Collecting -- and collecting information 27

I recently acquired an unmarked 3" tank truck for the Straco Display Layout (right). There was no brand, but I knew who made it. And thanks to another recent discovery, I think I know why.

No mystery here

This tanker is quite distinctively Linemar, though there's no brand on it. Nevertheless, it was easy for me to identify.

Note the blue chassis with crimped sides. The Linemar 10-piece set has a similar tank truck, but with different markings. Although I don't own the Mobilgas example from the set, I do have the set's coal truck, which shares the same construction.

The Linemar set. The Mobilgas tanker (far left) is identical to
the blue gasoline truck.

A simple side-by-side comparison makes it easy to see that both were made by the same company.

The "mystery" tanker (L) and the Linemar coal truck (R).

Save for the color, the chassis of the gasoline truck (top) and
coal truck (bottom) are identical.

So why is this different? I think it's because, though Linemar made the vehicle, it was made for another company.

The Interest Rated Toy

This three-piece set recently became available on eBay.

Note the packaging. The card says "Bag O' Toys," with no mention of a manufacturer. (I'd love to know what they meant by "interest rated").

This possibly might be one of the toys brought in for Toy Merchandising Corp. of New York or some other low-cost distributor. This set has three vehicles found in the Linemar set: the police car, the fire engine, and the coal truck.

A reason for the missing brand?

The police car and fire engine appear to be the same, save that the Linemar brand is missing.

Linemar brands are usually found on the rear of the vehicle.
These have none.

All of the Linemar set pieces are clearly branded, like the coal
truck at left. The brand is missing from the blue tanker.

The yellow coal truck has the same outline as the red Linemar set coal truck, just different graphics.

Possibly Linemar filled an order for an importer. After the job was finished perhaps they used the same stampers to create their own versions of the same toys. The vehicles of the Linemar set came from different runs and possibly were made for different contractors.

This may also help explain why the vehicles of the Linemar set aren't uniform in construction.

While the importer/manufacturer of the Bag O' Toys line remains a mystery, at least I know who supplied some of their stock. It was Linemar, the Japanese arm of Louis Marx, Co.

Collecting -- and collecting information 23

As I've said before, my interest in postwar Japanese tin toys isn't really focused on collecting them. Rather, it's more collecting information about them. Some aspects are well-documents, such as the space and robot toys of the early 60s, and the deluxe car models of the 50s and 60s. But the cheap toys sold in drug stores and five and dimes? Not so much.

Linemar was the Japanese subsidiary of the American firm Louis Marx Co. Perhaps that's why Linemar vehicles had lithographed markings that more closely represented actual American prototypes (sometimes, anyway).

I've written before about the 10-car set Linemar offered in the late 1950s. I've often wondered if the vehicles in that set were ever offered for separate sale. Recently, I came across two examples that don't necessarily answer that question but do provide some additional background. 

Prominent in the set is a beverage truck with Coca-Cola markings. It's one of the vehicles that's accurately depicted on the box's cover (see Collecting -- and collecting information 13 for one that isn't).

The Linemar Coke truck.

Was the Coke truck ever sold separately? I'm not sure -- but similar trucks were. Not quite as common as the Coke truck is the Pepsi truck.

The Linemar Pepsi truck -- version 1.

Initially, I thought it was the same toy with different markings -- but I was wrong. Take a close look at the two: the  Coke truck's cab is bigger and more rounded. And the top brace across the body is wider on the Coke track as well. Plus, the chassis is different. The Pepsi truck has a more labor-intensive (and therefore, I suspect, earlier) crimped chassis, while the Coke truck has a flat chassis.

The Coke truck chassis. Just two tabs hold this to the body.

The Pepsi truck chassis. Crimped all the way around to the body.

So different designs for different companies. Seems straightforward -- and then I found a variation of the Pepsi truck. It has a green body rather than the Pepsi corporate blue. Some of the lithograph body details are different.

