Steph

Not my first guess for them.  However, is your implication that they are small ... 9/16" range?

On 10/26/2021 at 4:31 PM, Pinx said:

There were five marble manufacturers in Argentina at one time, as well as factories in Brazil, and Bolivia.

Elizabeth, this post sounds like you might be sitting on some good information that I wish I had thought to ask about earlier.  
 

Someone on Facebook posted a potentially Argentinian-looking marble.  She's in Australia, which I think makes her more likely to have gotten South American marbles than the U.S. was.  Do you have any suggestions for company names she might research?

A newer thread from Rick I had occasion to search for today:

Bolitas - General Marble & Glass Chat - Marble Connection
 

What I would like to find to check for dates is a folder I have somewhere of a Wisconsin newspaper column which had letters to Santa.  PDF files I copied from when I had access to newspapers.com  A whole lot of kids were asking for popeye boxes for Christmas.     Need to check which year it was that they were "the in thing".  

6 minutes ago, akroorka said:

Thanks Steph--great stuff. 
If you pay any attention to pouches like I do you would appreciate the fact that a few that you show in your images are really--really rare. 
The box that shows Wimpy and Swee' Pea—is rare as heck. These may have held some oxbloods or others.
I have a vision of sparklers included in a Popeye box—maybe just a dream—a nice one!
Thanks and---
Marble—On!!
 

  I had to look twice after your comment before I even saw that there were pouches in the box images.  That shows how little I pay attention to pouches.

I did read far enough into the sparkler box auction to see the pouch was a reproduction.  Is that what your "very nice pouch though--lol" up there meant?

The lime green is unusual .... 

Is an ID question post?  Or do you know the maker?

That second one is an eyecatcher. 

Man, you must have deep pockets!

The last marble I tried to carry in my lady-pants-sized pocket was a modern Marble King vaseline glass clearie.  But I have a way of flinging things like that when I reach into my pocket to pull something else out.  And I really didn't want to hurl my marble across the room.  So now I only carry a set of keys.  

I was on a nostalgia binge back around 2003, 2004, and I bought some marbles.  Turns out they were brand spanking new Jabos.  I was also unemployed and looking for a way to earn some money buying and selling something I liked.  Common story, right?    An antique seller I had developed a rapport with looked at my new treasures and said they weren't the sought-after marbles.   I took that as a challenge and set about to figure out what the "right" marbles were.  

So now it's almost 20 years later and I'm having a different kind of nostalgia trip thinking about how much time I've devoted to these toys. 

Jabos and I have both come a long way! LOL  

How did you begin? 

Crazy cool marble.  I have a few. 

I have now searched, Art, and see the box on ebay with sparklers.  If it's the same one you saw, note the double ingot. I am guessing that double ingot wouldn't have gotten past Quality Control in the factory, so I'm going with backfilled on that one. 

In the past two posts I have been operating under the assumption that they were introduced in 1936, but I really should check on that. 

From the September 1936 Playthings trade magazine.    I would be surprised to see Sparklers because I think 1936 is a little too late for them.  But I would like to see why others might think Sparklers were original to the boxes.  

The ad I have for Popeye boxes had what appears to be oxbloods  (edited out my assumption that this ad was introducing Popeyes).  The ad was in black and white, so I realize there is some small window for doubt, but I do not doubt. 

And in this case I am certain the ad matched reality.   (I realize the ads don't always match reality.)  

I don't remember hearing of Sparklers in them.  But definitely oxbloods.

 

First run, January 7, 2002 
Second run, May 2, 2002

Mike Barton remembered it as around 2000 for the First Run and 5000 for the Second Run.   Conclusion:  if someone finds a similar-looking marble in the wild and any other maker could apply, odds are it's the other maker, not pelt!   

But our old threads on the topic have lost a lot of their photos, including Mike's pix, and so I wanted to start a new fresh thread to see if we could generate some new fresh photos to save in our archive.  Old pix are still welcome of course, but maybe some who are lucky enough to have the marbles have some new pix too. 



 

42 minutes ago, tankgrrl29 said:

they look like they kinda want to be, but i'm not seeing a distinct enough wood grain pattern. they should look like where you've taken some stain to a piece of wood (hence, the name  ). 

*ps: as far as I know, i'm the one who coined the nickname with it starting out as a casual way i described my own marbles that had the woodgrain feature. meaning, it's a characteristic, not a proper name of a specific marble. 

Thanks for jumping in with this!  

These are modern.  Not Vacor though.  These are Marble King.  Very similar looking.  The Marble Kings have patches firmly separated from each other on opposite ends of the marble.





Here are Vacor Black Panthers.   The ribbons are generally more wrapped around the center of the marble, sometimes meeting in the middle.  This pretty picture shows how sometimes they seem to be on the sides like a Marble King.  But also illustrates how they can meet up in the middle.  Source:  DETAILED INFORMATION (billes-en-tete.com)

Marble King on left, Vacor on right.

I think Vitro in the middle, though the structure isn't quite standard and at some points made me think of Peltier.

Still curious about if they're Woodies!

47 minutes ago, Melissa said:

Thank you!   You don't have to worry about me selling anything on eBay btw.  I'm 100% a collector.  The only ones I'm selling are the dumb ones and the dented ones for more money to buy nicer ones. 

  

Wasn't personal!  I was just feeling around for the right way to describe how much I wanted it to be a Copperhead, but figured it wasn't, with a little mix of frustration at how hard it is to search for good images since so many of search results are sales from people who mis-id-ed the marbles when they listed them for sale. 😅

For sure Vitro on the right.

 

I wonder if the first or third would fall under the name "Woody".

Like Art, I also played with the notion of  "Copperhead" on the first.  But it's probably more in the area of "I'm going to call this a copperhead and sell it on Ebay for big bucks even though I was told it wasn't a copperhead" kind of thing.  


Sweet bos all around.  

At 5/8" I don't know if it would qualify as a Blue Devil.   I am curious about what people more familiar with the name game will have to say.  

I'm thinking probably at least early Vitro, but am leaving the door open slightly for Akro.