All at once curiosity showcase, blooper, exhibition of improbable subs, this new section is the museum’s «delirium» part. It’s hard to understand the complexity or the tormented bizarreness of some pieces! Not to mention the catalogs’ tasty misprints or other blunders on the part of prestigious collectors or obscure product managers! Here then is the improbable collection of things, contraptions and other gadgets straight from the imagination of tinkerers, crazies, or widely-sold-brands managers... who just happened to blunder somewhat!
Welcome to this world of strangeness!
To start with a bang, here is the Thing, Bigfoot, Whatsitsname, or Whatchamacallit:
A fine work of art in any case ! This was brought back to me from Italy by Fabrice Mestros (this guy is just irredeemable), but the Thing in question could be French. I found a picture of it in “La Vie du Jouet” (Toy Life) of December 2004, where what really looks like a steam machine was added to the front, and the caption reads: “French submarine, sheet metal, early 20th century, mechanical and compressed-air toy.” Thence its presence in this section of the museum. Let’s try and shed some light on it. A few mandatory remarks:
1) This beast is of cast iron (really) and not sheet metal; as is, it sinks immediately!
2) The presence of several rings riveted to the hull suggests that buoys were fixed to it, like the cork ones found on fishing nets; so the thing probably only “dived” close to the surface.
3) There IS a shaft for a propeller (now missing), but no winding mechanism inside. However there is a telescopic valve with a floating device, but what it the world did it do ? As for the steam machine shown fixed on the prow of the thing (in the Vie du Jouet version), how could it act on the propeller shaft since the front of the sub (!) is cast as a single piece without any hole, orifice or transmission? This thing would leave the experts from the Musée de la Marine at a loss... Curiouser than curiouser!
Length: 30” without the steam machinery.
F (supposedly) – not rated due to extreme rarity.
Never short of ideas, some product managers do not hesitate to develop rather complicated concepts. In this particular case you have to add the handicap of the instruction manual – ze one from ze German army, dranslated into Veztern Gobbledygook – and our late national firm Smoby-Majorette is at the wheel of this curious convertible...
This is where our national firm “Majorette” comes in, with this curious convertible vehicle with wheels on the ground and separable submarine; overall length: 8”.
The Roman What’s-it could be the name of this sublime thingie. This one looks like the unlawful child of a bathtub sub and some unlikely Nautilus. What IS this thing?
Anyway, here are what is know for certain:
1) It’s Italian;
2) It’s plastic;
3) It’s electrically-powered, with an engine and its battery set under the thing;
4) It’s 16”. Then things get sticky...
The forward bars are set by pressing the snorkel; there is a pneumatic ballast system with a side lever on the left, two air hoses on the top, a yellow button under the hull. You obviously have to fill the thing with water before letting go... If someone can tell me how it works, they win one of those cheap Chinese subs (see below). I would date this toy from the late 70s-early 80s, by default...
About the brand: under it is written, quote: “Marconi William’s mod G91 patented.” There’s atmosphere for you...
Very improbable rating. I’d say ***************** for this Thing from Elsewhere...
Never to be left behind, Japan is no stranger to the crazy inventor syndrom! Will you look at this: an amphibious submarine!
The only one I know! Once the engine had been launched and the ballast filled, the beast would start from a plank, moved by its rear wheels; once the whatsit was in the water, the propeller took over. Very beautifully lithographed sheet metal, 16”; originally no rudder. At the rear, a flower-shaped “Y” letter. This the label of Yonezawa Toys Co, founded in 1932. The mandatory “made in Japan.” Late 60s; SSN 29 Seawolf.
J *****
In the land of Descartes, there is a basic rule, very dear to our National School of Administration (ENA): why have simple when you can have complicated? Here is the submersible gasworks, namely Borda’s sailing-bathyscaphe. Another find of... Fabrice Mestrot’s, of course. Who else? (sigh...)
The Gobbledygook speakers that plague the “radio-guided submarine toys” section are out of the race! Here’s what the gadget looks like:
Better than a speech, here is the full original user’s guide:
Translation: “The “Borda” bathyscaphe
New nautical and scientific toy
(Brand and model copyrighted)
This toy has two uses:
As a bathyscaphe: Take the two spring-heads between the thumb and index of the left hand, move them close together while introducing the big ballast’s head between those springs, then lower the small ballast while taking care to engage the springs under the claws.
To dive (depth varies depending on where diving is attempted), the wire must be long enough to allow it to touch the bottom, that the release be automatic and the BATHYSCAPHE emerge by itself.
To retrieve the big ballast, just draw on the wire after the ship has emerged.
As a sailing ship: Take off the big ballast and place the sail at the front of the hull and you have a sailing bathyscaphe.
This novelty is sold in all department stores and good toy shops.”
Can you imagine a 10-tear-old kid with THAT? You can understand the confidential distribution and therefore rarity of such an item...
F*****
I mentioned under the “Science-fiction submarines” heading the blunders of some product managers and some occasional mixups. Here’s proof!
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Side A: This is the Seaview; |
Side B: This is the Proteus. QED... |
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This famous shot was taken by Dr. Wilson in 1934 and supposedly pictured the Loch Ness Monster. The hoax was revealed in 1994, with a drawing representing the artifact: a toy submarine, apparently a Bing given its shape, and the fact that those models were widely sold throughout Europe at the time, on which a rubber toy’s long-necked head (sea horse? Giraffe?) was attached. The whole was painted and carefully assembled...
What happened during the attack of the Nautilus by a giant squid (male or female ?) Anything sexual? Anyway, the meeting gave birth to this:
Is it a Japanese manga? Is it some websurfer’s delirium? No, it’s the comics version of the « League of Extraordinary Gentlemen » written in 1999 by Kevin O’Neill and Alan Moore... Here is another picture of it: »
