By Dave Tallon, Tallon Custom Collectables
The
tortoise and the hare, the Cubs and the Cardinals, Deere and IH, the
world is full of great rivalries. Pickup trucks are no different.
Fans of Chevy and Ford can argue until they are blue in the face about
why their brand is the best. Since I did a feature on GM 1/64
scale trucks a few months ago, I thought I better do one on Fords to
keep things balanced. I thought the GM article was a good
challenge, but as I dug into the 1/64 Ford pickup offerings, I quickly
became overwhelmed. If you need a Ford for your collection or
display, you should have no problem finding one of the vintage you are
looking for, or at least finding one close to it. However, like
the GM offerings, the quality varies among models. This is by no
means a comprehensive list as I am sure there are many trucks I have
missed, but this guide should help you find the Ford pickup you are
looking for. | Pre-1939 |
|
Johnny
Lightning 1929 Ford Pickup
Racing
Champions 1935 Ford Pickup
|
Prior
to 1939, Ford Pickups featured styling typical of most early
automobiles with running boards, a narrow hood, and wide front
fenders with big headlights perched on top of them. Ford's
popular V-8 engine made their cars and trucks of this era a
favorite of hot rodders. Because of this, there are a
multitude of 1/64 scale replicas of hot rod Ford pickups, with
open hoods, chopped tops and wide tires. Of the bunch,
there are a couple that stand out. Johnny Lightning has
offered a 1929 Model A Pickup in several different versions.
The model is a soft top that is slightly hot rodded, with an
exposed engine and wide tires, but could easily be customized
into a stock appearing farm truck. Johnny Lightning also
offered a replica of a 1929 Pickup that had been customized with
a crew cab. The Racing Champions 1935 Pickup is very
detailed with an opening tailgate and a removable hood to show
off that V-8 motor. RC offered this truck in its Motor
Trend set and K-Mart Route 66 Collection in various colors. |
| 1940-1947 | |
Johnny
Lightning 1940 Ford Pickup
 Racing Champions 1940 Ford Pickup |
For
1940, Ford made a big step forward in styling with
groundbreaking features like headlights mounted in the fenders.
Racing Champions and Johnny Lightning both have made 1940 Ford
Pickups in a variety of colors and styles. Here again, the
RC truck is superior to the Johnny Lightning, although both have
good detail with opening hoods and clear cab glass. The RC
truck is slightly larger than the Johnny Lightning, and is
closer to 1/64 scale. Joe's
Diecast Shack did an in-depth comparison of the two. |
| 1948-1952 | |
Left,
Racing Champions '48 Ford
Right, Johnny Lightning '48 Ford  Hartoy '48 Ford |
The
48-52 Body style was one of Ford's most popular, and this is
reflected in the number of companies offering their version of
the truck. Models from this era have been produced yet
again by Johnny Lightning and Racing Champions. Features
of these trucks are about the same as their respective 1940
pickup counterparts, although the size difference is even more
noticeable. The RC truck, in fact, might even be slightly
oversized. Maisto made a 1950 Ford Pickup that was similar
in size to the Johnny Lightning, but less detailed. Both
the Johnny Lightning and the Maisto cabs fit nicely on the Ertl
1950 Chevy Grain truck Chassis, to make a nice Ford Grain truck
from that era. Hartoy (now out of business) made a 1948
Ford semi and straight truck as part of it's American Highway
Legends series. This truck's cab is similar to the RC cab,
but it is slightly smaller and does not have an opening hood. |
| 1953-1956 | |
Racing
Champions '53 Ford
Hot
Wheels "Hi-Tail Hauler"
|
The
53-56 body style was another step forward for Ford. Racing
Champions produced yet another Ford in this era, this time a
1953 Model. Again, the detail is excellent on this model,
but it is a little bit on the large side of 1/64. Hot
Wheels has produced a pair of '56 Fords. The first is the
"Hi-Tail Hauler", which was introduced in the late
70's as part of Hot Wheels' main line and has appeared in
multiple versions since. More recently, Hot Wheels has
offered a different '56 Ford pickup as part of it's adult
collectable line. This one is detailed as well, if not
better than the Racing Champions '53, but has a hot rod
appearance as opposed the the stock appearance of the RC truck.
