DurableToys.com Useful Info and Discussion Archive 02

	Information - Product Index - Contacts
	Quality Kettler tricycles
	Berlin Flyer Wood Wagons
	Schoenhut Toy Pianos
	Kettcar Four Wheel Pedal Cars
	Valley Road Wood Wagons
	Large Air-Tire Trikes
	E-Z UP® Instant Shelters® - Portable
	Kettler Scooters, Toys
	Radio Flyer Wagons
	Pedal Powered tractors, Cars, trikes
	Outdoor: Swings, Sandbox
	Speedway Express Wood Wagons
	Wooden Toys and Toddler Toys
	Classic Red Tricycles
	Plastic and Fiberglass Wagons
	Baby Items and Toys Top Page
	Sandbox Toys
	Accessories, Options, Specials, Párts
	News, Hints, Pictures, Stories
	Online Secure Ordering Info & Terms
	Top Choice Selected Favorites
	Kettler Exclusive Directory Page
	Kettler Sport and Fitness
	Kettler Fine Outdoor Furniture
	Needak, Inc. Privacy Policy
	Needak, Inc. Top Welcome Page
	Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com

DurableToys.com Useful Info and Discussion Issue 02 by David or Debra McCusker, Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com. We share whatever news comes to mind or what customers bring up in this space on a schedule best described as random. Generally updated items are at the top. If you found this page by chance and are looking for products, just click on a thumbnail pic or the top logo for the welcome page. We invite your email or other submissions. Email or events not originally intended for this page will be summarized for privacy. More general info.

Current Topics Page

This page is an archive of older topics of discussion. For current topics go to toydisc.htm.

Visit North Carolina USA

North Carolina is an excellent destination for vacations in the central Atlantic area. From the mountains to the coast, North Carolina has a lot to offer visitors. From west to east, the Appalation mountains are a cool climate for summer escapes. The central plain, or piedmont, has a four season climate with moderate winters. In fact, according to the Census Bureau weather data classification, it has both a minimum of heating degree days and a minimum of cooling degree days. Further east is the sand hills, the capitol Raleigh and warmer weather with ancient seashore soils. The marvelous east coast of North Carolina has many of the finest undeveloped wetlands, barrier islands and Atlantic ocean beaches in the country. The Wright brothers made advantage of the broad dunes and prevailing sea breezes to bring us into the air age. Check it out at www.visitnc.com.

A great example of North Carolina's good clean fun happens every Saturday night at Fiddler's Cove in Liberty, NC. For six bucks a head, you get a home cooked buffet meal with both quality and quantity. Then after serving a steady line of folks on the way in, a nice variety show is in order. All ages from babies to grandparents move into a big hall and are then warmed up through "ambush" Karaoke with Jane. It is a comfortable place, with long one-sided tables so you can eat right there or later buy some ice cream. About then her husband, still in his grillin' apron, picked up a fiddle up on stage- and that's when we recognized him. It turns out that Ron Moore applied for another job just by showing up in an audience with his violin and bow, and was asked to join the band Dakkota! Ron and the other Fiddler's Cove musicians entertained everbody for a while. Then- surprize, the rest of Ron's other band "Dakkota" took the stage and continued to put on a great show. After the show, our kids get all six autographs on the new CD jacket. A meal, drink and desert with tip, a show for five plus a CD all for $41 in an atmosphere free of booze and smoke! From the department of small world: The band's drummer, Brian Spangler, [update: at that time] has a day job at City County Magazine where he is our advertizing contact.

A little north and east of Liberty is Snow Camp, North Carolina, home of the "Sword of Peace" outdoor drama theatre complex. A popular musical variety show "Rand Ole' Oprey" has just moved from Liberty to the Snow Camp site. Previously 2 blocks away in Liberty was the Rand Ole' Oprey, much the same as Fiddler's Cove except it is a setting without meals. "Rand" isn't "Grand", it's just named for Randolf county, North Carolina, USA. The Liberty Jubilee Theater in downtown Liberty, NC has taken over in the historic theater (previous home of the Rand Ole Oprey). It is a "Country & Oldies Musical Variety Show" every Saturday night. Check them out on the web at www.geocities.com/libertyjubilee.

Burlington, NC also had its own website: http://www.burlington-area-nc.org

Kudos:

• To Joyce for customized attention to our business banking services.
• To Jeff Bernard at Bernard Enterprises in Autsin, Texas; for excellent and personal service after a sale. We first dealt with Jeff, David and Cory at Bernard through the web at: www.bernardwatch.com. Bernard Enterprises is another business that has earned a BBB approval seal.
• To United Parcel Service for doing what they do so well. We tried a competitor and the experience that we and our customers had is best likened to stepping in warm gum.
• We use Sprint telephone service, and enjoy the attention of an account representative who takes good care of us.

