In late fall of 1961 Texaco introduced the SS Texaco North Dakota Tanker Ship at their stations for the holiday season. The 27" scale model tanker runs on "C" batteries and is highly detailed after the original ship. All in plastic this toy caught the eye of the kids with the outstanding decals, details and eye catching colors sold extremely well at the stations.
The radar dish was a nice feature but it was far from kid proof. It was not match for small hands and was so broken or lost.
The rear of the tanker displayed where the headquarters was in Wilmington Delaware. The ship also had a working rudder as you can see in the picture.
Check out the great detailing on the bow of the ship showing the draft markings.
The upper deck is where the motor controls are. The one thing that Texaco did not think of and would have made a great feature was that the wheels on the bottom of the tanker do not roll. How cool would it have been to have a motorized tanker that sailed across the floor?
The set came with the ship, box, cardboard packing and booklet. All these items are a must have for the collector who is looking for a "mint condition" collectible.
