The History of These Toy CarsMy grandparents built toy cars for me when I was a child. Whether it was because it’s all they could afford or because they just enjoyed making things by hand, truthfully I’ll never know. It started with a wooden train set my grandmother made for me and later became wooden cars, and even large wooden airplanes. I probably drove hundreds of miles on my knees across the carpet with these toys in my youth and I still have them all today.
With the passing of my grandparents and my father, over four generations of woodworking tools have been passed down to me. I have all their tools but will never have all their knowledge. This is my way of sharing with some of you the joy I received as a child from those same toys. Each of these toys is based on a pattern my grandparents made for me as a child. They are all made with old-fashioned tools, hand crafted, and assembled in my woodshop.
There is no mass-production involved and no way to ever make two exactly alike. Each piece of wood has it’s own story and it’s own feeling. Each grain holds stain differently and as such each toy car or train is unique in its own way. Each are built by me, by hand, and I don’t do mass orders. I build these because I like to and if I did it for a living it would lose the love I have for it. Woodworking is my way of disengaging from the high-tech world and getting back in touch with my dad and grandfather. Each one of these is built on their memories and to the best of my ability to their standards.
PricingI don’t know what to charge for these items, so I’ve set the pricing at one dollar, plus UPS ground shipping. Whatever the final bid is, well that’s what they’re worth to each individual. Maybe they’ll sell for five dollars or maybe they’ll sell for fifty. I have no way to know and truthfully that’s not why I make them.
I started making toy trains a couple of years ago to give to the kids at local community programs that don’t have anything for Christmas from Santa Claus. So far I’ve only managed to make about thirty or so toys that way, but maybe some child will get some enjoyment from them. Over the last two years that has turned into a fairly decent demand for them from family, friends, and people who just see them on Facebook and enjoy hand-crafted toys. Either way, I hope to make more for the kids this year and I thought I’d make a few along the way to sell.
UniqueEach one is a little different. Some have different engines, some different fenders, etc. Each one I sell however, will have photos of the exact item being sold. There are no stock photographs used in my ads. The photos include all the sides of the toy as well as the brand and the serial number and my signature on the bottom. What you see is exactly what you are getting.
Specifics:
Serial Number: #4 – The first two cars were for my son and are still here in my shop. This is the second car I’ve ever put up for sale.Dimensions: This car is nine and a half inches long from the tip of the front fender to the end of the tail fender. It stands 3.25 inches high and 5.25 inches across the wheel base from outside to outside. Weight is about one pound.
Construction: This car isconstructed of white pine, dried in my shop to resist reshaping and shrinkage, sanded and stained individually, then polyurethaned to last a lifetime.
Colors: The colors on this particular car are Natural (the middle body) and the fender panels are “Cabernet,” one of my favorite colors to accessorize with this type of wood. It’s dark enough, but retains the grain pattern of whatever wood you apply it too.The wheels are flat-black. The wheels are on 7/32 tenons and the axles are glued in place. The wheels DO roll easily so this will be a toy that can be played with, rather than sat on a shelf to collect dust.
Features: This is the first car I’ve built with the antique-styled spoked wheels. It’s also the first to have headlights mounted on it. Nothing special probably to some people, but worth noting. I really liked how the additions of these parts added to the completeness of the look.
All I ask is that if you bid on this, be sure someone gets to spend some time enjoying it. The ultimate purpose of a toy is to entertain someone and every toy ever made deserves to be used for it’s purpose if it is to have a life and a story of its own.
I hope whomever receives this one can tell stories about it themselves one day.
If you’d like to see more about the process of building these, you can find the public album on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150635493885846.384171.572485845&type=1
for these items is calculated for UPS ground to the buyer’s address, with a $2.00 handling fee to cover the box, packing, and the gas to get it to the UPS store. There are no other hidden fees or shipping costs associated with any of these items, ever.
These are not factory-built items. They are hand-made and hand assembled. As such they might or might not have imperfections. Most people understand that with hand-crafted items but I thought it probably needed mentioning again. I do the best I can and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed building them.
22.50
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