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, Hubley, Hess, Brooklin, Wyandotte, Matchbox, Tonka, Japanese Tin, Promotionals, Renwal, Marx, Barclay, Tootsie, Dinky so name a few.
MARX
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1978. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, “One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?” This is a rare MARX Bakery Truck piece from the 1950s! There were several delivery trucks but few have survived with the contents through the years. It has some wear and bears the mark of MARX TOYS made in the USA on bottom and measures 10x4x5. There are breads, donuts, pastries and pie on the top shelf but none in interior. The clear plastic top has a crack in back top and a small corner out of base of top in back corner. Complete blue plastic chaise with original wheels and steering wheel. Overall condition is very good for a plastic delivery truck from the 50s.
Midgetoy
It was 1943 when Alvin and Earl Herdklotz formed the A & E Tool and Gage Co. Their first products included precision tooling such as gauges that measured the contours and shapes of airplane propellers. With the end of World War II, there was no more defense work and they decided to manufacture die-cast toys at their factory in Rockford, Illinois. These toys “were designed to save on production cost and were more basic then the more established die-cast toy makers such as Tootsietoys.”
Louis Marx and Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1919 to 1978. Its products were often imprinted with the slogan, “One of the many Marx toys, have you all of them?” This is a rare MARX Bakery Truck piece from the 1950’s! There were several delivery trucks but few have survived with the contents through the years. It has some wear and bears the mark of MAR X TOYS made in the USA on bottom and measures 10x4x5. There are breads, donuts, pastries and pie on the top shelf but none in interior. The clear plastic top has a crack in back top and a small corner out of base of top in back corner. Complete blue plastic chaise with original wheels and steering wheel. Overall condition is very good for a plastic delivery truck from the 50s.
Condition of any toys or art that is being collected plays a major factor in pricing which is reflective in toy cars as well. If you are doing this as an investment mint or near-mint condition is the safest route but as I always prefer that you collect what you love and not worry so much about resale unless you are planning on just turning around…do your homework!
One of the easiest ways to insure mint is buy it new and hang on to it! I think the design work of Playforever and Playsam it an excellent way to start collecting cars of this era!
GREAT TIP: For insurance purposes it helps to videotape your collection! Keep records of what you have, where purchased and how much you paid!
Collect on!
