Collecting -- and collecting information 26

There's nothing like primary sources to get to the heart of a matter -- even if they drive a stake through it. In Collecting -- and collecting information 25, I thought I had finally discovered the maker of some unbranded signs.

As you may recall, I first ran across the signs back in 2014 (see: Collecting  -- and collecting information 16). They weren't branded, but were marked "Made in Japan." In Part 25, I shared my discovery -- an original Japanese tin toy playset with the same signs I owned. The set was branded Ichimura, so I assumed the signs came from them, too.

There's virtually no documentation for these inexpensive dime stores toys imported from Japan in the postwar era. Many of the toys weren't branded, though sometimes the packaging was. But as these were always considered cheap, disposable toys, the packaging was very rarely saved -- much less the toys themselves.

Nevertheless, caches of new/old stock keep turning up on the market. And that provides most of the information I've been able to find about these signs. I was confident that Ichiban had made the signs -- until I found the item below.

It is a playset in its original packaging from the 1950s. And it's clearly branded KHT -- Kawahachi Toy Co. Ltd. Is it the same firm as Ichimura & Co., Ltd.? I don't think so. What little I have found about the two companies includes their addresses, which are different.

So who made the signs? Did KHT make them and sell them to other manufacturers? Or did Ichimura? It's not clear. But there is one thing I did notice.

Perhaps this is the deluxe version of the set above.

I have purchased a set (without the packaging) that's very similar to the set above. Mine has a second passenger car and a fourth sign. Does that mean KHT offered two sets? Or was this, um, "deluxe" version sold under yet another name?

Collecting -- and collecting information 21

In the last installment (see part 20) I wrote about the continued mystery of the small Japanese tin signs I'd purchased for the Straco Display Layout. The signs themselves have no manufacturer's mark on them. I had found some in their original packaging, but even the packaging had no identifier.

Recently I ran across a tinplate Japanese floor toy train for sale in its original box. The set is from about 1960, and -- as you can see in the photo -- it came with a set of my mystery signs.

If that box art looks familiar, it should. Ichimura "borrowed" it from Lionel's
1958 catalog (see below) -- which helps date this set as well.

There's no question these are the same signs - the markings bear the same patent numbers as mine. This time, there is a brand on the set -- the stylized Indian head of Ichimura & Co. Ltd..

Ichimura didn't consistently brand their products, especially their low-cost toys. The only appearance of the brand is on the box -- which is why original packaging is such an important source of information. So one mystery's solved.

One more thing -- all of the signs I've found were all made the same way. They were stamped out of a single sheet of tin, with the based designed to be bent at an angle to hold the sign upright. Look closely at the semaphore signal. It's made of two pieces of metal. The semaphore flag pivots on the base, giving this piece some extra play value.

Collecting -- and collecting information 20

The end of an investigative trail.
(Click on images to enlarge)

Sometimes you can only research something so far -- and then you reach a dead end. I had found two Japanese tinplate toy signs. They seemed to go together -- were they part of a set?

I eventually found the answer when I saw such a set for sale. It had six signs and six vehicles (see Collecting -- and collecting information 15). Then I found another set with railroad-related signs and a small train. It was obviously made by the same anonymous Japanese company.

So I had a better idea of the extent of the product line, but since all the items I found were loose, no indication as to who the manufacturer was.

Then I ran across this offering of new old stock. It's a slightly different set of signs, and this time there are trucks rather than cars included.

Now I know a little bit more. The signs were shipped flat, which explains why most of the ones I found were poorly bent and didn't stand up very well.

I now know there were at least four different sets offered:

1) Railroad set
   Signs - semaphore, dwarf signal, crossbuck RR crossing sign, hexagonal RR crossing sing
   Vehicles - locomotive and two passenger cars

2) Traffic Control set 1
   Signs - Yellow stop sign, Slippery when wet, School zone sign
   Vehicles - Cement truck, gas truck, milk truck

3) Traffic Control set 3
   Signs - hexagonal RR crossing sign, keep right, speed limit 50
   Vehicles - red, green and blue cars

4) Traffic Control set 4
   Signs - hexagonal RR, keep right, stop ahead
   Vehicles - red, green and blue cars

What I still don't know is who. There are no markings or brands on either the packaging or the contents that provide any answer.

So it seems I've reached a dead end. I'll keep looking, of course -- there may be other sets out there. But I'm not optimistic about discovering their origin.

Collecting -- and collecting information 16

Who made these, and were they sold as a set?

It doesn't take much to open up a line of inquiry. In this case, it was an impulse purchase costing a dollar. I'm always on the lookout for appropriate accessories to add to the Straco Express display layout. The main criteria are that additions have to be Made in Japan tinplate toys from the 1950s-1960s.

At a recent toy train show, two such items caught my eye. They were brightly lithographed road signs, and were marked $0.50 each. Sold.

When I got home, I examined them carefully.  Both were marked "Made in Japan," and both had a patent number of them -- but no manufacturer's mark. Unfortunately, the patent number didn't yield and information from the available American and Japanese patent registers, so the maker is still a mystery.

Clearly the same manufacturer (note the octagonal sign),
but this set yielded no additional information.

In the process of searching, though, I ran across an assortment of similar signs for sale. The signs were clearly a set: each one was made the same way, with the same peculiar shade of blue paint covering the back.

Along with the signs were six under-sized toy cars. Two blue, two red, and two green, with identical lithographed details. They all belonged together, but did they belong with the signs.

I think so. The style of the lithography is consistent, and the undersides of the vehicles are the same blue as the signs. I was even surer of my deduction because of a second assortment that became available.

A three-piece toy train with four railroad signs went up for auction, which I won. Like the car set, the locomotive and the passenger cars have their undersides painted blue, and it is indeed the same blue as the back of the signs. Plus, both this set and the car set have the same octagonal RR crossing sign.

Both the backs of the signs and the
undersides of the cars were painted the
same blue, suggesting a common origin.

I'm pretty sure that the train and the signs were also sold as a set. The only question is, do I have a complete one?   The car set has six signs (two pairs, plus two odd designs), and six cars. The train set has four unique signs and a three-piece train. Have some of the passenger cars been lost along with some of the signs?

It's possible that the train set had matching railroad crossing signs, just as the car set had matching railroad crossing and traffic intersection signs. On the other hand, the pin and loop connectors are only marginally effective at keeping the rolling stock coupled. Adding three more passenger cars, light though they may be, might be too much for the couplers.

Plus, the semaphore and the crossbuck sign are larger than any of the road signs, using about twice the metal. So perhaps to keep the price the same, the train set only had seven pieces while the car set had 12.

The undersides of the train pieces are the same blue,
and the tires appear identical to those of the
toy cars.

Lots of questions, that can only be partially answered at this point. I've noticed on eBay that more of these vintage Japanese penny toys are coming on the market in their original plastic bags, reclaimed from unsold (and probably forgotten) store stock. The cardboard tag on such a bag may have the answers I'm looking for.