Wanted - 50's CJ prizes

[shea_art]

Greetings to all you collectors! I am new to CJCA as I recently discovered your site when I googled CJ prizes.

My dad worked for Makatoy Co for 36 yrs, most of them as plant manager. He even designed some "fixtures" that put prizes together or stripped them from the runners, rather than some things being done by hand, one piece at a time.

So I thought it would be fun to get some of the toys I remember as a kid. (We always had the best bday treats in grade school! We'd go to the shop and reach into barrels of toys for our classmates.)

Specific things I remember ...
"wiggle" pictures
tools (pliers, wrench, scissors)
paper glasses with eyeballs for lenses with holes in the center to look through
spinning tops that you had to blow on to get them to spin
whistles (sort of flat, rectangular but rounded at one end, with a double "barrel")
gymnast (you snapped on arms & legs, ran a pole thru hands and spun him around the pole)
cartoon books (as you flipped thru the pages, the picture moved)
patience puzzles (had 1 or 2 little silver balls that you had to place in a specific spot of the puzzle)

If you have any of these prizes or ones you know were made in the mid-50's to early 60's, please post photos and info on acquiring them.

Thank you.

sandy

[Harrietj]

Hello Sandy - We are glad you found the CJCA web site. You lived the life all the rest of us collectors wish we had! To have a Father who worked for the Makatoy Co. would have been a great childhood.
Makatoy started supplying The Cracker Jack Co. with prizes in the late 1930's, but you only want ones from the 50's. Did I understand that right?
I'm sure we will be able to help you out. I bought some prizes about a year ago from a dealer who had a friend go to the site of the former Makatoy Co. in Chicago. The company in the building at this time still had three barrels of prizes that had been left there.They were letting people who came to the building on business choose three prizes from the barrel as a souvenir of their visit. If you still live in Chicago I would suggest you pay them a visit and tell them your story. Take a plastic bag in your pocket and maybe they will be very generous when they hear your story! Please let us know if this plan works out!
One more thing! A lot of their prizes came in series of 40 or more. You better start looking for some space to put the new prizes you will be acquiring!
The address I have for Makatoy Co. is 201 Iowa St. Chicago but I have no way of knowing if they ever moved from that address. Your fun is just beginning!

[Ginger]

Greetings Sandy!
WELCOME! We are very happy to see you here on the forum. You will
meet some really nice people who are NUTS about collecting Cracker Jack.
I have an extra plastic wrench and saw for you! Just PM your address and I
will send it along! -Ginger

[waddytmr]

hello sandy! you must be my age! i have lots of duplicate examples of the items you mentioned. send me an email and i will send you pictures of what i have.

theresa richter, CJCA member
waddytmr@sbcglobal.net

[shea_art]

Thank you thank you for your welcomes and replies!

I look forward to receiving your photos.

I will definitely try to stop by the old Makatoy location. How well I remember those barrels of toys! And how I loved to visit the shop and watch the process of making and packaging the prizes. I am rooting for next year's convention to be in Chgo ... I'll definitely be there and am sure my dad would have a blast if he's up to it.

I guess I was mostly interested in the mid-50's to mid-60's as those are the things I remember as a kid. My dad would have worked there from late 40's til early/mid 80's, but I think this is more my fascination than his. Altho we've been having great fun reminiscing about those years lately especially after I came across your website.

I may take my laptop to his place next time I visit ... bet he could recognize a lot of the pictures in this forum .... however, Makatoy was only one of the companies that supplied toys to Cracker Jack. When we bought CJ, we kids would be rather disappointed if we didn't get one of "his" toys even tho we could grab a handful every now and then!

sandy

[dianep2]

Hi Sandy,

I sure have loved reading your posts. Wow, having your dad for a dad, would be the next best thing to having Santa for a dad. Or maybe, even better than Santa. I bet he can tell lots of great stories. And I am sure you can, as well. I know many of our members will have some great prizes for you to add to your collection.

Thank you for posting and welcome, welcome, welcome to our forums. Sure hope to meet you at the 2010 convention.

Most Sincerely,

Diane

[CJAAAJ]

Hello, Sandy

Welcome to the general CJCA forum. Like the other members of the CJCA I also find it fascinating that your father was such an integrating part in the manufacting of Cracker Jack Prizes from the Makatoy Company. I feel that Makatoy was one of the top five (5) manufacturers of Cracker Jack Prizes for many decades!

Please PM me your email address and I will put together a list of Cracker Jack Prizes with pictures supplied to The Cracker Jack Company by the Makatoy Company I have for sale from the mid-1950s-1960s.

This forum has many more sections and threads offered to persons that join the CJCA. Just click on that section of the CJCA Web Site, Join the CJCA, for all the details of a fantastic place to share your love of all things Cracker Jack.

CJAAAJ

[Luke]

Sandy, welcome to the forums! How very cool that your father worked for Makatoy Co. If you have any old photos that you'd like to share, I'd love to see them.

[gsullivan]

Hi Sandy,

I was fascinated and intrigued by your story! Your father sounds as if he was a valuable asset to the Makatoy company. As Harriet said, your father lived a life us collectors wish we could have! And how I would have loved a birthday filled with Cracker Jack prizes! In fact, that is a birthday I would still treasure today! The prizes you describe are from the 1950's and 1960's. For example, the gymnast on a pole you describe is what most collectors refer to as a "snap-together" prize and is from the 1960's. Others you describe are from the 1950's. I have many Makatoy duplicates and would be happy to send you a photo of them.

I hope you will consider becoming a member of CJCA Sandy! You will meet and be able to correspond with so many wonderful members about Makatoy that way. There is a lot of information on Makatoy prizes you can acquire just by becoming a member and viewing the members only sections of the forums. Also, you would be welcomed at a future convention. Us members would love to hear more about your father and his time at the Makatoy Company. Anything you can share about his work there and the Makatoy prizes would be thrilling!

Best wishes, Happy Hunting and hope to hear from you soon!

[shea_art]

Received some CJ prizes in the mail today. Ginger, you're a doll for sending them! Thanks SO much!
I can't wait to see my dad next week and get his reaction.

We've been collaborating on an article for your newsletter and he's putting together a drawing of the "fixture" he developed to drop silver balls into multiple patience puzzles. Going to get him working on the drawing of the fixtures he designed for snapping multiple scissors & pliers together as well.

He's always been a "tinker-er" and since moving from his condo to a residential community, he doesn't have tools or space to tinker. Think he's enjoying figuring out how to do the drawing and remembering the things he developed. Great for keeping those wheels turning.

I am so psyched to receive photos from the other responders who have 50's & 60's prizes. And I am definitely getting that membership app in the mail tomorrow! Tho I'm not a great historian on CJ (other than the boxes and boxes I consumed as a kid!) ... I'll love reading your info about Makatoy. Perhaps we can add something to what you already know.

Plan to sit with my dad next week and my laptop to see if he can identify any of the prizes posted on the other forum.
He's going to love being possibly more fun than Santa!

Thanks again.

sandy