All About Vintage Tonka Toy Trucks.

Friday 30 July 2010 - Filed under Antiques and Collectibles

The toys manufactured in the 19th century which were modelled after the then existing fire trucks visibly depicted the developments in the fire department. Like the full-size versions, the first miniatures were quite rough. Fallow’s manufactured a toy fire truck pumper of stenciled tinplate that was just than two barrels attached at right angles — very simple and rough. Early fire fighting toys by Brown and Ives were just as primitive. It was only in the late 1800’s that the fire-fighting trucks and gear became morerefined . Ives manufactured a matching set of 5 forged iron fire vehicles — pumper, hose carriage, hook and ladder truck, fire patrol, and chief’s wagon. Other major producers of fire-fighting toys were Carpenter, Hubley, and Pratt & Letchworth. Horse-drawn fire-fighting toys continued to be manufactured well after 1900, although by then most communities had converted to collectible automotive vehicles.

 

The most different types of antique toy fire trucks come from a line of forged iron toys vehicles. Thousands of types of makers existed, yet these were the very last forged iron playthings to appear on the market. The manufacture of the cast iron fire wagons finally ceased in the early 1900s.

Also commonly used were such highly specialized vehicles as antique fire engines and police cars, trolleys, motorcycles, racing cars, and even collectible sprinkler trucks from the city streets.

The pumper was marketed as Fire Engine in a Hubley catalogue of 1922, when full-size pumpers were drawn by motor vehicles rather than horses. An amalgamation of a classic 19th-century-style fire truck pumper or other piece of fire-fighting equipment with a truck body manufactured by Hubley and other manufacturers was extremely famous as it looked almost like the vehicles used by fire fighters of the those days. These are even now highly prized vintage collectibles today.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fire patrol wagon transported members of the company and tools like buckets to the scene of a fire. At other times, when no crisis threatened, it carried fire-fighters on rounds, implementing fire laws in their district.

Given below are some of the noted Manufacturers of Collectible Fire Trucks and Toys

Dent Hardware Co. — Henry H. Dent formed the Company in 1895, and produced his first cast-iron toys in 1898. The firm initially made horse-drawn fire wagons (fire trucks to you and me), then followed them up with many versions of other vehicles. Die-cast toys slowly replaced the cast iron ones in the early 1900’s.

Hubley Company — Established by John Hubley in about 1894, the Hubley Company produced cast iron toys. Its earliest products were trains and trolleys powered by live steam, electricity, or spring mechanisms, but they soon also added horse-drawn fire trucks and wagons in the 1920s. By 1940 Hubley had transformed into the world’s leading manufacturer of cast-iron toys. Hubley gradually switched to die-cast toys made of a zinc alloy owing to rising freight costs and overseas competition.

Kenton Lock Manufacturing Co. — Kenton Lock Manufacturing Co. was established in the the first part of 1800’s and in 1894 became the Kenton Hardware and started producing cast-iron toys. Horse-drawn vehicles, fire engines, nodding toys, and comic strip characters were some of the best known toys of the company. Kenton also used the trade name “Kentontoys”.

At VintageToyTrucks.org, you will find tons of information about vintage toy truck , vintage toy fire trucks, and vintage fire trucks.

2010-07-30  »  Admin