| Welcome to a visual history of the Metalcraft Corporation of St. Louis. Below, you will find photos of rare and common Metalcraft toy trucks, airplanes and prototypes!
Updating July 2008! New photos of rare trucks coming soon....... FOUND! Metalcraft Buster Brown Shoes Tow Truck, never before documented. See the photo on the Rare Metalcraft Page. The first-issue Metalcraft tow truck, circa Jan. 1931.  Metalcraft also made an early tow truck in 1931 that has a red body/frame and a plain green tow bed, usually no advertising is found on them. Some close-ups of the Metalcraft Waldorf Lager Beer Truck...one of the more elaborate art deco trucks made.   Metalcraft Toy Ad, circa 1932. Note that you could buy 4 spare Goodrich tires on a card!  Pure Oil Truck Box.  An original Metalcraft Toy Town Grocery Truck Box.   The Rare Metalcraft Robin Flyer  Hardy's Salt truck being robbed at gunpoint, circa 1931 FOUND:  c.- Metalcraft truck advertising a cookie & biscuit company; Thomas & Clarke - Peoria, IL. Circa 1932. According to the family, only 2 were produced and they were used as displays in the bakery window in Peoria. See the new Road building set box, below.  Rare White House Stores truck  Forest City Brewery Truck, commonly called the Waldorf Lager Truck. These are the original wood kegs. Eight came with the truck. -The green and red steam shovel that could have gone with the green and red Machinery Hauler. This early shovel was most likely the first steam shovel made and adveritised as being sold separately in 1931. No evidence yet that this shovel may have been sold in late 1930. 
 A Metalcraft Road building Set has been FOUND!   Metalcraft Spirit of St. Louis  What is it? It is the Metalcraft Crayon that came in the large Spirit of St. Louis sets (usually missing or found used)  The Red Logo truck. A rarer variation than the typical green. This truck appears to have come before the green version and has thicker wheels. It most likely dates to the very early months of 1931.  Very rare Palmolive truck Courtesy of the Greg Hostetler Collection.  Logo from the First Prize Albany Meats truck. An Art deco version truck. FOUND: Two NEW variations in the last series of Art deco-style Metalcraft trucks.  'New England Stores'. It has dummy headlights and solid rubber wheels.  The very last year may provide some of the toughest Metalcraft trucks to find, with limited production. The 'Red Bird Special' also fits this style, but with different fonts.  Goodrich Prototype from the files of Al Korte, the designer. Photo copyright Andrew Tolch Collection Circa 1934. Never made, except for a partial prototype.   Two variations exsist of the PLEE-ZING Tow truck; a short visor and a long visor version.  A rare and desirable Heinz variation, the fore-runner to the more elaborate Heinz Pickle Truck with rubber tires.  Early Pleezing Tow truck, circa 1931-1932.  Rare blank side truck, probably sold at local dime stores and hardware stores when an ad contract fell-through. Although all variations without advertising on them are rare, a few other color combos have popped up most using the color orange.  A hard to find TAG SOAP Steam shovel. There is also a Forbes Coffee and a CW Coffee Steam shovel.  A rare truck, in a series that came out for Christmas 1931, in the Philadelphia area only. The wheels on the trucks from this series were painted. As far as we know this is the only two-toned cab truck that Metalcraft made. Courtesy of the Andy Ourant collection. Some possible variations that we have no photos of (If you have a photo of any of these please let me know): Late-style Art Deco Hardy's Salt, Empire Grocery truck, Buster Brown box truck, (an Art Deco Buster Brown?), Red Diamond Coffee....the search continues....happy hunting! Highest price paid for a Gold Bond Coffee, a WeatherBird Shoes, Buster Brown Shoes or a Hardy's Salt Art deco truck! |