Vintage TOYOTA MOTOR Hand Tools, "TEQ" Accessories and Collectibles

[dmamj]

Way back in post #196 of this thread there is a photo of an early fork lift tool kit. A red-headed TEQ grease gun was part of it. Below is a photo of that grease gun adjacent to another, what I believe to be a little later yellow-headed grease gun which also came in fork lift kits as well if I'm not mistaken. You'll immediately see the differences: the head color and shape of the head, the TOYOTA TEQ MOTOR stamp vs. the TOYOTA MOTOR JAPAN stamp, and the follower handle color and shape of the follower handle.

 

[dmamj]

Another non-tool, but pretty cool collectible. This came out of the Miyagi Prefecture in Japan, from a Japanese auction. I'm having a bit of a hard time fully translating the front plate to identify exactly what the purpose is, but can make some assumptions after loosely translating it:

TOP ROW: "Toyota Auto 3rd Anniversary Bonus Campaign"
MIDDLE ROW: "AWARD SATO TAKAAKI LORD",
BOTTOM ROW: "TOYOTA MOTOR SALES, CO. LTD."

So it appears Mr. (or Lord) Sato Takaaki won this knight in some sort of contest. Year? Absolutely no idea. Base is wooden. Composition of the knight appears to be bronze, but metallurgy isn't my specialty so I'm far from certain about that also. Here's the kicker (and @Engineer8000 you would appreciate this), it's not just a statue. It's also an AM radio powered by a 9 volt battery. I believe 9 volt batteries were introduced in 1956, so it dates no earlier than that. I had to play with the volume and tuning dials simultaneously to get it to tune. ESPN radio and Lady Gaga seemed a little odd coming out of it. Missing two things: the sword and the right-side visor screw. Sourced a little black M2 x 4mm screw and ordered what I think will be a decent replacement sword.

Fun stuff, at least in this guy's eyes.

 

[Michael B]

It’s interesting that the bottom of the radio is printed in English. Would this indicate that it was produced for export?

 

[dmamj]

It’s interesting that the bottom of the radio is printed in English. Would this indicate that it was produced for export?

@Michael B , yes made for export. There are some examples of the same type of radio in the US.

 

[dmamj]

Here is another example of a desk or mantle clock. From 1987, it's a “History of Toyota” and "President Toyota Cup Contest Souvenier" clock, commemorating 50 years of Toyota automobiles. The face is encased in smoked glass and represents a cross-section of a tree and its rings. The center represents Showa year 12, or 1937, the birth year Toyota's auto division. Every major ring is 10 years, with the Japanese Showa year descending vertically from the center to the bottom, and the decade anniversary ascending vertically from the center to the top. So Showa year 62 (at the bottom) is 1987, the 50th anniversary of Toyota (at the top). Dots throughout the tree ring show what year production began on certain models and other Toyota milestones. Very clever, maybe more so than the one in post #699 of this thread.

 

[dmamj]

Cool little tape measure.

 

[dmamj]

“Towing Rope Set” part 08300-00030. This is similar to the one in a previous post, but has original packaging and original white flag to mark the center of the cable while towing.

 

[dmamj]

This “Car Cleaner” may have been a JDM piece unavailable in the US. 90's? 80's?

 

[Tank5]

I bought this tool box off eBay recently and just received it. The vendor has a bunch of the more common tool boxes for sale. I asked about the history and he shared that he acquired from and a warehouse of and old house. He said he expects it is at least 50 years old.

I bought with a plan in mind which would result in it being modified. Before I do that I wandered if anyone knew more about it. I have not see one like it before and am trying to determine how bad I should feel if I modify it.

Anyone know anything about this type of box?

 

[dmamj]

@Tank5 your box is similar to the first box pictured in post #430 (link below). The TEQ logo is enclosed in a circle, as opposed to the second box pictured in that post where the logo is enclosed in an oval. Origins are vintages are unknown, but I suspect they date from the 50's or maybe even the 40's. Every vehicle parts catalog I've seen dating back to 1953 have depictions of the more common steel boxes, so unless they were from vehicles earlier than that (which is possible), they may have been made for use in one of Toyota's factories. Looks like part of the locking latch is missing, as they were designed for a padlock to keep them secure.

Boxes of these types appear to be exceedingly rare, and it's a fantastic find!!!

