Tin Litho Baseball Player

[thecatspajamas]

Can anyone tell me anything about this fella? He stands about 4-3/8" tall to the tip of his bat, and is a single thickness of tin litho (printed both sides). Is it a piece of something larger, a simple hanging decoration, or something else? Is he meant to represent a particular player? (The lack of visible logos makes me think no). Any idea of when he was produced would be helpful too. I see one other seller on eBay who has one listed right now, but he doesn't appear to know any more about it than I do. Thanks in advance for any hints as to this guy's origins!

[murphusa]

It is the batting figure from the vibrating baseball games

[thecatspajamas]

Thanks for the heads-up, Jim. Do you happen to know what the specific name of the game is? I can't seem to find a match, even with the point in the right direction. Sorry if it seems like a trivial thing, but these are the kinds of details that bug me

[murphusa]

Tudor Electronic Baseball Game

[Butch7999]

Just a bit more precisely, Tru-Action Electric Baseball by Tudor Metal Products, 1950-early 1990s.
The tin litho batter shown is in only some 1950s-1960s editions, as the game was redesigned and subtly retitled many times over the years.

[thecatspajamas]

I finally figured that to be the case, after seeing many many of the later versions with the plastic figures. I still haven't found a photo of the early version showing the tin litho players, but did find mention of Tudor and their long-running often-tweaked game in the baseballgames Yahoo group along with some pictures (just not the particular shot of the early year game I was looking for )

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/baseba...66520/pic/list

I'd still like to see a photo of this guy in action, but otherwise, I think this is enough to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks for the help guys!

[Butch7999]

Hi again, Lance -- sorry, s'funny, but we don't have a real good shot of the tin batter properly placed for game play.
Until we have a few minutes to get our game out of the vault and set up, this is the best we can do --
you can see the batter suspended on the front of the backstop at the extreme left of the pic, as well as illustrated on the box lid:

That's a 1950s version titled Tru-Action Junior Baseball Game.

Back at our Forum (thanks for visiting!), you can have a better view of the tin batter (in different uniform)
similarly placed on another version of the game (the photo next to the one you linked):
http://tinyurl.com/b9jjnyp
That's from a circa 1958 Tru-Action Electric Baseball Game.

Over its forty-plus years on the market, Tudor also produced the game as Tru-Action Baseball Game (the original early-1950s versions),
Electric Baseball (several different versions from around 1960 into the 1990s), Jr. League Magnetic Baseball, Magnetic Baseball,
Major League Electric Baseball, and Action Baseball.

[thecatspajamas]

Ah, okay, that makes much more sense now. I didn't realize that the batter shown on the backstop was a separate piece from the backstop itself, and kept looking for something standing on its own (fitted into a slot or somesuch). Thanks for clearing that up!