Version 2 - why the color change?

And curiously, it also does not have the Linemar logo on the rear as the Coke truck does.

Why no logo?

Did Linemar make this version as a subcontractor for another toy importer? Hard to say. But my quest for information continues.

Collecting -- and collecting information 19

Linemar GE Courier Car

Assembling pieces of the Linemar set has been difficult. While I'm interested in learning more, it's not an overriding passion. So when pieces come onto the market starting at $80, I'm content to just look at the photos. But occasionally, one comes along a much more modest price, and even more rarely, I'm able to purchase it.

Such was the case with the GE courier car. While not in mint condition, it's still in reasonably good shape -- and the price was right. I now have five of the ten vehicles offered in this set, and I'm leaning towards the opinion that this a set created to get rid of existing inventory. When I last wrote about this set (Collecting -- and collecting information 14), I wasn't so sure.

What changed my mind?

A little hands-on comparison.

Below is a photo of the five vehicles I currently own. It's pretty easy to see that the coal truck and fire engine were made one way (with the chassis crimped to the body), and the other three made differently (with the bodies held to the chassis with tabs).

Top row (L-R): NYC fire engine, Central Coal & Coke Co. coal truck.
Bottom row (L-R) Potomac Electric Power Company truck,
General Electric courier car, Bond Bread delivery van.

 Below is a photo of the underside of the vehicles. Note carefully the differences in the chassis in the first row. From left to right are the Bond Bread truck, the GE courier car, and the PEPCO truck. The second row is the fire engine and coal truck. (click on image to enlarge).

There's almost an evolution in form from left to right. The Bond truck just has a single indentation for the friction motor. The GE car has the same, plus an additional groove. The PEPCO truck has a second distinctive circular indentation. If the motor didn't change design, then there's no need for these variations. After all -- every time you alter a piece it costs time and money. Companies like Linemar operated on a very thin margin, so it's not something they would do lightly.

These variations further convince me that these three vehicles were made at different times, perhaps using three different friction motors (perhaps from different suppliers?) that required the modifications. That's my current conclusion, anyway.

I should just open up those three cars and see if, in fact, the motors are different. There's always a danger in bending and rebending those fragile tabs, tough. That's something I"ll have to think on a while. For now, I'm happy to go with what the external evidence is suggesting to me.

Collecting -- and collecting information 14

The Linemar Central Coal & Coke Co. dump truck (click on images to enlarge)

A recent acquisition filled in a little bit more of the Linemar 3" truck mystery. In the late 1950's-early 1960's Linemar (the Japanese subsidiary of Louis Marx Co.), issued some inexpensive friction vehicles. And they were issued as a set (see Part 13 for more details).

I now own four of the ten vehicles from that set: the Potomac Electric Power Company truck, the Bond Bread van, the NYC fire engine, and my latest addition, the Central Coal & Coke Co. dump truck.

The Linemar line-up. (L-R): Bond Bread van, PEPCO truck, NYC fire engine,
Central Coal & Coke Co. dump truck.

While I've been able to deduce quite a bit just from photos alone, it's still better to examine the objects up close. The dump truck is virtually identical in construction to the fire truck. Both share the same chassis, crimped to hold the body on. And there's more.

Note how the bread van and PEPCO truck chassis (left) are similar, while
the fire engine and dump truck chassis (right) are identical.

The cabs for both vehicles are also identical. Both have the same fenders and the same crease in the hood. This suggests to me that the dies for these toys were made at the same time, using the same pattern.

By contrast, the other two Linemar vehicles I have are of much simpler construction. The body is held in place on the chassis that double as bumpers. The stamping on the PEPCO truck is not quite as detailed as the fire truck or dump truck. And the Bond Bread van is little more than a rounded block.

Why two different manufacturing processes? I'm not sure -- unless both were already in use for other projects. But I haven't run across any 3" Linemar friction toys that weren't part of this set. So the mystery continues.

