Collecting and Collecting Information 36

The Distler Trans Europ set. The box art displays
considerable artistic license.

I've written before about the H0 train set Distler made for Cragstan. A recent auction offering provided some additional information about Distler products.

Interchangeable parts

Distler's design for Cragstan was done quite economically, recycling parts from another popular set.

The Distler TD5000 set shares many components with
their Santa FE set made for Cragstan.

The Trans Europ Express set was based on a European prototype. Many European passenger trains have locomotives at both ends, allowing point-to-point travel without complicated switching maneuvers at the terminals.

Another set offered by Distler had the same configuration. The TD5000 set, like the Trans Europ set, has two locomotives.

In both cases, only one of them is powered. The other is a dummy locomotive.

The Distler Trans Europ set.

I had previously found examples of Distler sets that were identical in profile to the Cragstan set. The only differences being the graphics and the lack of a second locomotive in the American set.

Trans Europ vs. Santa Fe

Two examples of Cragstan/Distler rolling stock.
The body and base of the passenger car are identical to the
Trans Europ version.

This set uses many of the same parts as the Cragstan set. The locomotive has a different profile, but the frame is similar to the TD5000 and the Cragstan/Dister F3. The power truck (and by inference the motor) is identical.

The passenger cars are the same, too. The lithography is different, and the truck frames are painted gray (they're silver on the Cragstan cars).

By using many of the same components, Distler kept costs down. An important feature for these simple toys -- and vital for American importers. I can see why Distler got the gig with Cragstan.

Not entirely the same

Shared parts keep costs down. But there are some key differences that make this set unique. The locomotive has an entirely different profile than the Santa Fe F3 or the TD5000.  The heightened cab isn't attached to a TD5000 shell -- it's part of the shell. That required its own stamper.

The locomotive trucks are also different. Their smooth sides suggest streamlining. These trucks required a different stamper as well. I wonder if the TD5000 was a later model. If so, it would suggest economies were made, as the truck frames for the locomotive and the passenger cars are all the same.

A Hair-raising Distler/Cragstan Repair

I've tried to keep a tight focus what I acquire for the Straco Express display layout. But somehow I ended up with a few outliers, like a mid-1960s Cragstan freight set.

Sure, it's a little outside the scope of the Straco Express layout project,
but this Cragstan/Distler set did come complete in the original box.

This set was made by the German toy company Distler. The overall build quality is much higher than that of Cragstan's Japanese suppliers. The car and locomotive bodies are plastic. It's a thick, sturdy plastic that would hold up well in play.

Those elastic bands that transfer power to the axles are the first things to go.

The Japanese locomotives -- and the Distler tinplate F3 -- I have all use some type of gear drive.

This locomotive uses a belt drive. Rubber bands loop around the wheel axles and the drive rod that extends from the motor.

This set is over a half-century old, and the original belts have long since dry-rotted. But apparently, they didn't hold up to continued use, even when new.

I've seen several examples of this set with all its component parts. Every single one has a small bag with spare drive belts.

The set I have also came with replacement belts. Of course, after all this time even the replacement belts that came with my set are dry-rotted. So I need to find a solution.

Most rubber bands are simply too big. I couldn't loop it around multiple times. That made the rubber band bind to itself as it was turned. The wheels hardly turned.

I thought the rubber bands used with braces might work. They're very small and strong. The drug store didn't have any in stock, but they did have very small hair bands.

These are made of silicon rather than rubber. This keeps the bands from catching on the hairs. And as it turned out, it was just about the right size for the locomotive.

So for a dollar, I got a pack of 75 bands. That should be more than enough to keep this loco running for some time!

I used two polybands. This powers both axles and gives the locomotive a little more energy.

Ready to roll. You can see the lead and trailing trucks on the body.

The Cragstan/Distler set came with wider radius track than I have on the Straco Express layout. Fortunately, the locomotive has both leading and trailing trucks. These help keep the engine from derailing, even on the tighter curves of the Japanese track.

I'm glad to get this train rolling again. I know most collectors are content to just have something nice to put on the shelf. But these are toys and were meant to be run. So I'm happiest when they're doing what they were designed to.

Distilling Distler Info

I didn't plan on it, but somehow I ended up with a Distler Santa Fe box car. And, as always, it came with as many questions as it does answers.

Distler was a German toy firm who manufactured H0 scale tinplate trains from about 1953-1960. Their postwar history is intertwined with Trix, another German firm, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

I knew that Distler had made a Santa Fe passenger set in 1957 for the American importer Cragstan (see: Distler vs. Nomura, parts 1 & 2). I was only aware of two Distler sets imported by Cragstan - the 1957 tinplate passenger set, and an early 1960s plastic freight set. Both were battery powered.

