Woodsy,
I visited an old friend and a little blue car on his desk caught my eye, primarily due to the white doggie sticking his head out the window.
We got to talking about toys, and about how cool it was to collect toy cars back in the day. I asked if he had any more little cars, and he brought out a battered old plastic collectors case, full of goodies. I took quick inventory and broke them down into categories.
Although the bulk were Matchbox, there were several obscurities and anomalies in there, which I photographed in bunches. You toy car collectors will know more about these than me, but I thought it was a great assortment of various brands and styles. The breakdown is thus:
12 Matchbox cars (the double decker bus is my favorite).
1 Lindberg Yellow Hippie Volkswagen Bug (my friend recalled it being a model kit he got as a cereal premium).
2 Aurora “Cigar Box” cars ( I do not remember this brand at all).
6 unknown make one-piece metal toy cars, probably from cheap car assortments.
3 Impy Road-Master Super Cars with working doors and bonnets (I had some of the larger Impy vehicles; never saw the smaller ones before).
2 Husky cars (another brand new to me).
1 Corgi Junior.
2 unknown make plastic toy cars.
1 unknown make tin roller coaster car.
Quite a nice collection, I thought! I visit this fellow a couple of times a year, so if there is anything in here you want to see better pictures of, let me know.
Rob C
USA
An amazing fleet that Rob! Thank your mate for letting us see his treasures! And thank you! The unknown roller coaster car is from the J Chein Roller Coaster. there's a few video's of them working on You Tube. Here's one https://youtu.be/LHHUON6ncYk?feature=shared Lovely!
ReplyDeleteI could not believe he saved that roller coaster car! Sadly, the coaster itself is long gone. But isn't that a cool collection? SFZ
DeleteAn amazing car bundle for sure Rob! the little white doggie rings a bell. I thinks there's one in a plastic rocket. I knows one in this Deluxe Reading space truck, but he looks glum and for good reason as he's space-bound. I love the MG 1100 that the dog's ast in, reminds me a lot of mine and Missus' first British car together, in 1983, the Austin 1800, which had a similar shape. Has your mate got any more toys?
DeleteKen has some of the tin toys I sent pix of last year. He also has some fun Space:1999 memorabilia - I’ll ask him to dig it out next time I visit. SFZ
DeletePlease do SF. Ta very much.
DeleteIve got the Austin with the dog in, but in green. Got most of the matchbox and Husky. The metal cars are probably Tuf Toys. Cigar Box, is totally new to me! Impy was an odd make that cropped up now and then, good quality builds, but losing out to Corgi and Matchbox in UK. Plastic cadillac (?) could be another cereal or cracker toy. Great little blast from the past though! Bill
ReplyDeleteI wondered if the 6 hollow metal cars were Playart. I've had some including small Redline copies.
DeleteI know! These are probably “same old, same old” to most of you, but having NO little cars of my own, I thought this collection was wild. SFZ
ReplyDeleteIts never 'same old' with toys Rob, its always a pleasure to see stuff! Bill
DeleteI agree with Bill Rob, never same old. Keep 'em comin!
DeleteGorgeous cars!
ReplyDeleteI suspect the unknown one piece cars are either tootsie toys or midge.
The Lindbergh bug was sold in shops, I am not familiar with it being a cereal premium but my knowledge is mostly USA. I had a dark green bug and several of their Mercedes Benz 2 seat sportsters I think were the SSK model. They were some of my favorites.
Interesting Lance, not sure I know Midge. Will have to look that make up. Do you have toy cars as well?
DeleteThe Lindberg "Bug" is probably my favorite of the bunch, as it was (apparently) a model kit, although I don't recall seeing any in the shops back then. SFZ
DeleteMidgetoys made cheap metal cars to compete with the Hot Wheels and Matchbox and in some instances, Tootsietoys. I recall mostly getting Tootsietoys for their size, larger than Hot Wheels and such. They had a larger size that tended to have a metal body and one piece plastic interior. I had jeeps and their pak howitzer along with the 6 wheel armored cars. They were close enough in scale with most army men so that was the draw for me.
DeleteI do have lots of toy cars. I have most of my childhood ones, and my adulthood ones and what few of my Dad's childhood ones that survived WWII. He was born in 1937.
Pics please Lance!
DeleteA great collection.
ReplyDeleteHusky were made by Corgi in the 1960s, and sold only in Woolworths, at least in Britain. Once the exclusive deal with Woolworths ended, the line was re-branded as Corgi Juniors from 1970, and sold in other shops. You can find the same model with either the Husky or Corgi Junior names on the base.
According to a book I have on model cars, the Aurora Cigar Box models were plastic slot car bodies without the motors, and with metal baseplates.
One-piece metal body cars. The underside view shows that most of these are marked Hong Kong. The car on the lower left has Midgetoy, Rockford, (Illinois), and the one on the lower right is marked Tootsietoy, Chicago ?, U.S.A.
Nice bit of info about the Aurora cars! I only knew of their Speedline series which was Hot Wheels scale. I had their track, a one piece two lane dragway and half a dozen of the cars that had a chrome super shiny finish. Quite eye catching even today.
DeleteThanks for the info, Paul. I guess Aurora had all of these plastic car bodies from their slot car line, so figured why not remarket them as free-rolling toys? Anyways, it was fun for a car novice like me to see so many cool different brands... SFZ
ReplyDeleteAll fascinating stuff. Is it the same Aurora who made the monster kits?
ReplyDeleteYes. Aurora started out as a plastics company (like Airfix and Revell), that began making plastic kits in the 1950s. In the 1960s they expanded in to slot cars. Then in to various model car lines.
ReplyDelete