1933 Hipwell, Safety 1st Auto Traffic Race in Original Box
It's not often that I find a 76 year old game that has never been played! It's especially surprising because it's actually a pretty neat game. From the Hipwell Mfg. Co., (who I never heard of before finding this game) comes this "exciting" game "based on child's greatest safety hazard". Safety First (with title slightly borrowed from Harold Lloyd's 1926 film Safety Last") is an early battery operated "board" game which uses the concept of a traffic light and spinner to move die cast metal autos around a rectangular board. The spinner has a copper terminal which makes random contact with a metal plate set into the board. The traffic light lights up red, yellow, or green depending on where it stops. I tested it and it works beautifully using the original red, yellow, and green flat face lamps. The battery and light socket is steel litho, as well as the traffic light mount and arrow indicator. The spinner features six pie-sectioned options for stop, go , or caution. Each includes an awesome portrait of an early 30's streamlined super sedan. The board is setup as consecutive city block. It's really a basic "race style" game, but the electric stop light transforms it into a unique and unusual toy. It's also unusual that the condition is absolutely perfect!! Pristine mint in box. The box was made huge to accommodate the stop light. It measures over a foot long. It's covered with a "marbleized" combination of reddish-tan and white. One of the covers side panels has all the information about the game including an exact miniaturized illustration of the game board. Please note the NRA eagle emblem in the upper right corner of this panel. I used this to determine when it was manufactured. The box is complete with its entire cover, box bottom, and even the original insert. The instructions are printed on the underside of the cover. Size: 18" x 12" x 4½". Sold: Sep. 2009
Price Sold: $ 130