The seller billed this box car as coming from a "department store set."

But where?

I did find some references to an H0 tinplate train set made a German department store by Grötsch, another toy manufacturer. Grötsch rolling stock is similar to Distler's but they're based on European prototype (including a German-style goods wagon with New Haven markings!)

Fortunately, the German site Spur00 had the answer. In 1957 Distler offered both a freight and passenger train set.

Was the freight set ever imported? That I don't know.

Comparing the box car with the Cragstan/Distler passenger cars proved interesting. Both had the same "Made in Western Germany" markings. The frame, wheels, and trucks are identical, although they're painted black on the box car.

There is one difference. The box car has an angled roof, while the passenger car has a rounded roof. That's an additional manufacturing expense.

The comparable box car and passenger car from Japan's Nomura company (also imported by Cragstan) don't have this distinction. Both have a rounded roof, requiring only a change in lithography. But that's not surprising since Nomura was all about keeping costs down.

According to Spur00, the 504 Freight Set had three cars; an orange Santa Fe box car, a brown NYC gondola car, and a black flat car with two plastic vehicles.

So one down, and two to go. Although I'm not optimistic about finding that flat car with the vehicles still with it...

I know, the box car never came with the passenger set. But they're all
Santa Fe rolling stock, and I think it makes a great photo.

Collecting -- and collecting information 25

Sometimes it's good to pause and take stock. When I started the "Collecting -- and collecting information" series, I knew virtually nothing about the subject of low-end Japanese tin toy cars. Yes, it's an extremely tightly-focused subject, but the subject wasn't really the point.

I wanted to see what I could discover about this under-documented aspect of postwar toy manufacturing from primary sources. Like many trips, the adventure's in the journey. I ran across the item shown above recently. I was surprised at how much I knew about it.

Original packaging is always helpful. I was familiar with the importer, Cragstan, and knew they worked with a variety of Japanese toy firms. In this case, the supplier seems to be Ichimura. I recognize those road signs.

Perhaps because I most recently wrote about the Toy Merchandising Corp. of New York, I was sensitive to proper markings for imported items. No problem -- Cragstan played by the rules. The package is clearly marked "Made in Japan."

Mystery solved. In this photo are two roadway sets made
by Ichimura, and imported by Cragstan. 

And this package also yielded some information. In collecting information 16, I was wondering if the collection of cars and signs I purchased were originally part of a set. Now that I've seen the packaging for this set, I'm pretty sure I actually have two sets. And I wouldn't be surprised to discover they were also offered by Cragstan.

One had the same assortment of signs as the Cragstan Racing Car set: Keep Right, RR Crossing, and Speed Limit 50. It had three cars, one red, one blue, and one green. The second set had the same three cars, but a slightly different sign assortment, with Stop Ahead replacing the Speed Limit 50 sign.

Why the variation? Probably just expediency. These were low-margin toys, and I'm sure the only rule for assembly was three different car colors, and three different signs per package.

Collecting -- and collecting information 22

Part of my interest in post-war Japanese toy trains and small vehicles is this: there's virtually no information about these toys at all. Lionel trains, Gilbert Erector Sets, Marx Play Sets have all been carefully researched and documented. And the same is true for the more popular Japanese tin toys. There are multiple reference works about Japanese space and robot toys, and the large-scale car models put out by Bandai, Alpine, and others.

Not so with the low-end toys I'm interested. in. For me, part of the fun has been in the acquisition of information about these toys (rather than the toys themselves). Recently a colleague sent me some photos of a set he had found.

It's actually the surviving components of two identical sets thrown into the same box. But that box is most interesting. The train set was made by Bandai -- the equipment and track bear their brand. I knew that Bandai marketed their own products in the US (as they do today), and also supplied products for Cragstan, an importer of toys in the 1950's-early 1960's. 

Some very helpful info is here -- on the box, that is.

Cragstan imported train sets made by Nomrua and Yonezowa, and -- apparently - by Bandai, too. 

The box is helpful, as it has an inventory printed on it. So I now know what the set actually consisted of. And it's helpful because it explains why the Bandai rolling stock had plain, single-color bodies. All the other manufacturers lithographed details and road names on their cars. 

But this set was designed as a blank slate. A set of road name stickers came with it, so you could decorate the engine and cars as you chose. When I see these pieces come up for auction, many have stickers still attached. And now I know why. 

I still don't know precisely when the set was offered, but the graphics suggest early 1950's. Why? Because the image is "borrowed" from the Lionel 1948 catalog. In the book, the artist made a mistake and made the body of the Santa Fe diesels black instead of silver. The images were correct for the 1949 and later catalog. 

Bandai copied the image from the 1948 catalog, and therefore made its diesel with a black body instead of a silver one. 

