. Sure enough, I did a search on the Net, and I found :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ToyOutboardMotors/
I sent an e-mail to someone (I forgot whom), and the same person sent me the name of a person to contact. He's Mr. Bill Arick in Kansas. SO I phoned him, and sure enough he has the parts. So once I receive my Johnson 25 HP Outboard for my brother, I'll order the parts, and send him a check in the mail.
Getting back to Tom Ozara, who allowed me to use his photos, you can see how he's photographed the item to best illustrate to potential bidders the features and condition of the motor. So without any more narrative, I am proud to present to you the Johnson Outboard 25 HP motor, circa early 1950's.
The above photo is a photo that I got permission to use from Art Sesselberg.
I got the "OK" to use it, and was fortunate to have access to the "real thing"
I used a great program called Fluid Mask 3 to isolate the motors form the background.
It's a great program for removing items from a background:
It's easy to use, easy to learn, and is inexpensive.
And like many software companies, you can try a freem demo for a limited amount of time.
Photo Courtesy of Mr. A W. Sesselberg Copyright 2012
Please Do Not Copy Without the Permission of Mr. Sesselberg.
His great website is: Http://www.oddjobsmotors.com/outboards.htm
His e-mail address is: lotec@optonline.net
Thanks again to Mr. Tom Ozara.
His E-Bay ID is tc_terrace
So that's another post.
As always,thanks for dropping by,
and have a good morning, day, or evening,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
