BY STEVE BUTLER UNFORTUNATELY, BOXED SETS tend to be stored away, out of sight and out of mind – places where they can’t be truly enjoyed. On the bottom shelf of my center storage cabinet is the home for the #375 Courtland DO-IT YOURSELF set pictured herein. I was looking for a subject for my next ATW article (this one) [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER ON RARE OCCASIONS a toy collector may encounter an opportunity to acquire one or more vintage toys in never before opened boxes – some factory sealed. Taking advantage of such opportunities poses quandaries for collectors, resellers and writers alike. Most of these quandaries relate to the future enjoyment of the unseen item or to the uncertainty of [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER NO ONE KNOWS, NOT even the most knowledgeable authors or advanced collectors, the actual number of designs and variations of Japanese tin toy vehicles issued. It’s anybody’s guess. Some are extraordinarily well done and accompanied by extraordinary prices when encountered. Others are rather commonplace and mundane. In the middle are found a few issues reflecting design variations [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER RELIABLE WAS, and perhaps still is, a Canadian manufacturer of plastic toys of fine quality. Their issues made of hard plastic, polystyrene or a plastic quite similar, are well detailed, colorful and generally exemplary. Reliable’s issues made of soft plastic, probably polyethylene, not so much. Presented herein are three of their better, smaller hard plastic toys. Read [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER CONDITION, APPEAL AND SCARCITY are the three primary criteria for new additions to my toy collection. Featured herein are two new recruits which scored highly at least on the first and third criteria. One is mint/boxed and the other rated about excellent with at least the remains of the original box – so much for condition. As [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER THESE THREE BUSSES represent only a sample of the several post-war Trailways busses available to toy collectors. Trailways’ attractive designs and colors have always made them popular subjects for miniature versions. Some semblance to realism adds to the appeal, and each of the three are renditions of actual models, two that found highway use and one prototype [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER KAISER ENTERED THE U.S. automobile market in 1947 with two four-door sedans, model numbers K100 and K1010, the Special and Custom series respectively. They sold reasonably well for at least two reasons. First, there was an extremely high demand for new cars after World War II. And, second, the Kaisers were completely new—not a carry over and [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER COLOR CONSIDERATIONS ARE covered in marketing 101, probably even in the first week of the course. The undeniable fact is that color sells with some colors much better than others. Consider the colors used for political campaign posters and signs, packaging for the most popular soft drinks, and lately the popular movie rental vending machines. Red tops [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER THE 1950S seems to have been the golden era of dream cars. At least that was my impression at the time. Exquisite examples were produced by all of the major U.S. manufacturers with the most notable issues from General Motors. Theirs at least seemed to have been reduced in toy form more than others. Included were the [...]
BY STEVE BUTLER THERE ARE MEGABUCK Japanese tin toy vehicles out there, but you already knew that. They generally show up at nationally advertised toy auctions and at major toy shows. In fact, they show up with such regularity that their purported scarcity may be subject to question. However, it is possible that some of these megabucker appearances are simply [...]
