Tootsie Tuesday!

No, not Tootsie Rolls, silly. Tootsie Toys!  (Or, if you prefer, Tootsietoys!)  Tootsie Rolls are yummy, though.

I found a dealer with a stash of late 60's and early 70's Tootsie Toy diecast cars at the big flea recently.  The price was really good, so I bought all he had.  I told him I was going to go home and "be eight years old for an afternoon."

They're bigger than your average Matchbox car-type toy, and there were quite the variety.  Some of them had been played with quite a bit and lost a lot of paint, while others were in pretty good shape.  There are some generic "trucks" and "cars" but there are also some specific vehicles like this police van, which is one of my favorites.

There's also a SWAT van!

Most of them have a metal chassis that's snapped on to a plastic undercarriage.  They all have dates, ranging from 1967-1971, stamped on the bottom.  All of them are also marked "Made in the USA."

The Tootsietoy company has been around for quite a while, according to Wikipedia.  I was kind of surprised to see that they are still around, but most of their toys are now made overseas.  I also found this really awesome site with lots of pics of older toys from the company.

Crooked sticker, but it's in otherwise perfect shape!

I had a lot of Matchbox cars (a couple of cases full) when I was a kid, but I probably also had quite a few of these as well.  I can't say for sure, because of the great purge that cost me most of my childhood toys and comics.  I always liked things with details like labels and stuff.  These would have really excited eight year old me, for sure.

Fuel truck

My favorite one is this little oddball car with the big, sweet smile.

Wish I had some people to put in this one.

It's all metal, except for the wheels, which is the way all older Tootsie cars were made.  I bet those holes would fit whatever Tootsie's version of the classic Fisher Price Little People was, and probably the Little People too.  You know how kids are.  I certainly would not have cared that I had one company's people riding in another company's car!