No comments about Miller's: 20th Century Design: Buyer's Guide (Buyer's Price Guide.).

3 comments about Kitschmasland!: Christmas Decor from the 1950s Through the 1970s (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. You might think, as I did, from the cover photo that this was a nostalgic visual treat of Christmas décor. It certainly contains plenty of festive items but the giveaway are the cover words: With Price Guide. It is actually a collector's guide to decorations from one of the leading publishers for this market. Books for collectors are basically plenty of individual photos of items from whoever owns the largest collection, whether it's Barbie dolls, Fostoria glass, baseball cards or Avon bottles. From my experience the layout and typography are rather heavy handed and dull as it is with this book.
   
   The back cover says there are more than four hundred photos, no doubt very true but they are of individual decorations just placed on a white background, snapped and placed randomly on the page with a too thick black box round each and a caption below. For collectors this might be fine but for anyone else who wants to capture the festive glow of a fifties or sixties childhood I thought the book was a disappointment. It is possible to be creative with collectors material, Beckett Publications did some wonderful looking books of Coca-Cola collectibles.
   
   The book also includes several interior photos of collectors homes with their Christmas decorations displayed on mid-century décor. Mostly these are bland, badly cropped and displayed in an unimaginative way. Three pages in the book did catch my eye though, they show nineteen LP covers of festive season music. None of the covers are anything special but seen together they create their own interest (publishers: how about a book of these Christmas LP covers? Surely a few hundred must have been released over the years).
   
   Kitschmasland! didn't capture it for me.



2. Travis Smith's Kitschmasland is an homage to the quirky, kitschy, holiday trimmings of more innocent, less consumer-crazed times. I was thrilled to see the felted Santas, bottle-brush trees and ceramic elves that decorated my parent's and grandparent's houses back when Christmas season officially started after Thanksgiving and endowed December with a magical quality. His collections span the gamut of gorgeous to goofy with smart, witty and personal stories for appreciators and collectors alike. Smith has captured all those delicate foil angels, plastic santas and beaded ornaments in exquisitely detailed photos that will light up your memories and revive the wonderful spirit of the season for anyone.



3. Every page of this wonderful book takes me back to those kinder, simpler years. When my guests peruse this book, I love watching their eyes light up and hear them say "I used to own one of those". This book is beautifully photographed and the assortment of Christmas decor is mind boggling. The book contains a wealth of information, great for the collectors, but so much fun for all of us.
   
   I hope Mr. Smith has another book waiting in the wings.

3 comments about Cereal Boxes and Prizes, 1960s : A Tribute and Price Guide.

1. I hesitated at first to give this book 5 stars, on the basis that no book that lacks a narrative text deserves the highest rating. But on reflection I do feel that the pleasures of this book were so considerable as to deserve the ranking, and that a book's fun can come from photographs and memories as surely as it can come from prose composition. Anyone who is interested in popular culture, particularly the colorful, innocent, and optimistic childhood culture of the 1960s, will find this book wonderfully enjoyable. I imagine that most people will be charmed while leafing through the photographs of cereal boxes and their prizes, by following the evolution of the Sugar Crisp Bear, and noting the horrid political incorrectness of So-Hi, the Sugar Krispies mascot. But for those of us who actually grew up through this time in history, and who through this book were able to locate obscure recollections in the dim recesses of memory, it's a barrel of fun. I had forgotten all about my Captain Crunch plastic handpuppet, my Jungle Book characters, and the memory of snapping together my little Archies car, until I read this book. Other readers may well find themselves transported back to delightful memories long-ago forgotten. This book was a great present to me, and would be a fun present for anyone in my age group (mid-30s.)



2. The book's photography is great. All clear color photogrpahs of cereal boxes, many front and back, and their enclosed prizes. Each photo has a caption but I would like to have seen a little more text. Still, it will bring back many memories of breakfast in the 60's.



3. It took a long time for Scott to come up with this book on 60's cereal boxes and prizes, and it was well worth the wait! The only thing that I could have asked for is more text. I hope he goes back and write more books (on to the 70's) and restarts his Flake magazine.

No comments about The Cocktail Shaker: The Tanqueray Guide.

2 comments about Cracker Jack*r Toys.

1. After my grandmother passed away, we found a shoebox full of cracker jack toys. It was her special treat for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We took them and mounted them for memory reasons, but this book brought our love of the little toys to a reality of why we loved them as children and the precious value that they have for us today. A great part of our childhood in a great book!



2. This is an amazingly comprehensive collection of Cracker Jack prizes, with HUNDREDS of detailed photos showing THOUSANDS of prizes. While this book is a must-have for the serious collector of Cracker Jack prizes, it will delight anyone with pleasant memories of those special prizes.

