Last week, there was an auction on Ebay for one of the Sparkling Star circus wagons, it was the swan bandwagon. I bid, and won the auction. It arrived on Saturday, and I have spent several hours over the weekend looking it over and cleaning up flashing. This is a truly craftsman kit - white metal parts, a large wood block, laser cut wood parts, and a brass wood screw to let the front axle pivot. And it is unpainted, so that will be hours of touch-up fun. But it will be a great addition to my circus train!
This got me to wondering what happened to Sparkling Star Models. I did some basic searching, and had some hits on recent posts on the Circus Model Builders Facebook page. I joined the page out of curiosity. There is a lot of activity there, but mostly HO and O scale. And larger scales too. Lots of great pictures of various projects, lots of helpful comments, similar to Railwire, but on Facebook. (Facebook is useful after all!) I did find a note from a guy that showed some new wagons, and the note said that it was a continuation of the Sparkling Star brand. And there was an email address for more questions. orders@scalefigures.com I immediately sent an email, and got a response! See below. I placed an order for some more wagons by email, and got an immediate response. I called him to give my credit card, and we had a good chat. Apparently there are three partners for Sparkling Star, and the partner that is in charge of the website has been in poor health for a while. The website is basically dormant, and needs to be updated. But Allen has all of the inventory, and seemed a little surprised when I asked if they are still in business. Of course they are! He confirmed that they have "plenty" of inventory of all of the circus wagons, in all of the scales. He agreed to let me post about this, with his contact info. If you want his cell number, send me a PM, otherwise, use one of the email addresses.
Please Note: Allen said that he will be leaving for a vacation later this week, and will have limited communication until after April 12. Then he is back full time.
Dan Metzger
Note from Allen, proprietor of Sparkling Star Models:
Fun & Games (
www.scalefigures.com) has always been a part owner in Sparkling Star Models (SSM).
A few years ago health issues hit my other two partners, and i have been trying to get things squared away. I have always done the shipping for SSM, i have all the stock here at my location (central Missouri).
We have a web page, and you can see the first seven N scale wagons at:
www.sparklingstarmodels.comHowever, viewing is all you can do on the web page. Nothing else on the web page works or functions.
All contact concerning Sparkling Star Models should be made right here, with me. Other contact information is my cell phone: (redacted - PM me if you need it - Dan M)
The complete kits in N scale are:
N SCALE $24,95 each
CWN 1 Swan Bandwagon
CWN 2 Ringling Snake Den #20
CWN 3 Hagenbeck-Wallace Cage 324
CWN 4 Gollmar Mirror Bandwagon
CWN 5 United States Bandwagon
CWN 6 Sells Floto Cage #19
CWN 7 Ringling Bell Wagon
The following N Scale kits are not complete kits. They contain the metal parts and the plastic wheels only.
CWN 8 Barnum & Bailey Tableau Den $15,00
CWN 9 Old Woman in the Shoe $12.50
Shipping is $5.00 for two kits, $7.50 for 3 to 5 kits, and $10.00 for 6 or more kits.
We take PayPal, all major credit cards, and occasionally cash or check
If i can answer any questions, please feel free to contact me at this email address. pollocka@mchsi.com or orders@scalefigures.com
Regards,
