Page 52 - April 2024

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ubleys have been pushing their
way onto my radar screen
Hlately. 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.
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.
Original near-mint or better
examples of the taxi usually sell for
anywhere from $50 to $90, which I see
as a small price to pay for a toy that
rolled right out of dozens of 1940s noir
films. Yes, I know film noir means
black and white movies and the Hubley
taxi came in vivid colors, but it still
somehow gives off that noir vibe. My
orange and black example holds court
among similar plastic toys in one of my
cabinets and I think it’s the bomb.
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
50 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
The Packard taxi is straight out of a 1940s film noir.
Hubley 3.5-inch tow truck.
Although the same size as the tow truck, the sedan has a
considerably thinner and lighter casting.
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.
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.
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. The pair is on
display in our toy room next to an old
Rexall Drug Store sale sign that says,
“On sale today, 2 for 25 cents.” Seems
like that might be about right if I were
walking the aisles of a Rexall in 1938
and spotted these while waiting for
the druggist to mix my bicarbonate
of soda.