Other Early Crescent Toys

[Ewan]

In addition to the Crescent I've featured in another thread, they made a few models referred to in their 1940 catalogue as larger models. This is all relative, as they are not much bigger than the others so I have resisted the temptation to call this thread 'Large Scale Crescent'. There are 3 models which particularly interest me of which the C323 Streamlined Car and C324 Police Car I do not have yet. They are essentially the same model except that the Police Car has a siren/loudspeaker mounted on the roof and it is probably the one you are most likely to have seen as part of the 'Calling All Cars' police set. It looks to be quite a basic casting and the solid windows make me think it's probably slush cast. The civilian C323 had already been deleted by the 1940 catalogue.

The other model is the C273 Speed King Racing Car, and I think that is what I have below. Unlike the other early models it seems to be die cast with a smooth inside bearing the 'Crescent' name. I've also seen them in light blue and dark red and they seem to be more common than the slush cast racing cars. This makes me wonder if they are the same car as the 223 Racing Car listed in the 'Early Post 1945 Models' section of Ramsay's Crescent listing.

C273 Speed King Racer (450x337).jpg (64.35 KiB) Viewed 2973 times

This car is found in a number of different sets, including the only Crescent set I have seen on Vectis which is described as Pre War. Unlike the garage set those I've seen do not feature a wooden building, but an assortment of figures, road signs and garage equipment. Now although road signs are not really my thing I did end up with no less than 11 of these double sided 30mph/End of Limit signs as shown below. I can't be sure that they are Crescent as all photos I've seen of the sets naturally show only one side of each sign!

Crescent Speed Signs (450x337).jpg (89.04 KiB) Viewed 2973 times

My original intention was to try and recreate one of the original sets but I've changed tack slightly and am trying to create a different version of the garage set shown in the first Crescent thread. The oil bins appear to be the same, but the petrol pumps usually issued with the C273 are of a different style, strangely they seemed to combine the larger car with smaller pumps. There are 3 different pumps, A75 (Shell), A76 (BP) and A77 (Power). They all seem to suffer from pretty bad fatigue and the one I have (BP) is the one I come across more often.

A76 BP Petrol Pump (450x337).jpg (67.67 KiB) Viewed 2973 times

That's all for now on my Crescent, I shall add new arrivals to the threads as and when I am lucky enough to get them.

[Idris]

Fascinating! Thank you again!

[MOKOSEX]

If i remember correctly your little green car doesn,t have axles?,i have recently added three models to my crescent collection so they are still to hand,the lorry is interesting in that the "base" clearly shows metal wheels and plain paint was used after metallic and black plastic wheels,something you would think would be the other way around,this must be down to crescent and dcmt parting of the waves,nice thread ewan,good to see the "others" getting a mention
dave

[Miller]

My only Crescent toy, found in a big bin buy. Sadly without all off the accessories...

Speicher3.jpg (32.19 KiB) Viewed 2947 times

[Ewan]

I nearly forgot about those Dave - the Tootsietoys copied by DCMT for Crescent. I have a few, the long term aim is to get one of each in both Toostie and DCMT/Crescent versions.

The first one I got was this DCMT/Crescent 423 Oil Lorry which was a copy of the Tootsie 235 Oil Tanker (minus bumpers and tank caps and with wheelarches opened up). The Pre War Tootsie seems to have been finished in 2 colours and had 2 tank caps, post war it had 4 caps and was all one colour.

Crescent 423 Oil Lorry (450x337).jpg (64.5 KiB) Viewed 2939 times

I have a Crescent 422 Sports Car, with a bit less paint than yours!

Crescent 422 Sports Car (450x337).jpg (64.69 KiB) Viewed 2939 times

This was a copy of the Tootsie 233 Boat Tail Roadster, again minus bumpers and with the wheel arches opened up.

Tootsietoy 233 Boat Tail Roadster (450x337).jpg (66.74 KiB) Viewed 2939 times

I also have one of the Crescent 424 Truck Lorries. This has been modified more than any of the other Tootsies and I suspect it's closest to the 234 Box Truck but without any sides.
The metal wheels on your non-DCMT Crescent version look the same as wheels Crescent seem to have used on everything from railway platform trollies to racing cars. Now I know how to spot them without a base photo

Crescent 424 Truck Lorry (450x337).jpg (68.21 KiB) Viewed 2939 times

I have neither version of the final model - Crescent's 425 Saloon Car which was a copy of Tootsie 230 La Salle Sedan. Although the 230 is called a La Salle the models appear to be pretty generic to me, especially when you look closely enough to see that the tanker and sports car/roadster have the same front ends, as do the truck and saloon car/sedan. I guess DCMT opened the wheel arches up to ease assembly, and maybe deleted the bumpers to make casting simpler or stronger?

[MOKOSEX]

I never realised the tootsie toy connection,i have a dinky sized car which i always though was a jaguar,it came with a loudspeaker on the roof in black and i have the same car in various colours without the loudspeaker,don,t know where they are presently but i will post a pic when i find them.
dave

[robertnewson]

Ewan, no.323 was listed in the 1938/39 catalogue as a Frying Pan! 324 was indeed the Police Car, also sold as no.374 "Calling all Cars" set. I can't find the civilian car in the catalogues, where did you see this as 323?

I am sure your green racer is post-war only, as it is zinc diecast. My best guess for no.273 Speed King is the large orange-yellow painted model at the back in this photo.

CrescentPre-War-Racers.jpg (58.54 KiB) Viewed 2843 times

The models in front in the photo are as follows (left to right):
- the yellow racer is no.A32, pictured in the 1940 catalogue, has the crescent moon logo underneath, copy of the Dinky 35 series model.
- the fat green racer is one of no.A223 Motor Cars (assorted) pictured in the 1940 catalogue.
- then there are two variations of the green record car with fin, a smaller version of the Speed King.

[Ewan]

Hello again
I am now kicking myself black and blue, there was a copy of the 1940 Crescent catalogue recently in a joblot with Vectis and I didn't bid - thought I'd spend my money on models instead.....
That big racer is another lovely one I haven't seen before.
The 323 reference for the civilian car came from Michel Sordet's site http://www.sordetmaco.com/cd-rom/Jouets ... /index.htm

[robertnewson]

The 1940 Crescent catalogue was done as a reproduction in the 1970s or 1980s. This is probably what was in the Vectis lot. Don't despair, they do turn up from time to time. Actually it's a compendium of Crescent information, the booklet includes an article from the trade magazine British Playthings, quite a few pages from the 1938/39 catalogue (but I think not complete), the 'War Catalogue' of 1940 and a 1946 leaflet.

I'm afraid you can't rely on the information on Michel Sordet's website, it is riddled with errors. There are some nice pictures...

[Ewan]

I must say I'm looking forward to re-cataloguing my models, not looking forward to the spate of overpriced examples I'll doubtless see on ebay on the back of this thread though
I'd noticed the Sordet website had quite a few Moko/Early Lesney errors, hadn't realised there were so many more but like you say nice pictures.
Perhaps I should have gone for Charbens rather than Crescent - some very good online information on that maker