THE BOX BRUBAKER

 I chanced upon this online snap of an old wreck found in a barn.

I had to find out what that amazing design was.

Turns it it was called the Box Brubaker.

What a van-car!

How totally futuristically-Hot Wheels-looking is that!

Incredibly the Box Brubaker has had a comeback too. Here's the Brubaker promo pic.

What do you think? The van-car for you?

BLUE MONDAY

I had to look twice at the light blue car at the right of this auction bundle I saw online, next to the orange crane.

I thought, hmmm, a light blue Investigator Car?

Well, here's a battered Investigator car, also seen online, and you can see the similarity, so I'm not completely daft.

I'm still unsure what the light blue car is. Do you know?

TURNING JAPANESE

 For sheer locomotive creativity I think You Tube's 8atelier get's my top vote.

Perfection on tracks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmaE1pn-lKE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRtBsVoXVoE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf0h4afDxN4

A BUNDLE OF OLD SCRAPPERS

 This old mixed bundle of Matchbox scrappers given to me recently by my Missus has kept me busy on the die-cast bench this weekend.

Here's before I got work on them.

Here's after.

It was a lot of fun trying out the different paint pens I have now.

Its always takes a little time to find the right colour.

I tried Sharpie markers, matt and gloss paint pens and metallic paint pens too.

I was pleased with these three as the finish came out really smooth. The Matchbox train took the metallic pen paint especially well.

It was a great mixed bag to do up.

Hmmm. I need more now!

DID YOU LEAVE YOUR ACTION MAN IN THE BATHROOM?

 At my Grandkids' house their bath toys are piled up in a plastic box in the corner of the bath.

I've been trying to remember if mine were too back in the 1960's. It's all terribly fuzzy. 

I know I played with Action Man in the bath; the Deep Sea Diver and the frogman were favourites and I have a feeling that the plastic boats, dinghies and shark ended up in the tub too. I adored the Explorer boat with the outboard motor!

But whether they then sat around on the edge of the bath drying out waiting for the next soak is unlikely. Equally I can't imagine I chucked them all wet and soapy in a plastic box next to the bath. I adored my Action Man. It can't be good for them all that scum!

The clincher though has to be how busy our bathroom was. My parents had a big family; two of them and five kids, me being the youngest and the least likely to be in the bathroom! At some point in the Sixties we also had 2 or 3 lodgers as well, who all worked for the national Telephone company [GTO I think]. Even though they had their own sink in a shared bedroom they must have had a bath now and then.

Certainly no-one showered. Not in our house. There was a rubber attachment for the bath taps, which was a sort of shower head for rinsing hair. I remember it reeked of rubber! No, bathing was the order of the day.

So, with all this evidence, I don't think I will have left my Action Men in the bathroom hung out to dry. Maybe a few rubber ducks and a Matey bottle but not Palitoy's Fighting Man! Never!

Did you readers?

Ed's Tin: Boeing 727 TWA: 'A' Japanese Mystery Plane

Here's a nice little entry from Japan which is part of several smaller tin airliners I have. It only measures 10 1/2" (26cm) L x 8 3/8" (21.3cm) WS x 2 3/4" (7cm) H.

 I've had a problem identifying the manufacturer of this one. When looking at the logo on the aircraft I'm pretty certain it's not really an 'A' but a Japanese character. 

After visiting several good websites with many toy manufacturer logos, this one is simply not mentioned or shown.

Anyone know what it is?

From Vegas Air Field

Ed B

PALMER'S AMERICAN MASTODON KIT BY PAUL ADAMS

Brontosaurus and Mastodon: Palmer Plastics Inc., of Brooklyn, New York, made these two prehistoric creature skeleton kits. 

Scalemates date both of these kits to 1959, but there do not appear to be any dates on either the boxes or the instruction sheets.

The American Mastodon (Mastodon americanus), an elephant-like mammal with enormous tusks:

This was Palmer kit number No.110-1.00, which meant catalogue number 110, retail price $1.00. No scale is given on the box, but the model was 10 inches long.

One side of the box has a panel giving details of the Mastodon, which states that they were 15 feet long. That would make the 10 inch long model about 1/18th scale.

The box top art-work showed the skeleton, which is what you got in the box, along with a smaller view of a live Mastodon. It is described on the box top as an 'All Plastic Scale Model Assembly Kit', and 'Scaled From American Museum Restorations'.

The oblong box has a lift-off lid. One side has a panel showing the other kit in this series, the Brontosaurus.

There were 43 pieces in the kit, including the base, all moulded in a suitable bone coloured plastic. The tusks and larger bones were moulded in two halves.

At some point (probably in the 1960s or 1970s) a company called Natural Science Industries, of Far Rockaway, New York, re-issued this kit. I am not sure if they actually produced the kit themselves, or if the kits were made by Palmer, and just sold in NSI boxes.

NSI made a wide range of educational and craft toys, so these educational Palmer kits would have fitted in with their other product lines. Both firms were based in New York City.

The NSI boxes were nearly identical to the normal Palmer releases, and used the same box art, with the addition of the NSI logo and address. The original kit numbers were retained, but without the price suffix, and now just said No.110.

There seem to have been three, slightly different versions of the Mastodon box.

Palmer logo and address.

Palmer logo with NSI address (this looks to be a sticker)

NSI logo and printed address

Scalemates do not mention this NSI version, and it seems the Mastodon kit has not been available for many years. As a kit subject the Mastodon has not fared too well, being over shadowed by the Mammoth.

Ten photographs from Worthpoint.

Paul Adams from New Zealand

Dr. Dreadful's Gross Toys

I have said this a million times before: some of the sickest minds on the planet work in the toy industry. This You Tube video proves that beyond all shadow of a doubt.

It is a collection of old TV commercials for Dr Dreadful, a range of toys that make various 'gross things' (really gross things), that you are actually expected to eat.

Not my cup of tea. Maybe yours?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gU5bCS1rEI

Paul Adams from New Zealand