Steph Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 I know I've seen Imperial packaging with Vitros. Someone on facebook isn't taking my word for it though. Apparently Vacors are being called Imperials by some people with the justification that Imperial did sell some marbles from Mexico. I pointed out that Imperial also sold marbles from Vitro and we don't call Vitros Imperials. So, anyway, the guy says he doesn't believe me about the Vitros in Imperial packaging. I don't have a lot of time to do the digging through old threads and image folders today so I thought I'd throw the question out to the group. I'm pretty darn sure that I'm correct, but I have to go up to my attic now and organize my marbles. I have a couple of promises to keep and I need to get on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 P.s., I have just read that they also had Marble Kings in Imperial packaging. So, either picture would do. Vitros or Marble Kings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad G. Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 7 hours ago, Steph said: I know I've seen Imperial packaging with Vitros. Someone on facebook isn't taking my word for it though. Apparently Vacors are being called Imperials by some people with the justification that Imperial did sell some marbles from Mexico. I pointed out that Imperial also sold marbles from Vitro and we don't call Vitros Imperials. So, anyway, the guy says he doesn't believe me about the Vitros in Imperial packaging. I don't have a lot of time to do the digging through old threads and image folders today so I thought I'd throw the question out to the group. I'm pretty darn sure that I'm correct, but I have to go up to my attic now and organize my marbles. I have a couple of promises to keep and I need to get on it. Guess you're lucky Steph, I'm not brave enough to venture onto Spacebook. I'm lookin for some pix of packaging for ya though, I believe you're right on both counts. Maybe @Al Oregon has pix of a couple good examples ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad G. Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 2 hours ago, Chad G. said: Guess you're lucky Steph, I'm not brave enough to venture onto Spacebook. I'm lookin for some pix of packaging for ya though, I believe you're right on both counts. Maybe @Al Oregon has a good example ?? Grrrr .... .... I know, chillax ... ... keep diggin !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 I'm trying to remember where I would have seen the Vitro marbles in the Imperial packaging, so I can figure out what search terms to get to the picture. I'm surprised by what a big blank I'm drawing in my search attempts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 July 28th, 2018, "Imperial Packaging" pretty sure you already looked at this. Found it in the archives. Read this and figured I would poke around also 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 4 hours ago, William said: July 28th, 2018, "Imperial Packaging" pretty sure you already looked at this. Found it in the archives. Read this and figured I would poke around also 👍 Thanks, yeah, that's where I got the reminder about MK. Shouldn't be so hard to find pix, but if I have them myself then I'm probably going to have to hunt up my DVD drive and struggle with the sluggish searches through my back-up disks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nantucketdink Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 Imperial Vacors...thats what I would call this packaging or Vacor imperials would work for me too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 My argument is basically that if the maker of the marbles is well-known we shouldn't call them Imperial. At least not if we find them loose, without being in an Imperial pacakge. Most of the marbles that we are calling Imperial probably didn't even have the Imperial company's help getting to their destination. But we call them Imperial because that's one well-known distributor's name that it's handy to use because we don't know who actually made the marbles. So when we do know who made the marbles -- whether Vitro or Marble King or Vacor -- we call the marbles by the manufacturer's name and then comment on how cool it is that we can find them in Imperial packaging as well as in the better known avenues of distribution. At least that's the custom I expect. Expanding the Imperial name to cover a plurality of modern Asian marbles was already a stretch. To now extend the name Imperial to Vacor with or without Imperial packaging attached ... this seems to me to be an unfortunate extension of a name which was already a misnomer. But beyond that argument, I have a person who just doesn't believe me that Vitros were ever in Imperial packaging at all, so that's my first step here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 16 minutes ago, Nantucketdink said: Imperial Vacors...thats what I would call this packaging or Vacor imperials would work for me too ^^ that's different and special because the marbles do come in the packaging. They're exceptional and it's reasonable for them to be identified in an exceptional way, such as Imperial Vacors or Vacor Imperials. But if we call just any loose generic Vacor an "Imperial Vacor" ... well, that doesn't make sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Oregon Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 I could not find any Imperial packages that had any Vitro looking marbles in them. Most, if not all Imperial packaging, has "Packaged in xxx, Marbles from yyyy" (none with "marbles from USA") and similar wording. I looked through my bags pics and did not find any Vitro type marbles. I don't see MK either. There are 4 vane cat's-eyes that are just like MK types but the packaging has Marbles from India or China... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 1 hour ago, Al Oregon said: I could not find any Imperial packages that had any Vitro looking marbles in them. Most, if not all Imperial packaging, has "Packaged in xxx, Marbles from yyyy" (none with "marbles from USA") and similar wording. I looked through my bags pics and did not find any Vitro type marbles. I don't see MK either. There are 4 vane cat's-eyes that are just like MK types but the packaging has Marbles from India or China... This is compelling. If you don't remember Vitros in Imperial packaging, that means a lot. Yet my memory is so vivid on this. A puzzle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akroorka Posted July 17, 2022 Report Share Posted July 17, 2022 Imperial was out of California and I do not doubt that they as “jobbers” purchased what they could for the lowest cost. Perhaps when Vitro operations out of Washington ceased, they purchased a trainload or two. This is Just a guess. I cannot imagine another scenario. Cheap is good for jobbers. MK must have made a very good deal. Imperial packaged marbles from many outlets/countries. The truth is not always in the print on the packages. Marble--On!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave 13 Posted July 19, 2022 Report Share Posted July 19, 2022 Hi here is Marble Kings in different bags then what is seen in the USA 🇺🇸 i’m not sure if we would call them Imperial ? the bag says exclusively packaged for Crestway sales in Ontario Canada 🇨🇦 I’ve found 4 of these bags all in Ontario these 3 bags had 2 green hornets and AV dragonfly patch’s and a few other nice MK i’m thinking there from around 1970 because of the green hornets , one well known member with lots of years of marbling under there belt suggested the dragonfly patches are 1990 so maybe there were filled with older 1970 and newer 1990 mibs ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph Posted July 19, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2022 Gotta say "Imperial" for purposes of my facebook debate, but cool bags! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Oregon Posted July 19, 2022 Report Share Posted July 19, 2022 Neat bags but, as Steph said, not Imperial. There are a lot of MK and Vitro in many "jobber" or other "business promo" type bags, etc. I have looked at the marbles in my Imperial bags and boxes (a little over 100) and have not seen any Vitro nor Akro (except for the 4-vane types made elsewhere also). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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