Toy Show Finds

Yesterday was one of my high holy days: the annual toy show that happens each January in our part of the world. It was a good day for tin and vintage space stuff: here's a quick peek at the finds.

Toy Show Finds

Just got home from one of my favorite vintage toy shows. It's an annual event that happens each January, which really seems like a lousy month for a toy show, coming as it does right after Christmas. This year I planned strategically: when my family asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said "money for the toy show please!" Here's what I spent it on:

There were all kinds of toy treasures, including a tin litho grocery store playset made in the 1950s by Wolverine; a scarce (and creepy) Hugo, Man of 1,000 Faces from the 1970s; a two-headed Doublenik troll from 1965 along with a tiny vending machine troll; a Weinermobile whistle; a bunch of 1950s space guys; Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon newspaper comics from the 1930s-1940s; a 1960s Batman puzzle; Barbie's original convertible; and a 1950s tin wind-up robot. I'll post properly about them later, but here are some quick pics and sneak peeks.

The robot has some rust, but he also has lots of character.

1950s space guys.

A Doublenik two-headed troll from 1965,
with its gumball prize friend.

Hugo, Man of 1,000 Faces, was a bizarre toy made in the 1970s. It's essentially a creepy looking guy's torso and head, along with a package of "disguise" accessories, including false chins, fake scars and warts, various noses, glasses, an eye patch, and hair pieces. I'm guessing it was inspired by spy films, but who knows. It's weird and now rather rare.

Hugo, Man of 1,000 Faces with some of his original accessory pieces.

Barbie's convertible, made by Irwin in the 1960s, was her first car.

The two shelf units on either side of this tin litho grocery store fold inward to close up the playset. Originally it would also have had a separate counter with accessories like a scale, but these are usually missing. The center span features great imagery of a 1950s supermarket.

The iconic weenie whistle.

The 1930s Buck Rogers newspaper comic above is complete, while the Flash Gordon strips below are only portions (but they feature a fantastic alien giant squiddy monster) :

These two mechanical bears were made in Japan in the 1950s. When wound, the bear on the left turns the pages of his book, while the one on the right wipes his glasses before holding them up to his eyes.

Toy Show Finds

One of my favorite toy shows takes place each January, which is really an unfortunate month for a toy show, don't you think, coming right after Christmas? Nevertheless, we went, we jostled our way through the crowd of manic toy collectors, and we came home happily with all this:

Wheeeee!!!! I'll post everything soon. There were a couple of long-sought space toys in the haul, and, as you can see, it was a Trollapalooza.

Antique Show Find: Vintage Spacemen

Vintage space toys are some of my favorites, and I'm always on the lookout for them at antique shows. Recently I found these 3 fabulous space guys. At 3 1/4 inches tall, they're smaller than the famed Archer Space Men, but they have their own great style.

Marching into the future, circa the 1950s.

Antique Show Find: Lithographed Toy Blocks

I found the most beautiful set of toy blocks at an antique show this summer, and I've never seen another like them. Made of lithographed paper over wood, they are most likely from the McLaughlin Bros. company, and date circa 1890.

Each block is 4 inches tall, and each side is different, making the blocks many toys instead of one. One broad side has Fairy Land Railroad cars while the other has a Punch and Judy show, and the narrow edges have either numbers or soldiers. The alphabet runs along one side too, like a frame.

We'll start with a few of the Fairy Land R. R. cars, which depict characters from famous fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and classic children's stories. Turned horizontally, they can be lined up to make a train.

There's even a mail car, and a candy hauler:

The character sneaking a peek into the candy car is Mr. Punch, the famous maniacal puppet. By turning the blocks around and standing them vertically, they make a complete Punch and Judy show.

Oh no: Mr. Punch shakes the baby!

Then, he and Judy smack each other with sticks.

Punch is in serious trouble...

  ...but somehow he gets out of it.

(I'm missing a block here, 

so I'm not sure how he managed it.)

Finally, turning the blocks sideways gives you a little army all your own, complete with a drummer:

What a fantastically versatile toy: can't you just picture a little Victorian child playing with this by the hour on the floor of the nursery?

Antique Show Find: Teddy Bear Characters

I found these three crazy character bears in the booth of one of my favorite dealers at an antique show this past summer. It was love at first sight: I couldn't leave any of them behind. From left to right: American, 13 inches, circa 1904; English, 10 inches, circa 1930s; and German, 16 inches, circa 1920s.

The ancient American bear is really unusual, with a broad, melon shaped head and a funny expression. Even with his extreme wear, there was just something really charming about him.

This is a face that has seen a lot of living.

The chubby little English ted has (the remains of) long golden blonde mohair with contrasting shaggy brown ears (original) and a cute face with a tiny pink tongue. 

 I just love this nose.

The German bear is one of the tallest and skinniest teddies I've ever seen, with long, long legs and a serious expression. He came wearing a vintage sweater with an old Audubon Society badge; apparently he's into bird-watching.

 He is exceptionally alert looking, this one.