Vintage TOYOTA MOTOR Hand Tools, "TEQ" Accessories and Collectibles

@Dizzy "TEQ" is not English. They are three Japanese Katakana characters which translate to “TO YO TA”. The T-looking character is TO, the backwards E is YO and the "Q" is TA. It takes 8 strokes of the pen when in written in Japanese script, and the number 8 is a lucky number in Japan. That...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[prwillard2]

I bought this tool box off eBay recently and just received it. The vendor has a bunch of the more common tool boxes for sale. I asked about the history and he shared that he acquired from and a warehouse of and old house. He said he expects it is at least 50 years old.

I bought with a plan in mind which would result in it being modified. Before I do that I wandered if anyone knew more about it. I have not see one like it before and am trying to determine how bad I should feel if I modify it.

Anyone know anything about this type of box?

View attachment 3483529

View attachment 3483530

View attachment 3483531

Care to share where you picked this up? Would love to snag one if the price is right.

 

[Tank5]

Care to share where you picked this up? Would love to snag one if the price is right.

I picked it up on eBay. I didn’t see that the seller had another one like it.

 

[Tank5]

@Tank5 your box is similar to the first box pictured in post #430 (link below). The TEQ logo is enclosed in a circle, as opposed to the second box pictured in that post where the logo is enclosed in an oval. Origins are vintages are unknown, but I suspect they date from the 50's or maybe even the 40's. Every vehicle parts catalog I've seen dating back to 1953 have depictions of the more common steel boxes, so unless they were from vehicles earlier than that (which is possible), they may have been made for use in one of Toyota's factories. Looks like part of the locking latch is missing, as they were designed for a padlock to keep them secure.

Boxes of these types appear to be exceedingly rare, and it's a fantastic find!!!

Vintage TOYOTA MOTOR Hand Tools, "TEQ" Accessories and Collectibles

@Dizzy "TEQ" is not English. They are three Japanese Katakana characters which translate to “TO YO TA”. The T-looking character is TO, the backwards E is YO and the "Q" is TA. It takes 8 strokes of the pen when in written in Japanese script, and the number 8 is a lucky number in Japan. That...

forum.ih8mud.com

Thanks so much more the information. What I have looks just like the one you mentioned from posts #430 and #165. This information is making me second guess my original plan for it. I partly hoped to learn it was a newer than that. I may just keep it as is and add a clasp, so I can use it as is.

Great thread by the way I come back to check it out regularly.

 

[dmamj]

250mm pipe wrench from the 1980s Toyota Mechanic Tool Catalog. Made for Toyota by HIT.

 

[Economist LC76]

250mm pipe wrench from the 1980s Toyota Mechanic Tool Catalog. Made for Toyota by HIT.

This is quite rare tool! Thanks for the photos!!
PS There is a similar tool from KTC, not so rare

 

[dmamj]

HIT also made their own non-Toyota branded pipe wrench, similar to the KTC version @Economist LC76 posted above. There are several subtle differences. Check them out - Toyota on the left, HIT on the right. And yes @Economist LC76 , the Toyota version was very difficult to find. I've seen many of the plain HIT wrenches, but it took six years to finally come across the Toyota version. It also appeared in the early 1970's Toyota Tool catalog (part 09145-00100) so it could be from the 70s. I'm still searching for the tire lever (#32 on the page below), and the 300mm caliper (#30). Photos of both the 1970s and 80s tool catalogs courtesy of wscbill. Oh, and "The wrench is made of cast iron. It is extremely tough."

 

[Carrapidellc]

Here is one we have in our collection, never really saw another one of these around or for sale.
www.carapit.com
Car Rapide LLC Sales on Facebook.

 

[dmamj]

Absolute beauty of a set!

 

[dmamj]

I started this thread five plus years ago and intended it to be kind of a museum of interesting artifacts which have come my, and any other contributing members', way. It's worked exactly as planned. Some folks have added some incredibly awesome items - I'm thankful for the posts, and even more thankful so many cool things have been documented.

Is it time to start a new thread to more formalize and archive the collectibles? We could call it "The MUDseum of Toyota Memorabilia". Or maybe just rename this thread? Was just thinking about it...

 

[dmamj]

Toyota manufactured a bunch of vehicles with some pretty cool grill emblems over the years. Although not technically a grill emblem, this came off the front end of a 1st gen DR10/11/15 bus, produced from 1959 - 1969. For scale, the third picture shows it in front of a Highlander grill. Maybe I'll change it out. The last pic, from Toyota's 75 Years of Lineage time line, depicts it on a bus traveling over a Japanese bridge.