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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.

Some (mostly) Rainbos

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

Remember guys this is just the I.D. section, if you have any deals to make or discus PM each other, pictures should be for I.D. purposes only. Exchange emails' if you want to look at each others pix and make sales deals or discus prices, this is an I.D. forum only. This haggling about worth and prices should be on a PM or email basis not on this forum. Worth and cost should not come into play here. Any more posts about prices and deals between each other here will possibly be deleted or you will receive a warning, everybody has to adhere to the same rules, we may miss some but that will happen, trying to be as nice as I can about this but the warning has officially been issued.

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.

Another handful of ravens

Other MIBs on a brick from the Ravenswood furnace, and more...

Some Yellows from peltier 😎

These same canes were some of my favs.

X2 (MCS=multicolored swirl)

Indian - 1,02 (26mm)

Yes

I keep this on the shelf of my fireplace

yes, corks, i think they're called snakes

For me that is a vacor seahorse

These are keepers.

It's a later Champion. I checked the book and I only saw one small single view of one on page 172. I got this one after the book was published:

Thanks Chad. This was my fault. Va

Ravenswood Novelty- These come from an excavation carried out by Ron Shepherd (RIP), who passed them on to me. I hadn't posted them here yet

Do Akro prize names, specials, and corkscrews with certain color combos have names like seen with other companies? For example, in the pics below would you call them: -Liberty (red, white and blue) -Christmas tree (red on green) -Spiderman (red on blue) -Ruby Bee (red on yellow) -Bumble Bee (black on yellow) - Zebra (black on white) -Indian Blanket (red and yellow on black)

#1 looks Vacor for sure, the orange-peel surface I've never seen on a pelt, # 2 looks foreign also

Both Pelt MCS

X2, seeing a slag also

Killer Keeper PPP’s. Multi-Color patches are HTF IMHO🔥 RAR

Both are Akro’s based off the seams. 🔥 RAR

@shiroaiko Hi, just tagged you on the other thread regarding this... https://ebay.us/m/4GJqir Might be an important piece of the jigsaw (not sure where things are up to with this research at the moment as I've not been able to stay up to date). I don't really have the funds to purchase these at the moment, but maybe another UK collector would be so kind to secure them for the marble collecting community...?

Marble King names are good. I actually think the MK names may have come before the Pelt names but that is just my thoughts.

Nice group! The orange one is very special--love it! Marble--On!!

Onionskin

Vacor

😎

.60

It’s a trustable trait 🔥 RAR

I have several that have the cutter trait in pic 3🔥 RAR

Before I traveled to Osaka, @MaxxNaoyukiYamasaki reached out to me in "Duck Marbles from the Seike family" thread. Through him, I learned that some of Naoyuki’s children had inherited his inventive spirit and chosen careers in engineering. The Tokunaga family shares this same spirit of innovation: Tamakichi’s sons obtained numerous patents and utility models, and Takashi holds a PhD and works in chemical research. Takashi’s father has also been involved in a nanorobotics startup.

Three stage divided ribbon core

That’s really cool. I wonder if Heartland is a real place ? 🔥 RAR

Torchy? You mean someone made it with a blowtorch?