1 comments about Beast Wars Transformers: The Unofficial Guide with Price Guide (A Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. Transformers are back. Jobie Alvarez is back! This book is a Beast (no transformers pun intended)! The Quadrilogy is complete! It's this book story about these two Beast Transformers who fall in love with one another. They want to have a baby Transformer but can't conceive on earth do to The Dreadknocks. So they adopt this baby girl Transformer from the Planet Naboo but they are kind of pensive since the baby is missing a converter and can't change from a Chevy Malibo into robot form. So all the baby girls' friends think she's mentally challenged and is banished to the retarded transformer school with the rest of the challenged. Professor Xavier uses his mind meld to melt cheese and turn the Transformer family into cheese. But they stop him and enroll their adopted girl Transformer child into regular school where like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls finds that life as a teenager has it's ups and downs. And the girl Transformer is really hot and just needs a makeover to become Queen of the High School prom. So that's just what happens and she becomes Queen and gets a new Chevy Malibu as a graduation gift from her parents which is odd because essentially she's a Chevy Malibu forced to ride in a Chevy Malibu. Is Jobie Alvarez a good writer or what. He rocks and so does this book!
   
   Jobie Alvarez knows how to create a story in the Beast Transformers universe and again melts your pupils with exquisite words and adjectives. I highly recommend this book. I recommend all 4 of them. I stack all 4 up and put chairs on them. They make me feel taller. Sometimes I take chucks of the books and stuff them in my shoes. It's like a 3 for 1 offer when you buy this book. And if Jobie signs it for you one day you can sell it on Ebay for half it's value! It's hot. It's Transformers. It's now. It's Jobie. It's most Alvarezie!

4 comments about Warman's Pez Field Guide (Warman's Field Guides).

1. I highly recommend this guide to everyone who collects or sells pez. It is well-organized and easy to follow with full color pictures and detailed descriptions. I can't believe how much information is packed into this pocket-sized book!



2. This book is a must have for true pez seeking people, the colored illustrations and information is a useful tool, and continues to be at my side always, to look up and review pez's that I am interested in.



3. While I am not one to criticize any comment regarding my books, good or bad I do take isssue on the comment- "This does not have foreign pez in it" - much to the contrary. There are a large number of foreign Pez in this book. Everything that had been produced up to the publish date is included in this guide, domestic AND foreign release . This guide does not get into the mini Japanese dispensers, those are licensed by Pez for Bandai not an actual Pez produced item but a licensed item. There are LOTS of foreign Pez in this guide. -Shawn Peterson



4. Great book for the pez collector. It lists the American pez releases with some of the variations and a possible value. They are in alphabetical order. Shows some from private collections that you will never see or have...lol...
   Has an index for easy look up and a list of terms used in the pez world for the non-pezheads. It IS indeed small enough to put in your purse or backpack to take along on those trips to antique stores, swapmeets, or garage sales. No matter how many times i look at this book i still cannot remember the values so i have to look them up constantly.
   
   This does not have foreign pez in it, but is still an excellent guide. The best of its type on the market i believe.

5 comments about Fisher Price Toys: A Pictorial Price Guide to the More Popular Toys.

1. This book is terrific! Tons of color, detailed pictures. I am a collector, and use this book to help identify which tiny accessories I need to find or identify. Invaluable! The focus is on toys from 1964-1990 ONLY, so if you collect from other periods this isn't the book you need. If you collect Little People (pre-1988), you need this book! I hope the authors will update it, with the "new" Little People included in a future edition.



2. I love this book. IT is a MUST for any new and seasoned Fisher Price Collector, especially those who collect Little People. The Pictures are great and the descriptions are excellent. I love this book, and my kids enjoy looking through it as well. It brought back so many memories from toys in my past, and ensures I know what I am getting myself into if I decide to make a purchase as a collector.



3. THIS BOOK HAS MANY COLORFUL PICTURES AND ACCUARTE DESCRIPTION OF EACH. I TOO HAVE JUST STARTED COLLECTING FISHER PRICE TOYS AND I FIND THIS MAKES MY SEARCHING MORE ENJOYABLE. THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR THE OVERALL TOY COLLECTOR AND THE FISHER PICE COLLECTOR.



4. this book is a real treasure. I've just begun collecting Fisher Price toys the pictures and info are of great help. Friends/family who look thru this book also get a lot of pleasure from it and will reflect back over what toys they had as kids etc...I'm real happy I made the purchase.



