Sword44

Wow, Sami and Carole! Great thread, thank you for posting this it. And Andrea, I'm really glad you brought this up. I didn't understand Alan's ID of that one as an NLR either and the more I see, the more I am willing to trust my own ID's with Pelt NLRs vs. Rainbos (and the less worried I am about "the rules".) Sword44

I like the first one. I want the first one. I will give you a 1970 Volvo for it. Sword44

Some Master Marble observations: MM are two-seam marbles. Seam characteristics: generally one seam will have a "V" or convex projection while the other seam will have a concave "U" indentation. Sunbursts are generally the most collectible. These are the "onionskin lookalikes" that can resemble Akro Sparklers but usually (not always!) have fewer colors. Some sources say that Sunbursts always have transparent base glass (not always true, there are opaque Sunbursts); to my knowledge everyone agrees that the base is filled with filaments of varying colors that run, roughly, pole-to-pole. Sometimes there is a larger "filament" that may look more like a patch. The transparent base glass may be clear, red, green, yellow, or blue (these are the colors I've seen.) Filament colors include brown and grey along with yellow, green, red, blue, white, and orange. True (unblended) pink is rare. My experience indicates that red-based Sunbursts (the deep MM red) are probably the most rare. Master Marble Sunbursts can often be distinguished from the later Master Glass Sunbursts by their more brillant and distinct filament coloring. I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that the light blue-, green-, and yellow-based Sunbursts may be MG. As John mentioned above, Master Glass was a step down in quality. Some of the MG brushed patches are attractive but you might have to look through a ton of them to find the really nice ones. Master (MM) also made very striking two-color patch marbles, Comets and Meteors, which are very similar to some Akro patches. MM colors are a bit more subdued that the Akro colors which can seem almost garish. These MM patches may also be differentiated from their Akro cousins by the considerable (and highly attractive) color blending whewre the patches meet. These marbles come in at least seven different color combinations. Regarding marble size: I have three diameters under 5/8" and three over 11/16" in my collection. The largest I have is 1 inch, the smallest 17/32". But I have very few in these sizes. Please feel free to send any unwanted or neglected bags, drawers, or tubs of Master Marbles on over to me. Just let me know and I'll give you the address. I promise to cherish them. Sword44

Are the really nice examples posted in this thread still being manufactured and/or sold at retail? I have some of these and would like some more but the Imperial Toy site doesn't seem to feature them and what I've seen at Toys R Us reflects the selection on the Imperial site. Certainly I've never seen the "boxed sets" referred to in an earlier post. Sword44

Well shucks. I didn' no nothun' 'bout dem guineas an gobs and cut lines an grooves but that diagram made it all clear ta me! I still don' no nuthun! But I know what I like and that pruitea guinea, now that I like! But ya know, I'll bet Mark Block was responsible fer cuttin' it up like that! Gotta be somebody's fault. I didn' do it. No. Rilly. To be honest, this is a bogus review. Honest. Maybe we should leave off naming marbles and just name marble collectors. An a motto - we should have a motto: More Personality - Fewer Marbles! Sword44

I agree, those really thin 8-vane cats are new. I have seen an 8-vane Vitro Hybrid cat - but only one - and a 7-vane Vitro caged cat - again, only one. Both manufacturing anomalies, I'm sure. Sword44

Hey folks, From here these look like red baseglass slags; I thought the CAC Bloodies were white-based. Is this incorrect? Sword44 Um, golly, sorry about the enormous screaming font size... Sword44