Hello all ...the Elektoy window of manufacturer/ sales is a bit shorter ..per Playthings magazine ..Tad Cody did quite a detailed article about Elektoy in a TCAQ many moons ago .... Elektoy was all about variations...they came and went in a flash ... first described in Playthings July of 1911 ....but first ad February 1912 ...some big ads for a few months ..then smaller ...then gone by with last ad October .... they tried to make it big ....but fell short ...cute stuff ....even if "durable" would not be a word you would use to describe them ... amazing amounts of it has survived ... interesting as Elektoy was fading from the scene ...Ives was introducing their electric 1 gauge line .... to make it big you need a big distributor.... oh yes a good product at a favorable price point ..and a proven track record ... buyers for big chains would be hesitant to place an order with a start up company for their Christmas stock .... no matter how shiny the engine was
in the Elektoy ads they push dry batteries ..that is so 1909 ....Thoradson had come out with a good cheap transformer in 1910 which jump started the electric toy train world into safe and cheap to use ..now a practical toy ...for the masses ... sales would be taking off exponentially ...in 1912/3 --and onward ..
Cheers Carey
