Collecting News Briefs

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

RIP Typewriters: Long live typewriters ! Last Manufacturer Closes Its Doors [REPORT]

Detail of Continental Standard typewriter keyb...

RIP Typewriters: Last Manufacturer Closes Its Doors [REPORT]:

"Joining other discarded technologies of late, including the Flip video camera, Kodachrome, and the humble floppy disk is the typewriter, which will no longer be produced anywhere in the world.

The last company on earth to produce the typewriter — Godrej and Boyce — has shut down its production plant in Mumbai, India, according to reports that, fittingly, are making the rounds via the Internet."

13% of Marvel Collectors Also Collect #Transformers (via Collector-ActionFigures.com)

Image by damonhendrix via Flickr

13% of Marvel Collectors Also Collect Transformers:
"www.Collector-ActionFigures.com is the most popular, free action figure collection site out there. More than 250,000 action figures are managed and shared. It has an integrated marketplace with almost 10,000 action figures for sale by collectors. Trusted and secure.

Get notified when a specific figure you want is listed for sale."

King of Pinball Machines: 100 games, 60-year obsession | Raw File| Wired.com

Collector Porn: King of Pinball Machines Shares His Loot | Raw File| Wired.com:

"60-year obsession started with a game called Formation, a gift from a neighbor when he was 13.

Formation had no flippers, so the ball could be manipulated only be what Conger calls 'body English.' The term subsumes several techniques of exerting indirect force on the ball, including smacks to the side of the machine and pelvic thrusts that lift its legs slightly off the ground. If stranded on a desert island with just one game, he says, this would be it.

Today, Conger has more than 100 working games that date back to the 'pre-flipper' era that ended in 1947, with the debut of the of Humpty Dumpty."

The last brewmaster now collects beer memorabilia | lacrosstribune.com

La Crosse's last Heileman brewmaster now collects beer memorabilia:

"the last Heileman brewmaster, and that makes Randy Hughes a part of history. That's one of the reasons that Hughes, now brewmaster for City Brewery, is such an avid collector of breweriana.
That's all things beer - steins, cans, bottles, trays, openers, signs, coasters and more."

"I wish I'd been a little more aware of the long and deep history of the place when I started here. There were guys still working here who had started in the '30s." By the time Hughes got interested, they were retired. And by the time he became a serious collector, much of the best stuff had already been snapped up. "I wish I would have paid a little more attention," he said. "It got a lot more serious for me when I realized I was a piece of collecting history myself. I'm the last Heileman brewmaster in La Crosse. I like the history behind it."

He's paying attention now and is always on the lookout for old metal advertising signs from pre-Prohibition. "You've got to specialize," he said. Otherwise, it's overwhelming. So he's focused on all the brands his own company has brewed and anything local, such as Gund memorabilia.

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