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@Fire1981 mentioned this to me a while back. I have now assembled what I have...21 in all colours and sizes. These are definitely one of my favorites

This was a challenge. But I persisted. It can be done. Yeah, I make my own hang tags, headers, or whatever they're called. Turtles are my next venture.

I agree, Winnie's are the most beautiful examples! 😊✨ Then I will add several more from the Seike family. Back in December 2021, Reiko Seike sent me a box full of marbles being passed down in the family. Some got 3 ribbons, some stretch like vanes. These below are a local find.

Here is a picture of some Figure 8's posted by Winnie from The Netherlands (RIP) back in 2010.

The weirdest thing yet that I have pulled from an assorted net bag. This is a totally veneered pattern with a bit of an amber glow in the transparent base when held to light. It is 21/32. I have heard older Vacors are sometimes found in net bags? Well anyway, I have never seen anything that remotely resembles this marble that came from Mexico. I thought "What's a Vitro Tri-Lite doing in here?" but this is so odd. And I do think it is actually very pretty.

Recent Alley Addition. 1”!!!

I love Stephen Bahr, and thank you for your welcome, because I found this awesome site and all you guys, marbles are even better, I come here just to test myself, I'm getting good! I LOVE MARBLES! I will be in and out now, I can't thank you all so much, and I thought the oin community was just so nice and enjoyable, but you marble guy rock too

Fun Friday Facts. Akro’s are cool!

Onionskin with plenty of mica

I agree Here is a reproduction by Kelly Schmidt, He makes them very well

My 10 sec of fame 🤹‍♂️🎉 Nice video among the "Stars" serving Vintage Machinemade Marbles Ow Yeah 😃😃😃 Thanks @stephenb

Got these guys out for some sunshine today. 15/16" +/-

I finally won my first and only lot thus far with Blocks auctions last night and I am glad to add any Marble Kings to my stash. I see a good number of Bumble Bees and Cub Scouts in here which always widen my eyes. Looks like there might be some Cubs that are Kato type. Someday I will get a few of the harder to find Blended ones and the likes of Spidermans, Green Hornets, Dragonflys, Watermelons, and Hercules. For now, all the kids at recess will be so jealous of me, trying to win my Marble King Rainbows. Image is from Mr. Blocks auction 01/25/2026.

Tommy has sucked it up and volunteered to become a Moderator. Please welcome him with open arms and give him the same respect that you give to @bumblebee, @Steph @Chad G.—little ole me and @Melissa. We need the help sooner than later and I am happy to welcome Tommy—He deserves it for sure. Marble—On Tommy!!

I was wondering if anyone has examples of all the colors available in figure 8s. Or maybe we could even have people add their variety to this thread. I am sure @shiroaiko and @YasudaCollector as well as @Parmcatand many more could give some examples. Here are the ones I could quickly identify from my jar of Japanese mibs...

It's a reddish-orange. But it turns more to red Here is the red, as it appears..

Got these in a large Ebay lot this week. Loving working through them all

I've been smitten with the Jabo Moon Glow run!

Ruby Bee is a Peltier name, Blended ruby bee is MK, welcome to the land of confusion. Peltier Ruby Bee This is a MK blended Ruby Bee LINK :: https://www.allaboutmarbles.com/viewtopic.php?p=371004&hilit=marble+king+blended+ruby+bee#p371004

I don’t think this is a ruby bee either.

Jumbo- 1,220 (31 mm)

Happy Friday!

Thanks Chad… I was aware of the all the icons associated with the heart i just never noticed the trophy there.

100% German striped nice one !!

"Welcome to Marble Connection" First group look like Peltier Rainbo's Probable Akro corkscrew

X3, Vacor

correct, this one is 100% CAC, no fading and good CAC structure, they're getting better and better at imitating, it's getting verry hard to tell. No color fading here, nice marble !!

Sad to hear about this. He was enthusiastic and lively and always willing to chip in. RIP.

