Antique Hubley “America” Tri-Motor Cast Iron Toy Airplane and an Original 1912 Moonlight Dreadnought Lure
by Jessica Kosinski
$1,825 (Bids 73, Bidders 21) Antique Hubley “America” Tri-Motor cast iron toy airplane 1920s. “Giant 100 year old cast iron airplane. Nice original airplane in excellent condition. 17” wingspan.”
JK: The seller had surprisingly little to say about this toy airplane, but that doesn’t matter. Collectors know the Hubley name and the rarity of this large toy airplane. It caught the attention of almost two dozen bidders for multiple reasons.
John Hubley founded Hubley Manufacturing Co. in 1892. It was based in Lancaster, PA
and quickly became known for cast iron toy production. Although, the company also made other products like bookends and doorstops in those early days.
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Hubley toys consisted mainly of trains of various types in the early days. Some were powered by steam or springs. Others ran on electricity. Hubley also made similar toy trolleys around that same time. As those became popular, Hubley’s product lines expanded to include cap guns, banks, motorcycles, cars, and wagons.
Between the 1920s and the early 1940s, Hubley Manufacturing Co. expanded even more. There were toy kitchen appliances, and many more toys. Model trucks became their most popular products leading up to World War II. Unfortunately, the war caused shortages and other problems that led to a switch to die-cast toy production. Eventually, Hubley also began producing plastic toys. But it’s the pre-war cast iron Hubley toys like this great airplane that tend to attract the most attention from Hubley collectors.
Various auction houses and toy collecting sources list conflicting information as far as when the Hubley “America” model was first produced. Most actually say it was in the 1930s, but some say a few may have been produced in the late 1920s. In either case, there was an obsession with aviation around that time, which made them quite popular.
Their popularity has only increased nearly a century later. The specific plane auctioned here probably attracted so many bidders partially due to the Hubley name. However, it is also one of the largest cast iron model planes ever produced by a toy company from that time period, which makes it fun for aviation enthusiasts to collect. Its condition is also fantastic for its age, considering the rubber tires on most models wore out, and many also wind up with a lot more paint loss than this one had. Then there are the fun details, which give a lot of Hubley toys that little something special. In this case, those include the attached pilot and co-pilot.
$3,950 (Bids 92, Bidders 20) RARE VINTAGE ORIGINAL Moonlight Bait Co The Dreadnought wood fishing lure WOW!
“100 percent original 1912 moonlight dreadnought lure from the Wenze collection.”
JK: As was the case with the Hubley plane, the seller of this fishing lure did not have much to say about it. What was said also was not especially helpful. The use of the phrase “from the Wenze collection” implies that a private collector had the lure for some period of time, but the seller did not mention anything else about who that collector was or the history of the collection.
What is worth noting is that fishing enthusiasts and collectors love many different early fishing lures. Often, they sell on websites like eBay for $1,000 or more. For example, a vintage wood CC Roberts Mud Puppy fishing lure sold for more than $1,500 on eBay on September 9, 2025.
Lures in their original boxes often sell for higher amounts. Some can surpass $5,000 if they are in good condition.
Lure lore has it that the Moonlight Bait Co. began with the Moonlight Bass Club. The club was founded in 1906 in Michigan by a group of friends who loved to fish. Two years later, members Horace Ball and Charles Varney founded the Moonlight Bait Co. Supposedly, it was Mr. Ball who shared his wooden lures with the club members and eventually created the designs sold by Moonlight Bait Co. with help from Mr. Varney.
By 1923, Moonlight Bait Co. and Silver Creek Novelty Works merged. The company became Moonlight Bait and Novelty Works Co. Then, before the end of the decade, Paw Paw Bait Company bought them out. Both of those changes brought their own sets of interesting fishing lures. However, collectors tend to love the early Moonlight Bait Co. lures like this Dreadnought the most.
The Dreadnought itself was only produced for a short time. It “attacked” the surface of the water like a battleship, which is why it got its name. The large wooden plug was designed to create a big disturbance. The point was to cause predatory fish to think smaller fish were gathering there.
An issue with early lures like the Dreadnought is that they are often copied. Reproductions are everywhere, but this one was clearly original and easy to identify for the 20 bidders who battled over it. One reason is that it clearly had paint wear. Reproductions often have perfect paint jobs. The hardware is also a clear indication that it is original. For example, original screw eyes were brass. Reproductions often use stainless-steel screw eyes.
Of course, not everyone knows how to tell an original from a reproduction. Bidders who couldn’t tell if the lure was original or not based on the photographs may have relied heavily on the reputation of the seller. A perfect feedback history and a specialization in fishing tackle sales make this seller more reliable than a random person posting a single auction.
Jessica Kosinski has been a freelance researcher and writer since 2001. She developed a passion for 1980s pre-1980s TV and films as a kid, and she has never grown out of it. Recently, she turned that passion into a retro TV and film blog. Follow along with her at medium.com/@jkos_writing, as she dives deep into the characters, actors, quirks, and trivia that brought us some of the greatest films and shows in TV history and also discusses some of the more obscure films and shows most of us may have forgotten.
