I’d been married to Carol for about a year and a half in the late fall of 2000. She was trying to figure out what to get me for Christmas. I made some passing mention that there was a really cool toy fire truck being sold at the local Hess station. I might have even seen an ad on TV for it.
Still, I was quite surprised when, on Christmas morning, she (or Santa, I forget which) actually got it for me. I must say that I really loved it. It has a couple of different sirens, and flashing lights, and a workable ladder.
So before Christmas 2001, I subtly hinted that I wouldn’t mind getting that year’s model, which was actually a helicopter with a motorcycle and a cruiser. This too was a hit with me; the helicopter features, among other things, rotors that really spin!
Thus a tradition was born, with me getting all of the items through 2010. Along the way, I also picked up a 1998 model.
This does not include the mini-trucks, only one of which I own, and that by happenstance.
I have this friend, Mary, who had a husband named Tom, who I was very fond of. Unfortunately, he died in November 2004 at the age of 49. He had started collecting Hess trucks long before I had. Just this month, Mary sold me Tom’s 1997 and 1999 editions, because she thought he’d want me to have them.
As it turns out, Hess trucks have been coming out since the mid-1960s, and some of them are quite collectible. Check out the lists HERE and HERE
At least in recent times, they’ve been running TV around Thanksgiving for the current year’s models. Here are the ads for 2006 and 2008 and 2009 and 2010 TV ads, all to the unlikely tune of “My Boyfriend’s Back.”
Someone put together a video of all the trucks.
