by Rehg | Oct 30, 2014 | Blog
Tis the day before the Trick or Treat holiday of Halloween and the question today is should Halloween art be creepy or cute? Marca Castillo Art Dolls Bash & Calamity I tend to go with a bit of both when looking at art toys but have had some REALLY creepy if not...
by Rehg | Oct 25, 2014 | Blog
Automatic Building Bricks Anyone? In 1939 a new toy, Self-Locking Building Bricks were patented by plastic pioneer, Harley Fisher Page, founder of Kiddicraft Company. By 1945 he had improved the blocks by adding channels which inspired Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the...
by Rehg | Oct 23, 2014 | Blog
As we quickly approach Halloween I thought it would be fun to point out some Creepy Fun Art that some of the Art Of Toys regular artists have on the site! These are not really Halloween only but great all year round! Marca Castillo a favorite from Oregon creates a...
by Rehg | Oct 21, 2014 | Blog
Timeless Toys & Marvin Glass Just found a great reference book this weekend at my favorite used bookstore– Timeless Toys by Tim Walsh. This was published in 2005 but like the title the information is timeless. The time line starts with 1900 but the section I...
by Rehg | Oct 16, 2014 | Blog
What Makes A Treasure? What Makes A Treasure? I believe what is a treasure to one might not be a treasure to all. Have you ever heard the saying “one man’s trash is another treasure”? It is always sad to have to tell someone their cherished toy has no value in...
by Rehg | Oct 15, 2014 | Blog
Hansa’s Portraits in Nature Hansa’s Portraits in Nature is a handcrafted collection of realistic plush animals. Artists working in a socially and environmentally responsible studio create each Hansa animal from portraits of the creature in its natural...
by Rehg | Oct 10, 2014 | Blog
If you have not signed up for Art Of Toys newsletter now is the time to do it with a new online contest! Art Of Toys sends out a daily feature, a blog recap newsletter and coupons for discounts and cool stuff to all our subscribers and this month all subscribers have...
by Rehg | Oct 8, 2014 | Blog
Jacob Jerde This month at Art Of Toys the gallery show is Cars and Jacob Jerde is one of the featured artists who creates fantasy assemblage car art. Jacob Jerde is a local artist that began his journey into the world of art when he was a young boy. Jake learned to...
by Rehg | Oct 7, 2014 | Blog
Preserving It Once you acquire a collectible toy or a piece of art you become its custodian which makes you responsible for its well being. Preserving it should be part of the joy of collecting not a burden. Often we hide our treasures away thinking we are protecting...
by Rehg | Oct 6, 2014 | Blog
Texting a Toy? Have our phones become our only toy? Is texting a toy? Last Saturday I looked out the gallery door to find 6 people sitting in gallery chairs and lawn texting … they were all at it so hard they did not notice me come out and take a photo (thou...
by Rehg | Oct 3, 2014 | Blog
Alister Oliver Loves Cars Alister Oliver loves cars and creates a new perspective with his clever shots of cars and their parts! This month Alister is one of the featured artists at Art Of Toys Car Show… took a few shots of toy cars! Artist Statement:...
by Rehg | Oct 2, 2014 | Blog
Good Art Will Not Match Your Sofa Good Art Will Not Match Your Sofa is a quote from California artist Fred Babb. I LOVE the thought after repping art and having galleries hand me a couch cushion (more than once) to see if I had anything that would match regardless of...
by Rehg | Oct 1, 2014 | Blog
Car Artist Jeffery Beckerleg This month the theme at the gallery is “Cars” and our feature artist is car artist Jeffery Beckerleg from the foothills of the Sierras to Art Of Toys. The artist, Jeffery Beckerleg, resides in Georgetown, California where he...
by Rehg | Sep 30, 2014 | Blog
October is Cars at Art Of Toys gallery so I thought I would start off the month with Collecting Toy Cars & Trucks. There are so many toy car manufacturers over the years and many toys are hard to indentify yet this resource lists 250 including Arcade, Hot Wheels,...
by Rehg | Sep 27, 2014 | Blog
Car Art at Art Of Toys The art of Cars celebrates one of the our most beloved forms of transportation with art in some form of the automobile. Art Of Toys Cars Show will feature the unique perspective of photographer Alister Oliver , ceramic creations from artist...
