René Smith’s TudorCON 14 display of Tudor toys and games. Photo by David Hawkins.

A Tudor Swing Pin game. We’ve never seen one before – not even in a catalog!

Electric Football was created by Tudor President Norman in 1948 and first sold by Tudor in 1949. Yet Tudor has a history that stretches back all the way to 1928, with the company making a number of toys and games long before Electric Football ever became the Tudor trademark. In a addition, Tudor made a lot of different games during the 40 years that Norman Sas was at the helm.

So it was our honor to be across the aisle from the man who is taking care and nurturing Tudor’s legacy beyond Electric Football – Mr René Smith. We couldn’t even begin to count how many Tudor games René brought to TudorCON 14. He had Tudor games that we didn’t even know existed, like this Tudor Swing Pin game. 

René had all the landmark and now very rare games that make up Tudor’s pre-Electric Football vibrating legacy. There was the 1937 Tudor Auto Race Game, which is the First Electric vibrating game ever made, and there was the 1939 Turtle Hunt game. And René had many more contemporary Tudor games, including Snap-Action Hockey and Golf, which were two of Earl’s favorite sick day games back in the mid-1960’s.

Tudor’s late 1930’s Auto Race Game.

René also taught us a thing or two about Electric Football – that’s coming up as a totally separate post.

We absolutely love René. He’s a truly nice guy whose passions for all things Tudor runs deep – maybe deeper than our own.  He had so many games that he rotated his display several times during the weekend!

It was an honor and a pleasure to get a chance to see René’s amazing collection. We’re so glad that he was part of TudorCON 14 – and we’re glad that we were right across the aisle!

Earl & Roddy