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First off, let me say it, "I could be wrong." I have seen many 52 Fords. My very first promo was a 52 Ford coaster in Carnival Red without the metallic. I have owned a 52 Ford Country Sedan. I have a huge 52 Ford dealer album for reference. So far every stock 52 Ford that I have ever seen has had a winged jet-like hood ornament. The 52 promo has an ornament which looks very much like the hood ornaments on 49 and 50 Fords. Why does the promo have an incorrect hood ornament? Who knows? Here is some speculation. The 52 Ford was an all-new design. Very likely there were many details that were not determined until the last minute.

Speculation One...Ford submitted blueprints to AMT with the hood ornament shown and changed (a) the hood ornament design too late for AMT to do anything about it or (b) no one at Ford remembered to notify AMT of the change.

Speculation Two...Ford submitted blueprints to AMT with no hood ornament at all with a promise to update AMT when the design was finalized and then either failed to do so or failed to do so in time for AMT to do anything about it and AMT created their own design by looking to the past.

The coolest thing that could happen is that someone will read this and say, "Gollee, I was there and I know what happened."

While we are talking 52 Fords, does anyone know what small midyear option Ford offered to improve sales and why?

There are lots of promo quirks. Email us about one that you have noticed. --cey Clarence@carhobby.com

Al Marwick was a pioneer in the collecting of old toys. He wrote an article every month for years and years for Antique Toy World magazine. This regular feature was called "The Fun is in the Search."

Most collectors fully enjoy their collections and every nuance of the items in their collections. However, when one visits a collector and views his/her collection, the conversation usually revolves not only around the models in the collection, but the "rest of the story." The stories about how a particular model was discovered and acquired bring additional life to the collection.

In December of 2002 Jeff Alley managed to achieve the dream of most collectors. He found something very rare-- a 30's Airomobile prototype and/or promotional model. The Airomobile was one of many attempts by very creative people to enter the automobile industry with a car of the future. Other attempts were a car conceived by Norman Bel Geddes, the McQuay-Norris automobile, the 1933 Briggs "Dream Car" designed by John Tjaarda and the Dymaxion, designed and built by Buckminster Fuller. There were others also.

"I found the Airomobile at a local antique show in Loveland, CO, December 2002. I've gone to this particular show many times and have usually found something interesting, but never anything this cool in my 15 years of antiquing! I was first in line (as usual) arriving about 45 minutes before

the show started. The car was sitting on a table right next to the entrance so I was able to look at it the whole time I was in line. Many antique dealers walked by the car and showed interest, but the dealer who had it had not yet priced it. Since I had a good relationship with the dealer, I told

her I was interested and that she needed to price it before the show opened and not to sell it to anyone before I got a crack at it. She agreed. When the show opened I immediately reached over and picked up the Airomobile. I was not going to let it go until I had purchased it. The dealer still hadn't priced it so I suggested that she price it at twice what she paid and be done with it. She agreed to do that and quoted me a price that I immediately knew was a deal, but I hemmed and hawed for about 45 minutes just to make sure she wouldn't think I was too eager and back out of the deal. The whole time I never let go of the car. After 45 minutes and several attempts to get her to come down on the price (all of which failed, but it didn't bother me for a minute) I paid for the car and packed it up and took it out of the show. When I came back in and walked to all the other booths, several dealers were buzzing about the car and what I paid for it and muttering, "I knew I should have bought that!" But alas, many antique dealers are notoriously tight with their money and since there was no reference on this vehicle to be had, I guess they all figured it was too risky to step up and pay the price.

I later found out at a subsequent antique show that another dealer had brought the car to the show where I had purchased it and the dealer from whom I had purchased it bought it from him

about an hour before the show had opened. I asked what he sold it for and he confirmed that she did indeed double her purchase price before selling it to me. She was somewhat sad to see it go as she would have liked to have researched it a bit, but I knew that I had to purchase it before she had a chance to get attached to it. I've never regretted buying it on the spot and paying what I did even though I didn't know anything about the car at the time. It just all felt right.

I still love my Airomobile and would hate to think how I would have kicked myself in the

Another aspect of model and toy collecting is learning automotive history. Jeff knew virtually nothing about this Airomobile model or its origination until he discovered it. Once he acquired it, the information search began. Jeff has learned much about this model and the Lewis American Airways company which planned to manufacture it. He is still filling in the blanks where he can. He has discovered one additional existing model and a lead on a third.

Rather than just rehash information here, you will find a "click" trip to Jeff's web site to be informative and entertaining. The fun is indeed in the search. Maybe you can help Jeff discover even more. 1937 Airomobile -cey

A dealer promo 94 BMW 850i by Schabak of Germany and a similar "toy trade" model by Welly of China crossed my desk on the same day. The initial reaction was that it was obvious that Welly had either copied the Schabak model or that perhaps they had purchased use of Schabak molds.

This all seemed like a good topic for a quick article in MCJO. I would explain how a nicely detailed promo could be cheapened a bit to produce a mass market toy. The Shabak had an opening trunk and had operable pop-up headlamps and individual door handles. The Welly had a fixed trunk lid and the outline of the pop-ups was molded into the hood as were the door handle features. Out came the magnifying glass and the similarities were going to be compared and documented.

First the chassis were compared. Hmm. I wonder why they changed the chassis moldings so extensively. If the cars are common, then the mounting holes would at least be in the same location. Nope. Let's take a view from directly overhead. Are there differences? The hoods are different in two ways. The Welly is inaccurate with the pop-up headlamps being part of the hood. The air inlet grills on the hood near the windshield have a different gridwork and shape. The tail lights are different and would have to be since one trunk is fixed and the other is not. The shapes of the tail lights seem to be identical. The mirrors seem to be identical. The wheels seem to be identical on the outside. The interiors are totally different. The Schabak loses points on only one issue. The Welly has a molded-in "850i" on the decklid whereas the Schabak has nothing. The basic body shell of each car seems to be identical to the other.

It's all pretty confusing. What in the heck went on here? I am clueless. The more I know, the less I know. It seems that these two cars have some kind of incestuous relationship, but its hard to discover those kinds of things. It might be that the Welly represents a different year model which would explain many of the differences in the interior.

A big part of the pleasure of this hobby is knowing much about it. A bigger part is discovering that which we do not know.

If you have some clues about these two BMW's, please let us know. --cey Clarence@carhobby.com