Re: Toy trucks!

[IHMagellan@domain.elided]

It's time to put on my toy tractor collector hat.  I've been pretty serious
about this for 20+ years, although I've not been very active in it since about
'94.  I've got over 700 tractors, implements, trucks, etc., almost all Ertl
and 95% 1/64th scale which is where I've seen the generic semi tractors.  I
think that the generic trucks may have nothing at all to do with IH or
Navistar.  I may not be accurate in what I'm about to say, so if you know
better, speak up, you won't hurt my feelings.  I've never been an expert on
the toy semis, just picked up a few that were farm related.  Here are my
thoughts.

I remember seeing the generics show up slightly before the actual merger of
Case and IH.  The change may have been underway, but both brands of tractor
were still being produced.  The generics came in transport sets with IH 5088s
and Case 2594s
before the merger.  Shortly after the merger, the transport was available with
an IH 5088 and a Case 2594.  Then it came out with 2 Case-IH 2594s.  I'll give
you the production dates for my transporters.  Howard, you can let us know
where these dates fall relative to events in the merger.

My IH transport has a Transtar II tractor produced on the 225th day of '84.  I
never bought the one with the generic tractor because I already had a good
one.

My Case transporter has a generic tractor produced on the 329th day of '85.

My Case-IH transporter with the 5088 and 2594 has a generic tractor produced
on the 205th day of '86.

I never bought the one with two Case-IH tractors, but I remember them coming
on the generic semi.

Now, here's why I think the generics weren't related to the IH/Case/Case-
IH/Tenneco/Navistar events.  By the late '70s and early '80s, Ertl had built
up a relatively extensive lineup of tractor/trailer sets with nice models of
IH and Mack trucks with trailers ranging from livestock haulers to grain
trucks to flatbeds to tankers to gravel haulers to car haulers.  I'm guessing
that lineup was due to the national popularity of trucks, trucking movies and
trucking TV shows.  The line was still mostly available in '82.  Somewhere
around '83-'85 that line was dropped completely.  If anyone needs to know
exactly when it happened I'll have to dig out my Ertl price sheets from those
years.  I remember wanting some of those trucks and not being able to get them
around that time.  This corresponded with the decreasing national fascination
with trucking.  All the Ertl trucks were dropped except for tractor
transports.  The accurate semi tractor models disappeared and along came the
generics.  Real trucks were getting revised for a more modern look.  Ertl came
out with a single modern looking generic semi-tractor model, not just for Case
and IH, but also for John Deere, Ford, AC, Massey Ferguson, as well as all the
other combinations of those companies that came about in that age of
takeovers.  John Deere and AC used to have a nice Mack pulling their
transporters, but those disappeared, too.  I would guess there were a lot of
customer complaints because collectors hated them.  After 3 or 4 years of this
very generic semi tractor, Ertl brought out a slightly more detailed truck
with Kenworth or Peterbuilt lines.  I can't say for sure because my newest
semi is the Case-IH transport, but I don't think this one even had a nameplate
on it.  Since the early '90s I've seen more detail showing up on the 1/64th
scale trucks.  I believe some are even packaged with a Kenworth nameplate, but
I haven't kept up with it.  I've lost interest in most of the hobby since the
early '90s because of Ertl bringing out new models with no changes other than
a sticker.  I think they've gotten better about this in the last couple years,
largely because of complaints from collectors.

I hate to have to admit it, but history wasn't written around International
Harvester, and by the way, there's no Santa Claus, either.

In a message dated 11/30/98 7:37:03 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
n9ads@domain.elided writes:

<< I've wondered about the reason for the non-International trucks in the
 toy sets, but it may be that the agreements with KW or Ford make it
 easier for Ertl to package them that way than to coordinate with both
 Case and Navistar.  Or perhaps, Case and/or Navistar intend to distance
 themselves from each other in this area and won't allow the sets to be
 packaged with both Internationals. >>