Trusco and Toyo - what’s the difference?

We love a toolbox in the Tinker and Fix house. All sizes, all colours. We use them for everything from storing tools, to keep art supplies together. 

Japanese pressed steel tool boxes are our particular favourites - to both use and sell. They are simplicity personified. They do exactly what you need, nothing more. Apart from looking just great. Meaning they work really well about the house or they add a touch of colour to the workshop or garage (as well as keeping your tools safely stored and organised).

There’s only one thing that’s a bit more complex about the Japanese tool boxes and that’s their names and brands. So, let’s simplify it for you...

1. Toyo Steel is the company that makes most Japanese pressed steel tool boxes. They’ve been making them for 53 years and are a renowned Japanese company that makes a whole range of really well designed products for around the house, garden and garage.
2. Whilst Toyo make and sell their own colours and all sizes of steel toolbox, they also, at the same time, make toolboxes for many other companies. Which is why you may look at pressed steel toolboxes and wonder whether they are different, other than perhaps the name on them, or their colour.
3. One of these companies is Trusco - which is a great and popular Japanese brand. Trusco have some colours that are specific to them and Toyo has some colours that are specific to them.

So - at Tinker and Fix we currently stock both Trusco and Toyo toolboxes - because we can get different colours and sizes in each - and also because it sometimes just comes down to availability (which was tricky during COVID).

There are 4 different shapes of toolboxes that we sell (regardless of whether they are Trusco or Toyo):

1. The smallest toolboxes - are called T-190 component boxes - as the are much better for storing components rather than a large selection of tools. We only stock the Toyo’s and they come in a whole range of colours: White, Pea Green, Red, Olive, Yellow, Gold, Silver and Copper.
2. What we call the ‘barn top’ - as it has a bulged top which allows more space to store tools. Trusco call this the Tool Box and Toyo call this the Y-350. We have these in Red, Green and Silver  from Trusco and Blue, Red, Olive and Black from Toyo.
3. What we call the ‘flat top’ - which, does what it’s name implies and has a flat top. Trusco call this the Utility Tool Box and Toyo call this the T-320. We have these in Silver and Blue from Trusco and Red, Olive and Black  from Toyo.
4. Then we have the larger cantilever toolboxes. These can - again - come from both Trusco and Toyo but we can only currently get availability of one size of the cantilevered toolbox from Toyo (but this may change - we are working on it).  So, at present we have the ST-350 and these come in 3 different colours – Blue, Black and Red.

If you want to see these toolboxes, and how they compare with each other size wise, take a scroll through our instagram feed and you'll see them in use or a video explaining the sizes of the Toyo and Trusco toolboxes we have in stock. But - as ever - if it's still not clear - just get in touch and we'll happily help!