Okay everybody, let's see a show of hands of all you guys and gals who have downloaded photos from Toys & Stuff!! AHA - I thought so! For those who have been with the blog from the beginning (and especially you guys who knew about my activities prior to starting the blog) you know that it's the love of collecting, the excitement of the hunt, and the sharing of photos and information which is most important to me. To that end Toys & Stuff is dedicated. I've never had a problem with people making copies for their own use. I've been doing it myself for years and it has been a terrific way of assembling an informal toy catalog. For the collector, it's also a way to spot items they've never seen before or to keep track of variations. Culling photos also helps with other projects, such as the space dioramas I've been working on as they give me ideas and inspiration.
A couple of weeks ago one of our readers, Alf Beem of the Netherlands, suggested that I post the photos from Toys & Stuff onto wikicommons. You guys all know how much I use wikipedia for basic research into any number of topics and so the idea was a sound one - a way to give back to the collecting community. The problem for me was two-fold: Time and Energy. Both of which are in short supply at the moment. As good as the idea was, it didn't look like I'd actually be able to pursue it. Well, Alf stepped in and offered to transfer as many toy photos as possible into the wikicommons site for availability to the greater public. I gave him permission and to that end he's been working tirelessly the past couple of weeks. Of course, those people happening upon the photos in wikicommons won't be able to read any of the narratives or history that accompanies many of the photos in the blog, but many people also simply don't care - for them it's all about the image. That's life!
So, a big round of applause to Alf and a great big MANY THANX!
Enjoy!
Here is the link: Toys & Stuff photos on wikicommons
