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Real Vintage Toy Trucks For Sale.

The gradual development of the fire department during the 19th century was clearly seen in toys designed on the same lines as the trucks and vehicles used by the early volunteer fire fighting companies. Similar to the full-size versions, the first miniatures were pretty rudimentary. Fallow’s manufactured a toy fire truck pumper of stenciled tinplate that was just than two barrels attached at right angles — very basic and rudimentary. Early fire fighting toys by Brown and Ives were similarly crude. It was only in the late 1800′s that the fire-fighting trucks and equipment became morecomplicated . Complete sets of fire fighting equipment were also released into the market by Ives. They included , hose carriage, hook and ladder truck, fire patrol, and chief’s wagon. Carpenter, Hubley, and Pratt & Letchworth were considered to be the major producers of fire-fighting toys. Horse-drawn fire-fighting toys continued to be made well after 1900, although by then most communities had converted to collectible automotive vehicles.

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

Also widespread 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 advertised as Fire Engine in a Hubley catalogue of 1922, when full-size pumpers were drawn by motor vehicles rather than horses. A combination of a classic 19th-century-style fire truck pumper or other piece of fire-fighting equipment with a truck body produced by Hubley and other makers was very famous as it looked almost like the vehicles used by fire fighters of the those days. Till date these are considered to be highly prized vinatage collectibles.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fire patrol wagon carried members of the company and equipment like buckets to the scene of a fire. The fire wagons carried firemen on rounds, enforcing fire laws in their district where no emergency threatened.

Few of the More Well-known Makers of Collectible Fire Trucks and Toys

Dent Hardware Co. — Henry H. Dent established 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 forged 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 developed into the world’s leading manufacturer of forged iron toys. Hubley slowly switched to die-cast toys made of a zinc alloy due to escalating freight costs and international competition.

Kenton Lock Manufacturing Co. — Kenton Lock Manufacturing Co. was founded in the the first part of 1800′s and in 1894 became the Kenton Hardware and begun making 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 trucks, vintage toy fire trucks, and vintage toy trucks for sale.

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