Disneyland On The Air!

 This week's item is A Little Golden Book from 1955, "Disneyland On The Air." I'm pretty sure this was written before much of anything was known about what the park was actually going to be. It's like the writers were told "We need to promote Disneyland, but all we have to go on is what Walt has put on his show every week."

This was obviously a problem.

First, let see what they knew. The cover shows the castle (a bit grander than in real life, but pretty close), a combined Main Street and Frontierland, the Mark Twain, the Opera House, and a very un-Moonlinerish Moonliner. In fact, the rocket looks a lot like the one at the beginning of Walt's show.

Inside, we see a horse drawn streetcar. And that's about it.

On the flypage there is a quote:

"Disneyland, in southern California, is truley the land of childhood's dreams come true. Millions have visited this magic land on TV, and soon will in reality. Here for the first time some of its delights may be sampled in book form."

The book then goes on to feature not one Disneyland delight. 

The story is about a show being shot at the Opera House which does NOT include a frustrated Donald. Of course everything is resolved at the end...except that the reader knows no more about Disneyland than they did from the front cover.

As I said though, I'm pretty sure the writers worked with all they had, it just wasn't much. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go to that park when it finally opens (it's been almost a year, for Pete's sake!)

For your enjoyment here is the book:

And there you have it! 

I found this little gem in a antique mall in Denison, Tx., so you never know where Disneyland items will crop up!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Racing Corgis!

 First, I know this post is late. Our almost 15 year old Lab mix is not doing well, so the last few days have been spent at vet offices and doggie hospitals. We're home now, and I wish I could day she's doing much better, but she really isn't. 

Anyway, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to post. So I quickly snapped so pictures and....here ya go!

My treasure this week is a Corgi toy from 1972. I actually had this car as a kid, but I seem to remember it having a very unfortunate accident...or three. But eBay can give you back all your childhood junk...for a price.

The price this time wasn't too bad (under 10 bucks, I think) and it came with THE BOX! I knew what I had to do. I jumped on it! 

Here is my replaced childhood car:

                            In the box!!!

It cost 2.50 in 1972, which is just over 16 bucks today. Corgis have always been expensive!

The back of the box showing the other cars in the series.

This is model number 151. All Corgis have a number.

The bottom of the box showing 1972.

The Yardly McLaren out of the box!

The bottom of the car. It even has the scale. And, of course, Made in Great Britain.

So there you have it! I'm pretty sure that this one isn't going to have any horrible accidents. At least not at my hands! 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

A New Year and New Cars...1957!

 Ok, so the cars may be 65 years older than the new year, but they were new at the time this brochure was printed by Ford/Mercury! We picked this gem up in a load of other auction items a long time ago, and I think it's pretty neat-o. I'll let you look through it...

 As you can see, it's actually one sheet that's folded to make a booklet. 

The items that stand out to me are the push button gear selection (my dad had a car with that, but I can't remember what kind it was), the 290 HP (which seems like a lot for the time), and how long and sleek these craft were! The graphics are fantastic, by the way!

You know, the '57 Chevy Bel Air gets all of the love from the classic car guys, but I think I'd really rather have one of these beauties. They look far more comfortable and stylish. If I had been car shopping in 1957 (which would be a miracle because I wasn't born until five years later) these would have caught my eye and tempted my wallet. 

Did I mention that we didn't even know this was in the stuff we bought? Sometimes treasure finds you!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

The Last of the Snake and Mongoose

 If anyone ever asks you what were the last Snake and Mongoose cars released by Hot Wheels in the Redline era, you might first ask them why they asked such a wordy question about such an obscure subject. Then you can tell them the answer- these:

These are the Rear Engine Snake and Mongoose from 1972. By this time, Mattel had pretty much run the gambit on the racing duo. Other cars would be released and re-released in the future, but these were the last of the original Redlines. 

I found these on eBay a few years ago (not together). These aren't cheap, but if you wait long enough you can get some deals. These are fairly clean with very nice stickers, so I got pretty lucky. 

Although they aren't the most popular Redlines from the series, I think they're pretty cool! I'll keep 'em!

So now you know!

Until next time keep searching for treasure!

