Category:Top Boys

Lone Star's Top Boys range of diecast vehicles seems to have appeared some time in the 1970s (it's in the 1975 catalogue).

The range all have a chunky diecast chassis and cab, all with the same basic design, with a large futuristic-looking high-visibility front wraparound window. Additional superficial plastic detailing on the cab differs between models, and the different vehicles have different "payload areas", which are (always? usually?) moulded plastic.

The Tonka influence

Like Meccano Ltd.'s, chunky Mogul range, "Top Boy"s seems to have been inspired by the success of the American Tonka Toys range, and it seems likely the the slightly odd name of Top Boys might have been designed to sit alongside Tonka in an alphabetical listing.

Indirect references to other companies' brands were common practice in the toy industry, and were usually not meant to deceive, but to suggest to customers that they were buying "something similar" – for a more obvious example of apiing to indicate a common market sector, one can look at the number of diecast model car brands that ended in an "i" sound – Tootsie, Dinky, Corgi, Impy, Budgie ... A more modern example is the number of search engines and content search sites that include an "oo" sound, including Google, Yahoo, and YouTube.

Promotional text:

TOP BOYS are strong and sturdy with all the durability required by youngsters for their rough and tumble make-believe world.

All Models have:

• Die-cast metal cabs and chassis
• Wide rim wheels with massive low-profile tyres
• New-era styling in brilliant colour finish
• Panoramic wrap-around windscreen
• Seat and steering wheels
• and working parts such as tilt cabs, tip-up bodies, working breakdown cranes where applicable.

Approx size 14cm ( 5" - 6" ).

Range

listing from the 1975 catalogue:

• 1551 – Breakdown Truck
• 1552 – Fire Engine
• 1553 – Sand Truck
• 1554 – Tipper Truck
• 1555 – Cement Mixer
• 1556 – Sided Truck

• 1561 – Camper Convertible
• 1562 – Milk Tanker
• 1563 – Telephone Repair Truck
• 1564 – Waste Disposal Truck
• 1565 – High Sided Truck
• 1566 – Petrol Tanker