Today is Fire Engine Friday when we bring you anything that has to do with Fire or Emergency. We have a nice little Ladder Fire Truck - with issues! In Bill Hanlon's excellent book "Plastic Toys Dimestore Dreams of the '40s & '50s" there is a like fire engine with blue ladder credited to 'California Moulders, Inc'. It clearly shows the large open area beneath the ladder as a storage area for another ladder and also shows two firemen figures. Also in the book, there is another photo of the same type fire engine with white ladder and credited as an 'All Metal Products Co' toy. But here's the rub - neither one of these has the separate clear plastic front windshield or clear plastic headlight lenses as shown in our photos. My fire engine has no makers' mark anywhere on it, only "999 U.S.F.D." on each side of the cab. It could be my example is a slightly later variation or perhaps the tooling had been sold to another company. Without seeing the toy in its original packaging we'll probably never know who really made it. Enjoy!
ADDED 7 Nov 2010: Our good buddy Dave states this may in fact be the All Metal Toy Co. and believes they were a part of Wyandotte through merger or something. It would explain why this had been included with the Wyandotte Toy Town Fire Station.