by Rehg | Sep 25, 2014 | Blog
Pots and Pans are National Toy Hall Finalists This photo provided by the National Toy Hall of Fame shows the 12 finalists for induction into the 2014 National Toy Hall of Fame.The nominees are Fisher-Price Little People, Hess toy trucks, My Little Pony, Rubikís Cube,...
by Rehg | Sep 24, 2014 | Blog
Outlander Toys Outlander Toys was inspired by the Starz new series, Outlander based on books written by Diane Gabaldon that I am totally addicted to …. living vicariously thru …sad but true. Since the series at this point is more about the adults few toys...
by Rehg | Sep 19, 2014 | Blog
Dan Crowley Custom Puppets This month is Puppets at the gallery and we love to be able to offer custom puppets a special form of art that can be a small sculpture on your desk as well as a working finger puppet. Did you know that the ever talented Dan Crowley will...
by Rehg | Sep 18, 2014 | Blog
Art of Toys Facebook page Infants and Digital Devices Just shared an article from ToyNews to facebook about infants and digital devices. Beyond the Star Trek fans and other Sci-fi aficionados who would believe this would even be a concern say even as little as 10...
by Rehg | Sep 17, 2014 | Blog
This month’s Art Of Toys is featuring Daunine Vining Puppets at the 2014 Puppet Show! Daunine Vining maintains her studio in the woods next to a flowing creek in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is where she likes to design her marionettes and full...
by Rehg | Sep 16, 2014 | Blog
Go Collect Go Collect!! “Anyone can collect something; it is hard to collect everything.” Peter Carlson Have you ever started to wonder why people collect? I remember the Collectible Show in Chicago I was walking with a customer when working at...
by Rehg | Sep 12, 2014 | Blog
Crocker-Con was a fun event last night Art Of Toys participated in at the Crocker Art Museum Artmix night! This was a mini version of Comic Con done Sacramento style. It was exciting to see so many young talented artists in the Sacramento area sharing their art and...
by Rehg | Sep 10, 2014 | Blog
Dan Crowley This month the gallery is featuring “Puppets” and one of our favorite artists Dan Crowley! Dan creates whimsical finger puppets that are perfect little sculptures that are pieces of life! He does not name the characters so the collector can...
by Rehg | Sep 9, 2014 | Blog
One of the more useful of my collections is Toy Reference books which I peruse of a regular basis looking for ideas to blog so today I came across “Collectible Television Memorabilia” by Dian Zillner. Now the first thing I have to check is what year this was published...
by Rehg | Sep 5, 2014 | Blog
Ramp Walkers Ramp Walkers are fun little characters that waddle down a ramp that can be raced or just walk alone. These have been many manufacturers of this traditional toy sometimes found as a folk toy but the big push was with Marx who produced primarily in the...
by Rehg | Sep 4, 2014 | Blog
Holiday Countdown Oh my goodness it is fresh off of Labor Day and we are looking at a Holiday Countdown…I know give you a break but all the fun stuff is starting to come in and I’m like a kid in a toyshop so to speak and must begin to share! Ho ho ho or...
by Rehg | Sep 3, 2014 | Blog
A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, which is a very ancient form of theater. There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made of a wide range of materials, depending...
by Rehg | Sep 2, 2014 | Blog
Steve Ferrera Artist and Puppeteer Steve Ferrera artist and puppeteer is a visiting artist from Berkeley California area who does stop action puppet movies. We are excited to feature a nice selection of his Clan People this month in the gallery… this month is...
by Rehg | Aug 29, 2014 | Blog
Ok on October 3rd one of the creepiest doll movies, Annabelle, I have seen (based on trailer) is releasing! I LOVE dolls and have collected since I was a child but a few moments with this trailer and I will have to say this woman has one of the creepiest collections...
by Rehg | Aug 28, 2014 | Blog
Dancing Groot Toy Yes you heard me a Dancing Groot Toy if you don’t know what this is you most likely have yet to see the latest movie from Marvel , Guardians of the Galaxy. Since the release of the movie that is all the toy news has been about! Geez! Well I did...
