I caught up with one of my YouTube junkyard hunters today, and I just about fell outta my chair! 

Inside a shed at the junkyard was a 1915 Diamond T truck, complete with a chain drive, sending power to the rea axle, from the side-winder transmission output gear.

After a quick search I found out that it was Diamond T that built the outstanding 1934 Texaco Airplane Fuel Tanker trucks that became famous when displayed at the Chicago World's Fair.

Nicknamed the "Texaco Doodlebugs", these trucks became very popular as toy models. To celebrate the "doodlebug's" 30th birthday, Texaco dealers sold a large-scale toy replica of the Airplane Fuel Tanker truck for the holiday season of 1964 as a one year exclusive.

I never got one of these amazing toys and I wonder if any still survive. Texaco had a hit toy on their hands and after this, the annual Texaco Christmas toy truck was THE "must-have" toy every year that Texaco made various tanker trucks available.

I can't even find any video except for one from the late 1960's. That model toy truck had a contemporary design with front wheels that steer.

Those toy trucks from Texaco remind me of the Hess trucks people get each year.

I'm wondering now if any other types of businesses ever issued branded toy trucks. Like the US Post Office, or UPS. Maybe one of the national moving companies like Allied Van Lines.

Texaco sure got a lot of attention with their toy trucks, right up there with Tonka trucks. And that's where the plastic toy trucks come in because metal toys like Tonka were premium quality, and pricey. Plastic toy trucks were cheaper and larger. Topper Toys model trucks were sold in grocery stores, some were so big you almost needed a pickup to get them home.

I prefer the small metal die-cast toy trucks available today: