Colin asked me the other day if i was familiar with Al-Toys. I had to admit I wasn’t. It turns out he has a nice little collection of them and shared some of the history of Al Toys.
Colin writes, “If you go to the CJ-3B Page and click on Jeep toys, then scroll down until you come to Al-Toy collection (another CJ-3B Page link here), that might give you a better idea of what they were. They were manufactured by Central Casting, aka Toledo Brass, aka Central Brass Works in Toledo under license from Willys.
When the CJ2A was introduced by Willys in July, 1945, they produced the CJ2A sand cast aluminum Jeep for Willys to present to VIPs and high wolume dealers for Christmas, 1945. In late 1946, they opened that toy up for sale to the public at Christmas.
Willys introduced the Willys Pickup in late 1946 for release in 47, Al-Toy made the Willys truck for the Christmas gift to Willys VIPs and dealers. Some may have been released later to the public.
With Willys planning to introduce the Jeepster in early 1948, Al-Toy produced the maroon Jeepster for presentation to again, the Willys upper echelon and high volume dealers for Christmas, 1947. This toy was never sold to the public.
In 1949, Willys introduced the 4WD station wagon and for Christmas 1948, Al-Toy did the station wagon, and this toy was never released to the public. For Christmas, 1949, Al-Toy did the Jeep Fire Truck. This was also not released to the public.
For numbers, those are a little vague, but several thousand CJ2A toys were produced and are the easiest to find on eBay and other toy markets. The pickup was not real well made as far as attention to detail and several hundred of those were made. Only about 200 Jeepsters were made and possibly about 300 of the station wagon. The Fire Jeep reportedly only had 50 made, with the possibility of another batch of 50 being made.
So these toys are rare. I have a dozen or so of the CJ2As; one of the Jeep truck, which I got from Jim Marski, one Jeepster which I got out of Dayton, Ohio, one station wagon that I got out of Cincinnati and may have been part of the Schott Willys dealership collection, another station wagon which came to me in its original dated box, 12-48, and is in mint condition, never played with and one Fire Jeep which I got from a man in Scottsdale who collected fire apparatus toys and was paring down his collection.
My very good friend in Maine, Glenn Byron is sort of the guru of Al-Toys and he and I have collaborated on the history of these toys and submitted information to both the Willys Overland Jeepster Club and to Derek’s site.”
