Coronation Class locomotive floor-toy (TTI Stoke-on-Trent)
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Red Coronation Class locomotive floor-toy, made by TTI, Stoke on Trent [image info]
Coronation Scot Exhibition
the locomotives
trains: 1937 - 1939 - 1940
greatest? - streamlining - advertising - trivia - models and kits
This exhibit was on display between November 2012 and early 2013
A slightly battered, red-painted, cast metal, four-wheeled children's floor-toy of a Coronation Class locomotive. Markings inside the shell appear to identify the maker as TTI, Stoke on Trent.
TTI
The "TTI" marque appears as thin, hard-to read letters filling a circle. Online sources identify "TTI" of Stoke on Trent as referring to a company called "Teddy Toys" - however, neither name seems to be listed in the usual "published" sources and listings that we've checked so far when researching this item.
About the toy
The toy itself is slightly odd. The amount of detail suggests that the designer was familiar with the locomotive (or at least had access to plenty of photographic source material) and yet ... for some reason ... the shape of the upper part of the toy has been artificially stretched upwards to give an odd-looking "hump" to the toy that destroys what could otherwise have been a nicely evocative model.
Our suspicion is that this may have been to make the toy easier to grip with a chubby toddler's hand ... when a small child reached for the middle of the toy to pick it up, the raised central section would have hit the child's palm, and the reflexive grab action would have then let their fingers close on and below the raised ridged stripes along the sides of the toy. Although the design seems at first sight to be hopelessly naive, it might have represented a deliberate effort to make the toy easier to grip, and more playworthy.
The resulting toy has a strange look about it, a little like a cross between a guineapig and an armadillo.
![[image info]](/index/File:Red_Coronation_Class_locomotive_toy_(TTI_Stoke-on-Trent).jpg){kind=link}