I think we can say the Cragstan/Bandai box art was "inspired" by the image
in the 1948 Lionel catalog (lower) -- as the Santa Fe never had any
diesels in that color scheme.

Collecting -- and collecting information 17

The Rosko Santa Fe Set. (click on images to enlarge)

Collect enough information and patterns start to emerge. That's what happened recently in my ongoing research on Japanese toy train manufacturers. I happened to run across a Rosko train set in its original box.

Version 1 set (L), Verions 2 set (R)

As I've noted before, with virtually no documentation about this subject, the boxes are invaluable sources of information.

The set was familiar; a Nomura-made H0 Santa Fe diesel, green Santa Fe refrigerator car and brown Mobil Gas box car (call them Version 1). The cars represented the earlier version of this set; the later version had a silver Santa Fe refrigerator car and a yellow Santa Fe stock car (Version 2).

Version 2 coupler (L), Version 1 coupler (R)

In addition to a difference in lithography, the two versions also featured difference couplers. Version 1 had an elaborate hoop and hook system that was popular among H0 model railroaders in the 1950's. Version 2 had a simpler tab and loop.

Version 2 sets were imported by Cragstan, and sold in the US under that brand name. This Rosko set was different, though. The locomotive had red and green lights on the sides and the roof. I had seen that locomotive floating about on auction sites, always (if not by itself) with the Version 1 cars.

Rosko Steele, Inc. was New York City-based importer. According to a 1964 newpaper profile, the firm was run by George Kolberg, who designed many of the toys himself. He seemed primarily interested in battery-operated toys that featured lots of action.

The Nomura Santa Fe Set. Note how little the
box art had to be modified to rebrand it for
Rosko Steele, Inc.

And perhaps that explains the Rosko version of the Nomura train. The Cragstan version (sold with Version 1 and later Version 2 cars) was a straight-forward electric train. Nomura, like many Japanese companies, worked with several importers. It's possible Kolberg asked Nomura for something extra. The Rosko Version 1 set, though has the later Version 2 couplers -- something that may be significant.

There's still one more puzzle piece. I also have an example of the lighted Santa Fe train set in a box branded Nomura. The artwork is identical to the Rosko set, save where the Rosko brand replaced Nomura's on the top and sides of the box. Looking at the artwork, it appears that the Rosko artwork was added afterwards. In the Nomura set, the both the cars and couplers are Version 1.

So the evolution of this set seems to be:

Late 1950s - Cragstan/Nomura Santa Fe Freight: Version 1 cars, Version 1 couplers
1959-1961 - Nomura Lighted Santa Fe Freight: Version 1 cars, Version 1 couplers
1962-1963 - Rosko/Nomura Lighted Santa Fe Freight: Version 1 cars, Version 2 couplers
1962-1964 - Cragstan/Nomura Santa Fe Freight: Version 2 cars, Version 2 couplers

There are still a lot of questions to be answered. Did Rosko import the Nomura-branded set and later in the run have the box art modified, or did Nomura change the art because Rosko rather than Cragstan was importing the set?

It's difficult to say. But with this new piece of information, it will be easier to know if an assemblage of Nomura H0 rolling stock was sold as a set, or gathered together after the fact. And in terms of value, that can make a huge difference.

Collecting -- and collectiong information 11

I have a new virtual hobby -- gathering information about the Model A friction toy cars Bandai manufactured in the early 1960's. And it's taken a nasty -- but not entirely unexpected turn.

Things were lining up nicely. I had found enough examples to make some generalizations about the product line, and shared that information in a three-part post.

Part 1: Bandai Model A series overview
Part 2: Bandai Model A cars bodies 
Part 3: Bandai Model A truck bodies

When doing online searches for these toys I tend to cast my net pretty wide. If I just searched specifically for Bandai, I would have missed a good portion of what I found.

Bandai, like other Japanese toy manufacturers, produced products for Cragstan. Cragstan was a major importer of toys to the US, and marketed them under its own brand. Often, the manufacture's logo would also appear on the box in a corner -- but never on the toy itself.

The three Bandai Model A cars I owned as child are all clearly branded with Bandai on the car frames -- no question of origin there! And I had assumed the same was true with the rest of the line.

I had previously run across the Bandai Model A fire truck. As you can see from the image (click to enlarge), it's branded as a Bandai product.

The Model A fire truck -- with the Bandai brand

But then I found this version. Same model, only this one's branded Cragstan on the box. And there's no Bandai mark on the frame. The mark (lower right of the box) is NGS. This was Cragstan's Japanese export partner, Nipon Goraku Shokai, not the manufacturer.

The Model A fire truck -- by Cragstan/NGS

While I have no doubt that Bandai made both toys, it does add a new wrinkle to the classifications. Where there versions and/or color schemes of this toy that were exclusive to Cragstan? Which ones were sold under both brands?

