Ohio Art No. 701 Sheriff's Derringer

Yesterday I posted the JAK-PAK derringer cap pistol and mentioned this Ohio Art version. This is the one I seem to remember as a kid. A tad smaller, it fit into the jeans pocket just right, however this one doesn't shoot off a whole roll of caps, instead single caps have to be loaded onto the 'bullet' similar to the action of a real derringer in that only one round at a time can be fired off. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Ohio Art Roy Rogers Horseshoe Set

Well, I started pulling junk, oops, I mean highly desirable collectibles, out of another bin the other day. This was the bin with some of my miscellaneous Western toys and in it was this incomplete Roy Rogers horseshoe set that I believe was made by Ohio Art. My set includes two red and two black horseshoes made of rubber and a red wooden peg with black rubber base. A complete set would have another peg and base. The horseshoes measure 5 1/4" (13.33cm) L x 4 5/8" (11.74cm) W and the base and peg is 5 1/4" (13.33cm) diameter x 4" (10.16cm) H.

Of all the Cowboy and Western stars of the '50s and '60s, Roy Rogers was my favorite and growing up I certainly must have bugged my mom and dad for his toys thus ending up with a matching bedspread and curtain set for the bedroom, a large Hartland Roy Rogers and Trigger figurine set and a bunch of other toys. However, this horseshoe set is one of the toys I didn't have as a kid. Roy himself grew up dirt poor and when he started making it big in Hollywood he licensed a ton of products to promote his brand - and of course make a lot of money in the process - and no kid could ever have owned all the toys, gadgets, and what-nots with his name on it. Funny, after all these years I still get a pang of nostalgia after seeing things like this - hope you do too! Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Ohio Art #95 Livestock Farm

Here's a nice selection from Ohio Art.  Many people may not remember the name 'Ohio Art' but perhaps remember those little tin lithographed pails that kiddies played with at the beach and the pails all came with a small, colorful shovel.  Ohio Art made other toys as well, like the small barn featured here.  In size it would be comparable to the Marx and Plasticville barns that were marketed for 3-rail O-gauge trains and I've included a photo to show this comparison.  You'll notice that the box in the photo is a tad bit raggedy!  Heck, there's only about half of it left, but seeing as how the original boxes are hard to come by I guess I should be glad to have anything at all!  The set included four fence pieces and several animals.  The animals shown here are brightly colored hard plastic but later issues would have them in a nice tan color hard plastic.  Enjoy!