Ideal Fire Truck - Blue

Today's Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday offering is somewhat of a repeat. Back in October of last year, and then again this past March, Toys & Stuff featured the Red and Silver versions of this little 1950s era gem. Today we'll look at the blue version - with red wheels vs. black wheels as found on the previous two entries. Ideal made these in a number of colors, red and silver appearing to be the most common. These were made from 1951-1954 and measure 3 3/4" (9.5cm) L. I'm always on the look out for other color variations, so until then - Enjoy!

NOSCO Plastics #6386 Fire Engine and Siren

Today is Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday on Toys & Stuff and here is a nifty toy dating from 1949 and made into the early 1950s - the NOSCO plastic Fire Engine with Siren. Believe it or not NOSCO Plastics started life as the National Organ Supply Company in 1920 selling metal organ pipes and other organ supplies. The NOSCO Plastics Division was founded as an off-shoot in 1935 when the owner realized the future lay in plastics. How right he was! 

Our featured toy is one of the nicer hard plastic fire engines of the era and measures 8" (20.3cm) L x 3" (7.6cm) W x 2 1/2" 6.4cm) H. It's equipped with a white hard plastic ladder which rotates and raises, although there is no extension to it  It comes with a separate oversize spade and ax in yellow hard plastic and six firemen figures; three seated and three standing. The bell, siren, and fire extinguisher are separate castings as well. The box art depicts three seated and three standing firemen but my toy came with two seated firemen in yellow hard plastic and four standing firemen in white hard plastic. I believe that my set is all original as the spade and ax were still in their cellophane wrapping (albeit very dried up/brittle and ready to fall apart) and the box showed little wear. It's not unusual for companies to make substitutions on the production line in the case of shortages. The fire engine has a combination friction motor, siren mechanism underneath the front wheels. but my  example really didn't sound very impressive. 

The one really unusual feature of this toy are the firemen. They are all done in flat profile versus fully rounded figures and they plug into any of the myriad slots located all around the fire engine. What I imagine would have been frustrating to a youngster wanting to 'play fireman' is the inability to stand the figures up on their own as a result of the tabs sticking below their feet! But then, as now, there would have been plenty of separate sale firemen figures to choose from in stores. Still, it's a terrific toy from a bygone era and for the Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle toy collector I consider it one of the essentials. Enjoy!

Ideal # 1-1900 Ambulance

Toys & Stuff was fortunate enough to pick up this vintage Ideal Ambulance, a perfect fit for Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday's. The number molded underneath the vehicle is '1-1900' but what is unusual is that the number '9' was clearly molded backwards :-)  Compared to today's toys, the ambulance is rather plain-Jane but for those of us who grew up in the '50s this would have been just fine. The vehicle itself is little more than a hard plastic white panel van with black wheels and a red cross on the roof but is representative of the real-life ambulances of the time which were in fact modified vans versus today's purpose built vehicles. Back on on August 26 Toys & Stuff featured a small Ideal fire truck measuring 3 5/8" (9.2cm) L. This ambulance is larger at 5" (12.7cm) L and twice as high. Size-wise it would look just right next to Hasbro's 'Fearless Firemen' burning building (see the 17 Oct 2010 post) but would overpower the dinky fire engines that came with that set. This ambulance is a great toy from a simpler time. Enjoy!

Auburn #524 Rescue Vehicle - Army

Today on Fire Engine and Emergency Vehicle Friday, Toys & Stuff re-engages with an old friend - Auburn. This past week I was lucky enough to acquire what many refer to as the Army version of the #524 Rescue truck. It is a medium olive green and would certainly work well as an Army vehicle but I've not seen any advertising or catalog that specifically mentions it as Army - or at least I haven't noticed! It has one unusual feature - there is no hint whatsoever of the silver detailing normally found on the windows, grills, bumpers, etc. This may have been a cost cutting feature or maybe it was indeed meant to be an Army truck and was felt that the silver detailing detracted from that look. In any case, there isn't anything that I could detect to show it was ever applied. Hmmmm. Oh well, it's a cool addition to the Auburn Fire Truck collection. Enjoy!