Reviews written by JPL

Cast iron toys are the sort of toy which these days wouldn't even approach meeting toy safety standards! Nevertheless, they are still wonderful-looking items and highly representative of their eras, and this book is a very attractive and enjoyable introduction to their world. The toys are segregated by type and brand, and there are plenty of great pictures, along with some informative text. As usual, there's a value guide which is likely a little out of date by now.

For any collector of Hubley's toys and models, this book is an absolute must-have, presenting as it does the company's catalogues for the 1946-65 era in their entirety. As such, this is an invaluable resource for anybody with an interest in the company and its products. The value guide and intro are a little rudimentary, but the wealth of archive material more than makes up for this. It's also great to see the company's products presented in the typeface and layout of the times.

An entertaining book with a mix of subjects covered, including shooting toy guns, targets, toy cannons and, rather oddly, key chain puzzles. Nicely illustrated, this isn't any sort of complete guide to the subject but it makes for a pleasant read and has enjoyable photographs.

Wow, I really enjoyed this book! It's a little bit old-fashioned in its layout, having been first published in 1993, but I think that adds to its charm. It is a very impressive volume with a nice glossy jacket and lovely images for some very unusual items that I had certainly never seen before. It's also very informative about an area of collecting that has not been covered in much depth to the best of my knowledge. Obviously this does not cover every toy made by every company ever, which would likely be impossible, but it's a great overall look at the area. Very entertaining also for those who are not necessarily collectors but are nostalgic for this era and area.

There are lots of them in this book! Not a comprehensive list of every Beetle model ever made (that would likely be impossible to do in print!) but this very enjoyable book does include an awful lot of them and is an ideal starting point for anyone who wants an overview of Beetle models in pretty much any material! There are lots of great pictures although text makes for pretty light reading. A nice book to breeze through and also great for fans of the real car!

Not so much of a coffee-table book, this volume is for the serious collector of the ever-popular early Redline HW models (and Gran Toros). The image section is good with clear, sharp images of most castings, but it is fairly short and where the book really comes into its own is in the variant listings section where the countless different versions of the models are listed clearly by casting in easy-to-reference grids. An essential for anyone brave (and rich) enough to try and have a truly complete Redline collection!

A hefty hardback book with many enjoyable images, this is perhaps not the ideal book for the brand completist since it doesn't go maker-by-maker, but instead is split into sections by theme. Nonetheless, with the sheer number of models covered (there are well over 1000 photos), it is a great reference source and the text included is all interesting and informative. The images are very attractive and good quality as well - this is indeed a book both for those who are interested in tin toy vehicles and who are just interested in lithography and the design of such objects.

Having just read and reviewed Schiffer's book about Aurora Model Kits, I was in a model kit mood and happy to move on to this volume about the history of Monogram. The book is a very entertaining read, about a fascinating period in history, with many great illustrations. The book also traces the rise and fall of the model-kit building craze, of course, as Monogram was in the vanguard of this. All of which makes for a most enjoyable and informative book - I'm not sure if the kit list in the appendix is fully complete, or if the values are current (as with all printed price guides, they can go out of date so quickly), but in spite of this, I would recommend this book for all fans of Monogran and anyone interested in kits as a fun read anyway!

I really enjoyed this book, it's a great read AND very informative. Even if like me you weren't around for the heyday of Aurora in the 1950's and 1960's, if you're into models and model making, you will definitely have heard of the wonderful monster model kits they produced. Of course, they made many other types of model besides, including cars, space-ships and so many more.

This book recounts the company's history in very entertaining fashion. It also features a list of all the models produced by the company and has a great resource of images of a huge number of them, all of which are fascinating to look at. (For the record, my favourite is The Creature from the Black Lagoon on Page 93!)

Highly recommended by me!

Nice to see such a nice model of this very unusual car

A fun subject - pedal cars and powered vehicles that children could ride in - is presented through images featuring much of the author's own collection at the time, plus archival images and advertising reproductions, as well as photos from other collections. The images are black and white, which is a shame, but all images have price guides with them, and it is fascinating to see the history of this subject traced in image form!

Information on makes like Kemlow is hard to come by, so this is a great resource - a concise history of the brand is followed by listings of its products, complete with images of lots of unusual and hard-to-find models and toys. Not so much a "fun read" type book, since there is not much text (although what there is is not dry or boring), but a great info compendium all the same.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - it's one of the most complete "one subject" books I've ever read, covering everything you could possibly want to know about white metal models, from individual companies through to how these models are made and the history of the subject. Many obscure companies are featured, along with lots of great photos of models, manufacturing proceses, real vehicles and personalities. Very much recommended!

This wasn't an area of toys that I knew very much about so I really enjoyed this book. It is very informative, with many fascinating companies covered and a huge amount of wonderful illustrations, including images of individual items and period advertisements. Plus it was also very enjoyable to read, and is one of those books you can dip in and out of, or read all the way through. Experts will also enjoy the book for its wealth of photos!

As with the author's other books on FasTrack and slot-car racing, this is an excellent practical guide to getting the most out of your models. As such, it's not so much a glossy book for reading, but a very pratical volume, although the author never makes his informative passages dull or dry and it's eminently readable. As ever, the pictures are excllent and the topics covered useful and, indeed, innovative since this time round he covers such topics as building suitable support tables for a layout and ideas for portable layouts. The book also manages to complement his other books on the subject, without duplication.