Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Ohhh...how i miss brick and mortar stores

Great story Ben, thanks for sharing!

Guess you´re right about Jensens...
It´s a relatively small business, and especially after Weeden and Empire´s closed up, there was no way the shelves could be filled by American made steam toys.
Wilesco by comparison is HUGE, and could much faster whip up an extra 100 engines, if a department store suddenly needed a refill for Christmas or similar.
If you go by old ads, it shines through there as well, as there´s loads of Wilescos pictured in ads from the 1950´s to 60´s, from nearly every department and toy store in the US, before one encounters a Jensen.