RADIO & EARLY TV 1930s TO 1950s RING COLLECTION.

Last winter I read up on one of my fave subjects, collectable Kids' rings.

I own quite a few now but nothing like this amazing early US collection of Radio/ TV show premium rings listed on Hakes a while back.

It's an American treasure trove. Feast your eyes!

 

Do you like them? Did you or do you have any Radio, TV or Comics rings?

Here's the auction description, rings from left to right.

1. G MAN” - 1930s white metal w/solid band, much silver luster remains. NM

         2.  “Capt. Franks Air Hawks” - 1936 Post cereal, luster gone but clean brass. Fine

3.       “ROA” (Radio Orphan Annie) Secret Message - 1937 Ovaltine. NM

4.       “Secret Operator Melvin Purvis Law & Order Patrol” - 1937 Post cereal. NM luster on upper half.

5.       Jack Armstrong Dragon’s Eye/Crocodile - 1940 Wheaties, glow-in-the-dark plastic still glows. VF

6.       Capt. Midnight Whirlwind Whistling ring - 1941 Ovaltine. Never had luster flashing. Clean brass. Exc.

7.       Buck Rogers Ring of Saturn - 1946 Kellogg’s Pep, glow-in-the-dark w/crocodile bands glows intensely. Mint

8.       “Dick Tracy” good luck symbols secret compartment - 1938 Quaker cereal. Exc.

9.       “Dick Tracy” Miller Bros. Hats ring - 1940s, luster off lower outer prong but rest is Mint

10.   “Tom Mix Straight Shooters” Ralston cereal logo ring - 1935, Mint

11.   Tom Mix Look Around ring - 1946 Ralston. Fine

12.   Tom Mix Musical (slide whistle) ring - 1949 Ralston. VF

13.   Tom Mix Magic Light Tiger Eye ring - 1950 Ralston. Mint w/perfectly formed “eye” that glows

14.   Lone Ranger Six-Gun ring - 1947 Kix cereal. Exc.

15.   Lone Ranger Atomic Bomb ring - 1947 Kix cereal. Exc.

16.   Lone Ranger Filmstrip ring - 1949  Cheerios cereal. No film. Fine

17.   Lone Ranger Flashlight ring - 1949 Cheerios cereal. No battery. Exc.

18.   The Green Hornet Secret Compartment glow-in-the-dark ring - 1947 General Mills. Glows, NM

19.   Terry & The Pirates Gold Ore Detector ring - 1947 Quaker cereals. NM

20.   “Sky King” Radar Signal ring - 1947 Peter Pan peanut butter. Glows, Exc.

21.   Sky King Magni-Glo Writing ring - 1949 Peter Pan. Ink is dry but ring still glows. Fine

22.   Sky King Tele-Blinker ring - 1949 Peter Pan. Largest metal premium ring ever produced. Light general wear. Fine

23.   Sky King Aztec Emerald Calendar ring - 1949 Peter Pan. NM-Mint

24.   Roy Rogers Branding Iron ring w/"D" initial - 1948 Quaker cereal. Missing metal cap that held tiny ink pad. VF

25.   Roy Rogers Microscope ring - 1949 Quaker cereals. Fine

26.   Straight Arrow Golden Nugget Cave ring - 1950 Nabisco cereals, Rare, first we've seen showing young girl rather than boy. She points pistol at the camera. Exc.

27.   Cisco Kid on horseback - 1950 w/copyright date on band, issuer unknown. VF

28.   Hopalong Cassidy - 1950 silvered brass, store item and multi-sponsor premium. Mint

29.   Capt. Video Secret Seal ring - 1951 Power House candy bar. Upper cover missing as is typical. Fine

30.   Tom Corbett Space Cadet ring - 1952 Kellogg’s cereal. Silvered brass. Mint

31.   Howdy Doody Jack In Box ring - 1950s Poll Parrott shoes. Plastic, only remnants of foam liner remain inside the box, but plastic ring remains Mint

32.   “Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett” compass ring - c. 1955 Peter Pan. Silvered white metal, compass working. Mint

https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/101754/RADIO-EARLY-TV-1930s-TO-1950s-PREMIUM-RING-COLLECTION 

SHEFFIELD CITY SHUFFLE

 Tother week the Missus and me had a day in the South Yorkshire city of Sheffield, known locally as Steel City and the home of the Master Cutler.

A beautiful place full of grand architecture and independent shops. Its gothic splendour is very atmospheric at night.

Alas, I shuffled round Sheffield with a limp on account of a terrible corn, which I'm please to say a wonderful podiatrist cut off today!

In daylight I spotted this fenced off pile, which screamed Hammer Horror to me! I could easily see Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee battling with stakes and crosses between the pillars!

Not sure what the building is.

It does remind me of the creepy mausoleum on the cover of Judas Priest's brilliant Sin after Sin LP!

In one of the many bigger shops I clocked this Batman Detective boxed Kit. I would have adored this as a kid. About 20 years ago I might have bought it as part of a growing Batman armoury collection I had but its since all been sold. Shame.

Do you like the look of this kit?

Its based on the latest BATMAN film post-Affleck, which alas, I've already forgotten. Come back Ben!

As part of my comics and radio rings research last month I spotted these in a small knick-knacks store, modern costume rings that were deadringers for Captain Planet rings!

