The Smaller Collections

In our collection we have several collections of smaller toys, and those collections are limited in the number of toys we have (or will have). One of these small collections are of Studebaker models. That collection began way back in the late 1940s when my father-in-law worked at the Studebaker factory. Neither I, nor my husband, know exactly how my father-in-law acquired the first toy, but that car (made of plastic and rubber tires) was a prototype design for the car Studebaker was to build the following year (1950 or 1951). 

It surprises me even more that this car has survived all these years, in basically perfect condition. It isn't terribly detailed, but has a tin insert on the underside, and does have silver coloured bumpers and the typical Studebaker "pointed bullet" front.

Because this car has memories for my husband, he's hung onto it for years, and last year decided to try to find some modern models of it, and ... so began the collection. Not many of them, but enough to display on one shelf. In the photo below, the green car (front left) is the prototype, the remaining cars are newly purchased (the dark red 1950s is essentially the same design as the green car).

This next batch are from The National Motor Museum Mint, and is the Silver Age of Chevrolet Collection. A series of Chevy classics like the 1959 El Camino, and the 1965 Chev Malibu, among others. I'm not sure this is the entire collection of that series, but it he was satisfied with the cars he had, which arrived one car each month. The Shelby GT500 in the front is not part of the Chevy collection, we just had nowhere else to put it right now, nor is the red convertible on the far left.

The last "small" collection are these mix of vehicles in a larger scale than the Chevy collection (this collection is where the where red convertible belongs, and also included but not shown in the picture below is an older model Corvette).