Buddy L

The Moline Pressed Steel Company began making Buddy L toys in 1921. Before turning to toys, the East Moline firm specialized in pressed-steel parts for car, truck and farm-equipment makers. The company was founded by Fred Lundahl, who made steel toys for his son and his son’s friends. Early Buddy L vehicles followed the utilitarian forms of the company’s industrial work and included cars, dump trucks, delivery vans, fire engines and construction equipment. Some were large enough to ride on; others were smaller push-along toys.

The range expanded beyond road vehicles during the 1920s. Putnam Museum archive records document outdoor railroad toys by 1927 and a 1928 brochure promoting the line. The same collection records a company name change to Moline Pressed Steel Company in 1930 and a factory staff photograph after the name changed to Buddy L Company, dated about 1937. Wooden vehicles and trains appear in the archive’s records from the mid-1940s through 1949; an inventory entry notes that the wooden line was dropped for 1950. Later records include steel trucks, construction sets and flexible vinyl figures. Te Papa documents a Buddy L truck made in New Zealand under licence in the 1960s.