Collecting - and Collecting Information Part 30

Starting from nothing

There is very little source material about the Japanese toy manufacturers of the early postwar period. Most of it centers around the currently popular areas of collecting: space and robot toys, and large metal car models. Well-researched reference works can help you date a particular piece, and identify its Japanese manufacturer and its American importer.

No such luck for these companies' entry-level toys. There are no reference books -- just information printed on the boxes.

Nomura, the original

Most of the larger companies, such as Nomura, Alps, and Yonezawa, supplied toys to several U.S. importers. And sometimes interchangeably. These cross-currents complicate the picture -- like the examples below, made by Nomura.

The original - made by Nomura (TN), branded by Nomura.

The first example is the original box art for this Santa Fe H0 set. The Nomura logo ("TN" in a diamond) is right there on the box. The set is exactly as pictured. And note how artfully it's pictured. The last part of the second boxcar is hidden behind some trees, implying more freight cars and a long train.

Not so. One locomotive, two boxcars, that's it.

Rosko, the importer (of Nomura)

The second set is branded Rosko Tested. Rosko was a US importer of battery-operated tin toys in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As you can see, Nomura didn't go out of their way to change the cover art for Rosko. The maintenance instructions have been resized and moved over to make room for the Rosko logo. And, for some reason, a red film was laid over the front of the loco.

I don't think the color change on this box art is fooling anyone.

At this time, four-color printing involved using different plates of film - one for each for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. If you wanted to alter the image, you had to change each color plate the change affected. The black plate had to be changed, of course. And the only other color in the Rosko logo is red (which would change the magenta plate).

So why overlay the loco with extra magenta?

No idea. The set inside is still the same, with bold red, yellow, and black Santa Fe markings. Did they want the box to look different in case the two brands showed up side by side in a dime store? Perhaps, but I doubt the average customer would notice.

Whether branded Nomura or Rosko, the contents are the same.

No, this one's a mystery.