CHICAGO TOY FAIR 2015 REPORT - aka THE KANE COUNTY TOY SHOW DOSSIER

THE 2015 CHICAGO TOY FAIR (though everyone still calls it the Kane County Toy Show) was held a couple of weeks ago at the Kane County Fairgrounds, Chicago. It was blessed with fine weather this year, and five of us turned up there bright and early, at 8 o’clock sharp.

MAT'S US DIARY: THE SPOILS OF KANE COUNTY

Mr J thought you’d like to know what I’d bought at the Kane County Toy Fair, so here’s what’s going to be filling my travel bag. In the picture, from top left to bottom right:

The 1971 AMT Corvette that was issued as the ‘yearly’ or ‘annual’ kit, for that year. At Kane County, this benefited from ‘do a deal’, as it came down from $65 to $45.

The kit in bags marked ‘The 20 Mule Team Rolls’ comes from the TV series Death Valley Days, sponsored by the Borax Corporation. This ‘generic western’ was introduced by the ‘Old Ranger’ - picture on the plans - one of whom was Ronald Reagan, and featured different stories each time. This kit is 1:48 scale and includes 20 mules and three wagons.

The Mako Shark was one of General Motors’ major show cars, elements of which were utilised in later Corvettes, such as the one on the left. This kit is built, but may be restorable - and anyway, the box is nice!

The box for the Jo-Han 1961 Rambler is just that - a box - but there is a growing market in mint boxes. Anyway, I have an old kit of this in a tatty box...

The Johnny Lightning ‘Classic Plastics’ are 1:64 scale cars, versions of which were made as AMT kits, and you get a miniature version of the kit box. These aren’t exactly old, but there weren’t exactly expensive either - two for just $5.

I’m not really an aircraft collector, but these 1:28 scale Revell WW1 aircraft have interesting boxes. I already have the Fokker Triplane, so with this one, there’s only one still to get. There was a fourth kit made in later years, but the box is far less interesting.

Mat Irvine

MAT’S US DIARY: KANE COUNTY TOY FAIR

Kane County sits west of the Chicago metropolis and hosts the twice-a-year Toy Fair at its fairground, something (a fairground, that is) that no self-respecting American town can do without. I was last there in October 2008, but new buildings have sprung up since, meaning that a lot of what used to be held in, frankly, the animal sheds, could be moved inside. But two such sheds remain in use. They are otherwise reserved for ‘Cattle’ and ‘Swine’ (‘Rabbits’ was not in operation this year!). Apparently Kane County’s Toy Fair used to be a lot larger than it is now – but it’s still pretty big.

The Toy Fair does more or less what it says on the tin. It’s a fair for the selling of toys - plus models, dolls and other collectibles - and stall after stall has a wide variety of bits and pieces that are likely to be junk to most people, but maybe a treasure to others. We all set off - me and my other half Georgy, Dean Milano and wife Gay, and were joined by Gay’s daughter Kim and her elder son, Jack, all of seven years old.

It didn’t look exactly promising as the forecast was for a downpour, and with rain threatening when we arrived, by the time we got under cover, it was coming down like stair-rods – but that meant all the more time for browsing!

You never know what you might find at these sorts of fairs – plus not being ‘from around these parts’ they are mostly going to be different from the sort of finds at a British equivalent. So you wander from stall to stall, peering at stuff that may be hidden under other stuff, or tucked away under the table. Then you bargain. Using the Middle Eastern principle that the price marked is only a rough indicator and should never be taken at face value, the first question should always be, “What’s your best offer on this?”, followed by the sort of look that indicates that it had better be a ‘good offer’. Actually, most are just that. Invariably when I’d seen something at $25, and having asked the question and expecting $20, and $18 came back (as it did on one occasion)... well, it would be churlish to turn it down! So by the end of the day - and by now with the Sun out - a few more items had been added to the Mat Irvine Collection.

The pics show (top) a kit I’d never seen before, at least in this box – the original Renwal kit of the Mercedes 300 Gullwing in 1:12 scale. Gay found me an astronaut (middle), though I didn’t take her up on the offer! Georgy (bottom) gazes at just one stall’s wares.