by Rehg | Aug 27, 2014 | Blog
Kickstarter City Mystic This month in the gallery we are helping to promote some young artists, Virginia Jester and Chris Hopkins Kickstarter City Mystic project and are in the final race to make it. Have you ever wanted to be involved in helping new talent but were...
by Rehg | Aug 26, 2014 | Blog
What Popular Children’s Toy Was Originally Created To Solve Structural Problems? Lego Erector Set Rubik’s Cube Playdoh Answer: The Rubik’s Cube One of the world’s most iconic and best selling toys didn’t begin life as a toy at all. What we now know as the...
by Rehg | Aug 25, 2014 | Blog
The month of September is featuring “Puppets” so I thought I would do a bit of research on one of the oldest puppet shows know – Punch and Judy. I went online and was amazed at how many sites are devoted to “Punch and Judy” so if you want it there is an a lot of...
by Rehg | Aug 22, 2014 | Blog
Fisher Price I love the old Fisher Price toys and have customers come into the gallery and reminisce when they see them in the vintage section on their own toys. Most styles are easy to track their era by the printed paper lithos that make up the outside. ...
by Rehg | Aug 21, 2014 | Blog
Discovering Louis Slobodkin Last night a gentleman came by on his bicycle ran into the gallery and handed me an old children s book as a gift. I had never met the man and was surprised but he said he heard I liked toys and thought I might enjoy the book. Wow it...
by Rehg | Aug 20, 2014 | Blog
Collectors Decorating 2 Yesterday I re-addressed the discussion of decorating with your collections and today I will expand on this limitless topic of collectors decorating! One of the easiest decorating tricks is too incorporate your collection into another. A...
by Rehg | Aug 19, 2014 | Blog
Collector’s Decorating 1 I love to see how different collectors include their collections in their home, especially when the collection becomes a feature component or is the decoration. Nothing is worse when I hear the collection is stored in a box under the bed...
by Rehg | Aug 18, 2014 | Blog
Tin toys are very desirable as collectables currently thou most do not meet safety standards for toys so are no longer labeled “toys” but “collectables” and this is usually accompanied by 14 years and up. Prior to the mid-seventies tin toy...
by Rehg | Aug 15, 2014 | Blog
Drug Dealer Barbie I just read the funniest Barbie story on the internet in awhile “Drug Dealer Barbie”… poor Barbie cannot get a break. I was going to put the link to the Daily Mail but my computer alerted me to virus ad ware so I will cut and paste...
by Rehg | Aug 14, 2014 | Blog
Cartoons Starring Donald Duck 1934-1961 Cartoons starring Donald Duck 1934-1961 is a list of Donald Duck Disney’s Comedian first appearance on screen from in 1934, in The Wise Little Hen, and he also made a striking, squawking appearance as a loud, quacking,...
by Rehg | Aug 13, 2014 | Blog
Mickey Mouse At Home In The Depression I came across a reference book in my library,”Cartoon Collectibles” that had a fun description of life in the 30’s that I thought I would share today! Informative for younger generations and nostalgic for you of that...
by Rehg | Aug 12, 2014 | Blog
I have always loved this line and am proud to have their wonderful products online and in the gallery. It is wonderful to still see a toy line made in the USA! Other than the silly-yet-sophisticated mascot, no one at Uncle Goose wears a suit to work. It’s not...
by Rehg | Aug 9, 2014 | Blog
The Treasures of Childhood -“Struwwelpeter” When looking for inspiration and or themes for the blog I often go to my collection of toy reference books. This morning I rediscovered the book “The Treasures of Childhood” by Iona Robert Opie and Brian Alderson. This is a...
by Rehg | Aug 8, 2014 | Blog
Google Words Have you ever used the wonderful tool Google Words from Google where you can choose key words for Google to send you info on what is happening with that word in the current news! Wow what a help and yet I cannot decide if there truly is no news in the...
by Rehg | Aug 1, 2014 | Blog
Thinking Toy – Erector Sets The holidays will be on us before you know it and a great toy for all ages is a thinking toy – Erector Sets. Take a toy that is timeless fun and requires a child or adult to put some thought into planning and construction. The...
