My Tin Toys

This is a wonderful toy. Sky Rangers by Unique Art. I think it’s from the late 1940s or early 1950s, but might be a bit earlier. I know the German firm Bing made a similar toy in the early 1930s, and Lionel made an electric version in the mid 1930s.

Here’s another picture:

The operation of this Unique Art toy is pretty simple. The plane goes on one end of the wire, the blimp goes on the other. The blimp is a counter weight. Then the lithographed plane is wound up. The two airships then move around the tower.

Here’s the Sky Ranger’s plane up close:

Here’s a close up of the Sky Ranger blimp:

Here’s a link to see Unique Art Sky Rangers on eBay

I found a video on Youtube of one of these running. Here it is:

UNIQUE ART TIN LITHO WIND-UP SKY RANGERS AIRPLANE AND TOWER S-R 8 1933

US $45.00 (12 Bids) End Date: Sunday Jan-29-2012 13:00:24 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Wind Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.