For sale is a 1960s era STRUCTO HYDRAULIC DUMP TRUCK Model 8425 & ORIGINAL BOX from Structo, Freeport, Illinois. This pressed steel toy truck is in good condition. The hydraulic dumping action where the bed of the truck slowly tips up to release its load is an impressive feat for a toy. This functional truck has all original parts and an intact windshield but the truck has light spot rust throughout. This large toy truck measures about 14 inches long and 6 inches wide. The truck’s hubcaps are marked with a “S” for Structo and the whitewalls have the text “STRUCTO MADE IN U.S.” The door features a colorful Structo decal. The metal truck has a one-piece grill-headlight-front bumper assembly. A great collectible toy.
In 1908, partners Louis Strohacker and C.E. Thompson founded the Thompson Company toy company in Freeport, Illinois. The company started making erector-type toy steel construction sets which they sold directly to the retailer as well as being marketed to A.C. Gilbert and Company of Connecticut who had their own construction sets. In 1915, Thompson sold the construction line to Gilbert. The company name was changed to Structo. From 1916 to 1919, the company made electric motor-driven toys and highly detailed automotive assembly kits. Over the succeeding years, they formed a close and cooperative relationship with the Arcade company. Structo made stamped-steel parts for Arcade toys and Arcade made cast-iron parts for Structo toys. By the 1920s, Structo was making stamped-steel windup and push toys. In the late 1920s and into the early 1930s, the Structo line was also marketed to American Flyer of Chicago, Illinois, and occupied colorful prime space in the back of the American Flyer toy train catalogs of the time.
In 1932, motivated by the deepening national economic recession, the company transformed the mechanized line into push-type pressed steel toys because these toys were less expensive to both make and sell. Right up to the Second World War, the company made a variety of transportation toys such as trucks, vans, and passenger cars as well as construction toys like road graders and steam shovels. In 1942, the company converted to making war materiel. Shortly after the war, Structo built a state-of-the-art production line that turned out large-scale realistic transportation and construction toys with real rubber Goodyear-label tires, hoods that opened, and realistically detailed headlights. They also produced for a brief time in the late 1940s, a few boats made of wood and carried on steel trailers. In 1975, the company, its trademark, and most of its assets were purchased by the ERTL toy company. Today, Structo toys are highly-prized by vintage toy collectors.
