NEW MERRY-GO-ROUND OF MIDGET AUTOS

A merry-go-round of toy automobiles is proving a popular amusement in Germany. A light steel frame is pivoted on a central hub holding all the midget autos an equal distance from the center. The children do their own pedaling and steering and can govern the speed at which they go. In a few installations an electric motor turns the frame, but the ones in which the children pedal their own machines are reported to be the more popular with the youngsters.

Midget Bus Travels 15 m.p.h.

PATTERNED after its big brothers of the highways, a midget passenger bus has been constructed by L. P. Wright, a garage-man in St. Paul, Minnesota. The tiny bus cost about $350 to build.

The miniature vehicle has a seating capacity of nine small children. Dual electric motors, operating off four storage batteries, are located beneath the hood and enable the bus to attain a speed of 15 m.p.h.

The 11-foot bus is complete in many respects and features a horn, headlights, and steering mechanism. Small balloon tires give the vehicle excellent riding qualities. Needless to state, the bus is extremely popular with local tots, many of whom do not even have to stoop to enter the door.

Toys Run on Compressed Air
Driven by nothing more than air, these two toys can speed along at 15 m.p.h. for 125 feet. The plunger in the rear sends compressed air through tubing to a radial motor, where it is forced out through tiny holes. The released air sounds like a gas engine’s exhaust in the racer and makes a putt-putt noise while spinning the rotor of the taxiing helicopter. The toys are made by Mot-Air-Ette, of Chicago.

Psychic Baseball

A Battle of Wits

$1.00 Complete With Rules Score Cards & Playing Field

A Game of Skill Crowded with Action

Mail Order Direct If Your Dealer Cannot Supply You

Psychic Baseball Corp.
Dept. MM 389 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C

You wouldn’t think that an article about rubber band tricks would be offensive, but on the second page (second paragraph) there is a trick called “nigger in the wood pile”.

view additional pages

Amazing Stunts with Rubber Bands

By Sam Brown

Here are some amusing parlor tricks, which require no elaborate equipment, for entertaining your friends.

ABOUT the best trick ever performed with a rubber band is the one concerning the back of the school teacher’s neck and a juicy wad of paper. But there are others . . .

For something absurdly simple—or is it? —try this one: Take a stout rubber band and snap it over your fingers and thumb at the first joint. The idea is: Can you, using this one hand only, work the rubber band down to your wrist? Try it! Dollars to doughnuts you’ll get the most desperate, useless feeling when you get the rubber band about half-way down and find that despite all your finger waggling it will go no further than the middle of your palm.

Read the rest of this entry »

Novel Toy Bus Makes Stops To Discharge “Passengers”

A novel toy bus available scoots along the floor, flashes a red light rearward, stops automatically, opens its front door, waits while a bell rings, closes the door, and starts on its way again. Modeled after streamline buses of the type used on transcontinental runs. The toy has a spring motor, solid-rubber wheels, and front and rear rubber bumpers.

THREE-WHEELED SKATES HAVE RUBBER TREADS
Rubber-covered balls of fiber replace steel wheels in roller skates of new design. The three-wheeled skates are said not to mar floors or carpets, and to be virtually silent. According to the maker, they require no lubrication, and are lighter in weight than ordinary steel skates. The illustration shows the standard size and also a smaller model, with front wheels set well forward to prevent overbalancing, intended for the use of very young children.

Tin-Can Railroad

When a Georgia railroad man retired, he had to do something “to keep from going crazy” and naturally he turned to trains for his hobby. Using ordinary tin cans as raw material, W. E. Chester, 86-year-old Atlantan, has built himself a realistic collection of locomotives in his back yard. Occasionally, to add variety, he produces weather-vanes and whirligigs, using the always-available tin cans, but most of his time is spent fashioning locomotives of various sizes and types.

He-man-size patio chess

Latest in chess for outdoors is the giant set at right. Molded of Elastic, the pawns are 11 inches igh, the kings 21 inches. Each piece weighs about a pound, but they can be filled with sand if high wind is a problem. Kerrco, Inc., Lincoln, Nebr., suggests setting them on patio or recreation-area tiles alternating in color like a chessboard. The chess pieces come in gold and silver.

view additional pages

Test Your Coordination

By Luis Hochman

IS YOUR party growing dull? Are your guests looking at their watches, yawning, and searching for the nearest exit? Then it is time to bring out some new fun in the form of a contest of skill with paper and pencil. The props are simple, just plain writing paper and a couple of pencils …. the stunts, well suppose you try them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hairline Air Line
This Paris, France, youngster pilots a realistic model airplane through the perils of his first haircut. Less air-minded small fry can he snipped while riding a merry-go-round or mounting a roarless lion.

Toy Firemen Make Lawn Sprinkling Play

JACKIE gets a shower and keeps the lawn sprinkled with a miniature pumping fire cart his father, B. A. Clark, of Minneapolis, built for him.

Two firemen that actually work a pump on the sprinkler keep Jackie amused while taking care of his father’s lawn. The fire department sprinkler was built on an ordinary coaster wagon. It pulls the garden hose along wherever Jackie takes it.

The stream of water operates a device that moves the two miniature figures working the pump. A fire chief stands before them, watching their work. Mr. Clark reports he did not have to bother about watering the lawn or keeping Jackie cool after he built the toy fire cart.