Matchbox has also offered a '56
Ford in various versions. Several of these versions
feature added details and rubber tires, aimed at adult
collectors, However, these detailed Matchbox trucks still fall
somewhat short of both the Hot Wheels and RC trucks. |
| 1957-1960 | |
Racing
Champions '59 Ford
|
Beginning with the 1957-1960 body style, the offerings of Ford truck replicas begin to become much more limited. In fact, I was only able to find one instance of a diecast truck from this era. Fortunately, it is a good one. Racing Champions continues their streak with a 1959 Ford F-250 4x4. As with the other RC offerings, this truck has great detail with clear glass, interior, opening hood with detailed engine, opening tailgate, and rubber tires. This truck was offered in several colors as part of the Motor Trend line, and also as a utility truck as part of K-Mart's Route 66 Collection. |
| 1961-1966 | |
Racing
Champions '65 Ford
Husky
Models '64 Ford
|
The
design of Ford's pickups evolved again in 1961. Racing
Champions continues their streak with yet another vintage Ford
Pickup of this era, in this case, a 1965 F-100. The
details on this one live up to the standard of those of their
previous body styles. A company called Husky Models,
(Later became Corgi) offered a '64 Ford in the late 1960's.
This model had good detail for a toy from the 60's, but is below
today's standards. These models are somewhat rare today,
but do regularly show up on Ebay. |
| 1967-1972 |
|
 |
Of
the body styles featured so far, possibly the one most lacking a
good, detailed model is the one of 1967-1972. In fact,
Matchbox was the only toy maker I could find that has made a
truck this era. Matchbox first began offering a '68
Ford Pickup in 1969. There were two models made, a
Flareside with a topper, and a styleside "Kennel
Truck". Both of these models were offered for several years
with slight variations. The styleside truck later became
the "Wild Life Truck", offered from '74-'81.
Matchbox began offering a '68 Ford again in 1983, this time with
enlarged wheel wells to accommodate big tires. This same
body was also used extensively in the Matchbox line of monster
trucks from the 1980's. |
| 1973-1979 |
|
Ertl
'73 Ford "Bigfoot"
Hot
Wheels '79 Ford
|
Ford
made a moderate redesign of their pickups in 1973, which would
continue with only exterior changes, mostly to the grill, until
1979. There are a couple of diecast offerings from this
time period. The first is a 1973 Ford pickup briefly
offered by Ertl starting in 1989. This truck was sold as
the Bigfoot monster truck with chrome accents and oversized
rubber tires. More recently, Hot Wheels began
producing a 1979 F-150. This truck was first offered as a
Wal-Mart exclusive in 1999 as a replica of Sam Walton's truck,
with a tool box and dog kennel in back. In 2000 Hot Wheels
added the '79 F-150 to their main line, and it has been offered
in several versions since. The Sam Walton version is by
far the best of this bunch with clear glass and rubber tires. |
| 1980-1986 |
|
 |
Ford
started off the 1980's with yet another redesign. It was this
F-150 that first earned Ford the crown of the best selling
vehicle in America. Despite the popularity of Ford trucks during
this period, there are few 1/64 replicas of them. Probably the
most common diecast model of a truck from this era is Matchbox's
"Baja Bouncer"
F-150 Flareside. This truck has been offered in multiple
versions since it was introduced in the early 1980's, all with
off road features like large tires, side pipes and a grill
guard. |
| 1987-1996 |
|
Left,
Matchbox '93 Ford
Right, Ertl '87 Ford |
The
evolution of Ford pickups continued with the 1987-1996 model.
