Any One Know What It Is?

[Et-Es-Go]

Let me try and summaries what has taken place. There were two sellers coincidentally on EBay at the same time. One of these statues had turned up at the Rosebowl flee market, this was the one missing the jet pack. It was listed on EBay for $8500.

 

The other one was procured from an estate sale, and the estate actually had a pair of them, but only one was listed on EBay. I was bidding in this one at around $400 and got sniped. Turns out the lister of the more expensive listing purchased this cheaper one, which has the jet pack. I had contacted the seller of the second statue to let him know I was interested if the buyer flaked. That is when he let me know of the second one which I bought from him for about the same price as the other one he had. This estate was in California and this gentleman worked for the Oakland newspaper they believe. I am following this lead to see if family members might know what these are.

 

It does have some general wear on the base. It has a felt bottom. The statue does appear to be old and authentic. I think the wood base was angled such that a plaque could have been applied there, which makes me think it was made to commemorate something or for recognition. I have noticed the damaged statue (missing jet pack) is up on EBay again at a substantially lower price as noted above.

 

The seller that I got my statue from did mention to me in an email that he did see one of these pictured in an auction back east. Another lead that I need to follow up on. So in summary, it looks like Buck Rogers, it is definitely old (1930s-1950s), and we have no idea what it is. But it's cool.

[Boba]

My regarding the lack of wear; could they be prototypes that were never produced,

and were given to company executives who kept them stored away as a keepsake?

[ciorac]

Let me try and summaries what has taken place. There were two sellers coincidentally on EBay at the same time. One of these statues had turned up at the Rosebowl flee market, this was the one missing the jet pack. It was listed on EBay for $8500.

 

The other one was procured from an estate sale, and the estate actually had a pair of them, but only one was listed on EBay. I was bidding in this one at around $400 and got sniped. Turns out the lister of the more expensive listing purchased this cheaper one, which has the jet pack. I had contacted the seller of the second statue to let him know I was interested if the buyer flaked. That is when he let me know of the second one which I bought from him for about the same price as the other one he had. This estate was in California and this gentleman worked for the Oakland newspaper they believe. I am following this lead to see if family members might know what these are.

 

It does have some general wear on the base. It has a felt bottom. The statue does appear to be old and authentic. I think the wood base was angled such that a plaque could have been applied there, which makes me think it was made to commemorate something or for recognition. I have noticed the damaged statue (missing jet pack) is up on EBay again at a substantially lower price as noted above.

 

The seller that I got my statue from did mention to me in an email that he did see one of these pictured in an auction back east. Another lead that I need to follow up on. So in summary, it looks like Buck Rogers, it is definitely old (1930s-1950s), and we have no idea what it is. But it's cool.

 

Did you PM Yellow Kid to see if he knows about it? He is a premium guru.

 

I don't see anything like it in my collection of books that contain information about premiums, toys, or statues.

[Et-Es-Go]

Why no I have not. I did not know the Yellow Kid was someone's avatar. I will give it a try.

 

[Yellow Kid]

Not recognizing the statue but fearing the worst, I contacted my friend, Eugene Seger, who I feel is the world's authority on Buck Rogers. For example, when Hake or Overstreet have questions about Buck Rogers, he is the man they call. He knew it wasn't an old piece authorized by the Dille family because there were no Buck Rogers statues of that size from the 1930's, and guessed, without seeing a picture, that it was of more recent vintage. I felt like it didn't have a name on it for the safety of the maker, and that it was likely a more recent piece cast in someone's garage or workshop.

[Et-Es-Go]

Thank you for checking in with folks on this. I have seen enough things that I still feel it is vintage, maybe made as late as the 1950s' But that doesn't mean that somebody didn't make a small number of them without the proper authorization as Mr Seger suggests. A fund item never the less.

[Et-Es-Go]

Little update on this folks. Another one of these little Buck Rogers guys have popped up on Ebay. Again this one has been in the possession of this person for many years, I exchanged a few emails with him, and this one definitely has some patina to it. This one was also found in California by the way. So this makes for a total of four of them that I know about. The damaged one is still listed on Ebay in addition to this one.

 

So this one I think confirms what I thought about the base. It definitely appears to have had a plaque on it at one time, maybe two given the pattern of the stains. Maybe some one will recognize the little symbol on the base? That might give us a clue. Added a close up pic of the symbol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boba]

[BOOT]

I felt like it didn't have a name on it for the safety of the maker, and that it was likely a more recent piece cast in someone's garage or workshop.

Several years ago I visited a large antiques emporium in New York City. Outside the building, there were several lots with a kind of flea market.

 

One fellow in the back of one lot had a pit in the ground with glowing coals. He had a box of brand new metal statues and banks featuring old comic characters, made to look like vintage ones. He was placing the statues in the pit of embers, "cooking" them to give them a "patina". Presumably they would find their way into the emporium, where customers would think they were getting an actual period piece.

 

Don't know if this applies to this piece at all. But since that incident I never considered buying an "antique" statue for anything more than the price of a modern one.