Scored a .75" black base opaque lutz for $20

My winning auction bags arrived today that appear in the post just prior to Alta's purty mibs above. They are now surrounded by a bunch of 1 inch and player size brown rainbows that are more modern Marble Kings in this large Riker case. I find the bags hold about 15 Bumblebees and 15 Cub Scouts and a few oddsters. They will be serving their time, imprisoned in the bags as long as I am warden. Guilty of being cool.

It's almost Akro Friday 🤩 A UV Spiral 15/16" ** EDIT - Well, that's it, I've done lost my mind. I posted this exact marble only 20 days ago

Some (mostly) Rainbos

Some Yellows from peltier 😎

x2, Not polished. That's original surface IMO.

Some MKs for this Monday

X2, MFC, I don't think it's polished, all the dimples have smooth edges, just someone took good care of it and it never got played. Surface looks natural to me, you can even see a few wrinkles.

My favorite, some call him a 'clown'

5/8” CAC striped opaque

Akros for the win

Caged solid core, what's the size ?? I see one bubble pop and 2 fleas, otherwise a pretty clean marble. Unfinished pontils and on both ends helps me date it to between 1870 or so and 1910. The size is probably around 11/16ths, just guessing though, most of these were made by the Germans for the English gameboard market, the brighter colors also help date it. Dollars to doughnuts it was part of a gameboard set at one time.

Looks Vacor to me

perils of the hobby

Japanese

Cased Clambroth. I know it sounds wrong ( should be a milky translucent base) but it's 100% transparent clear based. All of them I've seen sold (which has been verry verry few) have been called cased clambroths. VVVHTF took me 40 years to find one in the wild. Only divided ribbon core I've seen W that much Black on the ribbons to the left, just below the clambroth.

video-968ff723-c530-4d37-996e-def8aef4bcc0-1664408986.mp4.f7915bc38139d92e664b0371240af066.mp4

marble king

Thank you for the share Chad! @Chad G. Excellent work by you @Mojo Hey @The Nickel Guy if possible try and make the Jersey show, it’s always good to see Williamsport in the house !

I took an overnight trip to Osaka earlier this week on 19-20. It started with a phone call from Ryotaro Matsuno, the owner of Matsuno Industry (the only marble maker in the country), inviting me to join a special meeting: he was going to meet a descendant of Tamakichi Tokunaga for the first time. Tamakichi is the man who made Japan's first marble-stopper bottles in 1892, after 5 years of studying an original British Codd bottle. After his death at 34, his family continued the business and the company eventually became one of the major glassworks, introducing advanced bottle making techniques from the US and Germany. Below are photographs of Tokunaga factories from a book "The Tokunaga Brothers: Four Key Figures in Japan’s Glass Industry/硝子工業界の重鎮　徳永氏四兄弟の巻”. The main factory in Yoriki-cho, Osaka (near the city center) East factory and Asahi-bashi Factory (both in Osaka) Amagasaki factory and Moji factory (both outside Osaka) Because every Codd bottle needs a glass marble, Tamakichi's success also meant the starting point of marble manufacture in Osaka. I had been collecting fragmentary references to Tokunaga and marbles for years, so I felt a honor to meet a member from the family. The man holding the bottle is Takashi Tokunaga (from the bloodline of Tamakichi’s third son). The bottle is a rare Tokunaga ramune bottle stamped “1922,” kindly lent by my collector friend Yoshinori Kakizaki. Takashi was so happy to see it, as no such old bottles have been passed down in his family. Takashi also mentioned that his father keeps a company history book that is carefully preserved. He offered to try persuading his father to let me read it. If I learn anything related to marble history, I hope to share an update in this thread. We ended up talking happily until the izakaya's (Japanese-style pub) closing time, and before we parted we exchanged contact information. During my marble research these years I come to realize people who are willing to meet and talk are not many. I’m grateful to the openness of Takashi and Ryotaro who kindly let me join the gathering.

A slag is defined as any transparent base colored marble (Amber, purple, green, red, etc... ) with opaque white running through it, weather hand gathered or machine made. A transitional is a different animal IMO, some are slag like and some are made of 2 opaque colors, just my opinion.