By the time this model was made, Tootsietoy had already been selling automobile models with rolling wheels for more than a decade. The Hot Wheels in the background is for size comparison. I won't pretend I know the details of the company history, but I do know they made the game tokens for Monopoly board games, and that the company originally had interests in the garment industry, making buttons and such...which helps explain the number of garment themed tokens in the Monopoly board game. They also created a lot of the early Cracker Jack toy premiums.

Many probably look back now and think these models were crude, and by today's standards they probably are. But all toy cars today have their roots in early Tootsietoys, these were among the first made, ever, by anybody.