1956 Private Label Tonka Truck

Appraised on: June 26, 2004

Appraised in: St. Paul, Minnesota

Appraised by: Gary Sohmers

Category: Toys & Games

Episode Info: St. Paul, Hour 3 (#903)

Originally Aired: January 17, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (1:24)

GUEST: My great-grandpa created Hardware Hank, and he had this specially made by Tonka Trucks and he had it on his desk while he worked there. And after he died, right after I was born, he gave it to my grandma, which... she gave it to me.

APPRAISER: Nice. It's in great shape. So, you didn't play with it much?

GUEST: Uh, only once when I was a kid.

APPRAISER: Right. Well, Hardware Hank was a logo for a chain of hardware stores up here in the Minnesota area, and Tonka was the most famous toy company from this area of Minnesota-- from Mound, Minnesota. And Tonka became known as the purveyor of the finest realistic toy trucks in the '50s. Now, this is a very special Tonka. What Tonka did sometimes was they made they made private-label ones for special people. And so they made this especially for him-- probably made less than maybe ten of them total and gave him one. So, private-label Tonkas don't exist very much, and they sell for a lot of money, because the Tonka Company was very private when they did these. They were very protective. It's a really great toy, it's in mint condition. It's probably worth right now on the market about $1,500, for a toy. What do you think about that?

GUEST: Good.

APPRAISER: You still going to leave it sitting pretty?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Good.