1954 Technofix, No.274 Monorail with Two Cars in Original Box
Unusual and incredibly clever clockwork tin litho toy designed and manufactured by Technofix, Nuremburg (West) Germany. Consists of a figure-8 "track" and two monorail cars. It comes complete with its original box. The toy uses a beautifully detailed lithographed narrow walled figure-8 track and two futuristic monorail cars. The track height varies from it's lowest point of #" to its tallest of 3-7/8". Cars are positioned at the tracks lowest point. A 3½" long clockwork powered lifting arm fitted into the top "circle" of the figure-8 rotates clockwise. As it does so, the steeply inclined track around it causes the arm to move upwards. At the tracks tallest point the figure-8 configuration twists out of the way of the arm. With no track to rest on, the arm falls down to its lowest starting position which was engineered to be just behind one of the cars. This way it won't land on top of the waiting car. The sweeping motion will actually raise the monorail cars up the incline. The arm drops away leaving the car at the highest point on the track. Then, similar to a roller coaster, the steep decline allows the cars to roll down and back around to the lowest starting position, which again, is just in front of the sweeping arm. The cycle then repeats. Each monorail car has two slotted wheels which move it swiftly down the track. They also have two chrome plated stabilizers on either side to prevent them from falling off. The track walls were designed to resemble an intricate system of immense girders which are holding up long sections of interconnected track. The tracks thread through all parts of the city below. Busy train, air, and car traffic is shown on every possible section of track wall giving it an amazing three dimensional effect. Being a 1950's toy it has terrific images of European vehicles from that time. The clockwork mechanism has a stop/start lever which physically impedes the motion of the arm. A fixed key is attached to the underside of the sweeping arm base. In pure European fashion the fantastically illustrated box has a front panel which is completely devoid of any text. It shows the monorail emerging from over the building rooftops with a single car speeding above the hustle of the busy city traffic below. The long side panels show passengers entering and disembarking from the monorail cars. The short side panels include the manufacturer's trademark and catalog number. It does have a box bottom, but it's oversized for the cover. More than likely it's not the correct box bottom for the toy. Size: 10" x 5¼" at its tallest point. Cars 2" long. Sold: Apr. 2006
Price Sold: $ 1802