The Linemar vehicle set

Collecting -- and collecting information 13

My three Linemar vehicles (L to R): PEPCO Line truck
NYC fire truck, Bond Bread deliver van.

Sometimes answers just lead to more questions. In Part 12, I talked about the problem of the Linemar 3" trucks. In the late 1950's-early 1960's Linemar (the Japanese subsidiary of Louis Marx Co.), issued some inexpensive friction vehicles.

The first one I had run across was a power company truck marked Potomac Electric Power Company -- a Washington, DC regional company. Could it have been issued as a promotional piece for PEPCO? Then I found a Linemar Bond Bread van. Again I wondered if this was made for Bond Bread.

Recently I won the bid on a Linemar fire engine. This vehicle was marked "NYC Fire Department." I'm pretty sure this wasn't a promotional piece. New York City is almost a generic name as is.

Then I discovered a boxed set on eBay. No, I didn't bid -- the $499.00 asking price was outside my price range (more on that later). The set has 10 vehicles -- including all the ones I talked about in Part 12. There is a Mobilgas tank truck, Central Coal and Coke dump truck, PEPCO power truck, Coca-Cola delivery truck, GE delivery van, RCA service vehicle, Bond Bread van, school bus, and a police car (marked "1st Precient).

At first blush, my question seems to have been answered -- the vehicles were all part of a set.

The Linemar vehicle set (click on image to enlarge).

Then I looked a little closer. I had three of the 10 vehicles. They looked nothing alike. The Bond Bread van is a very simple stamp, the fire engine an intricate design, and the PEPCO truck somewhere in between. The fire engine has wheels lithographed on its side (as does the dump truck) -- but not on the other two.

All from the same set, but with distinct differences.

And when I turned them over, I discovered that the chassis for all three were also different. If all the vehicles were made at the same time for the same set, they should all have the same chassis with minimal body style variants. That's the norm for these vintage Japanese car sets, and for good reason -- it's cheaper.

So why all the variety? I think it's because these sets were pulling together leftover stock -- vehicles from different runs for different customers, put in a set box and shipped off.

In the two photos below, you can see all 10 vehicles in the set.

It's easy to see that the Mobilgas, PEPCO, Central Coal and the police car were all made the same way, with the black chassis crimped to the body. The other vehicles use the front and back bumpers folded up as tabs to secure the body. Further, the RCA and GE trucks have the same body, while PEPCO truck and the school bus also share the same basic body shape.

All in all, it's a mishmash of body shapes and construction techniques. To me, that suggests a set created to move existing stock rather than 10 vehicles designed from the start to be used for this set.

One thing more -- look carefully at the box art. While most of the vehicles are accurately represented, the markings for the PEPCO truck just have the number 19, and it's labeled as a "telephone truck!"

So why does the actual model have the very specific markings and corporate colors for a regional power company?

I now know how these vehicles were packaged -- or at least in one iteration. But this is one answer that just brings more questions!

A word about that price -- $499.00 might seem high, but I don't think so. First, the rule of thumb for Japanese postwar toys is that the about half the value of the item is in the box. Because they were made of very cheap cardboard, they usually didn't last, nor were they meant to. Once purchased, most people discarded the box and played with the toys. The graphics --and the information -- on the box adds real value. The near-mint condition, rarity and desirability of this box makes it's value of $250 a little on the high side, but not by much.

That means that the vehicles are valued at $250, or about $25.00 a piece. Again, a little high, but I've seen some of these (especially the Coca-Cola truck) sell for $45-$65 dollars in pristine condition. So all told, not an unreasonable price for the total package.

Just way more than I would ever want to spend.

Collecting -- and collecting information 12

With virtually no documentation about what Japanese toy manufacturers created during the postwar era, primary sources -- such as the pieces themselves -- have to tell the story. It is well-documented that Linemar was the Japanese subsidiary of the Louis Marx Company.

