Boomer Hobbies

Make Your Free Time Pay Off

• Specialized Automotive Tools

  For both car and tool collectors, specialized tools are highly sought after items. From very early Snap-On Wrenches to modern hand tools for older vehicles,…

• Unusual Toy Train Paperwork

  There are toy train collectors who challenge themselves to find items few of their peers own. Company paperwork is one such niche within the hobby. While all…

• When Reproduction Goes Off the Rails

  Hudson Products produced a highly detailed replica of the Pre-War Lionel 700E Hudson with Tender and Display Board from 1979 until 1980. The company was based…

• Commemorative Creations

  Every so often, companies produce product lines to commemorate an event, a club and even holidays. Lionel was known to include all three with their…

• Georges Carette's Contributions to Toy Trains

  French citizen Georges Carette opened his toy business in Nuremburg, Germany in 1895. He produced wind up boats and cars, steam powered engines and toy trains.…

• Crazy Variations Make Common Awesome

  Mass production can make toy train offerings look like a sea of sameness. Through the decades, specific cars were so overproduced for every set they become…

• Why Do High-Priced Items Depreciate?

  Like the market capitalization of any company you can buy stock in, the value of antiques fluctuates over time. This is particularly true within specific…

• The Ups & Down of Vintage Fishing Equipment

  Artifacts in all Boomer Hobby categories fluctuate in popularity as those who prized them age to the point where they're used to a much lesser degree. You'd…

• Tootsietoy Graham Series Diecast Vehicles

  From 1933 until 1939, Tootsietoy produced a series of Graham vehicles that were more detailed than earlier and later offerings. The series included a sedan,…

• AMF Wen-Mac World's Fair Monorail Jr.

  Commemorative toys have been around for a very long time. They emerge from every World's Fair as well as celebrations centered around the passage of time, like…

• Brass HO Locomotive Motors from the 1940s

  Beginning in the 1930s, Varney, Scale-Craft and even Lionel were offering locomotives and rolling stock in kit form to meet the needs of hobbyists who weren't…

• Why Would Anyone Sell Parts?

  Certain parts will sell for more than a complete unit when broken down by each major component. This is because either someone placed a sentimental value on an…

• Vintage & Antique Bicycle Accessories

  Most pickers are aware of how valuable banana seat Schwinn Sting-Ray Bicycles from the 1960s can be. The accessories that were made for them are equally…

• Classic Car Owner, Maintenance & Repair Manuals

  The market for classic cars has remained relatively strong. Those buyers generally are interested in completing their 'projects' whether that involves…

• General Models Corporation 1943 -1950

  General Models Corporation was a toy train company founded in Wheaton, Illinois. They specialized in kits and distributed competitor products. Although the…

• Marx Playsets of the 1950s & 1960s

  Louis Marx & Company was, at one time, the world's largest producer of toys. The company made everything from tinplate lithographed wind up mechanical vehicles…

• F&F Mold & Die Works Cereal Premiums

  As far back as the `1930s, producers of breakfast cereal offered prizes to lure customers away from other brands. Many featured items supposedly used by…

• Boomer Hobby News Flash: Flashlights

  Believe it or not, there's an entire section of collectibles devoted to Flashlights on eBay. It's under the Tools section and regularly features a vast array…

• Eastern Block Space Toys from the 1960s

  Tinplate battery operated robots from 1950s Japan are highly prized by collectors. But other corners of the world had their own unique takes on space age…

• Lionel Spear-Tone Phonographs

  During the late 1950s, Lionel began attempting to diversify outside their toy train empire. They experimented with slot cars originally made by Atlas, building…

• Selling the Unusual in a World of Usual

  With a few notable exceptions, Post-War era Lionel Trestle Sets won't bring much in an online marketplace. Shipping will cost more than you could get for the…

• K-Line SuperStreets Sets from 2005

  In the early 2000s, K-Line was looking for a new way to sell traditional toy trains. They came up with a track system that looked like roads and ran 'O' Gauge…

