Doing The Rounds

If there’s an alternate me in a parallel universe, he may just be a  milkman doing his rounds in a Divco milk truck. Not that I’m a fan of milk, particularly. It’s the Divco model U delivery truck of the 1940s and 1950s that has always pushed my button. It was a classic snub-nose design that was used all over the U.S. to deliver milk, eggs, butter, cream, and other products needed by American families.

I haven’t ridden in a Divco—yet—but my dad did when he helped a friend in Bergen County, NJ, make dairy deliveries in 1948 and 1949. Lucky dog.

Oddly for such an iconic symbol of American transportation, few toy makers produced Divcos back in the day. Plenty of die-cast and plastic models have been made for adult collectors in the last 25 years, but I’m aware of just a handful of vintage Divcos: pressed steel versions made by Keystone and Kingsbury during the 1950s; a tinplate version made in Japan, also 1950s; and a plastic 1:25 scale version made by AMT, likely also in the 1950s.

All of these sell for big dollars on the rare occasions that they turn up, so none have made it into my collection (yet). But I’ve managed to acquire a few close cousins over the years. The “Sunshine Dairy” delivery van is a 4-7/8-inch plastic number made by Michigan-based Wyandotte in the early 1950s, and it sports a strong friction motor driving the rear wheels. I understand it also was made as a diaper service delivery van with “Dy-Dee Wash” stamped on the sides. Before coming across the example pictured here, I’d seen a couple of other Sunshine vans, but they were pretty worn and battered. Then this one appeared on the table of a dealer at a show in Richmond, VA about 15 years ago, in perfect original condition with its complete original box. I decided pretty quickly that I’d pay whatever the asking price was, which was in the $150 range.

But as I was set up and selling old toys at the show too, I offered to work a trade with the dealer: pick out two or three items in my booth that you’d like and we’ll see if we can close the deal. He chose a couple of things that I’d had for sale for some time, but which he thought he could make money on, and just like that, I was in the Sunshine Dairy business.

It’s far from rare, but finding one in top condition is a challenge, and the original box even more so, especially with all of its flaps intact. I love the thing, with its mid-century vibe and clean design, and it really looks like the business in my display case.

The green plastic International van surfaced on eBay 8 or 9 years ago, and I was smitten. It’s 6 1/2 inches in length and when you turn the rear wheels backward, the interior tray backs slowly out of the rear of the van, ready to be loaded up for delivery. It was made in the late 1950s by Product Miniature Company in Milwaukee and was intended to be used as a promotional model for sales of the full-size vehicle.

Like the Wyandotte, it sort of echoes the look of a Divco truck. Thankfully, because it’s made of a more brittle plastic, it doesn’t suffer from warping of the body the way some promos do. But it’s a little on the delicate side, especially the tray mechanism, so it often turns up with broken parts. It’s a simple design but also a pretty accurate depiction of a 1950s International truck. Next time you watch an Audrey Hepburn or Jack Lemmon movie of that era, keep an eye out as you’re likely to see one of these running around in the background.

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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.

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