by Douglas R. Kelly

Tootsietoy’s pre-war bus looks like it stepped right out of a classic 1930s Frank Capra movie.

The Tootsietoy bus came with a tinplate baseplate.

Seems to me it doesn’t get much better than going on a summer vacation. This year, with family and job commitments, mine has been limited to a road trip last month from here in Connecticut out to Ohio to meet up with a friend at the Mid-Ohio racing circuit for the IndyCar weekend. It is a wonderful facility and we had a great time immersing ourselves in the IndyCar culture. And, of course, we found time to hit a couple of antiques places.

You may be familiar with them. The first was Heart of Ohio, in Springfield, billed as the largest antiques center in the U.S. Having spent four to five hours combing through its endless aisles and booths, I have to admit it’s hard to picture anything bigger. Vintage toys were well represented and I was impressed with the overall quality of what was on offer. Sitting on a shelf in a booth that was mostly filled with wooden kitchen chairs and glassware was a pre-World War Two Tootsietoy bus, just under six inches long and in excellent original condition. It sports the word GREYHOUND on both sides and has a tin baseplate that shows a basic outline of a transmission.

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Aside from its condition, what jumped out at me about the bus—which I gather was numbered 1026 in Tootsietoy’s pre-war product line—was that it reminded me of the cross-country bus in the classic 1934 movie, It Happened One Night. The Tootsietoy certainly isn’t a scale model of that bus, but it has a 1930s vibe about it that charms my socks off. It’s easy to picture making a diorama with it, and adding scale figures of Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable standing near the door and arguing while other passengers embark and disembark with their suitcases.

The tires aren’t as yellowed as originals on pre-war Tootsietoys often are, but they are hardened with age. I’d like to think they’re original, but either way they look the business. I paid $33 for the bus, which is a steal for a pre-war Tootsietoy in this condition, and I’m going to display it next to a copy of the It Happened One Night Big Little Book that I have in the toy room.

Wonderful period art on the box for the Hubley Jaguar.

Hubley nailed it with this “Sport Car,” based on the late 1940s-early 1950s Jaguar XK 120.

The green and cream Hubley “Sport Car” came my way in the second antiques emporium we visited in Ohio, the Springfield Antique Center, not far from Heart of Ohio. This place is not as large as Heart of Ohio, which means it’s merely huge, with tons of inventory to explore. In one of the long aisles of locked display cases, a dealer was straightening up his items for sale, and one of his cases was unlocked. I spotted the Sport Car pretty quickly and asked the guy if I could take it out for a closer look. You’ve heard me (or read me) wax rhapsodic about Pennsylvania-based Hubley in these columns in the past, and this toy is a great example of the reason why. A little more than seven inches in length, this one is a simple but beautiful model of the legendary Jaguar XK 120, and I’ve wanted a nice example for a long time. It’s in what I’d call near mint plus condition, although I suspect that the seat insert—nearly always missing on surviving examples—is a repro part.

This one also came in yellow, and in red, and the basic one-piece (no baseplate) construction captures the lines of the 120 beautifully. And what’s not to love about the box art, even if Hubley left off the word Jaguar? This was number 455 in Hubley’s lineup, and it was made in the 1956-1957 range. Like nearly all great toy cars, it combines the charm of a bygone era with a degree of felity to the full-size vehicle. That means a purchase was inevitable; I gladly shelled out $70 for this one, which is a bargain for a larger Hubley with the original box. Once I’ve ironed/pressed the flaps of the box to make them line up better, this Jag will join my other Hubleys for a miniature cruise night. Adding a piece of British royalty to the group will lend the whole thing a bit of class.