Pin mount wheels?
 

I've seen wheels with PIN mount... Does that eliminate the need for hexs? It looks like they are made to, then mount on the cross PIN. Any info or opinions of them are welcome.

Pretty much. Using a pin instead of hex can also allow you to go a touch narrower, which is useful for scalers going xr width, or sportsman comp crawlers running ar60s.

Were they all pin mounted before hexes?

yea pretty much. back in the day thats what was used