No matter where you lived in the country, the Santa Fe
warbonnet graphic was a familiar sight on toy trains.

While some Japanese manufacturers used real companies on their transportation toys, for the most part they seemed to like generic choices. Although there were exceptions.

Many tin toy trains were marked "Santa Fe," because the distinctive red-and-silver warbonnet livery was so striking.

Mobilgas and Shell show up frequently on Japanese tin toy gas trucks and toy train rolling stock. But those were international companies with a presence in Japan, and so would have been familiar to Japanese toy designers.

I first wondered if Linemar was creating specialized vehicles for promotional use -- or at least regional sales -- when I discovered their Potomac Electric Power Company(PEPCO) truck in the corporate colors (Collecting -- and collecting information 5). A recent purchase of a Bond Bread truck, also in prototypical colors seemed to confirm this idea.

It would be a simple thing for Marx to contact these companies (or be contacted by them) to create these promotional vehicles, and then have the work done in Japan for a fraction of the price it would cost Marx to produce them in the states. Here's a gallery of the Line Mar 3" vehicles that seem to fit this pattern. What do you think? (click on images to enlarge)

Linemar Coca-Cola Truck

Linemar RCA Service Van

Linemar NYC Fire Department

Linemar Bond Bread van
(Eastern Seaboard-based baking company)

Linemar General Electric Courier

Linemar Central Coke and Coal Co. Dump Truck
Kansas/Missouri-based coal company)

Linemar Potomac Electric Power Company Service Truck
(Washington, DC regional power company)

Collecting -- and collecting information 5

Line Mar tinplate friction truck from Japan. Was this a
giveaway premium for Pepco?

One of the challenges with any type of collecting is piecing together information is a way that makes sense -- and leads to the right conclusion. The careful building of information by discovery and deduction is part of what the Collecting -- and collecting information series is about.

Case in point: I recently picked up a curious item that I can find no information about. But that doesn't mean I can't make some deductions based on what I do know.

The item is a small Japanese tinplate toy truck made by Line Mar (at left - click on images to enlarge). But there's something unusual about it. The truck is marked "Potomac Electrical Power Company." Most of the Japanese toy cars of the period I've run across have generic names: "Taxi" instead of "Yellow Cab;" "Ambulance" instead of "Mercy Hospital;" "Police," instead of "Chicago Police Dept."

There's no mystery about that. Generic names makes the toys universal. A Chicago police car might have limited appeal outside of Illinois. A generic black and white car works everywhere.

So why this very specific name instead of just "Power Company?" The Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) was moderate-sized regional Washington DC-based power company in the late 1950's. It wasn't a familiar name nationally. I think this truck was something made for Pepco to be used for promotional giveaways. Possibly it could have been given out when Pepco representatives talked with school children about electric safety (they did such things back in the day).

I do know that Line Mar was the Japanese subsidiary of Louis Marx & Co., a major US toymaker. Marx specialized in inexpensive toys, and Line Mar even more so. It seems possible to me that Marx was contacted by Pepco to come up with an inexpensive toy they could use, and it was passed on to Line Mar (or perhaps Line Mar/Marx approached Pepco).

Another Line Mar vehicle, this one marked
Central Coal and Coke Co.

Something else: the other day I ran across another unusual Line Mar piece. It was a dump truck branded Central Coal and Coke, Co. Again, I thought the name too specific for a mass-market toy, so I did a little research. I didn't find much, but I did discover that Central Coal and Coke Co. was a Kansas-based coal company that provided fuel to both commercial and residential clients.

Considering both vehicles together, it seems even more likely that Line Mar branded toys for private companies.

If I could find either model with different company names, that would help confirm this assumption. Perhaps there's a ConEd or PG&E version of this truck floating around out there.

I try to be cautious. A lot of misinformation about items get spread because of faulty deductions. I feel pretty confident about this one, though.