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Fresh, not from concentrate. -
Before I move on to this past weekend's adventure, I should mention a midweek auction experience... The most recent weekly Wednesday evening auction didn't hold any great intrigue for me, but there was one item in which I was interested. I called, placed an absentee bid on the one piece -- and won! This cast-iron Santa Mechanical Bank curiously satisfies both my own love for cast-iron mechanical banks, as well as my wife's love for almost anything "Christmas" --
This is not an old/antique piece, but that doesn't matter, as I purchased it solely for its holiday-themed aesthetic value... and at the right price, too!
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...and that brings us to this past weekend... My wife had been Jonesing for another full day of flea-marketing and/or antiquing, so we took advantage of a mild-weather-forecast Saturday to venture once again into the antique-shop-rich area immediately around Rockford IL.
Our first stop was again to Angela's Attic in South Beloit IL which (as mentioned in last year's adventures) is a sprawling antique mall with hundreds of dealers, and well-worth the time to visit. It is difficult to leave this mall empty-handed! And, sometimes, it's worth the trip just to rubber-neck at some of the amazing items available for sale, such as this 1949 Roadmaster Whizzer, complete with clear title --
Of particular interest to this group are these curiously cross-dressed Mego Type-1 Soldier Ape and Mego Type-1 Cornelius. When I pointed out to my wife the odd clothing choices on these figures, she retorted: "Looks like there was some monkey business going on!" She should have suddenly whipped off her sunglasses for full "CSI opening segment" effect --
I was intrigued (and tempted!) by the large number of Presidential and other campaign buttons throughout the mall, but they were priced outside of my comfort zone. Instead, I picked up several reproduction Presidential campaign buttons (penny added for scale), which will certainly get used at next week's "Military History Fest" --
Speaking of next week's event... I also picked up another antique German "Durex" dumbbell bicycle wrench, which I will use as a hands-on item for the seminar (on WWII-era European Bicycles) I will be presenting, and possibly offer it for resale to the bike enthusiasts I am likely to attract --
Also related to next weekend's event, I picked up yet another Soviet gas mask bag, the contents (but not the bag) of which are almost identical to those used by the Red Army during "The Great Patriotic War," and are highly sought after by WWII Soviet reenactors. I am expecting to flip this next weekend and recoup my purchase price --
My wife grabbed up a very attractive folding luggage stand, which will show up in a photo further down this post...
An incredibly fortuitous find was a partial McDonaldland playset (with Hamburglar and Big Mac). The intriguing aspect of these specific items is that they represent virtually all of the pieces missing from the partial set I picked up almost exactly one year ago. I need to inventory my collection, but I believe the ONLY items I am missing now are the wind-up train engine and playmat --
I was thrilled to pick up a Model C bakelite View-Master "Deluxe Stereoscope" viewer (made between 1946-1955), along with a number of View-Master discs, to add to my meager View-Master collection --
...Yeah, I thought that previous item would cap off my View-Master items for the time being, but the day's adventures held some surprises for me, and I was to be proven mistaken in that belief time and again...
Possibly the most exciting find of the day was a Model B bakelite View-Master viewer (this second model was made between 1944-1948), along with a large collection of some of the earliest issue View-Master discs (numbers 61-72, all of Hawaii) --
Planning to hit several more places, we decided to bypass the huge antique mall directly across the street, as this would give us at least two valuable hours to spend elsewhere...
Just a few doors down the street was the ever-rewarding Primberry Antiques; while the store is very small, my wife can rarely make a visit without finding something she MUST have. True to form, she picked up a charming old suitcase that is likely going to be converted into some form of decorative storage. Here it is, atop the aforementioned luggage stand, picked up at our previous stop --
I must take a moment to acknowledge this incredibly interesting wall hanging seen at the store. If we had an appropriate space for it, this would have come home with us --
We next made a beeline to the always interesting Rags to Vintage (Poplar Grove). This is a very small store, but it is always loaded with treasures. I realized that I had truly been mistaken in my earlier belief that I was finished acquiring View-Master items, when I found a Model E View-Master viewer (made between 1956-1960), which I might have ignored if it weren't for the absolutely mint original box and March 1957-dated catalog, and all for a cannot-be-beat price --
After an excellent lunch at a roadside family cafe, we hit another nearby antique store (Second Hand Rose) in Poplar Grove; we usually find something worthy to purchase at this place, but not this day.
Our next stop was the antique-rich town of Rockton IL. The great thing about this town is all you need to do is park near the intersection of Main Street and Prairie, as there are no less than FOUR different shops within one block west, east and south of that intersection. My memory of the stores and my purchases becomes foggy at this point, but I must mention a couple items of interest...
One of these stores had one of the most interesting antique bicycles I have ever encountered: a mustard-yellow Monarch bicycle. If I had the disposable cash on hand, I would have picked this up, as this surely would have been a most rewarding restoration project --
If you plan to visit Rockton, make sure you stop in Country Cottage Antiques & Gifts, as they stock an incredibly large and versatile collection of flavored soda pops. Cherry, root beer, banana, pineapple, cream soda, watermelon, apple... you name it, and they probably have it in a pop bottle. Pick one up for the road, or save some pocket money and get the muli-bottle discount.
