This beat up stamped excavator toy was seen at a local antique store, the Lincoln name was not familiar but it turns out Lincoln Toys was a Canadian company in business during the 1940s and 1950s, Along with construction and farm toys there were also several lines of trucks in different styles and scales. I will add them to the post as I find them.
Kay Manufacturing started up in Windsor at the corner of Erie and Lincoln St. in 1941, receiving a contract to produce ammunition boxes and fenders for the Canadian Army. The company name changed to Windsor Steel the next year and their product line expanded into other stamped metal products. After the war with government contracts gone, they started a line of hardware products, bicycle accessories and pressed steel toys, becoming a supplier of Massey Harris farm toys. They opened a salesroom on Lincoln St, naming it Lincoln Specialties.
Meanwhile near by, another metal stamping company named Ellwood Industries also started producing their own line of stamped toys. This line was successful, being sold through Canadian department stores Eaton's and Simpson's. Ellwood Industries moved down the road to a factory in Tilbury where they also produced stamped parts for the Ford Motor Company. Arrangements were made to market the toys through Lincoln Specialties.
Both companies were successful through the 1950s but competition from Tonka and other stamped metal toys put them out of business by 1958.
More history at The Canadian Toy Collector Society site.
Canadian Museum of Civilization collection here.
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