“Ever since I was a kid.”
How many times have we heard that? You ask a guy or gal about how they got into cars, and that’s the first thing you hear. Huh, am I right?
My earliest memories are playing with toy cars. All kinds. Tonka Graders, Pedal Cars, Slot Cars, and yes Hot Wheels. I wish I could say I still have mine, but they are all long gone, so I guess I am over-compensating a bit and really diggin’ cool old stuff, and lately it’s toy cars.
There was a patch of dirt at my Grandpa and Grandma’s house. It was the perfect place to play with the cars. A covered veranda of sorts between the car-port that housed the Desoto – with the sand bag ashtray on the dash – and the covered screened-in patio. The patch was actually about 12′ wide by 8′ deep, but it was the world to me and my little brother Kenny. We would grade out roads with our Tonka’s, then destroy Hot Wheels in that dirt. Something about the bearings and a bunch of sandy dirt doesn’t mix too well. – My grandpa liked his plain-wrap beer. Usually it was the yellow can with big black letters BEER across its midrift, but when the check came in, it was the white cans with the blue stripe and reversed BEER in the stripe. I say this because it wasn’t till much later that I learned that wet patch in the corner we used to pat down the road nice and smooth, wasn’t from a leaky sprinkler if you know what I mean. Well, I seem OK… kinda.
I might have digressed a bit. Back to the collection.
Not sure if my recent interest in collecting started when I had my store “Blacktop Depot” in Old Town Orange, or more recently. Sure with Blacktop Depot we picked and sold loads of vintage and antique toys, cars and all kinds of gas/oil advertising. I learned a lot about the different brands, history and so forth of Nylint, Buddy L, Aurora, Tonka and Schuco or the Japanese tin toys. Then there’s Auburn Rubber and their cool cars. Gadzoooks the list goes on and on!
Although, it was also early on in the pandemic. Some 5 years after closing the store, that I found a PURPOSE for old toys. I was walking my dog around the block as I do every morning and afternoon. I mean EVERY morning and afternoon. When I saw a neighbor’s garage door open and a bunch of stuff getting organized and boxed up. So I asked what was going on. The guy in the garage said that they are trying to have an estate sale. The neighbors had passed on and the family is selling everything, but during the lock-down, they cannot advertise or even have a sign on the street saying it’s an estate sale.
I ask if I can look around. Apparently the neighbor, whom I have never met, was a car guy and had in the past a 1930’s era Lincoln, and some ’60’s cars too. I picked through the garage and bought a bunch of old parts, and ephemera and a really cool Tonka Ford Big Rig with Trailer in great shape and a nice Nylint Ford Bronco from the ’60s. I gathered my box of goodies and brought them home. After selling most of the parts and stuff online, I kept the Tonka and the Nylint and made my first stop-motion movie. The Adventures of Red, “Getting Small”.
From that point I was hooked and started picking up all kinds of toy cars and trucks that caught my eye. So now, you lucky devils, You get to see some of my favorites.
