A Beautiful Pair of Hubley Cast Iron Cars

Monday February 20, 2012

A Beautiful Pair of Hubley Cast Iron Cars

Circa Early 1940's

     I've been lethargic lately, so please excuse me for having not written an article in a while.  Today's feature is about 2 little but highly-likeable (loveable?) Hubley cast Iron cars from the 1940's and perhaps even earlier. I have the yellow one listed on E-Bay and it will definitely sell by tomorrow. However, it's taken me 2 weeks to have someone make a bid. I just received the red one today, and so I'am able to write about the 2 of them together.

   They measure about 4 1/2"(L) X1 3/4" (W) x 1 11/16 (H). Metrically-speaking, they are 115 mm x 

45 mm x 43 mm.   If you're in a country that uses the metric system, can you please inform me if I should be using mm or cm to provide measurement for small-sized toys?

   These 2 toys are like the Hubley Airflow in the way that they are assembled. However they differ, in hat you need to remove the front axle and wheels in order to then remove the undercarriage (frame) and the front grill from the body (top). With the Airflow, removing the rear spare tire, allows for the separation of the 2 parts.

The Hubley Airflow

By removing the rear spare tire, the car can be taken apart in 2 pieces.

The Airflow is larger than the 2 Hubleys below.

I think it was about 5 1/2" in length ((140 mm).

The removal of the 3 Hubley parts to this series of cars is more involved.

I'd like to know why  Hubley changed their design. Perhaps it was the cost of plating the undercarriage (frame). Of course, I could be wrong, and it was the yellow and red toys that were made first in 3 pieces, followed by the beige and khaki -coloured Airflow, that was made in 2 pieces.

A Beautiful pair of Hubley

Cast Iron Toys