Kaiser-Frazer toys

[Gordie]

Here you go. I have an identical unit although mine isn't quite as nice.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Henry-J-Dealer-Promo-1-25-scale-Kaiser-Coaster/263490155550?hash=item3d593cb41e:g:CcIAAOSwYNxaf8FO

This arrived in today's mail from Canada and it is as close to new as I could hope for.  The dealers name on the roof is Logan Motors who had dealerships in York and Glenrock PA.  Logan Motors bought many give-away items for their customers and must have  been one of the more successful K-F dealers in the East.  There have been several promotional items found with their name on them,

[Gordie]

In trying to do research on the Lincoln Line Henry J model car I have found that there is a stock version and a hot rod version that seems to be the same except for a square hole in the hood near the windshield with a black air cleaner sticking out on the hot rod version.  Both versions seem to have the exact same body and grill and bumpers as the Banthrico model. Banthrico always used die cast metal for their banks and toys and experimented with this one Henry J model in plastic.  It seems that Banthrico also sold the bodies to Lincoln Line who used their own base, wheels, headlights and their version had no windows or hubcaps as both types of the Banthrico models had.  I can find few other other toys that Lincoln Line made and no history of their company in many toy books.  The company made a toy telephone service truck and another toy with a push mechanism  in the chassis that made the toy roll as was used on their version of the Henry J.  They do not seem to be affiliated with K.F.C. nor were the models sold through K-F suppliers and apparently they did not last very long in the toy business.  Does anyone have either version of the Lincoln Line Henry J's?  Lincoln Line promotional models have been seen in red, dark blue, apple green, light gray, yellow and black.

[Gordie]

Brooklin is a company that started out in Canada but soon moved to England and make over a hundred models in 1:43 scale and specialize in American cars.  Their models seem to be mostly in the 1930's through the 1950's and Kaiser has been well represented in their line of different models.  There is an Allstate which was mentioned before and a Henry J, a green Darrin and now a new red one with a different number on the front license plate.  I don't know what the difference is other than the color. The 1953 Kaiser Manhattan comes as a solid color, two-toned and a black one of 500 imported to Rotterdam and labeled as such.  Now there is a police patrol in black, a California Highway Patrol in Black and white.  A new orange Taxi appeared and now another different taxi company is in yellow.  Some of the police cars and taxis are made in a quantity of only ten and are priced at around $200 each. There is also a 1954 Kaiser Manhattan 4 door and an Ohio Highway Patrol car in all black.  Willys is represented as well but I am not sure what all of the varieties are and I will report on them when I can find a list.  Brooklin models are well made to scale and are very heavy for their size.  They are all die cast metal with rubber tires and are very authentic in appearance.  You can find them at hobby stores or on line for a variety of prices and shipping costs.  I find most of mine on line and it pays to look at all of the offerings and compare prices.  The ones where only ten were made do not offer much in price comparisons.  We will be lucky to even find one available.

[Gordie]

Last week I found an auction for a Lincoln Line Henry J promotional model in nice condition  The seller did not know exactly what he had and he started the bidding at $49.95 and it did not get any bids until the last couple of days.  I had bid over $350 on it and was not the high bid.  If you ever run across one of these you had better grab it as they are apparently quite scarce and who knows when another one will turn up for sale.  At least we have a new respect for how valuable they are.  If one of you got it, congratulations!  For me I will just have to keep on looking.  They look just like the plastic Banthrico Henry J's but have a different base plate with a pull back and let go mechanism that lets the toy scoot forward on the floor.  I am sure that with a couple of days of that plastic model hitting walls and furniture at high speed did not help its survival rate.

[joefrazer]

I ran across something interesting today...there were obviously more than one casting mold used to produce the 53 Kaiser Banthrico banks. I have one I paid all of a buck for at auction not log ago, the black car pictured, and the picture of the blue one came from a current ebay auction. Check out the upper windshield contour on both. Curiously, the rear glass contour, as well as everything else on the cars, are the same.