Of Alien Kids and Super Cars

 For a few weeks I've been featuring several "supercars" from the 1960's. In all those discussions I didn't mention a really cool thing that happened a few years ago.

You see, at that time my daughter, Jessica, got a job at The State Fair of Texas. Was she making corny dogs? Was she running a ride? Was she scamming kids at a "try your luck" booth? Nope. Nope. Nope. 

She was an alien. 

In fact, she was a Mazda Alien. You know, to show off cars in the Automotive Building. But that, cool as it is, isn't the coolest part. 

You see, there were some very special cars there. Take a look at this picture:

Yep, that's my daughter...standing next to the Green Hornet's Black Beauty. 

But wait! What's that to the left??? 

The Monkeemobile!

And what's to the right???

Well if you have eagle eyes you can make it out. 

So, my daughter got to hob-nob with custom car royalty! Somewhere I have more pictures of them. I did take a zillion. But this is my favorite.

Hopefully, I can find the others.

I guess until next time, I'll keep searching for treasure!

A Tale of Two Trays

 This week I want to share a couple of Disney trays. They've been called TV trays or serving trays, but I think TV tray is probably closest. They don't have legs, but they can be placed carefully on your lap while watching TV.

The first tray is from 1954. It was a map of Disneyland! The only problem is that Disneyland was busy being orange groves at the time. There were concept maps, but absolutely nothing had been built. Therefore, the map trays were not exactly accurate. Here it is:

Some of the things that really stand out to me are the gazebo in town square (moved because it blocked the castle), a European street runs behind the east side of Main Street, the Moonliner looks a lot like a toothpick, and Tom Sawyer Island looks like it has manicured lawns. There are tons of other differences as well, but you get the idea. 

Still, it's a good looking tray. The graphics are nice (if not accurate) and there are plenty of fun details. It was just the thing to help excite folks about the future park, and it did! Now it excites collectors because it's pretty hard to come by, and darn near impossible at a reasonable price. 

But if you want  reasonable, we got you covered!

Flash forward about seven years and the park has been opened for six of them. The TV show that introduced  the park to the world was now featuring another innovation, color. 

The show changed it's name from Disneyland to The Wonderful World of Color. Even the style of animation had changed a little to more "mid-century." Here is the tray that was released in 1961:

As you can see, the Disney gang is grouped around the TV watching their friend Ludwig von Drake on The Wonderful World of Color and having a great time!

I really like this tray, and so did a lot of other folks.  There are a lot of them out there. And due to a big supply you can pick one up for about 25 bucks all in. Not bad!

In fact, I kind of like the second tray better than the first, which just goes to show you that money isn't the only goal in collecting.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Slots o' Fun!

 In previous recent posts I've shared some new slot cars that I happen to have. Now, in the spirit of completeness, I shall share a few more. 

I haven't actually run any cars in a long long time, but they are cool, so I keep them around. Will I ever run them again? I certainly hope so.

Now, for six more cars...

First, we have this AFX 1970 Camaro. I got this car from a little toy shop a couple of miles from my house when I was a kid. I walked there and back uphill in the snow (full disclosure, there was no snow nor hills)

Next we have a Tyco Corvette. I actually raced this one at DP&W's Flying Boxcar Hobby Shop. It was very fast, but I don't think I won. I was a little older kid.

I got this Vette as a kid as well. It's an AFX, but I don't remember where I got it or exactly when. The "space tape" stripes were my addition.

I really wish I had the radiator and front bumper to this Woody dragster. This AFX car uses a special stretched chassis. Another kid car.

This one is an adult car. I actually bought it a couple of years ago. It was made by Auto World, who now makes very cool AFX style cars. You may recognize it as Christine, from Stephen King. Oooooooo, spooooooky!

Another adult car. I found this Nomad in an old AFX race set that I picked up at a thrift store a few years ago. It is missing its grille as well, but it still looks cool.

Is this all? Well, actually no. You see in the attic of Stu's Attic, there is a box with track and a few more cars. The problem is that when I went to look for it, I couldn't find it. Will we ever see it? Heck if I know.

In the meantime I guess I'll keep searching for treasure!