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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

May 10, 2012 By 8 Comments

From the Collection: Buck Rogers frame tray puzzle from 1952

Want to know what I really like? “Bubble-headed” spacemen from the 50’s…

Vintage Buck Rogers frame tray puzzle - John F. Dille 1952

Check out this vintage Buck Rogers frame tray inlaid puzzle I recently acquired on eBay.

Vintage Buck Rogers frame tray puzzle - John F. Dille 1952

The puzzle was produced by Milton Bradley and the John F. Dille Company in 1952. Dille owned the rights to the Buck Rogers franchise (and some say he even gave Buck Rogers his name!) and produced all kinds of amazing toys, ray guns, and jigsaw puzzles.

Vintage Buck Rogers frame tray puzzle - John F. Dille 1952

When I opened the package, I was amazed at how vibrant the colors were–these photos barely do justice to how bright and colorful the puzzle is in person. This thing is going to look fantastic as the backdrop to the other vintage space toys in my collection.

I’m always on the lookout for those “bubble-headed” spacemen and there are none better than the one’s named “Buck.”

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. roadsidewonders says

    May 10, 2012 at 10:48 am

    Wow. That is certainl well-preserved isn’t it! Would love to flash back to see the Christmas morning in the early 50s when those were under the tree 🙂

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 10, 2012 at 10:56 am

      Yeah, this thing was built to last–it’s a full quarter inch thick–twice as thick as modern frame tray puzzles.

      Reply
  2. Ashley says

    May 10, 2012 at 2:36 pm

    Oh man that is beautiful!

    Reply
  3. Mike says

    May 10, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    That’s an awesome piece. How would you display that? Would the pieces slip out?

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 10, 2012 at 5:40 pm

      I might frame this, but for now it’s propped up behind some other items. The older frame tray puzzles stay together fine if you hold them upright. The pieces are pretty thick.

      Reply
  4. jboypacman says

    May 10, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    That is a thing of beauty and i just love it.

    Reply
  5. leftylimbo says

    May 11, 2012 at 11:18 am

    Dood, freakin’ awesome. When I was a kid my had this gigantic hardcover tome of the Buck Rogers original series (from the ’30s?). I remember most of it being in b&w then some in color. I must’ve been around 2–3 yrs. old at the time (’72–’73). I used to love how stylized those huge spaceships were, with the total eloquent fins and bubble windows and stuff.

    Speaking of cool stuff, have you ever visited Paleo Future? It’s an awesome blog. It’s been adopted by Smithsonian(!) but you can also see the original archive here.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      May 11, 2012 at 11:24 am

      Very cool! I wasn’t familiar with Paleo Future but it looks awesome. I didn’t realize the Smithsonian was in the business of acquiring blogs. hmmm. 😉

      Reply

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