[Gordie]

We discussed the two different windshields on the 1953 models earlier in this thread.  Steve Butlers book on Promotional Cars and Trucks values the version with the dip slightly more than the one with no dip.  The book on Bathrico banks was not aware of the differences and labeled one as a 1952 and one a 1953.  In comparing the two versions the bottom rear of the models are also cast differently and have different size base plates.  Both models have the 1953 headlight rims.  The flyers sent from Banthrico to the dealers illustrate the dip in the windshield.  Perhaps the straight version came later.  Color kits consisting of 18 different models, 12 different Kaiser colors and six two tones were available for $28.50 F.O.B. Chicago,  Ill.  It is too bad that it is a little too late to order a case. The blue Kaiser that Jim showed us is still available on eBay .  It is not a bad price and well restored.  Banthrico did not primer their bare metal castings and the quality of paint was poor and the models tend to chip easily and a nice original is very hard to find. Years ago I had a friend who worked at Beverly Hills Ford and while rummaging through their parts storage I ran across a case of unopened 1956 Ford promotional models.  I kept them until I sold my Ford collection about twelve years ago and had about 5,000 different Ford toys including Edsel, Mercury, Lincoln and Ford airplanes.  I doubt that there are over 100 K-F toys or models and most are either rare or expensive.  For Willys there must be at least 1,000 different Jeep toys but not much for the Aero.  There are a few nice Jeepster and station wagon toys and models available

[Gordie]

A damaged Lincoln Line Henry J promo appeared on eBay last week and it stayed around $10.00 most of the week then soared to almost $100 at the end of the auction with about twenty bids.  It seems that more than Kaiser-Frazer collectors are bidding on promotional models.  The Kaisers are quite desirable and expensive.

[Gordie]

I was the high bidder on the Lincoln line Henry J promotional model on eBay and it came in the mail today.  It was not nearly as bad looking as it looked in the auction pictures so I took it apart and sanded some of the dings in the plastic body with 800 grit sandpaper and carefully rubbed it out with polishing compound.  After cleaning up the grill and bumpers and the wheels it looks pretty nice and an unusual color for a Henry J.  In comparing the Banthrico Henry J models with the Lincoln line I can see that they are exactly the same body and grill and bumpers although Banthrico used two different front bumpers on their promos.  They all have the large Henry J script on the hood and trunk and the bases attach  in the same way.  The big difference in the two makes is the size of the wheels on the Lincoln line model are much larger and they have no hubcaps.  I am sure that they were both made by the same company who ever it was.  I have only seen Banthrico models in authentic K-F colors where in the Lincoln line I have now seen red, blue, light grey , apple green , yellow, and black, not all K-F colors.

[Gordie]

Many years ago at a KFOCI National meet one of the member vendors had a display of Kaiser models for sale that he had made.  Some were made from Banthrico models and he had created a two door, four door and club coupe and all were made of plaster and are good replicas of the real thing.  I also bought a smaller model in 1:43rd scale of a 1951 Kaiser Special 4 door sedan.  It is well made with an accurate hood ornament and all of the features of the special with no side or window trim and small hubcaps and bumper guards.  I don't think that it was made by the same maker as the larger models and this one says "Caher model" on the bottom and "1951 Kaiser serial no.1006".  I can not find any information about this company and it appears to be made of resin.  Does any one remember anything about these models?

