With Christmas time approaching, toys seem an appropriate subject for PDQ Me to write about they are now not just of interest to children but more for adults to collect for their rarity and the fact they are “locally made.” Hustler toys once so numerous are difficult to find at auctions or at antique or collectible malls ... Scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth, as the saying once went! Despite the thousands that were made over a couple of decades, they’ve become an uncommon item.

Today, too, they’ll also be much more expensive than the one-time average dollar bill they cost.

Interestingly, Hustler wasn’t the only toy company in the Twin Cities of Whiteside County. There were five or six manufacturers of play things in both Rock Falls and Sterling with names such as Precision Products in the former, and Toylander Co., OK Toys, Rich Toys and probably Sterling Toy Co. also. Toylander was later absorbed into Hustler but the histories of much of that chapter in toy making is so far unresearched. Because Hustler Toys were nationally distributed, a little more is known about them and its story is worth telling for its prominence.

Shortly after World War I the Frantz Co. hardware manufactory expanded their line of work by adding toys to the hardware it made. An economic slump had occurred and jobs were needed for the skilled workforce in the area. Several businesses had gone out of manufacturing, there being no call for their products but Frantz diversified with toys. They opened a factory in the three hundred block of west Third Street in Sterling in 1920-21. Sources are light on detail of the progress and development of the Hustler other than to say that the first item made was a “hand-held” game of “Baseball” that had previously been invented (and patented) by one Evan Reed. Nothing is given about his investment with the clever game or the emerging Hustler taking over its manufacture until, that is, 1928 when Reed moved his factory to Morrison and obviously went on making toys. Exploration will tell us more!

The next year, however, fire engulfed the factory Morris and Rich were in, the name chosen to work under by then, and it destroyed five or six freight carloads of toys to the tune of $35,000. With the contents of the business it shared space with, the dollar amount, $500,000, was devastating. The toy company then moved to Clinton, Iowa by 1932.

Meanwhile, the Hustler Toy had greatly expanded its number of unique items of play things, “action” toys, mind you, despite the fact that back then none of them needed batteries. Press a button so the next number to be played gave you directions! Or hold the cord in your hand and walk the jointed figure along the kitchen floor or the sidewalk! Self-involvement.

The Baseball game invented it’s said, by Evan Reed, was Hustler’s first output. Soon after a football game and a golf game were added, very popular. They were a little bigger than today’s hand-held phones on which many games can be played today. They were portable, too. A 1930’s company catalog pictures the “Aero Race” game and was described as being 8½ by 15½ inches in size. In that a “shooter” emulating an “aeroplane” crosses the Atlantic Ocean shot-by-shot. When reaching its destination a bell is rung. The catalog caption read, “... A strongly appealing item due to the public’s interest in aviation activities.”

Aviation at the time held people’s fascination due to its newness especially cross-country and trans-oceanic flight so the “Aero Race” was very popular.

The development of those games was immediately of interest so that by 1923, only a few years after the company’s initiation, expansion had to be made in the factory. The Sterling Gazette announced in February 1923 that a 12,000 square foot addition would be made to the existing facility, an old stone house remodeled, some buildings razed and a general change for the benefit of the company as well as the work force to which a hundred more employees would be made. Hustler Toys was living up to its name for certain.

That addition propelled the Twin Cities into its reputation as a factory-based, technologically bent community. Hardware of every sort, work to fun. With Frantz manufacturing further installed into hardware, ideas had to be forthcoming and ongoing.

Clare Wetzel was the chief engineer at the inception of Hustler. It was he who’d designed the whimsical animal and human jointed figures that were so appealing to children and adults for their quaint action, arms and legs smoothly rolling along or “doing tricks” such as the trainer and elephant both of which were moveable to suit the operator. Wetzel’s name appears on the patents of most all the toys produced. The first animal figure was the Hustler Pup that became the most sought after of all the toys. A friend to girls and boys everywhere.

As many as 50,000 of each item might be produced in a year’s time. Thousands came off the line, men doing the cutting and preparation (Poplar wood was used brought from Arkansas). Women assembled, too, then lacquered the item with high quality, brilliant, long lasting hues; colors and coating that would survive hard use in the sandbox or water puddle as well as indoor playtime. Children were delighted to find them under their Christmas tree. They were reasonably priced and durable. But today you’d have a problem finding them.

Next Week ... A little more about the Hustler Toy.