Ric

The RW&B is the tough one - Alley or Champion, IMO. I believe the others are Alleys.

Wow, nice find. It doesn't look bad for the size - I don't think they made them much bigger. Have you ever heard the idea that may have been used in ball valves?

What size is it and is the base light blue?

Well, I am not as sure about Alley anymore. There are a lot of reflections of the surroundings on the marble. They are very distracting and make it hard to see the details.

I'd have this one with my Alleys.

it looks mostly like a JABO to me.

I hate it when I misjudge the position of a log, get the chainsaw stuck, and have to get my other chainsaw to cut it out. I mean, I've been doing this stuff for near 50 years and it still happens once every couple of years.

And they're great fun to examine with backlighting too!

@wvrons Thanks for the clarification and for reminding me of the history, Ron. All of the poly bags with the Paul Bunyan Ravenswood labels and the paper "Akro" tag I have don't look like original packaging to me. The bags lack the typical double seam you'd expect, the header is narrower than the bag and the top of the bag is folded over before the header is attached - not like any original Ravenswood poly bags I know of. My thinking is that someone found the Paul Bunyan marbles "in a dusty bin" somewhere, and also found the mesh bags and Paul Bunyan Ravenswood headers, bought some new poly bags and put bags, tags and headers together themselves. The "Genuine Old Fashioned" mesh bag labels always seemed to me not to be authentic either. Why would Ravenswood label their marbles "Genuine Old Fashioned"? I mean, they may be old fashioned now but they weren't when Ravenswood made them, unless maybe they made them shortly before they closed and were reminiscing about the ones they made in the 1930s. I do think that the mesh bags of Paul Bunyans that lack the "Akro tag" are likely original, which would fit with the age of the toy, but I am not sure if Ravenswood ever packaged Paul Bunyan marbles in poly bags. Have you ever seen a Paul Bunyan Ravenswood label attached to an old-style double seam poly bag that is the width of the header? Who knows, maybe there's one in this box but I doubt I will ever find out. lol

I got confused Ron, I thought Art was talking about the two light green ones I posted. Are you talking about those or the 10 oxbloods I posted? To me, the oxbloods are Akro for sure, but I am not sure about the two green based marbles I posted. Do you think those are Paul Bunyans?

I was joking around, Art. Although I do think one of the Ravenswood employees was convinced they were made at Ravenswood (memories surely can falter though). Have you seen the ones I posted in Akro boxes? I am talking about these marbles, BTW.

Maybe the reason nobody can seem to decide if they are Akro or Master and the reason they are not seen in either company's packaging is because the are Ravenswoods. lol But seriously, didn't one of the old Ravenswood employees claim that they were made at Ravenswood?

The 10 Akro oxblood patches that came with my Babe the Blue Ox toy are 15/16" to 1" and a few have AV in the green.

I've had these two for a long while and I've gone back and forth Akro/Master for years . . . lately, I am thinking they are more likely Master but based on past history, this could easily change again - lol. Either way, they sure look like Paul Bunyan marbles to me.

I am shocked by the $7.50 retail price cited in the article for a 30 count box (I'm assuming this is one of the green, red or blue boxes) - it seems way too high to me. The minimum wage the year Ravenswood closed (1955) was only 75 cents/hour! This seems like it has to be an error. Or maybe they're talking about a gross (144) of the 30 count boxes, which would make more sense - not very clearly written, IMO.

I'll bet it's 16 mm - a hair over 5/8", which is the size they show in the listing on Alibaba. The two I showed are at the beginning of the video.

@wvrons You put on a pretty great show today, Ron! The toys are especially nice. What I find interesting is that the Paul Bunyan marbles appear in about the same mix in both the Alox and Ravenswood packaging - it seems like every bag has one of the blue on green marbles. I wonder if both companies got them from the same supplier (Master?) or if Alox might have gotten them from Ravenswood - I'm pretty sure they bought other marbles from them.

My bet is modern Chinese torchwork . . .

That is so cool, an act of good will from the company for the local kids. I'll bet they sold for a couple of cents, if that.

I'm leaning slightly Champion over Alley on this one, but it could go either way IMO.

Modern is what I am thinking too.

Ravenswoods are always good! Those little jars are so neat - and so fragile. I'm surprised they held together in the dirt all those years and that you were able to recover them in one piece. I imagine they must have had a lid at one time, or maybe a cork. Have you ever seen one with a cover?

I'm thinking it's a Vitro that's a little odd.

It may be but I'd feel better if what appears to be kind of an eggyolk yellow was white - seems like an odd color for an MCS.

That's a crazy cool mib. I would like to see where that multi-color ribbon ends. In other words, pic 2 as the ribbon goes up over the top - what does the end look like?