[Gordie]

Some of the most popular cars in Kaiser-Frazer history are the 1951 models.  Many have survived and they are very good looking cars and were a brand new design when they were first announced in mid 1950.  Not many toys seem to have been made of this popular style and most toys and models seem to have been the early 1947.s, the 1953 Kaisers, the Henry J's and the Kaiser Darrin's.  An interesting 1951 model was made by a company in Niles IL called Mistic of Niles and it is a 1951 Kaiser Dlx. 4 door made out or two different colors of wood.  The model is over ten inches long and is well made with the chrome pieces made out of a lighter color and the body a darker shade.  It is by far the largest Kaiser or Frazer toy that I have ever seen other than the models made in 1946 by K-F to test different paint colors.  A couple of those models have survived.  A professional model maker named Otto L. Vallostro Sr. recently retired but he made hundreds of models made of wood of mostly American cars of the twenties through the sixties and they were one off scratch built very nice models.  I am aware of a 1951 Henry J that he did and it is 6 1/2 inches long and is made of balsa wood and is a very attractive model.  Another 1951 Kaiser toy that was described earlier was made by German toy maker Gama and is of a 1951 Kaiser Dlx. 4 door sedan and is 8 1/4 inches long with a plastic body and tin interior and chassis.  It has a friction motor that scoots the car along the floor when you push down and forward on the car and let it go.  Mine is red with green plaid seats and depicts a brief case laying on the rear package tray.  Gama also made a taxi version of this toy.  What other toys or models should be on this short list of 1951 Kaisers?

[Gordie]

There is not a lot of choice of toys and models if you want to have a replica of your Frazer.  In the 1940's a model railroad fan named Lee Stokes made plaster models of 1947 Kaisers and Frazers.  They are in 1:87th scale or about two inches long.  Most were sold unpainted but they were also offered painted.  They also made models of other cars and there was not much available for railroad layouts in those early years.  These show up on eBay occasionally and other companies copied his models.   Recently a company named Stoney Mountain Classic Castings offer a similar '47 Frazer #SMC631 the same size but in white plastic and they are much improved over the earlier plaster models.   They also offer #SMC669 which they offer as a 1948 Frazer but it is really styled like the 1949-50's.  It is in clear plastic.  They look nice but need to be assembled and painted.  In the late 1940's a Japanese tin 1947 Frazer toy was sold here.  There were two varieties, both with an extended trunk and wind-up motors with a key.  The first one had the extended trunk piece attached as a separate stamping but later they came as a one piece body and the long trunks were necessary to enclose the wind-up mechanism.  They were 5 1/2 inches long and had a "made in occupied Japan"  either painted or stamped into the base.  They were all metal but with a composit drive wheel in the rear.  They had ribbed bumpers like the real cars and looked very realistic from the front view.  Currently a company called Highway Travelers makes a 1:43rd scale 1951 Frazer convertible that is very nice.  They are either top down and windows up or black top up and are very accurate in detail with full interior and dash details.  These cost about $265 and there are four available now on eBay in two Frazer colors with top up and top down.  They are quite scarce.  One last model that I am aware of is a company called Conquest Models and they offer a 1949 Frazer Manhattan sedan in 1:43rd scale and they are from England.  Theirs is Model 39 and is in a two tone green.  Apparently there were very few made and I could only find one available in Moscow.  A little pricey at $430.00 but you would have a rare one on your shelf!  Is anyone aware of other Frazer toys or models?

[Gordie]

A damaged Lincoln Line Henry J promo appeared on eBay last week and it stayed around $10.00 most of the week then soared to almost $100 at the end of the auction with about twenty bids.  It seems that more than Kaiser-Frazer collectors are bidding on promotional models.  The Kaisers are quite desirable and expensive.

Another Lincoln Line Henry J promotional model just brought over $300 in a recent eBay Auction and this one needed work as someone had painted the plastic model and the new paint was only partially removed.  Expect to pay a lot of money for the few older Kaiser promotional models surviving.  It is very difficult to find them in nice condition.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

For those interested, here's the information K-F dealers got in the 1953 edition of the Sales Aid Catalogue for ordering the Banthrico Kaiser Manhattan auto banks

[Gordie]

Thanks for sharing this.  It is interesting that one of these models in excellent original condition now lists for $485 in the latest Promotional model book.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

Here's the order info for the 1951 HJ Autobanks (says so in its text).