| The picture below shows larger left and right side views of this Old Cracker Jack Pop Corn Confection Pot Metal or Lead Toy Prize Passenger Train. There were many different varieties of trains or train cars used as prizes by Cracker Jack since the beginning of prizes in 1910. These were made of pot metal, lead, lithographed and embossed tin, and plastics after 1948. These here are of the pot metal or lead type. They were made plain with no finished, painted, and inked as well. There were different steam locomotives, tenders, and passenger cars that could be combined. The Cracker Jack prize ID number for these, and the makers are unknown. Included here is a steam locomotive engine, a “999” tender car, and one passenger car. The engine and the tender have black paint, and the passenger car has no finish. Many of the pot metal or lead prizes were manufactured by the Tootsietoy Company of Chicago, Illinois. There were other companies, including from Japan prior to World War II. Some of these type prizes were made specifically for Cracker Jack, while others were made as novelties, bought in volume, and used as prizes by The Cracker Jack Company. Pot metal or lead prizes were some of the earliest prizes that were used in Cracker Jack boxes from the 1910s to the late 1940s. Many of these type prizes or novelties were also sold out of old Johnson Smith & Company catalog as well as some other early novelty catalogs, also used in fortune telling sets, and some were also sold and used as board game parts. Many of these can be found factory painted, inked, or with no finish at all. To judge the sizes, the engine prize measures about 1-5/8'' x 1/2'' x 1/4''. They appear to be in excellent condition as pictured. |