After a much-needed drive-thru Starbucks run -- which provided the caffeine infusion I required to continue at this pace -- we hit our last stop for the day: State Street Antique Mall in Rockford; this was our plan from the beginning, as this enormous mall is virtually unique in that it closes at 7 PM.
Again, of particular interest to this group, were these Mego Spock and the incredibly mislabeled Mego "Scotty". I had passed up these exact same items on multiple previous visits to this mall, but this particular vendor was having a "50% Off All Items Sale," so I finally picked them up --
My wife picked up some random Christmas items (which were immediately packed away the next day along with the rest of our holiday decorations, thus no photos). These included a couple of porcelain Santa Claus cups which she was debating until I pointed out they were from the same "50% Off All Items Sale" vendor, so... no-brainer.
I wasn't actually planning to expand my meager View-Master collection, but sometimes you have to move on the more rare items when they present themselves. This newest addition to my collection is a "View-Master Junior" projector, still in its original 1956-dated box.
... Of particular note is that back in January of 1956 it only required 31c to mail this box --
Last edited by SentientApe; Feb 10, '15, 12:15 AM.Comment
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WOW those are great finds.Visit my wiki site:
Comic Books in the Media
To view my custom works of both JLU and Megos go to:
Monitor_EP Deviantart page
Action Jackson Road Trip logComment
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I really hadn't intended to add to this 2015 thread the event from this past weekend, but since it remains an excellent annual event to acquire unique and hard-to-find items from virtually every period of history, AND since I actually made a (significant!) purchase of an antique, I figured it should be documented here...
Military History Fest XI (formerly called "ReenactorFest") is an annual trade show (for lack of a better term) for people interested in military history. Seminars, vendors, live performances, full-scale encampments, a military vehicle rally... and many more activities make this an extremely worthwhile event... especially in the reenactment-sparse winter months.
There are thousands of items of militaria for sale by scores of vendors -- firearms and edged weapons (both real and facsimile), uniforms, armor, field gear, military awards and badges, tents, documents/forms, photographs, books and videos... virtually anything of interest to military historians, armchair generals, genealogists and reenactors of every historical period. This year even featured a 3D photography booth for people seeking a 3D-scanned/printed miniature version of themselves.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this event is the building of full-scale 20'x20' military encampments; some of which feature skits or other dramatic presentations. There were 13 this year, including a World War I "trench", complete with periodic poison gas attacks (simulated with a fog machine, that spilled "gas" from over the top of the structure), a Roman "TAVERNA"... and several others.
One camp was a mock-up of a corner in "Hue City," which involved 20th-century Marines periodically experiencing enemy fire as they deployed...
Another camp was the "Trayn'd Men of Bristol", where kids (and adults!) could try on armor --
Another encampment was an entire room equipped as "The Führer's Bunker," complete with an array of communications equipment and a map table --
There were several military vehicles parked along the perimeter of the facility, including a German ambulance Kubelwagen .....
...as well as a German Steyr...
My involvement during the weekend was multi-faceted. My WWII group manned a Soviet recruitment table for reenactors...
... and on Saturday I presented a seminar on "Bicycles of WWII Europe" --
However, my primary task for the weekend was an interactive Scavenger Hunt for kids (a game I designed a couple years ago). Kids claim a prize when they can successfully locate the specific items I have hidden among the 13 encampments.
The real challenge for me is to draw a map depicting all the encampments as they are constructed on Thursday evening and Friday morning, in time to get the map printed and distributed for kids to begin playing on Friday...
As an example, can you spot the item hidden (in plain sight!) in "Camp Douglas 1864"?
I have dozens of other photos from the event, and there are literally hundreds more available online... but I think you get the idea.
So... what antique item did I purchase that merits this event being listed in this thread?
A couple women transported a Model 1910 Maxim heavy machine gun Sokolov mount and shield all the way from Iowa to try to find out at this event if this item -- which was otherwise headed for a scrap metal dealer -- had any resale value and, if so, how much. They were directed to the only uniformed Soviets in the place. I initially brushed them off to my senior colleagues, one of which is much more knowledgeable in these matters than I but, when they pulled up (during Sunday's Siberian-like blizzard conditions!) in the parking lot, my comrades urged me to go out and take a look.
I concurred they had "the real thing," took several photos (including that previous one) with the intention of posting them in various appropriate Facebook Groups to help find it a new home, and gave them my best opinion on an asking price vs. rock-bottom price. None of us poor frontoviks could afford it, so we bade it das vadanya.
However, after talking with my wife (and, for the record, she is the BEST), she encouraged me to make them an offer. They were still nearby and accepted my offer, just glad that they didn't have to haul it back to Iowa.