It seems that with any type of intellectual pursuit, the more you learn, the more you learn what there is to learn.

Japanese Litho Train Sets 6 - Cragstan in Detail

As I continue to accumulate information for the Japanese lithographed train sets database project, some connections are emerging.

Cragstan is a familiar name to collectors of Japanese tinplate toys. The company imported inexpensive toys to the US, and always had their name and admittedly prosaic logo emblazoned on every box. And that's usually about all the information one gets in reference books. But there's a little more to the story. According to BusinessProfiles.com, Cragstan began on Dec. 31, 1954 as the Craig-Stanton Sales Crop.  It's easy to see where the name "Cragstan" came from!

The Cragstan 1892 Freight Set. Yonezowa's trademark
can be seen in the lower right corner (click on images to enlarge).

Within a year, the actual company name was changed to Craig-Stanton-Elmaleh, Inc. I believe all three names represent individuals, and that last one is particularly interesting. Elmaleh seems to be a common name among Moroccan Jews. Was Mr. Elmaleh an American citizen, or was he Craig and Stanton's connection to international resources? Difficult to say with my limited info.

The next year, 1956, the company became Cragstan Industries, Inc. (wither Mr. Elmaleh?), and remained in business until 1988.

The Cragstan 3020 Giant Switcher Train Set. NSG is at the
bottom center of the box.

Cragstan imported many types of toys, from many different sources. Even from my tightly focused study, I've found Cragstan-branded train sets made by Nomura, Yonezowa, and NSG. That last one is Nipon Goraku Shokai, the Japanese export office of Cragstan.

An interesting thing about NSG. The one set I've found so far branded NSG is very clearly manufactured by Yonezowa -- which often puts their own brand on the box.

Comparing the box art from a Cragstan/Yonezowa set and a Cragstan/NSG set suggests the Yonezowa set is the older of the two. If that's true, why did Cragstan stop dealing with Yonezowa directly?

As always, more answers lead to more questions!

The locomotive from the Yonezowa set. Note the number
plate "C.156." This steam engine also appears in Yonezowa sets
not imported by Cragstan.

The locomotive from the NSG set. Same steam engine as the Yonezowa
model -- even the same number plate!

Japanese Tin Toy Vehicles, Part 4

I've been spending the last few months researching the subject of postwar Japanese tin toy vehicles for a talk my father volunteered me for. I've documented some of my research adventures in the Collecting -- and Collecting Information series.

The Old-Timer Limousine made for Cragstan by
Shioji. This 12" model features a detailed
interior and cloth convertible top.

I gave my presentation before the Capital Miniature Auto Collectors Club. The talk provided a background for the toys, made between 1949 and 1963, along with examples from my surviving childhood toys. Also on display was the Straco Express layout, which showcased smaller Japanese toy cars from the period.

Part 1 features the final version of the talk in written form, subsequent parts include galleries of the toys actually discussed.

Shioji & Co. Ltd.
Shioji, whose “SSS” fan-shaped logo is often seen on boxes, made a lot of toys for Cragstan. Cragstan was an importer who continued operation through the mid-1960’s The 12-inch “Old Timer Limousines” I have here were marked under the Cragstan brand but were made by Shioji. (click on images to enlarge)

Another of the Old-Timer Limousines by Shioji. These cars had
friction motors and with the exception of the tires and windshield,
made entirely with tinplate, hand-assembled.

Another view of the Cragstan/Shioji convertible. The metal frame holding
the cloth roof opens up. Note the steering wheel and gearshift.

Modeled vaguely on a Model T, these toys shared many
of the same parts.

The Model T pickup truck and the “Old Smokey” fire truck were also made by Shioji. Finding the latter with the rubber hoses intact is difficult.

The Shioji "Old Smoky" fire engine. The hoses and nozzles on the
side of the truck are embossed, providing extra detail.

The Cragstan/Shioji pickup truck.

I also have another Shioji vehicle. Although this isn't part of the same series as the firetruck and pickup, it shares some similarities. The friction drive is the same, as are the wheels and hubcaps.

The 1929 phaeton is another Shioji model. It was simple labeled an "Antique Car." There are several variations on this design. It can be found in both hard top and convertible models, in red, blue, or green.

The Shioji "Antique Car." The windshield folds up and down.

Another view of the Shioji convertible. Note the detail on the
dashboard and interior.

Part 1: The Golden Age of Japanese Tin Toy Vehicles 1949-1963

Part 2: Bandai

Part 3: Haji and Masudaya

Part 5: Line Mar and Marx
Part 6: Nomura and others (Marusan, Yonezawa, Alps, Ichico, ATC)