About me

Born in the late 50’s and a child in the 60’s my timing matched exactly with Deluxe Reading / Topper.  Had I been born even 2-3 years earlier I would have been the wrong age at the wrong time.  As it turned out, my age almost exactly intersected their toy development so that I was the right age for Playmobile when I was 5, Tiger Joe at 6, Battlewagon at 7, Crusader 101 at 8, Secret Sam when I was 9, and Johnny Astro when I was 10. 

Current collection

I still have some toys that I kept from childhood including my Secret Sam, Johnny Speed, Johnny Astro, and Battlewagon.  I have added to my collection since then with a Crusader 101, Johnny Express, Conveyor, Fork Lift, Secret Sam Pipe Shooter, Operation X500, Johnny Service and Johnny Toymaker.  I have also purchased a Dream Kitchen, Suzy Homemaker stove, and refrigerator,   I have some classic TV commercials on disk, and a very nice video of the assembly line at the “worlds largest toy factory”.  My aunt was a manager in a supermarket in the 1960’s, and I noticed one day that her “receipe box” had Deluxe Reading on it!  That led to my acquiring an original order box with the alphabetical dividers still in place.