8 Best Valuable Hess Trucks – Is It Worth It

Long considered collectible, Hess trucks are. People used to line up in front of Hess stations on Thanksgiving Day to purchase the toys as soon as they went on sale.

In today’s market, a truck and box in pristine condition could be worth up to $2,500. The same truck was released in 1965 by Hess.

1967 Hess ‘red Velvet’ Tanker Truck

The box is the only thing that adds value to this toy truck.

Hess altered its packaging in 1967 by placing its toy trucks in a “red velvet” base that also served as the bottom of its cardboard box. But the change – a one-year aberration – proved problematic. The boxes were not sturdy.

“A lot of times that gets ruined because people would pick up the box from the top and the base would drop out from the bottom and ruin the box,” Patterson said.

A “Red Velvet” truck, complete with a box in excellent condition, can be worth about $3,500.

1969 Hess ‘woodbridge’ Tanker Truck

According to Patterson, this truck typically commands a higher price than any other Hess truck. And it’s all because of a few words written on the front panel of the box’s lid.

“It’s not that the truck is valuable,” Patterson said. “But the box says ‘Home Office: Woodbridge, (New Jersey)’ on the end.”

The tanker truck is similar to the model Hess released in 1968. Typical boxes read “Home Office Perth Amboy, New Jersey.”

According to Patterson, the number of “Woodbridge” tankers released is unknown. But they are worth $4,000 each.

1969 Amerada Hess Tanker Truck

This special edition toy was released solely to company executives to announce a new company name after the Hess Oil and Chemical Corp. merged with Amerada Petroleum Corp.

The truck mimicked the regular edition, but replaced the Hess name with “Amerada Hess” on the side of the tanker.

Only 10,000 trucks were made. They fetch more than $3,000 each.

The 1971 Hess Toy Fire Truck is a meticulously accurate recreation of a fire engine from the previous year’s Port Reading Refinery. But it is the box that can make it extremely valuable.

1971 Hess ‘season’s Greetings’ Fire Truck

The hardest Hess trucks to locate are those like this one. And again, it’s mostly due to its box.

In 1970, Hess introduced its first fire truck. It brought the same toy back one year later, but ran out of the colorful boxes that accompanied the truck midway through production.

The company put the remaining trucks in plain, graphic-free boxes. Instead, Hess station attendants were given “Season’s Greetings” stickers to post atop the boxes.

“They would take the stickers, cut them and slap them on top of the box,” Patterson said. “That left a lot of people feeling let down because they expected the colorful box. They threw out the boxes.”

Those who kept the boxes now have a valuable keepsake worth about $2,500.

Hess Training Van (1980) // $375

Not a truck but a van modeled after the company’s training vehicles, this anomaly was also notable for being the first Hess product to come in a one-piece packing box. It can sell for $375.

1993 Hess Premium Diesel Tanker

As its holiday toy in 1993, Hess unveiled a patrol car.

But earlier that year, Hess began selling premium diesel fuel at all of its East Coast gas stations. Sales soared, and as a token of appreciation, Hess gave large customers a limited-edition toy tanker truck.

In addition to the Hess logo, the tanker trucks each include a label proclaiming “NEW PREMIUM DIESEL WITH SUPER DETERGENCY!” on the sides. Just 10,000 were made.

Each box was wrapped in green gift paper and included a letter and thank you card from Hess.

The special edition costs several hundred dollars to purchase.

1995 Hess Chrome Truck and Helicopter

The model of this limited-edition truck is identical to the one made available to the general public, but it is finished in chrome.

According to Patterson, the trucks were given to a small team that worked on a unique project for company founder Leon Hess. There were only 600 made.

There are two versions of the special edition – one that includes a green velvet base and another that used the same cardboard box as the regular edition toys.

Given that Leon Hess disliked chrome toys, it is still one of the few Hess toys that is primarily made of chrome.

“He thought they were gaudy,” Patterson said.

It costs over $3,000 to purchase the special edition.

2006 Hess Corp. Nyse Truck and Racers

Hess again changed its corporate name in 2006, dropping Amerada from its name to become known simply as the Hess Corp.

Hess gave away a limited-edition toy on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as a way of celebrating.

The truck was an exact replica of the 1997 model, which had a trailer that could accommodate two race cars. But instead of having “Hess gasoline” written on the trailer’s side, the new company name was printed on it instead.

“It wasn’t something you could get,” Patterson said. “Ordering it was impossible. To obtain one, you required both trading floor access and a personal connection.”

There were made about 3,000 trucks. They go for several hundred dollars each.

The Process for Developing a Hess Truck

A truck takes a very long time to develop, according to the Hess Toy Truck website. Prior to going on sale, it typically takes two to three years, and some trucks can take up to six years to reach the market.

The business starts by going over inspiration photos, and then they go over concept art and sketch drawings. The top two or three designs are then selected to move on to the next round, where drawings are converted into 3D rotating images. The final design and decoration decisions are made using handcrafted models.

The Hess Toy Truck came with just 75 little hard-plastic pieces at first. Newer Hess Toy Truck models, however, have 200–300 parts. To ensure that the toys are of the same quality as the rest of Hess trucks, it takes some time for them to be produced and put together before they go through a quality test. Finally, the toys are placed in boxes before being advertised every year during the holiday season.

Takeaways

The truck has evolved from a kid’s toy into a collectible. Ironically, Hess has succeeded as a toy company despite failing as a gas company. Now, most of the company has transitioned to being an “energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.”

According to marketer Harvey Chimoff, the Hess truck’s success can be attributed to the fact that it significantly improved people’s lives. It made shipping free and included batteries with each truck so kids and parents didn’t have to go out to buy more batteries. To stand out from the competition, they also added cutting-edge design elements like lights and sound.

Despite Hess trucks being a gold mine for collectors, most people are only passionate about buying and selling them. For me, I don’t have the same emotional connection to Hess trucks, but I remember how some vintage games, including the original, mint edition of Final Fantasy VII could be worth hundreds of dollars.

It was a lesson that you can never know how valuable something you own may be in 20 years. We had some old PS1 games lying around that turned out to be somewhat valuable.