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Simpson Derby Confection Vendor

R. D. Simpson Co., Columbus, OH, c. 1940, 15 ¹/₂". This is a combination game and vendor---almost a trade stimulator, but I don't collect trade stimulators so it must be a vendor, right? Proof-positive evidence for that lies in the name: Derby Confection Vendor, not Derby Confection Trade Stimulator or Derby Confection Counter Game. Trade-stim guys might like this model, but it belongs in a vending guy's hands.

The way it works is this: You put a penny into the slot, pull the lever all the way forward and to the left (which dispenses the goods into the chute), and then let the lever go. It springs back to the right and slams against the body, which always scares the hell out of me---each time I do it I half-expect the lever to snap off and continue its rearward trajectory. I flinch every time I run a penny through, so I don't run many. The backward momentum of the vending wheel after it's released causes the horsies to circle left to right until one stops in the winner's circle. The decal promises no prize for guessing which horse will do that, and indicates clearly that this is for "amusement only," so I'm sure no one ever bet on which horse would win the next race.

This model is a pain in the ass to work with. To change the globe you need to remove the horsies or loosen them and push them together so the globe can pass over them. If you do that, then be extra-careful to not scratch the decal. In addition, the mechanism is tempermental and if it's not adjusted just right then the horsies won't turn smoothly or won't stop where they should. I don't know the sales history of this model, but I wouldn't be surprised if sales were good for first orders and then fell sharply for reorders. Once vendors learned how ill-designed this was for real-life usage, I'd imagine that most decided it was more hassle than it was worth. This is not a rare machine but it's uncommon, and that could be the reason.

I know of three versions of this model, which I think (but don't know for sure) appeared chronologically:

The last and most common in the series is the one on the left. It's made of aluminum and has Derby Confection Vendor embossed around the lid. The horses run until their inertia is no longer strong enough to raise a notched aluminum piece that gets knocked upward by a horse's metal rod as it passes beneath that notched aluminum piece. At that point the horses stop running, hopefully with one horse centered in front. Given the initial slap of the lever against the body and the subsequent noise of the metal rods knocking against the notched aluminum "brake" as they spin, this is a loud machine---it's not one you'll want to demonstrate to your friends while the rest of the family is sleeping.
This version was available in a gum or bulk version, with the gum version being considerably scarcer than the bulk version even though the only difference between them is a gumball adapter that attached to the normal bulk vending wheel.
The middle version in the series is the one pictured on the right. It has a cast iron base but everything else about the machine's construction and mechanism is the same as the aluminum version. The lid is painted but it's aluminum and is the same style at that on the left machine. I couldn't tell if the example pictured above is a bulk vendor or a gumball vendor; it looked like it could vend gumballs if they're the right size, but I didn't have any small enough to test that theory.
The earliest version is not shown, not because I have one and want to be all secretive about it, but because I ain't got one. This early version has a cast iron base like the one pictured above right, but instead of an embossed aluminum lid it has a cast iron lid and marquee that are the same style as that on the Simpson 1-2-3. The marquee is pictured on the example shown on page 174 of Silent Salesmen Too, which is how I know it says "Derby Confection Vendor."
The mechanism on this earliest version is also different, which in my opinion is what sets it apart from the version pictured above right. Instead of a notched aluminum piece stopping the horses, a magnet was used to slow and then eventually stop them. I've seen this version in action only once, and the horses spun more smoothly and without the clackety-clack of the later versions.
I tend to think of this earliest version as scarcer than the other cast iron version, but after I bought the one above at the November 2022 Chicagoland show, I overheard some friends talking about it and their comments suggested that both are about equally available and are much scarcer than the aluminum version. I was offered one of these earliest versions a looong time ago on a Friday morning in the parking lot of the Chicagoland show. I passed because I thought it was overpriced and I figured another one would come along later at a better price. I still think it was overpriced but the guy sold it in short order after that and so far my "later" hasn't come, so what do I know? Comparing the two cast iron versions, I like the detail on the embossed aluminum lid of the one pictured above but like the magnets on the earliest one, and marquees are always good.

Silent Salesmen Too gives this model's patent date as 1940. Given the United States' entry into World War II in late 1941 and the retooling of non-essential industry for the war effort, I suspect that the cast iron version is pre-WWII and the aluminum version is post-war. I don't know that for sure, but the hypothesis is consistent with everything I know about this particular vendor and the fact that I know of only one cast iron vendor---Victor's Sidewinder---that was post-WWII.

Two more comments about the aluminum version:

Unlike most aluminum vendors that you can find in a wide range of patinas, most aluminum Derbies I've seen have been pretty shiny. They may not have been buffed last week, but they don't have the rich patina that, say, a Bluebird often has. I've never figured out why, but the example pictured above is one of the very few I've seen with a nice older patina.
Reliable sources have told me that a cache of these in NOS condition was found in the mid- to late-1980's. After it was found, prices on Derbies went down, stabilized at the lower lever for several years, and then started climbing again.

The examples pictured above are 100% original. I bought the aluminum machine from a friend, who'd bought it on ebay from someone who'd bought it at an estate sale for cheap money. That history---especially the "cheap money" on the original sale---means that it hadn't gone through a collector's hands until my friend owned it. When he bought it on ebay it was covered with decades of surface dirt but was otherwise in good condition. My friend merely wiped down the outside, lubed moving parts and adjusted the mechanism (see "pain in the ass" above), and set it on a shelf. I got it from him in that condition. This is one of the few I've seen with an old gray patina, and I like it much better because of that.

Note that the lid and gate have darkened more than the other pieces have. I've seen that phenomenon on other aluminum vendors that I knew had not been fiddle-futzed with, so when you see it it doesn't necessarily mean that a collector has swapped parts around. I guess it could mean that a vendor swapped parts years ago, but if so then it happened before the first collector got hold of it and in my opinion doesn't degrade from the machine's desirability.

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