Fill ’er Up
By Douglas R. Kelly
Sponsored
May it please the court…I’d like to circle back to a place we started to explore a couple of issues ago (July issue, “Seeing Double”). My January 2026 trip to Pennsylvania to see and experience a friend’s vintage plastic toy collection resulted in several purchases of what can fairly be called rare birds, and I took my time unpacking these acquisitions. The toy we’re going to focus on here made its way out of the Rubbermaid tote in April or May and it’s a honey.
When I spotted this one on my friend’s shelf, I initially thought it was a Louis Marx or maybe an Ideal product. But I certainly didn’t recognize the box, which has the words “Mfg. by T. COHN, INC.” on the back panel. The “Fill ’er Up” car is 4.75 inches in length and sports red plastic tires, and it has two details that peg it as a late 1940s Cadillac. One is the egg-crate-style front grille, and the other is that “kick-up” body curve just ahead of the taillights. Like many early plastic toy cars, this one has both toy-like features and a degree of model-like accuracy.
The case for the toy side is strengthened by the fill and drain feature: the box directs the customer to “fill ’er up” by pouring water (fuel in our world of toys and play) into the hole on the Cadillac’s rear deck. The water flows into a plastic tank underneath the car, and the young driver or mechanic can then drain the water (oil) by pressing down on the spring-loaded valve stem on the engine hood.
It’s a fun feature with good play value, although the box doesn’t explain that draining the water can be thought of as draining the oil. Gee, Doug, can’t you just enjoy art for art’s sake?
This is a well-made toy, and T. Cohn gave it excellent fit and finish. The company may have had help in that department, as Bill Hanlon, in his book Plastic Toys, indicates that Lido Toy Corp., which was based in the Bronx, NY, actually did the molding for T. Cohn. That makes sense as T. Cohn was located not far away, in Brooklyn.
What hooked me with this one (in addition to the original condition) was that the name T. Cohn, Inc. rang no bells at all. I love a mystery, so I started digging for more information on the company. Turned out T. Cohn made a variety of tinplate toys such as service stations, dollhouses, and airports, often using the word “Superior” as part of the names of their products. The company was started by a Tobias Cohn in 1900, and made toys for nearly 70 years before folding in 1968.
A 1954 ad for T. Cohn doesn’t include the words “plastic” or “car.”
Our Fill ‘er Up car likely was made during the early 1950s, and it also came in green and in black. Shortly after I unwrapped it a few months back, I came across a T. Cohn ad in the 1954 Playthings Directory, a toy industry publication produced back in the day by Playthings magazine. A photo of the ad is included here, and the words “plastic” and “car” are nowhere to be found, so the Fill ’er Up car seems to have passed into history by that time.
Douglas R. Kelly is the editor of Marine Technology magazine. His byline has appeared in Antiques Roadshow Insider; Back Issue; Diecast Collector; RetroFan; and Buildings magazines.
