The Pirate King vs Santa Claus
Last week I went and previewed a local auction. I found only one thing that I wanted, but decided not to stay and wait the 2-3 hours it would have taken before they got to my little treasure. I did take a photo of it.Here's the pic of the cute little vintage hard plastic toy bank in the shape of a pirate. Or is it?
Believe it or not, he started life as a Santa Claus. I have a small collection of other banks from this same company, Harett-Gilmar Inc.*, all made from the same mold, in many color and theme variations. Some are Cap't. Kid Pirate, Sandy Sandman, Shootin' Sherriff, in addition to the original Santa Claus. They come as a bank, or a with a light bulb/cord night-light conversion.
Which is why I wanted to add this version to my little group.
But I didn't stay, and was actually kinda sad about it. I thought about the little pirate whistfully every time I walked by my little gang of banks. It's as if they all were eyeing me, and saying, "Hey -- Where's our buddy, Cap't. Kid? How could you leave him behind?".
I even searched on ebay for one, but to no avail. I thought that was it.
But wait, there's more!
Like Paul Harvey says, "You don't know the rest of the story."As luck would have it, for once I was stronger than "Evil-Morning-Marianne", and succeeded in getting up and out early to hit the monthly Urbana Antique Show.
And, well, lo and behold, there was my little pirate, the very same exact piece, just waiting for me. I recognized him immediately, as well as the antique dealer as having been at the auction.
Sadly, my Pirate King is now a little worse for the wear and tear of being unceremoniously dumped into a box-lot, but I rescued him (for a cheap price-- yay), and now he's hanging-out with the rest of my Pirate/Santa Gang. And they all smile at me when I walk by them!
Aren't they adorable! Don't you just love a happy ending?!
Can't wait to see what I find next...
*There's just not much info online about Harett-Gilmar Inc.. I gleaned that they made games and puzzles in the 1950s-1960s.
They may have become H-G-Toys, which sold movie-character/entertainment licensed toys and then may have been acquired by another toy company around 1988. I couldn't verify this.
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