Just over four years ago today I had the bright idea of starting a blog. I'd had a website that centered around my train layouts but I'm no computer genius and the site was just a pain to update and it seemed like blogs were the way to go because few computer skills are needed. Actually it was reading the blog over at Moonbase Central that made me think it was possible to do one and with really no research I signed up at Blogger.com and got started.
The first subject was a small made-in-Japan tin-litho Navy jet. At first it didn't seem likely that there would be enough material to keep the posts coming but that fear was totally unfounded. Besides learning a lot about toys in general, eventually Bettina became interested enough to start blogging on her own and we were able to expand coverage. It was for this reason that the addendum "...and Stuff" is a part of the blogs name, put there just in case. We must be doing something right because just a week or so ago we hit the 500,000 pageviews mark. Not bad for what we've always considered a nice little blog.
Some months ago I accidentally came across a page buried in Google or Blogger's account pages which showed that there were over 7,000,000 downloads from the site! Wow. (okay, for the life of me do you think I can find that page again? Nooooo) For years I've been downloading images from the Web for personal use as an informal toy 'catalog' helping me to keep track of variations and to see just what companies were out there and exactly what they produced. It would be naive to think I was alone in this endeavor. Hope ya'all enjoy the photos!
In so far as goals are concerned, well, nothing more than what I laid out last year really comes to mind. We will continue to present things we're interested in and having a brand new granddaughter (making us Oma and Opa) might slow down our output occasionally but just keep checking for updates. Building dioramas or displays continues to be important, but they take up space and are difficult to fit into The Cave....still I wanna try! I did get around to building a display for Civil War toys (and other subjects as well). Then there was the small board, a Cave find, that got some scenery material applied to it and can be used for just about anything. Another thing we'd like to be able to do is cover the history of our subject matter more in depth, but quite frankly, that requires a lot more time than we're willing to invest. Maybe some day - we'll add that to the goals' list :-)
Okay, 'nuff said. Check back for more toys, more Big Sky Pics, and more whatever. Build your personal toy catalogs, and as always - Enjoy!
Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
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