Chein's Marvelous Martin 130
Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 5:43 pmThe long-lived New Jersey toy company Julius Chein Co. made a pretty toy model of the Martin 130 China Clipper that flew between San Francisco CA and Manila in the Philippines beginning in 1935.
This wind-up toy, which still works fine after all these years, is really a nice scale model. The huge bow prop and the dual pontoons are distracting but they enable the toy to actually operate in the water: the wind-up motor powers the big prop (all four wing props are merely unpowered dummies) and the pontoons provide stability.
There is a book on Chein toys that shows a photo of a China Clipper with a colorfully lithographed upper wing, while mine is all silver with dark blue markings. This book also states that the toy was made after World War II as well as before.
I have seen some variants of these planes in military markings, some already posted in other forums of this bulletin board, and in red and yellow, without the nose prop and extra pontoons. This is a trade-off: the markings are less realistic, while the shape is more realistic.
Chein also made a single-engine float plane that is much more common and came in a variety of different basic colors: yellow, red, silver.
Please post any photos of different Martin 130s you might have in your collections, as this plane is a beautiful toy and one of the unsung heroes of the American toy industry!
This wind-up toy, which still works fine after all these years, is really a nice scale model. The huge bow prop and the dual pontoons are distracting but they enable the toy to actually operate in the water: the wind-up motor powers the big prop (all four wing props are merely unpowered dummies) and the pontoons provide stability.
There is a book on Chein toys that shows a photo of a China Clipper with a colorfully lithographed upper wing, while mine is all silver with dark blue markings. This book also states that the toy was made after World War II as well as before.
I have seen some variants of these planes in military markings, some already posted in other forums of this bulletin board, and in red and yellow, without the nose prop and extra pontoons. This is a trade-off: the markings are less realistic, while the shape is more realistic.
Chein also made a single-engine float plane that is much more common and came in a variety of different basic colors: yellow, red, silver.
Please post any photos of different Martin 130s you might have in your collections, as this plane is a beautiful toy and one of the unsung heroes of the American toy industry!
