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Afterwards he took it to the contract order department to buy it. "The guy said, 'We don't even have it listed, so just give me a quarter and I'll write out a slip for you to take it out." That was a full hour's pay for Wade at the time.
Fifty years later Wade sold the Fokker at auction for $1,750, and in one fell swoop realized as much money from the airplane as he'd made in almost three years of work at National at 25 cents an hour. Recently a different 9 ¬?" Vindex Fokker Plane with nickelled propellers and wheels, a black engine, and original salesman's sample tags attached brought the un-toy like price of $26,400.
For Wade, making Vindex toys was more than a job. During those days women worked eight-hour days and men ten hours. "After the women would go home, I'd usually go out to one of the machines for the last two hours of my shift, and put the Vindex toys together," he says, "because it was fun."
Collectors looking for original Vindex boxes are probably out of luck, because no collectors have ever seen one. Rumor says they were packaged in small wood boxes that were, after opening, used for some practical purpose.
Vindex toys thrived until the early 1940s, when the National Sewing Machine Company was required to discontinue toys, sewing machines, and washing machines, to make materiel for World War II. They resumed production of sewing machines after World War II, but not Vindex toys. The company closed in 1955.
The Origin of Cast Iron Toys
During the 1870s, 16 years before the first production farm toy was ever made, when tin toys were at the peak of their popularity, toy manufacturers began to explore the possibilities of cast iron. Tin wasn't durable enough for toys, and the much-more-durable cast iron was cheaper, said Joseph Doucette and C. L. Collins in Collecting Antique Toys. Cast iron toys were so popular that they were made until the outbreak of World War II, when cast iron was needed for the war effort. Companies making farm toys during those years included Arcade, National Sewing Machine Co. (Vindex farm toys), Kenton, and others. Eventually cast iron was edged out by lighter-weight toys which could be shipped for less.
"Cast iron toys," David Longest wrote in Toys, Antique & Collectable, "are considered by some to be the 'Cadillac' area of toy collecting because of the high quality of the toys and the high prices they command at toy shows and auctions.
Vindex John Deere manure spreaders can bring $3,000, while the Vindex John Deere combine can cost twice that. Hubley Fordson tractors can bring up to $1,800, and Arcade McCormick-Deering threshers can bring $1,200. McCormick-Deering tractors go for $500, and because of their scarcity, prices of Vindex toys will continue to rise.
Bill Vossler is a regular contributor to Farm Collector.