c.1958 Yonezawa Mechanical Dachshund In Original Box
This toy very closely simulates actual movement. It moves a little bit, stops, turns in a circle, stops again, and then moves off in another direction. This repeats over and over. And just like the real dog it never barks to go out. This is the Mechanical Dachshund with Self Changing Direction manufactured by Yonezawa. It's in absolutely pristine near mint to mint condition and works great and comes complete with its original box. The Dachshund dog has an all lithographed tinplate body and head. It represents a black dog with tan belly and snout. His collar is polished tin. The ears are textured black vinyl. The tail and feet are also vinyl. All part are original. It winds with an attached key and runs on three wheels; two large and one small. The small one, which is rubber and separately mounted can randomly turn right or left. The two large wheels, which have a brass finished exterior, rotate in the same direction and operate on cogs. The cogs have the effect of tilting the body slightly to one side. The little feet, which are constantly scurrying, don't make contact with the floor until the body is tilted. Once that happens the two feet on that side grab hold and move the little body ahead. This alternates back and forth as it tilts from one side to the other. Simultaneously the little wheel on the bottom gives him a turn. So he's moving just about anywhere he wants to with a slight lumbering action. It runs really well and for a long time too! The box was printed with a good representation of the actual toy and Yonezawa logo in the lower left corner. Unfortunately it sustained a lot of surface tears which exposed the white paper underneath. To make it worse they then filled in some of the text and connected the body sections with black marker. This continued onto a section of the back apron. The front and side aprons are essentially complete. The dotted line circles on the front apron indicate how the toy moves. Size: 5-¾" Date Sold: Aug. 2009
Price Sold: $ 178
