HESS Toy Trucks: An Annual Holiday Tradition (1964 - Present)

Hess Toy Trucks - A Holiday Tradition!  In 1964, the Hess Corporation, which was already a prominent American energy company, began to make small toy replicas of their tanker trucks to sell to customers. The first toy, a predominantly yellow and white tanker truck, was released on November 26th, 1964, for a price of $1.39. Nowadays, an original tanker truck toy could sell for $2500+! The toys were originally sold exclusively at HESS gas station locations, but in 2014, this ended and sales of the toys were moved to their online store. In 1980, the Hess truck for that year became the first model to be advertised in a television commercial. In 1988, Hess debuted their iconic "The Hess Trucks Back" commercial jingle, which was sampled from the Angel's 1963 hit, "My Boyfriend's Back", and has since become one of the longest-running commercial jingles in U.S. history. In 1998, Hess introduced the "Hess Mini" line, which included an annual release of a smaller, desktop-sized model. This li