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1941 Young America Army Kit


Jason G
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This is a recent pickup from ebay. Never seen one of these before, and I got it at almost a giveway price. I thought it was pretty cool, with appeal to both home front and insignia collectors. I really like it.

 

 

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The top of the box. It's cardboard, made to look like a suitcase.

 

 

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It had a snap lock top of latch, which has since come off. The handle for carrying is still intact tho.

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The box graphics REALLY jump out at you. Although the lid is detached, the graphics are still bright and colorful, almost as good as they day they came out of the factory.

 

 

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I was experimenting with the camera with different flashes.

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Here is the interior of the box. It is missing a few things (the metal insignia, mostly), but overall, considering it's age and sort of fragile condition, I was pretty happy that it still had the manual, 2 metal insignia, and nearly all of the felt cut out ranks.

 

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Here's the manual. The inside of the manual contains descriptions of what all the ranks mean, and details on what each rank in the army does.

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Lastly, the page on the 'manual' that tells the kids how to "play army", and gives suggestions (the General is in charge, for example) on how to use the insignia.

 

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All the rank insignia inside the kit is printed on felt, and was designed to be cut out with scissors, and either pinned or glued on your clothing.

 

It amazes me that this entire thing has survived this long and in such decent condition. Hope you enjoy it!

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There is some really neat home front stuff out there, I have been collecting it for a number of years now.

Over time I have found some really neat items, they often used patriotic colors so it displays nice.

Great find!

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I have to agree in both cases. This is a fantastic piece so congrats on a nice addition to your collection. Sounds like you got a great buy as well.

 

Also, Tino is very much correct. There are many great homefront pieces available today. If you are patient, you can find some items dirt cheap. Naturally, there are some pieces that still command a great deal of money, but ebay has grown so much that it is easy to find great bargains even with those items sometimes.

 

These homefront items do siplay well and make for nice collectibles that are still affordable.

 

Cheers,

Jim

 

Homefrontguy

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Thanks to ALL, I really appreciate it. I was, in my opinion, lucky to get this one. Rest assured, it's got a good home and an esteemed place in my homefront collection. It will be well loved (I had to keep my kids from using it for what it was intended for..........."Oh, come on, Dad, it's coooooooooooool, we want to use it!) so in my opinion, that attests to it's value.

 

I was really surprised I didn't get outbid on this one, it was just 'too cool for school' as the old folks say. Thanks for the kind comments.

 

The reverse of the pamphlet that came with it advert's a shooting game for a dollar. I'm guessing that is about what this cost back in 1941.

 

I consider myself privledged to be the conservator of this.

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Agree 100% The colors again are great and I just did a quick scan of Jack Matthews Toys Go to War and couldnt find this in the book though since I was scanning pages very quickly I could have missed it.

 

The price sounds about right. As for ebay surprises, I picked up a WWII Blackout Kit complete in the box with the glow in the dark material included and I was the only bidder and won it for the amazing price of $2. I know what you mean about not expecting to win an item as I expected to get outbid on that or at least for it to go much higher. Like your new treasure, its in a good home.

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Good deal! I was very surprised no one seemed interested, but I guess that's just the way it goes. I'm not complianing to be sure.

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I looked in the Matthews book last night, it's not there. Not in several of the other reference books I have, either. An advertisment on the back of the instruction book for a 'realistic target shooting game' with 'real life like animals and darts' states it's a "best seller" for the princely sum of 1.00. I'm guessing this would have cost about the same at the time.

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