1950s plastic toy skiffle guitar with auto-chord attachment

guitarz.blogspot.com:

I love these old 1950s and 1960s plastic toy guitars; sometimes they can be just as fascinating as real guitars. This particular 1950s skiffle guitar has a idiosyncratic auto-chord attachment on the neck so the player doesn't even have to learn chords - just press a button. That is, so long as they don't want to play any chords other than G7, E7, C, A7, D7, G.

Currently being auctioned on eBay UK with a low starting price.

G L Wilson

© 2013, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - the blog that goes all the way to 11!

1950's Mattel Walt Disney Davy Crockett plastic Ge-tar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Sometimes we like to take a look at vintage toy guitars as often they are as collectable as the real thing, and are also very interesting cultural artifacts.

This particular Walt Disney Davey Crockett guitar (or "ge-tar" as it's spelt on the box) is of course a piece of movie memorabilia so could possibly appeal to collectors of film ephemera as well as guitar and toy collectors. Made by Mattel, at first I was not sure if the eBay seller's dating of 1953 is correct seeing as Walt Disney's "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" was released in 1955. But then again, that film was comprised of three Disney television specials edited together, the first of which was originally broadcast in December 1954, so maybe these guitars could have been produced in advance?

The cynic in me wants to say it's hard to picture the King of the Wild Frontier playing a 4-string plastic "ge-tar" with his own picture on it which also conveniently functions as a music box using a wind-up handle on one side, but then I guess kids have better imaginations than us adults and wouldn't consider such issues. Still, it's a nice item, in good condition and with the original box, so it'll be interesting to see what this fetches in the eBay auction.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

1950s Selco "Skiffle Junior" plastic toy guitar or ukulele - Mickey Mouse in disguise!

guitarz.blogspot.com:

In a weird piece of synchronicity, after posting about the Mickey Mouse guitar yesterday and linking to a previous Guitarz post about the Mickey Mouse club Mousegetar, I found the above-pictured Selco Skiffle Junior plastic toy guitar (or maybe its a ukulele) on eBay UK - the design of which has been borrowed from the Mousegetar. I'm thinking that the Skiffle Junior was originally intended as a plastic Mousegetar - look closely at the design - you can still see the outline of Mickey Mouse's face. Note also that the tuning pegs resemeble Mickey Mouse ears.

The Skiffle Junior dates from 1956. Perhaps they were just going along with the current trends. To begin with Disney was popular, then the Skiffle craze came in and so they altered the design. A few years later they would issue the more famous Selco Beatles plastic guitar.

Currently listed on eBay UK with a starting price of £45.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Big Beat Combo - plastic guitar and amp set from the 1960s/1970s

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Whilst the plastic guitar in this Big Beat Combo set is/was supposedly a functioning playable instrument, there can be little doubt that it was marketed as a toy for the younger player unlike the plastic guitars of Maccaferri which were intended as serious instruments. The lettering on the original box (included here in this sale) states that the guitar is of 'Professional size - 30" long', so I'm guessing the scale length is going to be somewhere around the 20" mark, perhaps a little over if we're lucky. The ebay seller (who insists on referring to this as the 'Big BOAT Combo' which makes no sense whatsoever) thinks this might be from the 1960s, which is probably a fair guess. I'd say 1960s or maybe early 1970s.

The set comes with a small plastic battery-powered transistor amplifier with a 4" speaker plus a contact mic style pickup which is attached to the body of the guitar by suction pads.

Currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $14.99 and no bids at the time of writing.

G L Wilson

© 2011, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Pondering on toy guitars

guitarz.blogspot.com:

GL -- Hello from Washington DC USA.

I'm wondering about a pair of "toy" plastic guitars I recall as a very young kid, that were made by the Emenee Company in the U.S. back around 1965 or so. The one that surfaces a lot on eBay and on those my-first-guitar webpages is the Emenee "Tiger"/Sears "WingDing", a plastic archtop of questionable note and intonation. Pics can be seen at:
http://mewzik.com/research/emenee/guitar/wingding/index.html

The other was called the "Swingin' Cat", but I've found no images or mentions of this model anywhere. If anyone has any info on the Swingin' Cat, speak up please!

BTW, Emenee rounded out its line of toy instruments with the "Big Bash Drums" and the "Polychord Electric Organ". The post-Beatle U.S. manufacturing rush of the 1960s was something to behold.

Alan Peterson
Springfield, Virginia USA

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Roy Rogers (and Trigger) guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Collectors of cowboy movie and Roy Rogers memorabilia might be interested in this Roy Rogers guitar in pretty clean condition. However, guitarists might be alarmed at the string alignment, action and the construction of wood, plastic and heavy pressed cardboard!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Plastic toy guitar sells for £655!

Selcol toy guitar dates back to the mid 1960s, and whilst such toys were fairly commonplace with the names of The Beatles and Elvis upon them, this one is an example of the much rarer Rolling Stones model.

(That's approx $935 at the time of writing, by the way).

A pair of rare plastic guitars on eBay

Here are a couple of finds for collectors.
The first is an Elvis Presley plastic toy guitar, made in England by Selcol. I'm guessing its from the 1950s or early 1960s. It's a 4-stringer so some might want to classify it as a ukulele but I doubt very much that it's a player anyway.

Despite missing a couple of parts its in very good condition and would no doubt appeal to the collector of Elvis memorabilia.

Our second dates back to the 1950s, the era of cowboy movies, and is an American Western plastic toy guitar.

This looks to be in immaculate condition, and unlike the Elvis guitar, it is a 6-stringer and has all its string intact. However, I doubt it plays any better.

I love the various western motifs embossed into the top of the guitar. In particular, the guitar playing cowboy on the upper left could have been the inspiration for the decoration we saw on the Brandoni Telecaster recently.