To alleviate confusion in this thread, a few additions to this older thread [
http://net54baseball.com/showthread....+american+game ]:
The Frantz Manufacturing Company was founded in 1909, producing building hardware. They began to specialize in garage hardware
around 1920 (the company is still in operation today).
The company diversified into the production of wooden toys sometime around World War I.
The Great American Game ~ Baseball --
essentially a 1923 reworking of the circa 1919-20
Play Ball ~ The Great American Game by Evan L Reed Mfg Co -- was one of
their first efforts at mechanical toys.
The game was designed by Leonard Kroff, who applied for patent in 1920. Kroff and Frantz founder Peter Frantz were together granted
a second patent for the game in 1925.
Hustler Toy was a division of Frantz Manufacturing, not a different company.
With the success of
Great American and other Frantz toys, Frantz created the Hustler division in 1925 to differentiate their toy line
from their building equipment and garage hardware lines.
In our opinion, it would be arbitrary and inaccurate to classify "four different versions" of the game.
The differences between the Frantz and Hustler versions of
Great American are many, and mostly subtle --
a blue scoreboard printed on the tin litho playing field in the earlier editions, replaced by a crowd of spectators in later editions,
a wide variety of color combinations for the border and cowling throughout the production run into at least the late 1920s,
and several variations in both the box graphics and the Hustler sticker.
The "Frantz Garage Hardware" sign appears on the left-field wall on all Frantz and Hustler editions. Eric ("spooky") may have confused
the 1919 Evan L Reed game or the 21st-century Schylling repro editions with the Frantz/Hustler versions in claiming otherwise,
unless he's discovered some rare variation we've never seen.
Because of its long production run, its popularity in its day, and its sturdy construction, examples of
Great American
are still relatively plentiful today. Examples in decent condition typically sell in the $50.-$150. range, and of course
poorer examples can be had for less. The original box is a tougher find, and examples which include a box in decent shape
range around $200.-$250., while pristine examples have flirted with $400.