Can You Identify Schwinn's Backwards? A Friendly Challenge

[Goldenrod]

I'll tell you what I know. I am the second owner of this set. They were found and sold from the Schwinn factory in early 1990s? Few people are in these blocks so they were for catalogues? Sorry for the poor quality but they are dark and I did the pictures in full sun. I look at these as a praise of old dead guys that did the best they could with the technology they had. I count forty in the three boxes. Some are floating around so I may have gotten the leftovers but at least these are together. The print set came with them.

pictures but they

 

[GTs58]

Early postwar on a few that had better detailing.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

First, They are a cool Schwinn find.

I don't think they are for catalogs, but "I think" they were for dealer newspaper ads. There's a reason they are done in a negative or reverse image. Dealers use to be able to contact the Schwinn advertising (Ray Caparos did the co-op advertising) department and request images for their local newspaper advertising. The dealers received a "cardboard pressed" image. The image was likely pressed from your master blocks. The dealer worked with the local newspaper ad person, gave them the artwork, and what they wanted advertised, and they put the ad's together.

Later on, the image sheets were just high resolution line art photos that the dealer and the ad person did a "cut and paste". This is also how the dealer Yellow Page ad's were put together.

Just a guess.

John

 

[Goldenrod]

First, They are a cool Schwinn find.

I don't think they are for catalogs, but "I think" they were for dealer newspaper ads. There's a reason they are done in a negative or reverse image. Dealers use to be able to contact the Schwinn advertising (Ray Caparos did the co-op advertising) department and request images for their local newspaper advertising. The dealers received a "cardboard pressed" image. The image was likely pressed from your master blocks. The dealer worked with the local newspaper ad person, gave them the artwork, and what they wanted advertised, and they put the ad's together.

Later on, the image sheets were just high resolution line art photos that the dealer and the ad person did a "cut and paste". This is also how the dealer Yellow Page ad's were put together.

Just a guess.

John

The CABE helps record history! Thanks.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

My favorites are the Cycle Trucks, the Track Bikes, and the Whizzer.

Surprised to see generic models of kids tricycles, and scooter's?

Very nice find.

John

 

[ADKBIKES]

Here's a dealer ad sheet