In a cosplay shop I saw this Roam Sword, again a thing I would have loved as a nipper. I had a few plastic swords but I don't think I had a roman one. is is called a a Gladius or Clavius or similar?

Last but not least were these two old Barbie cars. Quite big to fit Babs, i think they're Golfs or Polo's.

I've never seen them before.

You?

BUCK ROGERS' RING OF SATURN

Ever since I got my copy of the book Comics Collectables and Their Values in the early 1990's I've adored vintage American comic hero rings.

I've been especially in love with the 1946 Buck Rogers Ring of Saturn.

Interestingly, there were three different heroes using this ring with different stone hues as merchandise, the other two being the Shadow and Jack Armstrong.

You can read about them on the Hakes auction site

https://hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/225793/JACK-ARMSTRONG-THE-SHADOW-BUCK-ROGERS-GLOW-IN-THE-DARK-PREMIUM-RING-TRIO-WITH-MAILER-BOX-PAPER

Costing a Cosmic Ransom online nowadays and basically practising making rings I began to mess around with some of my late Father in Law's plumbing parts.

And voila! Before I knew it I had my own Saturn rings, gas rings and rocket rings! Well, sort of. See what you think.

I think my personal favourite is this simple blue and red plastic ring.

Have you any super hero or cereal rings?

Ring Round: my Home-Made Radio Premium Rings

 My latest interest (read obsession!) are American Radio ring premiums from the 1940's and 50's.

True objects of desire, here's a beautiful array featured on Hakes. They really are gorgeous and must have been thrilling to get in the post or in a cereal box.

So smitten was I that I've begun to make my own versions of some of them.

Here's my first four.

The first one I made and the first one that caught my eye way back in the 1990's was the Carey Salt The Shadow ring, bottom right.

A lovely simple cream ring with crocodile jaws, a black ellipse lozenge and it glows in the dark. What more could an American kid want in 1949, after listening to The Shadow on the radio.

I couldn't find an ad for the Carey Salt ring but here's the mailing pack for it's stablemate, the Blue Coal The Shadow Ring (borrowed from Martin Grimes' fabulous site. Just Google his name)

The two rings I've 'copied' are these, although the lower black coal ring is a fan custom I understand, as Blue Coal only issued blue coal rings.

Here are my much simpler impressions using a plain white ring and bits from my tat box.

Mere shadows, I was pleased how these simple attempts turned out. Glow in the dark paint is on order!

Much more complex, the Quaker Pirates Gold Detector ring must have been stupendous to own and wear back in the day.

Here's a cereal ad and the magnificent ring itself courtesy of Hakes. Just send one box top! I wish! 

And my own pirate rendition comprising of a plumbers' clasp and red caps from my late Father in Law's toolbox. You can't see but I've installed a tiny film lens inside the bigger cap.

Last but not least, this is purported to be the biggest premium ring ever issued, Sky King's Tele-blinker Ring!

Here's an original comic ad and the spectacular telescopic ring courtesy of Hakes. What a fabulous beast!

And here's my MoonBase Tele-blinker.

What do you think? 

Did you ever have any of these?

Do you own a ring?

Horde of the Rings

I'm starting to collect plastic super hero rings. It's always been a thing with me. A ring thing.

As a kid I loved the Waverley ring that came with the Thrushbuster and my Bazooka Joe siren ring. Wonderful tokens from a simpler age.

When I had a vintage toy stall I bought in a few old Green Lantern rings for my customers. I sold them all but years later I found a more modern one. That's been the new spark.

I shall add to it my daughter's old Captain Planet ring 

and my dear Missus has bought me a fine Kenner Superman ring for my birthday at Christmas.

With time to kill I've been looking for a toy version of a ring I loved as a kid, from the TV cartoon Shazzan. You know the one, we're the two halves come together to reveal the genie.

Initial searches have found nothing. I'm amazed it wasn't merchandised but there's lots of rings to look at whilst I quest.

There are more gumballs and vending rings than you can shake a stick at online like this neat assortment,

Or these beauties.

 As with all collections I will have to be selective or else I'll drown in plastic. Old Super Heroes, comic heroes and radio heroes. They ring the bell! 

WHISTLING WITH MISTER JOE

 

Ah, the Bazooka Joe whistle ring! 

What a ring of beauty, and along with Joe's waxy mini-comics, one that completely reminds me of those golden years back in the late Sixties and early Seventies when I was young and had not a care in the world except for blowing on my Bazooka Joe ring!

Oh, that sound!

That was the sound of childhood, of long hot shirtless summers, of Choppers, of Mum shouting 'tea's ready' through the open kitchen door, of Tizer, of Puffa Puffa Rice and of chewing big blocks of pink Bazooka Joe chewing gum till my jaws were sore!

Did you Bazooka Joe readers?

BILL'S 7TH BIRTHDAY WAVERLY RING AND THRUSHBUSTER

Hi

By popular request here is the photo of me wearing the Waverly Signet Ring, plus with the newly unpackaged Thrushbuster.

The photo was taken on my 7th birthday. In addition to the Corgi Thrushbuster, I also had the JR21 Thunderbird 2, with the Mole. But there are no photos of the Thunderbird machines.

SIG

Bill Ev

UK

Woodsy asks: has anyone else got photo's of you with your toys? Please email me!