Language and Other Challanges

Visit toyacc.htm#chall for hints to use our site even if you cannot see the pictures, hear a telephone conversation or read the English text. We have a message in Spanish, German and the French to assist with ordering or questions. Danke Marco for the long distance help, in exchange for the German words, we supplied him with at least 25 English slang expressions for him to use on his friends back in Switzerland. The Spanish was provided by the folks at Centre: La Communidad, Bill Mace, former director, Jeremy and Syvia. ¡Gracias to all! The french was translated here by Debra. Messages also provide useful hints in the use of this web store for those who cannot see or hear. The altavista search engine has a translation service which seems to be credible, but it ignores some formated sections. If you can help to improve or comment on our attempt to serve, please email us at manager@durabletoys.com (in English preferred).

In Praise of real Brands

Some of what follows took decades to learn, so either nod knowingly or consider this a future lesson. Brand name products really do deserve the premium that they usually demand- for good reason. As engineers we have worked for a fortune 50 company which made electronics for undersea cables and jets, and another that made consumer grade electronics. The difference in attitude goes to every aspect of the experience; materials, people, practices, political climate and attention to detail. Herewith are some of our favorite brands outside of this business. Boeing airplanes give that good plane feeling, as does Cessna, which survived the dark years of civil aviation with excellent trainers. Dr. Amar Bose, a professor at Pitt when we were there, makes the awesome "Bose Wave Radio"; try to find a used one! Chain saw: Stihl- say "steel", Godiva Chocolates is way up there. General Electric makes a lot of stuff way beyond lightbulbs, but they made the fine reputation with such a simple product done right. Nikon. Waterford. Steinway. Pella. Dom Perignon. Motorola. Grey Poupon. Jenn-Aire. Rolex, Pergo. Zeiss. Oreck. Tony Lama. Dutch Boy. Notice how few words it takes to convey the meaning, just the name. The best tires say Goodyear on them; even though another brand has a reputation fifty years out of date, racers and truckers know. Western Electric, now Lucent, once made real telephones which would last 50 years, including a few lightning hits, now used is the only way to get one. Fisher-Price is THE car seat in which you can trust your firstborn's life. Pennsylvania crude oil is the very best (natural) lubricating stock, known for a century. Tools are more pleasant when they are of high quality, especially cutting tools. Hard to choose just one: Rigid, Stanley, MAC, Snap-On, Weems and Plath- ship's clock. Keebler Cookies. HP RPN logic calulators. Any thing whose generic copy is named for the orginal- in spite of the trademarks, eg. "Danforth" Anchor. We love our brands. Kettler, Berlin, Racing Champions-Ertl, Radio Flyer and the others are clearly superior to the lesser flattery out there. You decide.

Vehicle Cargo Capacities, Trends etc.

Most minivans and SUVs have bulky rear ventilation systems, features and padding that take usable space. We suggest that you measure both the openings and the load floor when considering a large purchase. There are little remaining conventions with regard to the past standard cargo area dimensions among today's vast vehicle choice. Kiplinger's magazine annual car/truck buyer's guide lists useful dimensions for most any new vehicle. See additional hauling advice.

Historically our motor vehicles have a track width that goes back centuries to horse drawn wagons- around 57", two horses wide. Our motor vehicle conventions specify an 80" maximum width (aka standard size) for cars. Light trucks (under 8500 lb. GVW) can be 80" wide or with the display of three "identification lights" on both ends can be 102" wide (previously 96"). The 80" width allowed standard building materials to fit between the wheel wells and still have space for the remaining hardware. Until most roads were paved by the eighties, cars and trucks generally had fenders that fully enclosed the outside of the tires so many were at the 80" width. Today new cars are narrower, mostly between 71" and 77" with as wide as practical a track width placing the tires right at the car's width.

The early panel truck based all-steel passenger hauler GM introduced as the 1936 Suburban today remains the longest running automotive nameplate. Car based stations wagons, also called "depot hacks" or "suburbans" were generally spartan wood bodywork modifications to sedan front ends by custom coachbuilders. The terms come from railroad companies' vehicles used to haul travellers with lots of luggage between a hotel and rail depot. "Station wagon" was first used by an automaker in 1923 to describe the still semi-custom steel and wood utility vehicles. Even after being brought "in-house" by major carmakers during 1937-41, high maintenance wood reigned for years. The Chevrolet Suburban and full-sized factory station wagons could fit a sheet of 4'x8' plywood, a magical benchmark that lasted until the very end. Station wagons made the transition from partly wood to all steel post WWII when cars resumed regular production of fresh designs. The 1949 Plymouth station wagon body was all steel then the rest of the big three followed suit by 1951. 98 Ford Contry Squire Station Wagon concept by Mariusz Szewczyk from www.staionwagon.com

