I have an Islander soprano and the much rarer (I believe) baritone. They were designed by Mario Maccaferri in about 1950. He also designed Django Reinhardt's guitar. They are actually pretty nice instruments. I think they have a nice full sound, and good intonation. Maccaferri moved to the US in the late '30s or early '40s and got really involved with plastics. He designed and marketed plastic reeds for wind instruments, injection molded toothbrushes, and held a patent on a plastic clothespin. He also designed a plastic guitar, but I have only seen photos of that. I think the guitar is pretty collectable. I have a hunch my bari is too, since I have never seen another. They sold about a bazillion of the plastic sopranos, but a lot of them have been bashed to bits by little kids over the past 60 years. They're still pretty common though, so I think you can get one in good shape for not a lot of money. The push-button chord thing SHOULD come right off, unless someone glued it on or something. It was designed to be held on with rubber bands. The one I bought had that thing too, in its original box. Oh, and Arthur Godfrey endorsed them.
