Antique Noah's Ark

Photos really don't do this toy justice: it is one of the most beautiful items in my collection, and represents one of the high points of my collecting hobby. This 12 inch long German-made Noah's Ark dates from between 1850 and 1880. The set features Mr. and Mrs. Noah along with 2 sons and their wives and 29 pairs of animals. Included in the menagerie are horses, cows, lions, elephants, cats, pigs, birds, deer, what I think are moles, and many other tiny little animals.

In quiet moments, I like to hold the ark and imagine its long history: from the German village where it was turned and carved out of wood from the great forests; to its perilous journey across the Atlantic in a steamship, packed in crates full of other wonderful toys; to its time as a plaything for some happy children, now long gone...this is a toy that has seen a lot of history.

Colorforms Castle Dracula Fun House Playset

It's taken me 30 years, but I've just finally replaced one of my all-time favorite childhood toys: the Colorforms Castle Dracula Fun House Playset. Considered by Colorforms aficionados to be one of the best sets ever created, it's also sought by vintage monster toy collectors, which tends to drive its price to truly horrific levels.

After several years of lost auctions, I broke down and bought this from a dealer who sells all of her sets in individual lots. That is, she sells every single piece in a set separately. The intent is to enable collectors who are missing a few bits to buy just the pieces they need, instead of another whole set. In my case though, this led to 20 minutes of frantic clicking and buying, particularly as this set has characters with separate tops and bottoms. I bought the Frankenstein monster's head and torso; would I manage to complete the purchase of his bottom half before someone else beat me to it? And the Wolfman was even worse: he had a top, bottom, and frequently-lost separate arm. The tension was unbearable as I raced to complete his three separate purchases, worrying that I would end up spending a small fortune only to have an incomplete set, full of monsters missing vital body parts.

Fortunately there were no other missing parts monster collectors looking at the same time, and I managed to get everything I needed. And the lucky dealer got enough from me to make her car payment, I would guess...but hey, I got my monster Colorforms back!

Vintage Weebles Haunted House Playset

Ah, Weebles, a favorite toy of my 1970s childhood. Seemed like we always had a weeble or two in our pockets back then. Remember their ad jingle: "Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down!"?

Here's one of the most-sought Weeble sets, the Haunted House, just in time for Halloween. It originally came with a boy and girl with "scared" faces, a glow-in-the-dark ghost (still glows 40 years later!), and a witch with a removeable hat (usually lost and now very hard-to-find).

















Another great Halloweeny Weebles item was the purple Weebles Ghost Van. It's unclear whether it's a van for catching ghosts, or if it's a vehicle meant for ghosts to drive. The marketing storyline on this one was vague.

Speaking of marketing, though, I'll finish this post with a vintage ad for the Weebles Haunted House. Enjoy!

1930s German Toy Grocery Shop

Another addition to my growing collection of toy grocery stores, this is my first German shop. Dating from the 1930s, with a great deco design, it measures about 15 inches wide by 13 inches tall. The little wooden drawers still have their original handles and labels for salt, pepper, rice, pickles, cookies, and tea. It came with some lovely accessories: miniature boxes of Knorr products (soup mixes?), tiny tins (for cookies?), a cheese on a glass dish, and a fantastic and very old compote of fruit. A 1920s Schuco bear watches over the cheese and sausage counter.

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Yard Sale Find: Star Wars Land of the Jawas

This past Saturday, I went yard saling and scored some great finds. One of the best was this hard-to-find vintage Star Wars playset, Land of the Jawas, from the first movie. No one I knew as a child had this set; I didn't even know it existed until I was a grown-up toy collector. It's a relatively scarce piece because half of it, the sandcrawler backdrop, is made of fragile cardboard.

1940s American Toy Grocery Store

I just love these little toy grocery shops! They're perfect for using in displays with small antique dolls and teddy bears (who like shopping too, you know!).
I'm thinking this is American, probably from the 1940s, and many of the products shown are original. The set measures about 10 1/2 inches high. The little cans and packages are all wooden with paper labels, while the breads, ham, and steak are plaster.
(See the entry for the 1914 Cass toy grocery for an antique example, the 1950s British toy grocery for a very different style, and the 1930s German shop for another.)

1950s British Toy Grocery Shop

A wonderful find from England: a toy grocery shop from the 1950s, complete with original products (lots of tea, of course!). The shop is 15 1/2 inches tall.

Vintage James Bond Toys

I've been in a vintage Bond mood lately: so far this week I've watched Dr. No, Goldfinger, and my favorite, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (it's such an appealingly goofy alternate reality, plus the heroine is named Tracy). Just in are these two cool playsets made by Gilbert Toys in the 1960s, featuring Bond on Goldfinger's laser cutting thingy and the secret map/pool table from his Kentucky ranch lair. (Inexplicably, the laser playset also includes Dr. No, who was, of course, killed in the first film...or was he? Hmm.)

1914 Cass Grocery Toy

A recent find was this fragile toy grocery, made by the Cass Company in 1914. The little counter in the front folds up into the base for storage. The whole thing is about 9 inches tall.










I was also able to find an original ad for this item, which gives precise dating and also shows the products that came with the grocery. It's always an added thrill to find ads like these: they add a lot to a toy collection!

1800s Tin Kitchen

This tin kitchen playset dates from the mid to late 1800s. It was made in America, and represents a much simpler version of the fabulous German Nuremberg kitchens of the time. The kitchen measures about 12 inches wide by 8 inches tall, and most of the accessories are original to the set. One of its most interesting features is the water pump on the right side. It could actually be filled with water and then pumped into the sink fixed to the wall. These kitchens were not meant to be true to scale; rather, the idea was for little girls to learn cooking by playing with them, and for that they needed larger utensils. These tin kitchens were used for "cold cooking" (pretend), but there were also woodburning and alcohol stoves made for "hot cooking" (real). I'll list some of these 19th century versions of the Easy Bake Oven soon!