5. This is a wonderful book! I loved the vivid pictures and descriptions of the playsets. If you love and collect Fisher Price, this book is for you!!

1 comments about Guide to Vintage Trade Stimulators & Counter Games.

1. On top of hundreds of fantastic photos the book has game discriptions and prices. Many that are not pictured are still in the price list and described there. The dates of manufacture as well as the maker and the origin. Includes a fantastic history of trade stimulator as a whole, and offers contacts for restoration and evaluation. I need another copy, I have worn mine out!

5 comments about Classic Hopi And Zuni Kachina Figures.

1. This book has one strength. The photos are excellent - at least in terms of the antique katsinam themselves. Ms. Portago's decision to photograph the carvings on metal backgrounds is odd to say the least. The essay in the back by Barton Wright is insightful but is not linked to the text. It was written many years ago.
   
   I find one minor detail in this book to be quite annoying. Ms. Portago's bio on the jacket is twice as long as Barton Wright's. Mr. Wright is the most extensively published author on Hopi culture ever. Ms. Portago is a former model, a contessa, and a sometime photographer. That feels incongruous to me.



2. This is a wonderful -- and wonderfully photographed -- book and a valued addition to my collection of books on kachinas.



3. The essence of any Pueblo Kachina (Katsina) is determined in no small way by its mask (as well as by the ritual drama in which it appears). And while there are many kachina books in print, this volume by Portago and Wright emphasizes the doll's mask more than most other volumes. The Wright essay is one of his best and not easy for the layperson to find, so its printing here is especially useful. What Portago's kachina-doll photos bring to the fore is the aspect of an artist at home on either side of the camera--as a model and as the photographer. Finally, this group of kachina dolls is wonderful!



4. As one unfamiliar with Kachina figures and their history, I was fascinated with Andrea Portago's book. I was taken with the professionalism of the book - the wonderful photography and the knowledgeable presentation of the subject. It was a most rewarding reading, taking me on a delightful journey into the Hopi and Zuni cultures.



5. I too have waited for a long time for Ms Portago's book of photographs of Kachina figurines but, quite contrary to the last reviewer, I could'nt have been more delighted with the finished product. It is absolutely delightful. One must have a dead 'scholar's eye' not to be able to see the love and humor with which she has invested these little painted fabrications of wood, clay, cloth and feathers. They laugh at us with glee or, like Goyescas, shriek with horror from out of the pages of her book. Through her gorgeous colored photography she has breathed life and personality into her beloved subjects just as did that fine lineage of photographers from which she is derived. And as for her instinct to intersperse the glory of her colored images with severe black and white photos, in the manner of Anselm Adams, of the epic Southwest landscape from which these effigies derive, like putting salt on melon this was sheer genius.
   The book is a treasure, for which I thank you, Andrea. On receiving my copy I ran right out and bought copies for all my friends. I urge you to do the same.

1 comments about Simon & Halbig Dolls: The Artful Aspect.

1. I was disappointed that more head mold numbers were not available. I will need to look elsewhere to continue my research.

1 comments about Warman's Farm Toys Field Guide: Values and Identification (Warman's Field Guides).

1. Borderline useless.Waste of money.
   Heavily biased toward John Deere.The important Case models are ignored completely.Even for what is advertised as a book that cannot be all,to all;it falls short of expectations.
   Regarding the price at Amazon,Overstock is cheaper.And lower shipping to boot.My mistake,twice.

No comments about Collector's Guide to Postwar Lionel Trains, 1945-1969 (Collector's Guide).

5 comments about The Art of Lionel Trains.

1. I saw this book on the shelf and opened it ever so gently and reverently. Those beautiful pictures of Lionel Trains reproduced from the old catalogs graced the pages. I went back in time for a few moments and tried to recall those days so long ago. I relived for a very fleeting moment that era and in a blink of the eye it was gone. But I savored the moment and put it away somewhere special to take out again perhaps on a rainy day as I gaze out my window in a bit of melancholy and think how long ago it was when I held my first Lionel Train. Flipping through the pages of this book is a moving experience if you grew up with Lionel Trains as I did. Collecting Lionel Trains and the catalogs was truly a family affair and one I will always cherish. This is an important book for me. I don't have to take out my Lionel catalogs with their yellowing and brittle pages or pull out streamlined passenger cars or boxcars from my closet in orange boxes now crumbling at the edges. I can sit down and open this book and gaze into the past and just remember. Just remembering is good enough these days. Just remembering when.



