Monday, August 29, 2011

Yard Sale Finds: Vintage Toys

This year's Yard Sale Trail, a 200+ mile route along the shoreline of eastern Michigan, turned up some nice finds (although nothing can really top last year's discovery of a vintage playground spring rider).


First find: a 1972 Come Home Snoopy! Colorforms set. I adore Colorforms, and Snoopy stuff is pretty cool too, but what really made this a great score was the fact that its original owner wrote her name and the date she received it inside the box lid. If only all old toys came with such provenance...

Janice Blackburn, I've got your Snoopy Colorforms! 
(Also, thank you for taking such good care of your toys.)



The next find was also a character toy: a 1962 Barney Rubble doll (of Flintstones fame) made by Knickerbocker. 11 1/2 inches tall, the odd doll retains its original clothes. I don't know why they made his hair green, but that is also original. A few sales down the road, I got this little 5 1/2 inch vintage plastic Fred Flintstone, and happily reunited the two best friends. 




Spotted from the road was this 22 inch vintage tin dollhouse still full of its original plastic furniture, made by Wolverine. It's the epitome of suburban living, circa the 1950s-60s.















Coming up tomorrow: a long-lost childhood toy found again on the Yard Sale Trail!



8 comments:

  1. I don't collect dollhouses, but i would have arm wrestled you for that tin one. What a classic!

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  2. I forgot all about colorforms! What memories. I ran across a house pretty close to yours. Definitely cool.

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  3. I am another who covets the tiny dollhouse. Looks like it is in lovely shape.
    Barney must enjoy being so much taller than Fred for a change...

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  4. I don't think that's Barney's hair,that's his leaf hat.I have a vague memory that he had one in at least one of the episodes but I can't recall the reason for it. I think it was the stone-age version of a well-dressed man's fedora.Anyhow, lovely finds as always.
    Take care,
    Maricha

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  5. Ah: thank you! That makes sense, now!

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  6. Replies
    1. oh! and the colorforms! i came here whilst looking for colorforms that my brother and i used to play with.

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  7. Hi Tracy:
    I'm writing an article about Colorforms for CollectorsWeekly. I've already interviewed Patricia Kislevitz and would love to chat with you, too. Here's a page with my contact info, if you are interested.
    http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/ben-marks/

    Best,
    Ben Marks
    Senior Editor
    CollectorsWeekly.com

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