Rolling it inside the convention center, I received cash offers for up to 200% of what I had just paid; everyone else was peeved that they had no knowledge that this thing had been available for purchase, as it had quite literally been "sold out of the back of someone's car". The most fun came a couple hours later when I hauled it across the parking lot in several inches of fresh snow, pelted by blizzard-force winds, bundled up in my Russian greatcoat and ushanka (and shiny polished boots, etc) -- undoubtedly replicating the conditions this device had experienced many times during The Great Patriotic War some 70+ years ago -- to load it into the Jeep.
Now, the search begins for a Model 1910 Maxim heavy machine gun to mount upon it. To put this in perspective, here are a couple photos showing "the real thing" in use --
Last edited by SentientApe; Feb 3, '15, 4:38 PM.Comment
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I Love those bikes! Finding cool looking bikes and Megos at the same place? I'm jealous.
Clothes make the doll
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This past Sunday (yesterday) we hit the Grayslake flea market, which beheld an amazing variety of quality antiques; the selection this month seemed far better than what I ever before experienced at this event. I was forced to restrain myself (and failed) because there seemed no end of high-quality items. Had money been no object, I could easily have spent ten times the amount I dropped... and even more; this place was filled with old Steiffs, Megos, toys of virtually every description and innumerable other antiques and treasures.
From one dealer, I acquired an antique student microscope (with extra optics and a slide) ...
...and also a 1977 Azrak-Hamway RC Batmobile --
After that, I picked up a high-quality Cap gun --
And a couple booth later, I grabbed a single box lot(!) of a Model C View-Master viewer and reels as well as a Tru-Vue viewer and slides --
...At this point I realized, to my utter horror, that I had not even finished the first aisle of the flea market, and I had already spent more than I had planned. We continued shopping, but after this I became extremely frugal in what I considered...
I did pick up a pair of IMAI "Captain Scarlett" models --
Then there was the offer I could not resist. To add to my growing collection of Viewmaster and other Stereoscope devices, I picked up Stereo-slide viewer with cheesecake (bathing suit babes!) slides, as well as a pair of racy (R-rated) "Peep" viewers, because you just cannot find these things anymore (two of the following photos are taken at a very careful angle to keep this thread G-rated)...
In the very last aisle, one dealer was selling everything for a dollar, so I finished up my purchases with a toy Robot hand, a Type 0 Action Jackson (in desperate need of cleaning and restringing), and an ED-209, for a grand total of three dollars....
After that, we hit the large Volo Antique Malls (an inter-connected stretch of three gigantic antique malls, adjacent to the world-famous automobile museum). I was much more discerning in this place, and my only purchases were: a set (all three reels!) of "Russia" View-Master reels...
...a Mego "Scotty" which was already at a great price, but was a "no-brainer" with the vendor offering all items on sale for an extra 20% off...
...and another Model C View-Master viewer in its original box
My wife picked up two sweet additions to expand her collection of toy telephones, as well as a charmingly well-worn antique porcelain lady "bust" catch-all, to accompany another one she has on her vanity table --
On the way home, we hit the always satisfying McGonigal's Irish Pub (in South Barrington) for dinner, where a live band was playing traditional Irish music. In the end, a truly excellent and rewarding day.Last edited by SentientApe; Feb 9, '15, 2:43 PM.Comment
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Went to the Rose Bowl's Flea Market last weekend and scored a nice Corgi Bat Boat for $40.
You are transparent; I see many things... I see plans within plans.Comment
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Nice score on the Corgi Batman
I love the Rose Bowl Flea Market. Every time I'm back in Cali to visit my pops, we go to the Rose Bowl.
I know this seller always sets up and sells vintage toys to include cases full of megos.Last edited by RickD; Feb 12, '15, 10:23 PM.Comment
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Nice finds!Comment
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Thanks Gents.
You are transparent; I see many things... I see plans within plans.Comment
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Been a long time since I found something this hard to find out in the wild. Russ Cochran Star Wars Slip Case Edition. Signed and numbered by Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. There is also a Lucas signature, but I can't tell if it is real or not. It's not mint...but it is nice and it is a low number. 154 of 2500:
I didn't even know that Cochran had done such a set. I have about 4 or 5 of the EC sets. Bought them when they came out...but this Star Wars set I never had a clue was released. Almost passed it by in the showcase of the thrift store. Funny thing is I opened the 3rd book to take a look at exactly what it was and saw the black and white art and knew right away that it was the comic from the newspaper. Never occurred to me until I got home and started doing some research on Ebay and found out that they were limited and signed. If anyone knows more about this set, especially if the Lucas signature is real, let me know either by posting here or messaging me in the museum. Thanks."When not too many people can see we're all the same
And because of all their tears,
Their eyes can't hope to see
The beauty that surrounds them
Isn't it a pity".
- "Isn't It A Pity"
By George Harrison
My Good Buyers/Sellers/Traders list:
Good Traders List - Page 80 - Mego TalkComment
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Sweet find. I really hope that Lucas signature is the real deal!!!Comment
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I seem to recall those sets being sold on the old QVC Star Wars specialsComment
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