Sheriff Sam and His WHOOPEE CAR

Sheriff Sam and HIS WHOPPEE CAR: 

1949 

5-3/4” long X 6 ½ inches high

Priced at $.94 in the Sears 1949 in 1950 catalogs the car “streaks around in a circle and back and forth, head turns from side to side, big hat flops up and down” 

According to Greenberg’s Guide to Marx Toys Vol. 2 the Sheriff Sam car is the first eccentric car to use plastic. In an amusing touch, the driver’s feet are sticking out of the front of the car. The toy comes in various colors the most common is the red plastic car. The car has cattle horns on the hood. The driver has a plastic body and various colors of hats, red being again the most common. The toys car color always matches the color of the hat. The cowboy hat is plastic and the head is tin. Like the old jalopy car, the toy has large tin back wheels. The white spokes with red discs in black and white stripes are the most common, the front wheels are red with yellow or white lithograph treads. The dark wheels like the one pictured are less common and probably were a late production addition. These wheels were also used on the all tin “Jumpin Jeep”.

 *Sheriff Sam and his WHOOPEE CAR is similar to the Smoky Sam the Wild Fireman Car, both toys came in red, yellow, white and black boxes with similar illustrations. On the front of the box it shows a smiling sheriff driving with the car’s front wheels off the ground, on one side of the box the sheriff holds a rope design which is cleverly continued around the entire box, the other side shows an unsmiling sheriff near a man on horseback and a cactus. The box also comes in a slightly different design that does not have the rope pattern.

*Greenberg’s Guide to Marx Toys Vol #2