98 Ford Contry Squire Station Wagon concept by Mariusz Szewczyk from www.staionwagon.com

The year 1953 saw the last use of a real wood with a small section at the back of the 1953 Buick Roadmaster station wagon. This was the beginning of an era when station wagons were the favored family cars for our expanding sub-urban spread. Deteriorating late 40's and early 50's woodies became cheap rides for young surfers and their longboards in the 60's. The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean sung about what now are few survivors each worth a fortune. Improvments to the trim level and option content positioned station wagons as cars premium to the sedan version. The versatile combination of extra power for towing and up to ten seats (or a flat load floor) continued well into the ninties. Synthetic woodgrain decoration connected wagons to past roots for over forty years. See more at www.aswoa.com the web site of the American Station Wagon Owner's Association or search carsdirect.com for your old or not so old favorite. Above concept image of a 1998 Ford Country Squire (Crown Victoria) Station wagon by Mariusz Szewczyk was found on

Regulatory pressure to absolutely peak the fuel economy of cars negatively affected both body configuration and drivetrains of station wagons while running up the cost. Trailer towing reserve and other goal tradeoffs slipped as engines and transmissions had to be tuned first for fuel economy. Aerodynamic goals driven by fuel economy cut down on the cargo hauling utility, engine cooling capacity and the use of more earthy styling trends. New designs had a lower load height and volume and a disadvantage in seating more than five, especially with required child car seats. The forced downsizing of full size cars added costs by complicating the design of a station wagon variation within a model family. For example, 1977-1990 Chevrolet station wagons are 3.9" wider than the sedan version sharing the same front end. Unique sheetmetal to bulge out the back half of the car for 48" cargo countered areodynamic advances and caused a track width increase at both axles. The Chevrolet wagons from 1986 to 1990 also had different engines compared to the related sedans. Other GM divisions Buick, Olds and Pontiac carried over older designs for wagons only while the sedan was a newer front-drive design. Shorter overall lengths could barely accomodate the 4' X 8' cargo footprint only by a knee crunching front seat adjustment.

1984 brought us both the minivan and the compact four door Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) as light trucks thus solving daunting design issues by escaping car specific regulation. A consent decree negotiated by Chrysler's Lee Iaccoca allowed passenger minivans to be certified as trucks if equipped with removable seating. Both SUV and minivans' higher stance allows for a more serious third row of seats and more cargo volume. The SUV brought truck-like hauling and factory trailer towing packages in combination with versatile passenger space. Minivan wide cargo doors are handy for getting very young riders situated. Optional four wheel drive adds a level of security not normally available on passenger car based wagons. The new marketing direction of passenger trucks and the increasing selection of many more cool, luxurious and practical alternatives to station wagons proved overwhelming. Pontiac dropped large wagons after the 1989 Safari so they did not adopt the following generation GM "B" body car. Oldsmobile produced its last large Custom Cruiser wagon in 1992 citing image as a decision maker. They did not have a sedan version during 1991 and 1992. Ford and Mercury moved production to Canada and then abandoned large frame-body rear drive wagons in 1991 when a new body style of Crown Victoria sedan was introduced for 1992 (wagon concept image shown). Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge ended unit-body (no perimeter frame) large rear drive station wagons in 1978 and smaller V8 rear drive wagons in 1980. General Motors' Chevrolet and Buick divisions produced large full frame V8 powered wagons and sedans through 1996 then they changed the Arlington, TX factory over to trucks. The final class of 1996 Buick Roadmaster station wagons each carry a memorial medallian.

