Hustler Action Toy Builder was a metal and wood construction toy system, circa 1927-1929 produced by a company famous for pull-along toys. These pull-along toys are fully featured in an excellent web site entitled ‘Judy’s Old Wood Toys’ and a visit is strongly recommended. The site gives a history of the Hustler firm and a full listing of their models.
My research concerns itself with one branch of Hustler’s manufacture, the construction sets sold under the name “Action Toy Builder”. At first glance they are made for young kids. An hour or two study of it will reveal a deeper challenge for the experienced hobbyist. As the name implies each arrangement is planned to provide action and movement and to achieve this skill is required.
Buy Hustler Toys & Reviews on Google
If you try to search for Hustler toys on Google, whether because you want to buy or to just read some reviews, you will be hard pressed to find any relevant result because these vintage toys are decades old now. Not many who have played with the toy live long enough to leave a Google review so if you see any Google review, be careful because there are services that allow people to buy google reviews or even fake google reviews. Your only luck (and my personal recommendation) may be just from auctions like eBay. This set in particular was obtained from eBay auction. I would rather trust eBay and its sellers reputation system than some random result with great reviews that Google crawled and rank using its algorithm. Bottom line, do be careful if you are planning on buying from other websites and do not trust Google Reviews.
The photos of models here are those built lately, or some 73 years after the set was sold, but maybe others have photos which they will let me add. If you own a set and have designed and built a new model I would like to feature it here with acknowledgement. Further information on Hustler Action Toy Builder can be gained through the Other Systems Newsletter (BAck Issue/Back Number OSN9). ‘Other Systems’ referring to other than Erector, Meccano and Marklin.