CIRCUS TIME: Vintage Coca-Cola Circus Cut-out Premium 1997 Repo - Pt 2

As I said in the last post, that clown that was leering from behind the tent of my 1997 repo cut-out was annoying so I fired him! LOL Now it looks like a suitable circus tent for my train layout. It also makes a nice background for photographs. As it looks as if I'll never have room for a complete circus set-up, something like this will really come in handy. When the tent is still attached to the large cardboard sheet it's nearly impossible to scan, but once it's been cut out it fits on the scanner quite nicely. You'll see what I mean as more photos get posted in this new series. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

© Copyright Coca- Cola all rights reserved

Here's what it looks like all set up. It would fit on a small train layout or can be used as a shelf display.

When set up like this the tent is 14" (35.56cm) W and 2 7/8" (7.30cm) D

CIRCUS TIME: Vintage Coca-Cola Circus Cut-out Premium 1997 Repo - Pt 1

 In 1997, this reproduction of the 1932 Coca-Cola Circus Cut-out was produced and for many years I attributed it to K-Line. It was during this period that K-Line was producing licensed Coca-Cola 3-rail O-gauge trains, including circus cars. However, no where on the cut-out is K-Line mentioned. They may have been reproduced by K-Line and sold under license or not but I have no proof. As you can see, the repo is quite a bit larger than the original and will not fit on my tabloid size scanner. The other nice thing about the repos is it is a nice clean, crisp white vs. the old and discolored original version. Original 1932 cut-outs  in clean white condition cost a lot of money and I was just glad to be able to latch on to mine at a decent price.

I had bought my first repo back in 1997 during the first wave of circus collecting back then.  The photo you see below is a newer acquisition bought recently. So what happened to that one I bought back in '97? I cut it up! LOL Rather, I cut it out. Not liking that leering clown looming from behind the tent (as he looked like something from a bad 'B' movie 'The Attack of The 50' Clown'), he got excised from the piece.

Okay, welll I have to get ready to go to work so I'll leave you with this and continue the Coca-Cola cut-out saga for another post. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

2011 Lowe's Main Street Collection: Coca-Cola Ed's Diner

Today's Diner Dienstag offering comes from Lowe's Main Street Collection from 2011 and is the Coca-Cola Ed's Diner. The diner is ceramic with a detailed interior and has the obligatory light bulb sticking in the back to illuminate the inside and there is also a sound unit glued into the base. I bought the diner because it feature's my first name and thought it would look cool at some future time on a putz - that is, at some future point in time when I'll actually have space to put up a putz given as how our small living room has become crowded with furniture (plans are in the works to pare down, repaint, and try to free up some space in there - hope my energy holds up for all that!!). It measures 9 1/2" (24.1cm) L x 5 3/8" (13.7cm) H x 5" (12.7cm) W. The overall feel of this is that it was hastily conceived of and executed. The paint job is not really the greatest and the windows are hastily glued to the outside of the structure. It's definitely not Dept 56 quality, but it does capture the feel of vintage diners and does have detailed and lit interior so it's not a total bust. Enjoy!

Sunset Diner

After a bit of mental ping-pong (should I do it? should I not do it?) I do believe we're gonna start another series here at Toys & Stuff - Diner's. And we're gonna feature them on Tuesday's and call it "Diner Dienstag" cuz it sounds neat. ["Dienstag" (pronounced: DEANS - tahg) is German for Tuesday, but 'Diner Tuesday' doesn't have the same ring to it does it?] . It might be a good idea to take a look at what diner's are s'posed to be so let's see what Wikipedia says about it:

"A diner is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout the United States, Canada and parts of Western Europe. Some people apply the term not only to the prefabricated structures, but also to restaurants that serve cuisine similar to traditional diner cuisine even if they are located in more traditional types of buildings. Diners are characterized by offering a wide range of foods, mostly American, a casual atmosphere, a counter, and late operating hours. "Classic American Diners" are often characterized by an exterior layer of stainless steel—a feature unique to diner architecture."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diner

A little more reading on the subject pretty much bears this out. Diners have always fascinated me and one of my favorite shows on TV is "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" hosted by Guy Fieri on the Food Network. But where I grew up in Milwaukee I simply don't recall any diners in the traditional sense. Burger joints like George Webbs, Bob's Big Boy, White Castle, and A&W are what I remember but they aren't considered diners - they are fast food burger eateries. The one thing I've always wanted to see in person was an actual vintage diner made from an old railroad car as many of them were. The converted railroad car theme was so popular that many diners were built from the ground up to look as if they were once old cars.

Now folks, let me tell ya, there are a million diners out there in the toy and collectible world in all shapes and sizes, plastic, ceramic, metal, ad infinitum - not to mention, postcards, photos, signs, etc, etc. You can bet I DON'T have a million diners!! But I think we can still squeeze a bunch of posts out of this subject. As a fatter-of-mact, a couple of diner's have already shown up on these pages:

Banning Enterprises Ltd  'Stella's Diner'

This appeared on 20 Jan, 2011 AND 30 Jul, 2012 (I screwed up and double-posted)

Handmade Marx Diner by Peter Wassmuller

This appeared on 2 Dec, 2010

Let's start off Diner Dienstag with a nice tin-litho diner from 2002 and made by the Tin Toy Box Company of China: the Coca-Cola Sunset Diner.  It measures 8 1/2" (21.59cm) L x 2 1/2" (6.35cm) W x 4" (10.16cm) H and is perfect for 3-rail O-gauge train layouts. The graphics are the same on both sides and on both ends. Enjoy! Bettina my Wife Likes them very much and I do Like them :)

Lledo 1032 Olympics Coca-Cola Delivery Truck

Today is the last day of the 2012 Olympics in England and I hope everyone enjoyed the games. We started this thread with a Lledo die-cast delivery truck and we'll end it the same way - fitting as well because Lledo is an English firm. These trucks were made as promotional items for the 1996 Games in Atlanta and are the only two from Lledo with graphics for the 1932 Olympics that I'm aware of. Today's truck appears to be a Ford Model T whereas the truck featured earlier was a Model A. Enjoy!