Antique Show Finds

I only made it to one big outdoor antique show this summer, but it was a good one. Finds included, in descending order of expensiveness:

-3 antique teddy bears, great characters all
-a set of beautiful antique lithographed wooden blocks
-some vintage plastic space guys
-a bag full of vintage gumball machine charms, rings, and tiny toys
-a vintage Mr. Potato Head fake
-a 1960s Mentor board game
-and a vintage Weeble


Coming soon!

Yard Sale Find: Antique Sulphide Marble

My oldest toy find on this summer's Yard Sale Trail was this antique sulphide marble, a bit over 2 inches in diameter, made in Germany between the 1900s and 1930s. Old sulphide marbles are expensive today, typically priced in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the antique store and auction markets. This one's yard sale price? Just $15!

They're also fragile, consisting of a tiny bisque figurine enclosed in a hand-blown glass marble. The seller had this one displayed resting on the open top of a porcelain vase that was sitting on a hanging wall shelf! Gah! Fortunately I spotted and rescued it before the inevitable tragedy could unfold.

I'm not quite sure what the figure is: bear? badger? chupacabra?

The marble find marked the end of yard sale season here in the north country, where temperatures are already dropping, but I still have one outdoor antique show to report on, and the finds there were tremendous. Coming soon!

Yard Sale Find: Vintage Hasbro Inchworm

My favorite yard sale find of this summer was a vintage 1970s Hasbro Inchworm ride-on toy. I had one of these as a child, and it was one of my most loved toys. As the rider propels it along, the Inchworm bounces up and down on its accordion-style body...eventually producing the sort of damage seen in this example.

(Click here to watch the original Inchworm TV commercial: it's adorable, and you'll get to see the Inchworm in action.)

Their fragility makes vintage Inchworms scarce, and they are much sought after. I've seen them reach prices of $300+ on eBay during particularly desperate bidding wars. Glad I held out: this one was just $5 at a Yard Sale Trail flea market!

 How cute is he? Super-cute.

Speaking of cute things: here's a picture of me with my brand-new Inchworm, on a Christmas morning sometime in the 1970s. (I'm also holding a just-opened Viewmaster, effectively multi-tasking as I motor around the living room.)

Coming up tomorrow: my final, and oldest, yard sale toy find of the summer... 

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!

Antiquing Trip to England: Day Three, Dover

Our third day in England started out with a stop at a local boot sale, or flea market. Sellers sold all sorts of things, new and old, from the boots (trunks) of their cars.

I found some great old toys at the table of a dealer who specialized in attic clean-outs of old houses. A Sooty xylophone, still in its box, first caught my eye. Sooty was a famous teddy bear hand puppet who was the star of his own British television show in the 1950s and 60s. He did magic tricks, and played "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" on a xylophone at the close of each program. Sooty had his own merchandise line, predominantly stuffed bears, of course. The xylophone has wonderful images of Sooty on each bar.

A little further down the table was an assortment of old cast lead toy figures which had clearly been played with and much loved. I chose a set of jungle animals; it reminded me of all those old movies about stalwart British adventurers. I also got a bear and a (rather misshapen) soldier playing a horn.

Another dealer at the boot sale had a small glazed case full of old clay pipes. These pipes are found in droves all along the riverbanks of Great Britian. Shortly before the trip, I had been watching an episode of Rick Steve's Europe in which he showed how these pipes can be found along the Thames in London when the tide is out. He explained that when these long clay pipes broke, as they invariably did, the owners would toss them into the rivers, traditional rubbish disposal sites. They did this for centuries, so there are lots of pipes (and other interesting things: some coming up in a future post!) to be found with a little digging near waterways all over the country. The two I purchased came from the River Medway, in Rochester, where our tour would be taking us later in the week. The white pipe is from 1640 (!) and the darker one is an Army Regimental pipe, circa 1870. It's rather moving to hold these artifacts and imagine who they first belonged to, so long ago...

After another scone break...

















...we headed off to our major destination of the day, Dover Castle, on the English Channel with France in sight across the water.

Dover Castle was built in the 1100s on the site of a Roman defensive structure and an even earlier Iron Age fort. A Roman lighthouse still stands on the grounds, and is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a centurion, still keeping his lonely vigil.

This was my first castle, and it didn't disappoint. Absolutely massive, with rings of defences, it covered acres of hilltop with spectacular views of the English Channel. The castle is very strategically located, and played a major role in the country's defense during both the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. Tunnels dug into the surrounding chalk hills, like something from a James Bond villian's lair, provided secrecy and safety for security operations during the wars.

The outer castle wall and entrance.

After going on a tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels (no picture-taking allowed there, as they are still Secret, apparently), we came out onto a high balcony, looking out over the harbor, with France visible on the horizon:

The day ended with a stop at the White Cliffs of Dover, the beautiful chalk hills that line the southeastern coast of Britain. Just visible at the end of the highway in this photo is a tunnel going through one of the cliffs:

Coming up next: Day 4, shopping in Lewes, a beautiful town packed full of antique stores, plus Sue Pearson's world-famous teddy bear shop. I will confess: I bought so much here, I actually had blisters on my hands at the end of the day from carrying my shopping bags...this was my favorite day of the whole trip!