Tonka Toys Look Books | Mini Catalogs | Brochures | Instruction Sheets

Sears and Roebuck had their Wish Book. Tonka Toys had their Look Book. As a means of informing the consumer of the various models offered in the Tonka toy line, Tonka began to include a small catalog with each of their packaged toys. The consumer catalog or Look Book was basically a much smaller version of the catalog Tonka sent to toy retailers for them the use to make their decisions on which Tonka truck they wanted to put on their shelves.

Tonka issued their first Look Book in late 1953. Tonka continued to pack the very popular mini catalog with their new toys through the mid 1970's. A little known fact: Tonka did not publish a Look Book in 1971. Tonka was going through a downturn in business and to cut costs, decided to carryover the 1970 Look Book into 1971. Also of note: from 1953 through 1970 - 1971, the Tonka Look Book listed all models manufactured by Tonka and available to the consumer. Beginning in 1972, Tonka Look Books just included a sampling of the models offered in the various series.

Featured below are the covers of Tonka Look Books issued from 1953 through 1975, Tonka's classic years. Thanks to Patrick O'Neil for a copy of his rare 1953 Look Book. Thanks to Ray Ross for a copy of his 1954 Look Book. Thanks also to Mike for scanning a copy of his 1955, 1957, 1958 and 1959 Look Books. Thanks to Tim Wahl for scanning a copy of his 1964 New Zealand Look Book and thanks to Danny Kubert for scanning his copy of the 1972 Style B Look Book.

As the website has grown over the years, a contributor to that growth has been the addition of Look Books and other advertising and instructional literature. The 1990 and 1991 Look Books, added in late March 2016, are truly international in scope since many of the models featured were made outside the USA.