There are a few offerings in this era. The first is Ertl's
1987 Ford pickup. It featured a chrome grill, detailed
wheels and rubber tires. This truck was a big step forward
from Ertl's Chevy pickup that they offered in in the early 80's,
but would only score as mediocre by today's standards.
This truck is also slightly oversized for 1/64 scale.
Matchbox offered a Ford
Pickup from this body style with the 1993-96 grill.
This truck was a little small for 1/64 scale and was offered as
a monster truck. Maisto also offered a "Baja"
off-road style F-150 Flareside. |
| F-150 1997-2003 |
|
Clockwise
from Left:
Racing Champions '97 F-150 Flareside Revell '01 F-150 Supercab Modifiers '01 F-150 Supercab Tiger Wheels '00 F-150 Lightning Hot Wheels '97 F-150 |
Introduced
in late 1996, the 1997 Ford F-150 was arguably the most drastic
change Ford had ever made to it's pickup truck line. The
diecast market is virtually flooded with replicas of trucks of
this body style. Hot Wheels offered several variations of
a regular cab - long bed model in it's main line. Racing
Champions offered a regular cab - flareside bed model in it's
Motor Trend line and later in it's Sportsman Series.
Racing Champions, Tiger Wheels and Hot Wheels all offered a
regular cab - flaresides detailed as Ford's F-150 Lightning high
performance truck. Matchbox,
Revell, Modifiers, and Muscle Machines all offer Super cab -
short bed versions. Jada Toys makes several versions of
Ford's Super Crew pickup. Of the bunch, the RC reg cab -
flareside and the Revell Supercab are probably the two best in
terms of size and detail. |
| Superduty 1999- |
|
Left
to Right:
Ertl '99 F-350 Dually Maisto/Tonka '01 F-350 Johnny Lightning '01 F-250 Supercab Racing Champions '99 F-350 Supercab Dually  Front - Johnny Lightning F-450 Tow Truck Rear - Ertl F-650 Milk Tanker |
While Ford began selling a newly designed version of it's 1/2 ton pickups in 1997, the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks didn't get their face-lift until 1999, when the revolutionary "Superduty" trucks were introduced. These trucks were instant hits with those that wanted rugged looks and needed a real work truck. Shortly after the introduction of the real trucks, Ertl began offering a regular cab, one ton dually in both pickup and utility body versions. Maisto soon followed with a truck that had a cab nearly identical to the Ertl truck, but with single rear wheels and a styleside bed. Ertl's corporate cousin, Racing Champions, also offered a version of the F-350 dually. Their version is a Super cab model and is more highly detailed than the Ertl truck, but unfortunately is 1/64 "box scale" and is actually shorter than Ertl's regular cab truck. Matchbox and Johnny Lightning also offer Superduty's, an F-350 regular cab Dually and an F-250 Supercab Styleside respectively. These trucks also suffer from box scale issues. The Superduty line continues beyond the F-350 to the commercial trucks. These have also been popular in the diecast world. Matchbox and Johnny Lightning both leveraged their existing Superduty tooling to produce commercial trucks. Matchbox produced a "Mini Pumper" fire truck, and Johnny Lightning offered an F-450 tow truck. Unfortunately these trucks are victims of the same scale problems as their pickup counterparts. At the upper end of the commercial truck range is Ertl's F-650/750 replica that has been offered with a variety of beds. |
| F-150 2004- |
|
 |
Ford
introduced a brand new F-150 in fall of 2003 as a 2004 model.
This truck will surely be at least as popular with diecast
manufacturers as it's predecessors. Ertl debuted their '04
F-150 replica at the 2004 Dyersville Summer Toy Show. The
level of detail on this truck appears to be excellent.
Look for this truck to start showing up in stores in September
or October. |
Article References:
Johnny Lightning
Route 66 Collection
areh's Matchbox Picture Dictionary
Minnesota Heartland Railroad S Scale Vehicles
Toycarcollector.com
TTT
June 2004 Page 7