The French factory for Dinky Toys made a nice French Ford truck, the 25 series, in twelve different versions from 1949 to 1955. Here are two photos of eleven of them before I found the twelfth one.
The very first version of the French Ford Covered Wagon truck was plain, without a livery. Only made in 1949 – 1950, with all metal (diecast) tires and wheels, and quickly superseded by later versions with advertising on the side. Very difficult to find now. This truck was also called a Ford “Poissy” 5‑ton covered truck. Poissy was the historic Ford France plant established in 1938.
The plain version was quickly replaced by the Calberson and SNCF versions in 1950.
The other early French commercial truck with advertising, the Ford covered van in Grands Moulins livery, is shown below. From about 1953, this one is now rare and not easy to find near mint. Of the three 25 series Covered Wagon trucks, this Grands Moulins de Paris is my favorite. For those of you unfamiliar with the 1950’s French Dinky Toys, look carefully at the tires, and see the ‘M’ embossed on them. For many years this was a hallmark of the French made tires, not sure why they needed to include that, as their English cousins never did, but the French did several Dinky things their own way.
The photo on the left below is the Farmer’s Truck, made from late 1940’s until 1952. I really like the light metallic blue that the French factory used on many models in the 1950’s. On the right is the End Tipper.
The French Dinky Toys 25H Ford Beverage Truck was only made for a few years in the early 1950’s, and is an interesting model. It’s basically a flat truck with a tailboard, but instead of making it diecast, it was simply made of tinplate and tabbed into slots at the rear of the truck. It worked and certainly looks great, but in reality, the tinplate is not very strong, and easily bent, so many of these have lost the tailboard over the years.
Also of interest are the diecast tire/wheels. During the Indochina War from 1946–54 (in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), Indochina was the main supply of rubber for France; thus, the war drastically reduced the supply of rubber to France, hence the Dinky Toys solid diecast wheels. (Jacques Dujardin). So Meccano solved it by using a diecast tire/wheel and painting it black.
This next one is a Ford Open Truck, made around 1949. Another French Dinky of that era with solid metal wheels.
A purchase a while ago satisfied a long quest to find a mint and boxed French Dinky Toys 25O Ford “Nestle” milk truck. These were made at various times from around 1950 through 1955, and have two very nice features: one are the 10 separate milk cans, carried in the rear loading area; and the other is the unique box it was supplied in: designed to properly house those loose 10 milk cans.
The French Dinky Toys factory made two distinct versions of the Nestle milk truck: the first was on the earlier Studebaker chassis, up to around 1954, then adapted to the French Ford Poissy chassis for another couple of years. Many of these are missing some or all of the milk cans, but re-made replacements are available. As a young boy, I always liked these.
Here are both versions of the 25O “Nestle” Milk Truck: the Ford is on the left and the Studebaker on the right. Both were made between 1950 and 1955, and shared the same model number. Notice the different tampo Nestle lettering.
Dinky Toys made lots of trucks with Esso advertising; here are three. From left, the Panhard Esso Tanker, the French Ford Small Esso Tanker and the Trojan Esso Van. All are from the early to mid 1950’s.
The 25R French Ford Tow Truck was created out of slightly modifying the the rear cargo area of the open wagon truck. Since they needed to add the lettering on the rear, via tampo application, they had to have a smooth surface, and the regular wagon had simulated slats on the rear. So the die was modified to allow it to be smooth. And by the way, this is one of the few Dinky Toys offered for sale, but never listed in a catalog. It was only made for 1955, and was soon replaced by the larger Citroen Tow Truck. And this Ford, in turn, replaced the earlier Studebaker tow truck.
What probably happened was that the tools for the Studebaker failed or wore out while the Citroën was been developed. Therefore, the Ford filled a ten-month gap until the Citroën could be issued. The Ford appeared only in the Meccano catalogue of 1954. (Jacques Dujardin) Both the Ford and Studebaker (long nose) are shown below.
The French Ford Refuse Truck, or Trash Truck, is such a jewel that I covered it in a separate article Dinky Toys French Ford Trash Truck.
Very early, first type front end of the iconic and very well loved 25 series Ford trucks, dating to 1949, is on the left, then compared to the later casting from the mid-1950’s, on the right. If you look carefully, you can see the many changes that occurred.
The 1951 French catalog has a nice illustration on the front cover; several Ford trucks can be seen there.
This 25 series of French Dinky Fords is so charming that I am glad that I have this opportunity to share them with you. Here are two views of all twelve together in one place!