   The accompanying prize lists with descriptive and historical information are presented chronologically, with prizes grouped by series where applicable. An elaborate identification system reflecting the prizes' date, composition, marking, type, size, color, and description is utilized, with estimated value for each prize given.

   Searching through CRACKER JACK TOYS for that fondly remembered surprise can be almost as much fun as originally digging for it in a box of Cracker Jack!

No comments about Disney Years Seen Through a Photographer's Lens.

No comments about Baby Made Me Buy It!, The A Treasury: of Babies Who Sold Yesterday's Products Ken Kapson.

5 comments about The Barbie Closet: Price Guide for Barbie & Friends Fashions and Accessories, 1959-1970.

1. If this book wasn't good. it wouldn't go for so much. I was just reading posts on the Barbie club Bulliten board that say most Barbie people do not find Amazon reviews helpful because lots of folk post Amazon reviews of products they know nothing about just to have high posting numbers. Frankly that's just plain stupid.This book goes for so much because hard-core Barbie collectors find it valuable. I lost my copy in a fire and deeply regret that I can't afford to replace it. I am hoping it will somehow find it's way back into print again .



2. OK, if you have: the 2 volumes of Sarah Eames and the Ultimate Barbie Book, then you don't need this book. It is nice in a way that fashions are presented on dolls and the dolls are presented by themeselves and described. Also the prices for the individual items are listed (and they are close to ebay prices / and prices I have heard from other collectors). Yet like the other buyer said close ups are blurry and some fashions have no pictures. I didn't find the picture's backgrounds distracting, but that is a matter of opinion. If you have the books listed above don't waste the money this one is worth. I have found several errors, mostly on the names and some acceosries, but nothing really big. I found it to be nice and I am glad I bought it, but if you are tight on money and you just want a good, easy, compact, fast, reference book get the other 3 better, with the money left you can buy some barbies!



3. I really loved this book and found it very helpful in pricing accessories as well as the outfits. It also shows pictures of everything that came with the fashion which is very helpful if you want to complete an outfit. Great for the buyer or seller. It's so interesting seeing the tiny and very detailed accessories I had'nt known even existed. I just found it to be a great reference book. If you are buying a vintage piece this book helps you know if you're paying a fair price or maybe getting a great deal.



4. Money better spent buying Sarah Eames' Barbie Fashion books. This one added nothing and fell short in some respects. Photographs are often poor and close-ups blurry and grainy. Some things had no pictures, just a name and list of items. There are also some errors. And, I realize this is a matter of opinion, but the dolls seemed ackwardly posed in many photos, which is distracting for a reference book. Sorry I couldn't rate it better.



5. I love the pictures and the wonderful way the dolls are posed -- some of the shots are good enough that they look like they're alive! Other pictures are a little darker, but overall the photography is good.

   The only complaint I have is that the book has some annoying little errors -- like "Gold Rush" is listed as a Skipper outfit! And the misspellings like "bow" for "beau" detract a little from the professional image.

   But these errors are relatively minor and overall this is a good book to have to identify some of the more difficult-to-find outfits and accessories!

4 comments about The Encyclopedia of Pepsi-Cola Collectibles.

1. This is the only Pepsi guide book that I have, and I'm not real happy with it. It is inadequate, hardly scratching the surface of all the Pepsi collectibles out there.

   As with most other collectibles guides, the back index leaves much to be desired. I guess the author agrees because he omitted it completely. Big mistake.

   Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of Pepsi guides out there, like there are for Coke. But that doesn't mean this one is the "bible" of Pepsi collecting; it doesn't come close. I'm hard-pressed to figure out why others have written such glowing reviews for it.

   It's pretty, but it's incomplete, the prices are all over the map, there's no back index...but there's very little competition.




2. A very nice reference book and worth the money for collectors or fans of Pepsi.



3. The Encyclopedia Of Pepsi-Cola Collectibles is an amazing resource for collectors and dealers. Nearly the entire book is devoted to full color photographs of everything ever made by or associated with Pepsi-Cola, from slogans and trademarks to containers, cardboard inserts, cans, bottles, caps, a wide array of merchandise and much more. Offer a wealth of historical and background information on the Pepsi-Cola bottling company, along with authoritative and reliable price estimates for Pepsi-Cola collectibles, The Encyclopedia Of Pepsi-Cola Collectibles is a superbly presented and essential guide for the dedicated Pepsi-Cola enthusiasts!



4. A brand new, year 2002, hard-bound library volume containing 256 pages with more than 2,000 large, full color, sharp photos of every type of Pepsi collectible. Current values are shown. Items are listed by category, including signs, containers, novelties, toys and accessories and paper items. Sufficient text is included, covering Pepsi Collectibles, Reference Guide, History of Pepsi, History of Pepsi Trademerks and Advertising Slogans. I found the "Paper Items" section particularly interesting. Add it to your library.

No comments about Darci Identification and Price Guide.