2. A "must have" for Lionel Train enthusiasts. I'm not sure who enjoys it the most, my 60 year old husband or our three year old grandson! Ours is getting so dog-eared from hours of enjoyment that we might need to think about a repalacement!



3. Officially licensed by Lionel itself, The Art Of Lionel Trains: Toy Trains And American Dreams by Roger Carp is more than just a simple showcase of promotional art that the Lionel company used to advertise their classic model locomotives; its informed and informative text follows the journey and evolution of the internationally famous model railroading company and its various products that inspired hobbies and dreams in households across America. Illustrated throughout in full color and a highly recommended addition to any personal or community library Railroading History collection, The Art Of Lionel Trains is as much a trip down memory lane for model train buffs as it is a peek to an era when advertising art was lively yet simple.



4. The book is a beauty (as a graphic arts product) but as the review title reads I am a little bit disapointed. Don't get me wrong. I like Roger Carp and his writting. In fact, he is almost the only reason I am suscriber to TCC magazine. However the book, in my humble opinion, falls short in the two aspects one could possible focus on: the Lionel art and the information about it. The illustations though as nice as we expect from Lionel history are pretty much common for Lionel enthusiasts and very well known from long ago. One could think that being this a book about Lionel art something special would appear.
   
   The text did not contribute much to the common knowledge of Lionel aficionados. Commom places such as the bond between fathers and sons and the search for security during rough times, fill most of the space in the book. Not even short biographies of artists as important as Robert Sherman appear in the text. Carp's great sense of humor is also pretty much absent.

   In short, I think the other superb books by Roger Carp left me expecting more than real life provides. Everyone has the right to some "failure". In the case of Roger Carp I think this book fills the bill for that.




5. "Saying 'Lionel' to anyone over the age of 40 brings forth nods of recognition and stories of smoking, whistling trains chugging around Christmas trees."
   
   "The Art of Lionel Trains" is a showcase of familiar images, famous pictures and the artwork from catalog covers, newspaper advertising and other marketing pieces. Some of the pictures are sentimental and show the dreams of children.
   
   When my mother bought my husband his first Lionel Train, I think he spent most of one afternoon putting the track together and then would amuse our cats by running the train at least once a day, complete with smoke billowing about in our mostly empty room. I kept wondering what was burning. My memories of Lionel Trains now include cats jumping across tracks to avoid the impending doom. They were actually quite fascinated for weeks.
   
   This book highlights classic Lionel trains, helps to revive memories of toy trains from the past and analyzes art and its relationship to dreams and values.
   
   The Chapters Include:
   
   Dreams of Ambition 1900-1923
   Dreams of Consumption 1920-1933
   Dreams of Authority 1931-1947
   Dreams of Security 1946-1964
   Dreams of Nostalgia 1963-1993
   Dreams of Tomorrow 1990-2003
   
   This book is a history of Lionel Trains from 1900-2003 and is the perfect gift for Lionel Train fans everywhere. Each chapter contains detailed information on all things train through an analysis of advertising.
   
   What I noticed, is a sense of family unity throughout the pictures. It also seems that a Lionel Train looks best with a Christmas tree. Artists actually started promoting this idea back in the1920s. The text in the advertising is readable in most cases. You have to love the pictures of the poor kids watching while "grandpa and dad" took over the train tracks.
   
   Roger Carp has been a member of the editorial staff of Classic Toy Trains magazine since 1988. You might want to look for additional selections by Roger Carp:
   
   The World's Greatest Toy Train Maker: Insiders Remember Lionel
   
   Classic Lionel Display Layouts You Can Build
   
   ~The Rebecca Review

5 comments about All Aboard : The Story of Joshua Lionel Cowen & His Lionel Train Company.

1. My grand-uncle, Mario Caruso, was the co-owner and co-founder of Lionel Trains along with Joshua "Lionel" Cohen.
   
   Frank Pettit, chief designer for Lionel Trains and my uncle, had over 100 patents for designs and innovations he created for toys, expecially trains, including the smoke tablet, cattle car, news-stand, a transformer, etc. Amazon lists his biography "It Comes From Within: The Frank Pettit Story." This is an accurate story of the Lionel Trains Corp.
   
   My entire family; mother, father, uncles, aunts, from the Caruso/Pagano family worked at Lionel Trains, located in Irvington, New Jersey during the 1950's, which was the largest toy company in the world. During World War II, Lionel Corp. developed and manufactured instruments for the navy.
   
