Vacor de Mexico (Mexico, 1930s to present):
Vacor de Mexico is a Mexican manufacturer of marbles. The company began operations sometime in the 1930s and today is one of the largest, if not the largest, manufacturer of marbles in the world. Their marbles are marketed under a variety of imaginative names: Pirate, Galaxy, Meteor, Galacticas, Silver, Agate. They are readily identifiable based on two features. First, the marbles tend to have an oily or iridescent sheen to them. Second, the glass tends to have ripples and creases in the surface. These marbles have little value to collectors.
European Machine Made Marbles (1930's to present):
Machine-made marbles that were manufactured in Europe have begun to be identified by collectors. There are several types of marbles that have been positively identified as coming from Europe. The first is the foreign sparkler. These have appeared in two versions. The faded pastel foreign sparkler, and a more colorful foreign sparkler. The faded pastel type appears to be of more recent vintage than the brighter type, and appears to have been made by a different manufacturer.
Another type of European marble is a Wire Pull. These have been found in a multitude of sizes, base colors and wire colors. It is almost certain that they were manufactured in West Germany, possibly in the 1960s.
A marble referred to as the spaghetti swirl appears to be from the same manufacturer as the Wire Pull. These have been found with groups of Wire Pulls. They are found in transparent colored base with opaque swirls or opaque base with transparent swirls.
Recently, a marble similar to the Christensen Agate striped transparent and striped opaque has been identified as originating from Germany.
The only other machine-made marbles known to have been manufactured in Europe are a small group of corkscrew-style marbles that were made in Czechoslovakia. This small group was found in Europe, and were supposedly manufactured in the 1930s. There were two different types found. One is a corkscrew type that is transparent clear on one side and transparent vaseline yellow on the other. The other is a corkscrew consisting of tiny pieces of colored glass (like Guinea flecks) in transparent clear. Both types were only found in 5/8' size.