Toys from the Past: #169 PAYA METAL – FERRARI and DATSUN (Ref. 7006 and 7011) (Around 1976)

Monday, July 9, 2012

#169 PAYA METAL – FERRARI and DATSUN (Ref. 7006 and 7011) (Around 1976)

These cars were also acquired last Christmas among many other toys from the late 70s and early 80s. It comes from the gigantic lot that somehow came out during the last months of 2011, and that quickly distributed among Spanish collectors and sellers. That’s why so many toys from this époque are now listed in sites like todocoleccion.net.

This explains that if you try to search information about Payá Metal on the Internet, you’ll just find classified ads, auctions and sellers. There’s no information at all about this interesting series by the Spanish classic toymaker Payá.

DATSUN (seems to be a 126x from 1971) (Ref. 7011)

What it seems proved is that, even though plastic toys were very common since the mid 60s, Payá started producing tin toys again in 1974 or 1975. The cause for this strange decision was the 1973 oil crisis. The OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) plus some other oil-producing countries proclaimed an embargo to all countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War (October 1973). The price of the oil barrel increased around 400% or 500% that year.

Payá, as well as many other Spanish toymakers couldn't afford such prices. Oil was scarce so the production had to continue withtin. The situation wouldn’t improve in a short-term (it would even worsen in 1979), bringing a second “tin-Age” in the toy industry, which would last until the early to mid 80s.

Payá had the know-how, so they just had to return to the old manufacturing methods, and created a new line, “Payá-Metal” (References 70xx and also 80xx) which would be one of the most important ones during the late 70s and early 80s. Not all parts of the toys were made of tin. The base and wheels were still made of plastic.

To my knowledge, this line included many different cars and even some tractors, planes and machines. Some were even cable-controlled. Most humble versions (these) came with friction motors, although in the lower part of the cars there's a little hole which was used for the cable on the cable controlled versions (which were exactly the same models).

FERRARI (seems to be a 250 P5 from 1968) (Ref. 7006)

Note the stickers at the back corners of the car. These are often missing, even when MIB ("Mint in Box")!

These two are some of the first references in Payá-Metal series, 7006 and 7011. There were also different models made: the first ones (these, among others) were prototypes and concept cars (for example: Mercedes C-111 or Porsche 917) and came in paper boxes decorated with hand-made illustrations. These cars have a characteristic cockpit made of transparent plastic in which the pilot (a plastic helmet) can be seen. In this first series there were also other slightly more elaborated, battery operated toys with lights and sound (references 80xx), and included more “common” vehicles of that time,

Later releases would include cars like Seat 124, 1430 or 132, Renault 12 or 15, Ford Fiesta or Chrysler 150… even with different decorations each (police, firemen…). These were packed in a more modern box decorated with photographs of the different models available (one box fits all). These cars came with windshield and decorated interior, but no pilot.

Other Spanish brands, like Román, Jyesa or Rico would build very similar toy cars at the same time, releasing very interesting models, with very funny and colourful decorations.