   The company was bought by the lawyer, Roy Cohn, grandson of Lionel Trains founder Lionel Cowen (Cowen & Cohn are very similar names). Roy Cohn immediately fired everyone and stated that "We are out of the toy business." To this day, nobody knows where the pension fund went. All the money was taken out of the company. My mom and dad, my relatives and others never received a penny of their pension that they worked so hard for.
   
   Read this fascinating history of what was once the largest toy manufacturing company in the world.



2. Simply put, Hollander has written and compiled the highest quality, most comprehensive, and most readable book about the history of the Lionel electric train company that has ever been done. I make that claim while scanning my bookcase holding 45 books on electric toy trains, the majority of them dealing with Lionel, indisputably the penultimate brand name in America, at least where toy trains are concerned.

   Hollander writes of the origin and the evolution of Lionel trains from their beginning around 1900 through their status at the commencement of the 21st century, including their near death in 1969 and their miraculous resuscitation by the General Mills cereal company in 1970. Don't be alienated by the earlier statement that this is a history book. It is in no way a dry rehashing of facts, dates and dollars such as comprise boring histories. On the contrary, "All Aboard!" is more of a love story, for Hollander is truly in love with his subject, and his excitement in telling us about the Lionel legend carries the reader through the book on wings of delight.

   Highly descriptive text leaves us with a wonderful acquaintanceship with Lionel's parent, Joshua Lionel Cohen (who "Americanized" his name to Cowen), shows us the birth of his baby, draws us word pictures of that baby's successes and failures, its grand leaps of inventiveness and its faltering steps of failure in the changing business and economic climate of a century of American enterprise. Along the way, we are presented with copious visual reinforcement (both in color and in black and white) of the story that the text is weaving for us. We see photographs of the movers and shakers of this great company, some of the wondrous trains that they produced, and some of the expert art work that marketed those trains to the boys and fathers (and girls and mothers, too) of 20th century America. That art work, in annual catalogs and in magazine and newspaper advertisements, forged an emotional bond between American youth and the Lionel Corporation that endures today despite changing fortunes and changing ownership. Its effect on our culture has been phenomenal and is clearly addressed in Hollander's book.

   I can levy only two criticisms against "All Aboard!" The first is that I sometimes find the page layout annoying in that many sidebars and notes are included to give us insights into Lionel's executives, competitors, and plans. These are valuable and interesting, but they do interrupt the flow of the main text. The reader must either pause to read the sidebars or else ignore them at first and then return to them later. The second criticism is that the final chapter, which is the only "revised and updated" part of the book since its original release in 1981, lacks the intimate, revealing analysis that gives the rest of the book its finesse. The first eight chapters read as though Hollander had been an insider at the Lionel Corporation for its eighty-one years of birth, growth and turmoil, whereas the ninth chapter, which looks at the technological advances in toy trains from 1982 to 2000, is told by an outside observer who is no more privy to corporate thoughts than are the rest of us.

   If one has already enjoyed the 1981 edition of "All Aboard!", I cannot recommend purchasing the current edition just to have the new chapter. On the other hand, if one has never seen either edition of "All Aboard!", then, no matter what other books he may have read on Lionel trains, he has missed the most definitive and enjoyable book of all, and I cannot recommend Hollander's book too highly.




3. This is one of my best books about Lionel trains. Profusely illustrated with photos of Joshua Lionel Cohen and the people that helped make Lionel a giagantic toy train builder. This is a book you're sure to read over and over.



4. All Aboard! The Story Of Joshua Lionel Cowen & His Lionel Train Company is the fascinating story of the man who made the electric toy train one of the most popular toys for boys and hobbies for grown men in the last century. Published in part to celebrate the Lionel Train Company's 100th Anniversary, All Aboard! is also a testament to how this producer of toy trains dealt with the competition of electronic games at the end of the 20th century and is experiencing a surge of popularity at the beginning of the 21st Century. Original published in 1981, this new, revised and updated celebratory edition of All Aboard! is welcome and highly recommended reading for toy train enthusiasts in general, and Lionel Train collectors in particular!



5. I have had several copies of the previous edition of this book but kept giving them away to neighbors of mine. It is a wonderful look at one of the oldest and most successful toy companies in the world: Lionel Trains. This book covers everything: humble beginnings, postwar boom, near destruction at the hands of famed veteran of the "Red Scare" Roy Cohn to it's present day owners. If you had Lionel trains as a child or have always loved them from afar I cannot tell you how much fun this book is. With stories on all of the most famous cars and the people behind the genius it's an engrossing read.