Early Cast Toys by Unknown Makers
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:52 am
I seem unable to resist toys that carry no maker's name for some reason, and here are a few that I have gathered recently. I welcome any knowledge and/or suggestions you have!
Firstly, here's a couple of racing cars. They have identical castings but as you can see the blue one has metal wheels and the unpainted one has hard rubber or plastic wheels, at least on the remaining axle. They are very small at around 1.75 inches in length. A few weeks back Ghosthunter, toysnz and myself had a wee chat in 'The Lounge' about definitions of casting methods and these are the cars I had in mind when I used the term 'hollow cast' rather than 'slush cast'. I'm sure these cars are hollow, and as they are completely enclosed I can only guess that surplus metal was poured from the axle holes whilst still molten. This to me seems similar to the technique used for hollow cast soldiers etc and different to slush cast cars where the molten metal is tipped out of a very open underside.
In the listings at the back of one of my Norman Joplin books there is a racing car attributed to Pixyland-Kew (catalogue number 250) and another to Philip Segal (catalogue number 42) who also made a saloon car. I have not seen any of these so they are possibilities or they could of course be by a manufacturer unidentified. Finally, there are these 2 petrol pumps and an oil bin. They are quite similar to Crescent items I've already posted but with a complete lack of oil company branding and different globes on the pumps. There isn't any fatigue either!
Firstly, here's a couple of racing cars. They have identical castings but as you can see the blue one has metal wheels and the unpainted one has hard rubber or plastic wheels, at least on the remaining axle. They are very small at around 1.75 inches in length. A few weeks back Ghosthunter, toysnz and myself had a wee chat in 'The Lounge' about definitions of casting methods and these are the cars I had in mind when I used the term 'hollow cast' rather than 'slush cast'. I'm sure these cars are hollow, and as they are completely enclosed I can only guess that surplus metal was poured from the axle holes whilst still molten. This to me seems similar to the technique used for hollow cast soldiers etc and different to slush cast cars where the molten metal is tipped out of a very open underside.
In the listings at the back of one of my Norman Joplin books there is a racing car attributed to Pixyland-Kew (catalogue number 250) and another to Philip Segal (catalogue number 42) who also made a saloon car. I have not seen any of these so they are possibilities or they could of course be by a manufacturer unidentified. Finally, there are these 2 petrol pumps and an oil bin. They are quite similar to Crescent items I've already posted but with a complete lack of oil company branding and different globes on the pumps. There isn't any fatigue either!