Contributions wanted for series of books on Vintage A/C Toys

[grwebster]

I am in the middle of doing a series of books, full color,on Collecting Vintage Toy Aircraft. {pre 1980}

Each book will have chapters on a specific maker's aircraft toys, Solido, Dinky, Tekno, Tootsietoy, Mercury Aero Mini, etc....along with the obscure but interesting companies like Play Me, Erie, Edison, etc... and the plastic toy firms such as Renwal, Lido, Hubley, and Empire.

I will do the major writing, editing, photography and layouts.

The books and its chapters will be covering each plane in a maker's series and will include highly detailed photographs showing sides and bottoms etc. The descriptions will have include collecting notes and discussions of the 'real' aircraft.

This will not attempt to replicate Sue Richardson's definitive work, but hopefully compliment it. {If people are looking for the detailed specifics Sue has assembled -manufacture's numbers, etc- they should buy and refer to her book. I will not duplicate it.}

All photos submitted are treated as donated contributions, but credit to the collector will be given in print, so if you want to submit, please do so. I will offer a finished copy of each book to anyone whose contributions are accepted and used in it. Email me with what you want to do.

Photography Requirements
I will need close up fine quality {300 dpi JPEG or TIFF}, 6x6 inch, in focus, images with an all white back ground- a plain white bed sheet will do fine or a piece of white paper with the plane in the center - no textured cloths like bed spreads.
{Phone camera images are not high definition but there are many new and inexpensive digital cameras that take high quality images for under $200.00. You should photograph your collection anyway so it would not be a waste of $$.}

This is the way The Plane News and MAQ operated - and without freely donated contributions, it never would have been printed or offered such broad coverage.

I am not going to chase people to contribute. Been there done that with The Plane News and MAQ. It is exhausting and generally not rewarding. I do not need the hassle and will not raise the issue again.

I will ask some of the experts on this forum to review the books before they are finalized. These efforts also will be given credit in the works. Many of us have been disappointed with the previous efforts, {Tom Miller's, Smith's and some others..} because they did not seek more outside assistance and contributions. I hope to avoid this.

So think about it. A quality hard back, full color book with you name in it might be a nice way to show those family members and friends who think you are a bit crazy with your collection of toy planes, that there are many others who share the same passion.

[soslipstream]

G-

Do you want some of the Marx airplanes? I can do unrestored and restored. What is your time frame to submit the first draft to the publisher?

Regards,
Tom Sanders

[grwebster]

Tom, tin and pressed steel are subjects that are not on my short list, the first series will be mainly on die cast aircraft. This is a great subject but not one I personally am able to compile enough information to do the subject well - Tone could though,with collaboration with others.

[MikeVienne]

Thsi A R Autogiro is listed in the text of Sue's book (oage 126) but not illustrated as we did not have one at the time. It uses the same fuselage as the Spirit of St Louis shown on the right of illustration no. 155 in Sue's book. Will send you a pic by normal email.

The model will be at Special Auction Services for sale along with a few other final items of the Mikansue collection. Included will be a very nice Britains Civil Autogiro, no. 1392, complete with a good box, coil of wire, a small colour catalogue and the bill of sale when we got it at Christies in Feb 1991.

Good to know Sue's book will be followed by an update, there is always more info out there to be recoded. This is the fun of collecting.

Mike Richardson

[grwebster]

Mike, a big welcome to our site. We all miss Sue.
I enjoyed seeing that AR autogyro. Didn't know they did one of those.