• Distinguishing Original from Reproduction Parts

  When toy trains are discovered in the wild, they often lack critical components. It's quite common to find Lionel Operating Merchandise Cars without these…

• A.C. Gilbert's Pre-War 3/16 Scale Cars

  During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the A.C. Gilbert Company produced a number of 3/16 Scale freight and passenger cars in 'O' Gauge that ran on traditional…

• J.H. Hoefler Tinplate Windup Toys

  Back in the mid-1940s, not long after the fall of Nazi Germany, toy production sprang up from the ashes of defeat in an area famous for tinplate toy production…

• Outside the Big Three of Toy Trains

  The top three manufacturers of toy trains during the Post-War period (1945 to 1969) were Lionel, Marx and American Flyer. Lionel and Marx focused primarily on…

• Jetex Solid Fuel Boats from the 1950s

  Boomer Hobby flyers of Control Line Model Airplanes remember when a British company called Jetex introduced small lightweight solid fuel jet engines for free…

• Lionel's Bild-A-Loco Kits & Motors

  During the late 1920s and early 1930s, Lionel offered an 'O' Gauge No. 4U Kit that allowed hobbyists to build either a Cab Electric Locomotive or Stationary…

• Breweriana Goes Well Beyond Old Beer Cans

  Beer can collecting took off in the 1970s when high school kids and others ventured out into usually remote areas 'dumping' for old beer cans to restore. The…

• The Lionel Pre-War Era Within an Era

  Collectors of Lionel Trains are generally familiar with the Pre-War era (1900 to 1941), the Post-War era (1945 to 1969) and the MPC era (1970 to 1986). From…

• Building Beyond the Gilbert Erector Set

  Erector Sets made by the A.C. Gilbert Company first appeared in 1913 and were sold nearly continuously up until the 1960s. Along the way, these sets drew…

• Early Pre-War Lionel Tinplate Toy Trains

  This Wabash Bobber style 'O' Gauge Caboose was produced just after the 1918 name change from Lionel Manufacturing Company to The Lionel Corporation. Its frame…

• 1/25th Scale Automobile Advertising Premiums

  They aren't new to new car dealerships and the reason they've lasted so long is a phrase that came out of 1950s car sales culture: "The small ones sell the big…

• Tin Lithographed HO Trains from 1950s Japan

  Here's an interesting find for the HO train collector. Japanese tinplate lithographed toys were popular during the 1950s. The battery-operated robots and…

• Kitbashing Can Create Confusion

  You find something that appears desirable at first glance, but further investigation leads you down a different path. It's an occurrence not all that uncommon…

• Big, Heavy Trains for Little Boys

  When toy trains were first introduced, not long after the real ones began riding the rails, models trended to the large and clunky. Early scales included…

• Spotting the Unusual on a Table Full of Usual

  Picking large shows can be a daunting experience. There's so much sameness out there. And then one item catches your attention. Maybe you've never seen…

• Flying Balsa Wood Model Kits

  Before plastic model kits hit hobby stores during the late 1940s and early 1950s, you could build and fly balsa airplane models with either rubber band power…

• Many Gauges & Even More Styles of Track

  For model railroaders, there are more than a dozen gauges of two and three rail (sometimes four) track. The smallest is Z which is tabletop size and the…

• Fisher Branded Amplifier Vacuum Tubes

  For the Audiophile who has everything. These Fisher Radio branded vacuum tubes came out of a late 1950s or early 1960s Fisher Tube Amplifier which are quite…

• The Dawn of the Slot Car Era

  Scalextric (originally Scalex with their 1940s wind up models) was one of the first successful producers of electric slot cars. The British factory stated out…

• Early Floor Toys

  Late 1800s to early 1900s floor toys ran the gamut from clunky wooden vehicles to elaborate cast iron relics. This tinplate lithographed Speedaway Bus was made…