Supercar Comic pgs 21 - 25

More from the Supercar comic. Enjoy!

McDonald's U.S. 1993 Translite

During the past five weeks Toys & Stuff has been featuring the 1993 McDonald's Happy Meal toys that were licensed tie-in to the popular 'The Flintstones' live action movie. What we have today is a translite used to advertise the toys in-house. A translite is a piece of glass or plastic lit from behind on which a photographic image has been produced. You'll notice translites used in nearly every fast food joint on the planet. However, there is a new technology taking their place - flat screen monitor displays. Now that the cost of flat screen monitors has gone down, I've noticed them replacing the traditional translite display boxes. It makes sense too, after all you no longer have to worry about a physical diplay being delivered on-time and in one piece or that the light(s) have burnt out in the display ultimately saving the company $$. I'd kinda like to have a translite box but there were actually too many sizes and I wouldn't have room for them anyway. Anyway, the sign is really cool - Enjoy!

Built-Rite Business Block Pt 2

SURPRISE! Last week I said I only had a partial Business Block and was only able to feature pieces 1, 3, and 5. Toys & Stuff is happy to bring you the remaining sections: piece 2, 4, and the base. Many Many Thanx to Eric for the high-res scans of the remaing pieces!!!!  Eric states that the measurements for the base are: 397 x 235 mm or 9.25 x 15.6 inch. That should give you a baseline to make your own version of  The Block. I'd like to say that this completes the 1930s series of Built-Rite buildings but it really won't be complete until I build The Block and photograph it, but Heaven knows when that'll happen. Hey, something to look forward to right? :-) So without further ado here we go - Enjoy!

Piece No. 2 Front

Piece No. 2 Back

Roof

Base

TRAIN TIME: Nürnberg Verkehrsmuseum pt 2

Howz about we continue our look at those excellent trains from the Nürnberg Verkehrsmuseum  (Nuremburg, Germany, Transportation Museum). Today we're going to look at the fabulous engine and Salon Wagons of the Royal Bavarian Railway. These are absolutely gorgeous rolling works of art and I'm still taken aback at their beauty! I can remember being frustrated at the narrow confines of the museum making it difficult to get good shots. Also, I just didn't have a real good wide-angle lens which would have helped somewhat. Still it was a remarkable experience. Enjoy!

The steam locomotive Phoenix (1863)

Imperial Salon Wagon

Royal Terrassenwagen

(essentially an open coach car)

1948 Instructions for Assembling and Operating Lionel Trains pgs 6 -12

Here's the next few pages from the 1948 Instructions for Assembling and Operating Lionel Trains booklet. Enjoy!

Bandai Batt Op Train Station

I'm bein' lazy today. The family is sittin' in front of the boob tube watching football, I mean soccer, oh heck I mean the Euro2012 games. The match twixt England and Italy just got underway a few minutes ago. Sooooo, my attention is being divided 'tween blogging and TV. Won't tell ya who I'm rooting for though :-)

Up until now most of the tin-litho buildings featured on the blog have been fairly big. Today we bring you the small side of tin, a neat little train station from Bandai of Japan.  The building serves a dual purpose: a station of course for your toy train layout, but also as the power supply for the engines. Bandai had made a series of HO scale battery operated train sets and cleverly disguised the power source in one of several different station designs. The station is just long enough to accommodate two ‘D’ cell batteries. Wires leading from the station terminate in a track connector to provide power to the track. These photos were taken some time ago before I got into the habit of taking a gazillion shots of each toy so there's a limited amount of views - sorry. It’s a nice little piece of tin and definitely takes up practically no display room for those short on space. Enjoy!

Ertl 1993 1/64 scale Batman Animated Series Bruce Wayne's Car

Well first let me say that this has been one heck of a week. Not just at work but blog-wise. I've spent a bunch of time just correcting errors in my posts. Nearly all of them errors of omission, where I left out things in my scanning. The scans for the Built-Rite Business Block, piece no. 1, had to be redone (see blog post for June 21) as well as scans for the 1952 Marx Catalog in which I had left out pgs 10 & 11 (see blog post for May 8 - the two pages have now been added).  But ya know, that's okay, I'm thankful for reader's who are able to spot the errors and bring them to my attention. I mean after all, how can I sit here trying to present a full visual accounting of these things when they're missing crucial elements right? Thanx guys!

The Batmobile gets the lion's share of attention with the toy makers, and for good reason. But it is refreshing from time to time to see a toy specifically marketed as Bruce Wayne's private ride. But there aren't many. Washington Models made the 1949 Mercury Convertible in, I think, 1/18 scale. In any case it's a larger size car. The 1949 Mercury was used in the 1949 Batman serial starring Robert Lowery as Batman and the car pulls double-duty as Bruce Wayne's private ride and the Batmobile. However, the Washington Mint does not market the vehicle as the Batmobile or as Bruce Wayne's car, it is simply just another die-cast car in their collection. Mattel does offer a three-pack of sports cars (a Ferrari, Jaguar, and Cobra) marketed as the 'Hot Wheels Batman Bruce Wayne Collection' and incIudes a figure of Alfred (nice touch).  I can't say whether the cars are an accurate reflection of what appeared on-screen or if they were just three regular schmuck vehicles Mattel threw together just to make a buck! In 1991 Kenner made a 'Batman Returns Bruce Wayne Custom Coupe' followed in 1993 by a 'Batman The Animated Series Bruce Wayne Street Jet' both of which were large format cars for 4" or 6" figures.

Now, onto today's toy, the 1/64 scale Ertl Bruce Wayne car from 'Batman, the Animated Series'. The Ertl offering is different from the other offerings mentioned above. It's not a modern era sports car nor is it gimmicky. It is a very cool, very street-normal looking retro Cord-like design taken directly from the animated series. Overall I love the design but unfortunately on the toy the paint job is less than spectacular. Not counting the rub spot on the right rear fender from being in the package, there is some really sloppy painting on this car. I have two of these and they're both the same. This is not the quality I had come to expect from Ertl but it's no use complaining to them because the toy is already almost ten years old! Oh well. It's still a really neat addition to the growing stable of Bat-vehicles. Enjoy!