Our Touring Past

Toy Caravans
An Arcade brand cast iron caravan from the 1930's, with rubber tires and the name The Covered Wagon printed on the top.The caravan is about 150mm long and 50mm wide.

Schuco mobile home.Made in Germany in the mid 1950's, and is about 250mm long.

Automec Carlight caravan DIY kit.

Dinky No 30G pre-war caravan.

Berlina Car and Caravan set. about 300mm long.

1940's Tootsietoy Roamer caravan.

"MATCHBOX" No. 23 and 74.
These illustrations are from the "MATCHBOX" Collector's Catalogue for 1965.
No. 23 has popped up on ebay selling for about $30 but I've not seen the commercial van No. 74. I don't think I had either in my collection years ago and I still don't have them but the price list on the catalogue for 1965 shows them as 3/6 each, I think that converts to 72 cents in today's money Mind you I saw a catalogue for sale in an antique shop the other day for $35 George

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Powerhouse Museum Annex at Castle Hill (a Senior's Week activity on this occasion - I suppose at least I've lived long enough to become one ) and as part of the upstairs permanent display they have a cabinet of tin plate toys. I'd seen the display on previous visits but hadn't noticed a very nice Gt. Britain made Mettoy brand caravan. It is labelled as c1945 and was no doubt available in Australia, it even has rubber tyres and an opening lantern roof. It is quite large being about 25cm overall length and has a simple wire hook for a draw bar.

These are a couple of photos of it, taken without flash due to their restrictions
George

This Tri-ang Minic Caravan and Vauxhall Cabriolet was a recently unsold item on ebay, at a starting price of 260 English quid I'm not surprised.
Given it's a 1934-6 BX Vauxhall the caravan looks pretty stylish as do the wheels on both models. As far as I know this is a clockwork model car so it would be fun to have it trundle around the table top with van in tow.
Although it was brand new and still in the original box and a Vauxhall I wasn't tempted, well I was a little, but I got over it given the exchange rate.
Nice item though. George

Hi George.
A couple of car and caravan combos that caught my eye.
Not the quality tin construction of the last 2 posted but I still like the style.
These two are reproductions, with the originals being sold in Dime stores in America. Or as we would probably call it now a Two Dollar shop. ( damn inflation.)

At last I saw a Matchbox 'Refreshments' caravan on ebay, like the one posted previously from the Matchbox catalogue. It was brand new and boxed and after considerable bidding it sold for A$164, so it looks like I'll never own one of them at that rate! However, another sold only a few weeks earlier, attached to a Vauxhall Victor no less, it appeared to be in good condition and unboxed and sold for only A$12.80, BUT I forgot to place a bid!
Some photos of the real thing. George

A bit more action on ebay recently with caravan models. This one was listed as a Dinky combination, the car is a 1934 Big Six Vauxhall and the van has a matching colour scheme. It sold for A$510 back in December and attracted 29 bids, I wasn't one of the bidders Maybe I should buy the models, a lot cheaper and take up far less space.

George

This little toy vintage caravan and car combo was mad by the Cleveland Toy Manufacturing Co of England. It is a rare little model and sold for around $315.00

Here's a couple of old newspaper advertisements for model caravans. The first from The Advertiser (Adelaide) 26-10-1937 was offering suggestions for Christmas presents. There was no description of the make, material or price given. The second is from the same paper 25-11-1938 and was again offering Christmas suggestions but this time some more detail about the item is given. I like the fact they were described as 'crash' proof, things must have changed by the time I started getting such things for Christmas. My brother and I generally had our tin plate cars from Grandma in ruin by the end of Christmas Day! Nice style caravan though. George

Joshua and I were out shopping the other day and we ended up in the Kmart toy section.
I was very excited to come across a toy vintage style car and caravan, then sadly disappointed when I couldn't find one in blue. I was told that they only come in pink, so anyone out there with a daughter may be able to buy one for them at around $40.00 which is fairly cheap compared to ( although more popular ) Sylvanian Families caravan which can fetch double the price.