Ed's Baby Ruth Boxcars

Woodsy,

Here's some Baby Ruth cars in my collection:

Prewar

Photo 1: Lionel #1679 Lionel Lines Baby Ruth Boxcar Ylw w-Brwn Roof Auto Couplers ('39-'42)

Photo 2: Lionel #1679 Lionel Lines Baby Ruth Boxcar Ylw w-Brwn Roof Latch Couplers ('39-'42)

Photo 3: Lionel #1679 Lionel Lines Baby Ruth Boxcar Ylw w-Green Roof ('39-'42)

Postwar

Photo 4: Lionel #X6014(A) PRR Baby Ruth Shorty Boxcar - Wht (1951)

Photo 5: Lionel #X6034(B) PRR Baby Ruth Shorty Boxcar - Orng (1953-54)

MPC Era

Photo 6: Lionel #6-9854 Baby Ruth Billboard Box Car (1972-76)

Lionel made quite a few versions of the Baby Ruth cars in both the Prewar and Postwar era's; I only have a relatively few.

These are just some of the many candy-related train items out in The Cave (not saying I have a sweet tooth or anything, but....)

From Vegas Candy land

Ed

Ed's Adventure Annual Pyro and Archer Toys

Woodsy,

The recent posts by Arto and Scoop regarding the Adventure Annual (and others) were fun.

 I too have a copy of the Adventure Annual and some of the toy-inspired characters and spaceships I have in my collection. Pictured.

 However, now it looks as if I need to track down the Cheriliea figures!

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Buck Rogers HG Toys Galactic Play Set

Woodsy,

Here's one of about two dozen playsets sitting out in The Cave that I finally took off the shelf and started photographing. 

I don't have all the photos taken yet but this will give you an indication of the treasures within this set.

The playset is based on the television series which ran from 1979-81 and HG Toys did a really nice job in packing a lot of action into a relatively small playset.

There are:

Three distinct sets of figures:

-Character figures from the TV series

-Space Commandos

-Robo Aliens (provided by LP)

Spaceships:

-Two brown Draconian Marauders of the Draconian Empire (the bad guys)

-Two white starfighters

(I still need to apply the stickers onto the spaceships and then photograph them)

-One large flying saucer. 

The words 'Star Station X-5' are molded into the upper hull, and this saucer is a hold-over from previous HG space playsets like their 'Alien Attack' and 'Space Wars' playsets. 

(The box art shows a blue saucer, but I've only ever seen yellow)

Cardboard Graphics:

-Seven separate graphics depicting alien landscapes and a landing strip

From Vegas Base

Ed of The 25th & 3/4's Century

Untitled Archer Spaceman Toyscape

Woodsy,

I've been playing with the Archer Satellite Men of late. I thought you guys might like to put a name to this photo.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Tolkien

Here you go Woodsy, 

my collector's editions of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of The Rings'. 

I had never heard of 'The Hobbit' until it was given as a reading assignment in my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. I had already been reading sci-fi and a bit of fantasy, but this was new to me and needless to say, I was hooked. 

I originally bought the paperback editions you recently blogged but a couple of years later - in 1974 - these hard cover/slipcase collector's editions became available and I snatched them up. 

I went on to read all four books nearly every year for about 20 years or so.

Has anyone else got Tolkien books?

From Far West of The Shire

Ed

Ed's Archer Satellite Men

Woodsy,

Not too long ago, after a ten-year hiatus collecting these, I finally completed my collection of Archer's 4" Satellite Men. 

Introduced between 1954-55, they were soft vinyl plastic copies of Archer's Men of Mars series (which were cast in hard plastic). Many people also call these Archer slot-hand spacemen, as they had slots in their hands to accommodate accessories which came with them.

 The figures are relatively easy to find, the accessories not so much. 

There were six different poses in a variety of colors, six 'Scientific Weapons', and six 'Astro Pacs', all of which I'll start blogging in a new series starting tomorrow.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Old Ashtray

Well Woodsy,

I found a decent enough photo of our old ashtray. The photo dates from Christmas of 1963 and I can see where my far-less-than perfect memory got several of the details wrong.

But there you have it anyway. You can just spot it standing to the left of our new, state of the art portable stereo unit.

The ashtray appears in a couple of photos from a few years earlier, but it's much harder discern in those pics.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed- couldn't help injecting a bit of colour back to your snap - old Polaroids tend to lose a lot of the blue/green pigment when exposed to light, so I took it into Photoshop and re-adjusted the colour! Voila its 1964 again!  Bill

Ed's Tiny Boat Fleet

Woodsy,

Lately I've been photographing my small fleet of tiny boats. Most of these little guys were the result of impulse buys, as they reminded me of the few I had as a kid. 

My memory isn't good enough to remember exactly which small boats I had, but I'm almost certain they were breakfast cereal premiums.

Have you any tiny boats?

From Vegas Shipyard

Ed

Good Grief! Ed's Found Another Bank!

Woodsy,

While perusing my files to prepare for more blog posts, I came across yet another bank.

 This time it's a tin-litho affair from U.S. Metal Toy. While there is no manufacturer's hallmark, this is definitely a U.S. Metal Toy product (I have another one like this that isn't a bank). 

 This was most likely made in the mid-to-late '50s.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Old Ashtray

Well Woodsy,

I found a decent enough photo of our old ashtray. The photo dates from Christmas of 1963 and I can see where my far-less-than perfect memory got several of the details wrong.

But there you have it anyway. You can just spot it standing to the left of our new, state of the art portable stereo unit.

The ashtray appears in a couple of photos from a few years earlier, but it's much harder discern in those pics.

From Vegas Base

Ed

Ed's Train Layout 'Building on Fire' Scene

Woodsy,

Here's a couple of shots of the 'Building on Fire' scene on my 3-rail O-gauge train layout which I call The Milwaukee North Western). The first photo was taken in August of last year. 

After a couple of years of placing that fire scene in different spots around my downtown area, I decided to put it in this corner. 

My goal was to get as many buildings as I could fit into my downtown to make a busy urban area, and this small space was perfect for shoehorning the building into it. The second photo was taken in January after a couple of buildings were added. 

The fire scene is a now bit harder to see on the one hand, on the other hand it still lends itself well to a busy, crowded city.

From The Milwaukee North Western,

Ed