Brian Austin

Here's a neat article discussing the appeal of the Playmobil brand, from 2019. Apparently that year a Playmobil film was released. I don't recall hearing anything about it. From what I've read it did not do very well in either ticket sales or reviews. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-playmobil-went-from-simple-smiling-figure-worldwide-sensation-180973676/ Interesting quote from the article: ...However, one industry analyst thinks there is more to the story. Richard Gottlieb, principal and founder of Global Toy Experts, credits the European model for toy-making as a reason for the toy’s longevity and sustainability. “Europeans see toys one way, Americans see them another,” he says. “In the United States, toys are more of an impulse buy. In Europe, they are a planned purchase. They make them to be durable so they can be passed down from generation to generation. I think that’s a wonderful way to look at toys.” He adds, “I like to refer to the toys from Europe as legacy toys and the ones from America as landfill toys.” I'm slightly confused regarding Playmobil's scaling. As I noted above, the reviews claim 1:18, but I knew of them in the '80s and they were around 1:24-1:22. They even have their own G-Gauge train sets.

Interestingly, a certain long-running hobby forum has been criticized for not switching to a format such as this forum's. The argument went that discussions and photos would be archived instead of disappearing from the board after a few months. I'd counter this argument with the point that, yes, pictures often disappeared and links broke, rendering threads half-useless. Prior to Photobucket's watermarking policy, they simply made your images disappear from forums unless you forked over $400 (some folk likened it to ransom). So now at least the images are somewhat visible despite the watermarks, rather than just the broken links of 2017 or so in their place.

I missed that one. :-) Somebody has a sense of humor. Here's another review, shows the products as they look from the box: https://mudpiefridays.com/2021/02/12/review-playmobil-volkswagen-beetle-camping-bus/ And here's what can be done with LEGO bricks: https://theplasticbrick.com/shop/item/volkswagen-beetle-vw-beetle-lego-set-10187-1 Getting back to Playmobil, they have issued many vehicles over the years. In 2017 they issued a slightly simplified yet still nifty Ghostbusters Ectomobile. Proportions appear to be fairly close.

Roughly 1:18 scale plastic toys that offer much in the way of accessories and "play value". :-) https://www.figures.com/2021/01/26/review-playmobil-vw-fun-volkswagon-beetle-70177-and-t1-camper-bus-70176/

And here's a profile of a period Hupmobile. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433089968386&view=1up&seq=196&q1=hupmobile

Interestingly I just today learned about businessman William E. Swigart who started collecting automobiles in 1920. So his earlier cars were already 25 years old at the time. :-) (And, no, they weren't all in great shape, either.)

FWIW, it would appear that many of the pictures posted here from the Shorpy site originated from the Library Of Congress archive (one of my favorite resources).

1942 scrap drive, Akron Ohio. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017698024/ https://www.loc.gov/resource/fsa.8b06842/ I think I see four pairs of wheels at the rear of the heavy duty trailer.

Yes, somewhere in that corner. I've lost track. IIRC it was cleared out some time ago. Perhaps it was land bordering the park? I didn't take notes then. :-(

Interesting service car body in the corner of the "Home of Washington Flour" image. It is labeled The Washington Cadillac Company. I have seen drawings for such a body in publications from the era. And is that the tail end of a heavy duty trailer right next to it?

Slushcast... :-) I wonder if anyone has offered 1:25 scale models cast in chocolate rather than resin. Here's a 1:1 chocolate car: Caption: A chocolate-made replica of the Prost AP01 Formula 1 car in Paris. The sculpture required 580 kilograms of chocolate and 350 working hours.

In the corner of the Blue Hills Reservation in the Boston area there used to be an old dumping ground, since cleared out. Some friends and I saw these cars in 1992.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the Somerville plant: "The Somerville Assembly was a Ford Motor Company factory in Somerville, Massachusetts which opened in 1926 as a replacement to the Cambridge Assembly. Following the failure of the Edsel, the plant, which had been one of the region’s largest employers, closed its doors in 1958. At that time it was the Edsel division's only Edsel-only assembly line as all other Edsel plants were shared with Mercury or Ford. Somerville built only the larger Corsair and Citation big series Edsels which shared chassis with Mercury. The closure created severe consequences for the local economy, as it paid the city over $1 million in annual taxes." As for the Cambridge plant, it is said to be the first vertically-integrated assembly line in the world. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma1218/

The Model T assembly plant in Cambridge, MA still stand as well, and has been repurposed several times after Ford moved out. What was interesting about this factory was that it was several levels tall, rather than being flat and spread out. It's strange seeing the boxtop with the "R" mark after "Model T", as more than one manufacturer besides Ford at that time used that nomenclature for their products.

I love the push truck and the Jeep tow truck... http://www.kalracing.com/Autoracing/vintage_racing_posters.htm

This linked thread, discussing indoor Midget racing in general, states that the Boston Garden track was a 1/10 mile oval, made of clay, flat wood or banked wood, depending upon the season I suppose. http://www.midgetmadness.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15372

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26363701/19370113-no-heats-in-garden-midget/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/26363910/19370114-ad-midget-races-at-boston/

Mike Harrah's "Thor". https://www.hotrod.com/articles/24-cylinders-12-blowers-power-peterbilt/?galleryimageid=1052735 https://www.automobilemag.com/news/thor-24-custom-semi-truck-13-2-million-saudi-arabia-auction/ It appears I had saved the series of pictures seen below to my files around 10 years ago. I can't find the source now to credit.

Yup, your comment reminded me of that picture. :-)

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?utf8=✓&search_field=all_fields&q=truck https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=LOT 1829&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co!=coll&sg=true&st=gallery https://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=Trucks. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?terms=truck

Did you have Midget racing indoors in your area? In the '30s-'40s era they raced inside the old Boston Garden. (Image also from the Boston Public Library, but through a different portal) For more see: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search?utf8=✓&search_field=all_fields&q=midget+racing

From the Boston Public Library collection... https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/albums/72157629880902912

I think I prefer the original black and white photos to the colorized versions that make the rounds of Facebook. Back in my art school days I had hand-tinted B&W prints (using water-based dyes), but I'd decided that wasn't something I wanted to pursue.

Coke truck in Turkey (photo from old encyclopedia).

It appears I have a pile of Pontiacs as well. I have a number of beat-up built AMT early '60s Bonneville convertibles to kitbash into an ambulance or two. On top of those I also picked up two Moebius '61 Pontiac Venturas in case those would be a better start. I also have a Jimmy Flintstone '59 Pontiac ambulance body and two Trumpeter '60 Pontiacs. It's a very complicated project, so everything has been held up for years. Did Flintstone cast a '61 or '62 Pontiac ambulance body?