by Douglas R. Kelly

Hubleys have been pushing their way onto my radar screen lately. Over the years, I’ve more or less pursued the Pennsylvania-based toy maker’s “Real Toys” series toys (“Real Types” in Canada), which it put out in 1960 and 1961, and I’ve been able to put together a good collection of those roughly 1/58 scale die cast cars and trucks. But the Hubley Manufacturing Company, of course, produced an enormous number of toy cars and trucks and frankly, I don’t have the willpower to keep resisting them.

The Packard taxi is straight out of a 1940s film noir.

This became obvious in November, when I bought a six-inch Hubley Packard taxi, a late 1940s toy that just plain looks right despite the fact it’s a simple, one-piece plastic body shell with no baseplate. I already had a superb orange and black example of this one on my shelves, which has only a few of the small chips/scratches in the black paint that surviving examples of this toy nearly always show. But I stumbled across what looked like another great condition example at a show in Pennsylvania, a yellow and black version that I didn’t examine closely enough before handing over the cash. Turned out someone had used a black Sharpie marker to fill in a number of chips and scratches in the black paint and you know me—originality is king in my world, so back to the seller it went and he was kind enough to refund my money.

On the Hook

If the orange tow truck rings a bell, it may be because I wrote about it last year here in Toys from the Attic (“Wishful Thinking,” March 2023). At the time, I described how the wrecker looked a little like an only child wishing for a new friend. It took a while, but I finally found a playmate for it. My wife and I were in New Jersey to visit friends a month or so ago, and we made time for a stop at The Mill Antiques Center in Lafayette, which is housed in a historic old mill. One of the dealers there has an outstanding selection of vintage toys, and I wound up buying several
cool pieces.

One of them is a 3.5-inch Hubley sedan that was made in the late 1930s. It was among the first die-cast toy cars that Hubley made, and, like many Hubleys, is a fairly simple single-piece body. The hardened white rubber tires appear to me to be original, and the car still rolls straight and true on them. What I love about this one are the unmistakable Art Deco lines – check out the sides of the car and that hood … and the sloping grille is the very definition of pre-war automotive design. Although the same size as the orange wrecker, the sedan is quite a bit lighter and thinner as the wrecker is a cast iron toy.

Although the same size as the tow truck, the sedan has a considerably thinner and lighter casting.

Hubley in the late 1930s competed with Tootsietoy and Meccano Dinky Toys. Hubleys tended to be simpler toys at a lower price point than
the competition, and that’s part of their charm for collectors today. I got my wrecker and sedan for what I consider bargain prices, $45 and $30 respectively. In this near-mint original condition, these little guys can bring double those prices, so I was pleased as punch to acquire them.