Old, Weird, Historical, and Unusual Spinning Reels --

[Paul Roberts]

Very cool interesting collections, Paul. And for wonderful reasons. Love it! Great addition to this site too. If I ever run across a Reelcat I'll let you know.

[Paul9591]

Really like the looks of the Vamp reels. A metal handle-knob? They "look" well made. Except, of course, for the absence of a line roller. Gonna guess that good functioning line roller is expensive to make. Think of how much line runs through something that small in diameter. Plus the bearing part(s) should be pretty water resistant.
Did "the House of Hardy" ever make any spinning reels?

Yes, those Vamp reels are really cool, and (to answer your question) like the Hardy Altex in some ways, a little more quirky perhaps than the Hardy, though ultimately, I believe the Altex to be a more hand crafted reel.
The French Mepps Vamp handle knob seems to be a kind of hard plastic, but I may be wrong; it is certainly quite robust.

Re: Hardy Spinning reels continued.

Hardy also made the Exalta and a more basic model called the Hardex (not sure if they made any other spinning type reels?

This is my own Hardy Altex No2 MkV.

[Paul9591]

Very cool interesting collections, Paul. And for wonderful reasons. Love it! Great addition to this site too. If I ever run across a Reelcat I'll let you know.

Very kind of you Paul, thank you.

[Midway Tommy]

A bit odd in some respects, but fairly well known reels that I have in my collection.
Certainly Mepps has to be fairly high up on the quirky list, moreso the Super Meca, but I don't have one of those yet, so I've posted my 1936 Baby Vamp and 1950..ish Super Vamp,

Here's the Super Meca breakdown. It's quite an interesting reel to dig into. 

[Paul Roberts]

That Super Meca is an amazing machine. I remember them from years ago and always thought they were the coolest looking reel. Hats off to you for tackling it and sharing it. It's a reel that begs for a tutorial.