Events and Messages

Product Changes and Supplies

New Brand Jonti-Craft has USA made toys and furniture.
Educator's Resource can get any educational item to you from DurableToys.com
DurableToys.com is now a top level domain of Needak, Inc. DurableToys.com is used in our marketing materials to make our brand image more memorable.
DurableToys.com has qualified as a full-line authorized internet retailer of Kettler products and can display the "HKS" family initials logo. Kettler exclusive directory page.
Our tech section with answers to questions that others may or may not have ever asked continues to grow and receive input - topics like materials and practical solutions; visit.
We have expanded our selection of wood toys to include more horse related items on toylwt.htm: Visit.
Small mostly non- wood Toddler Toys and Baby Highchairs are in a new directory: baby Visit.
Roadmaster (Flèxible Flyèr branded) tricyles and slèds are out of production. A line of Retro Red wheel toys from Radio Flyer replaces some of what was lost. Visit.
We have replaced nearly all RC-Ertl pedal tractors with Scale Model Toys USA made pedal tractors for a larger domestic selection. Parts appear to be interchangable. Visit.
Kettler adds and deletes pedal powered products frequently such as new air tire Kettcars and X-Trac- Visit.
We have some special purchase items, returned items and closout and even collector items that frequently change- check the "Order/Status/Total" button for status using "Manager's Special" category.
You can look at our status when you enter into the Order/Status/Total system- "In Stock", "Low Stock", "Closeout", "Mgr Spl Stock", "Ltd. Offer", "Spec'l Offer" and "Last One" mean we have it here ready for your order.
Pushbars and some small accessories that we have are again sold with or without a new trike purchase as a result of enhanced ability to include or reduce S/H automatically within our online secure order system.

Clearance "Garage Sale"

We sell most exception items as "Manager's Specials" when they are shippable by parcel carriers. Unless a special event is advertized locally there is not a retail outlet at our office or warehouse. Frequently unsaleable or unshippable items are donated locally. We may have items for sale which can't be shipped and are pre sold as catagory "Pickup Only" only for pick up at our location.
Our first priority is to serve all the Needle in a Haystack DurableToys.com first quality customers and your shipped purchases.

This Street Fair Towers Over All

Team DurableToys.com visited "Bridge Day" near Oak Hill, WV. On only one day a year the longest arch bridge in the world becomes the center of a miles long street fair centered 850 feet above the New River Gorge. Three hundred thousand people crowd the 3030 foot (930m) long northbound lanes and a mile or so of approaches while a traffic jam overcomes the remaing two southbound lanes. Over 300 brightly costumed B.A.S.E. (Building, Antenna, Structure ???) jumpers from around the world parachute from the bridge on the one legal day each year. Experienced rock climbers also get a chance to rappel from the bridge but bungee jumping has been disallowed after too many fatal miscalculations. The scheduled date is the third Saturday in October, with great foliage and usually temperate weather up until the 3 PM closing. Now for our analysis. Good policy to prohibit alcohol use with only a minimal railing and big drop along much of the fair. Use your biggest wagon elsewhere than on the bridge due to intense crowding at the bottleneck near the jump platform. Bring a bicycle, stroller or big wagon just to traverse up to three miles from where you can park a car, then possibly leave it locked up at the end of the bridge. Wagons with narrow tires, wheelchairs and strollers can cross the huge metal expansion joints (only 2) on the provided plywood ramps. The downside- the fair is 30 feet wide by 12,000 feet long, and only movement on foot is possible, so it takes forever to see parts of the fair or find something in particular. A child with or in a wagon is less likely to get lost and is safer at traffic crossings. More info at http://newrivergorge.com. See you there.

Did you ever wonder?

We are updating many of our pictures to make them more compatible in two ways. First, we try to match the PC world's standard color pallet in .gifs, so there is less dotty dithering to display a color. Then we attempt to bland out the background so that we have some space for text and so the file compresses better. The smaller, better compressed file will help the page to load faster. Update: We are transitioning new images to .jpg image format as customers continue to upgrade display systems to "high color". These pictures compress better than .gif images with full color and little degradation. Many of our newest products have the picture displayed on a page at half of the image resolution. Then it can be enlarged to full resolution with a click on the image even though no border indicating a link is shown. The "alt" tag will have the word "Enlarge:" visible with a mouse hover over the picture when enlargable.

Hats need to be upsized.

Needak.com (DurableToys.com) was featured in an article in Business Life Magazine in the July 2000 issue. Update: Now called "Bizlife". We thank them for an accurate article which presented the web tech and historical aspects of our business. Editor Kay Meekins, writer Karen T. Earles and photographer Shawn Linehan put it all together.

New Easier Secure Online-Order System

We now have a professional computer programmer coding the more complex systems behind the "toyhow.htm" ordering page. This means that handy devices like a product part no. and description checklist are available along with a number of days (or date) until expected ship date. The status will have few exceptions due to careful data input and complex logic to display a generated (not static) page from our inventory data. Stock data displayed by the system [update:] is now automatcally decremented to show accurate status in real time- each order can trigger a status change. To view the pricelist at any time, just click on the "index" button or through the "How to Order" page (toyhow.htm). We have a privacy policy on toypriv.htm and term of sale on toyhow.htm. Look for an expanded online order form with more purchase item rows accomodating sets of things like tricylces and accessories or big suites of outdoor furniture. In the future, we plan roll out more enhancements that will maintain current privacy standards by not having customer information accessable on any web server. Enjoy.