Fire truck:Buddy "L" | Fire Emergency Truck #5101

Made by the Moline Pressed Steel Company of East Moline, Illinois, Buddy L cars, trucks, and other vehicles could withstand whatever punishment a youngster might inflict. In fact, the toys made of heavy-gauge steel could carry the weight of an adult. In the 1910s, the Moline company had produced full-sized car and truck fenders; when it began producing toys, it used the same materials and methods of construction for its toys as it had used for the full-sized auto parts. Within a few years of introducing the Buddy L line of toys, the Moline company stopped production on car parts altogether and concentrated exclusively on making playthings. By 1930 Buddy L vehicles used a lighter steel; and during the years of the 1940s when the war effort took the country's available metal, the company produced toy cars and trucks made of wood. Though Buddy L vehicles of the mid-20th century and after are smaller and made with more plastic than the models from the 1920s and 1930s, the toys remain in production to this day.