Wednesday, June 19, 2013

#294 POLISTIL – HONDA COUPÉ Z MG-25 (1974)



POLISTIL'S MG SERIES

 
This funny cars made by Polistil were released in two waves in the years 1974 and 1976. The first wave included metallic chassis and the cars were numbered MG-20 to MG-25 (6 models), while the second wave had plastic chassis and references between MG-26 and MG-37 (12 models).

First wave:

  • Mini Minor MG20
  • Fiat 500 MG21
  • Citroen 2cv MG22
  • VW Coccinelle MG23
  • Fiat 127 MG24
  • Honda Z MG25


Second wave:

  • Mercedes Benz 350/450 MG26
  • Alfasud MG27
  • VW Porsche MG28
  • NSU Prinz MG29
  • Ford Capri MG30
  • Rolls Royce MG31
  • Citroen DS21 MG32
  • Fiat 126 MG33
  • Renault 5 MG34
  • A112 MG35
  • Jaguar E MG36
  • Citroen Ami8 MG37


Due to their small size, the cars were sold in square boxes. The boxes in the first series included a drawing of the car with the name of the car in very nice fonts, different for each model. Second series’ boxes were less interesting, since they depicted a picture of the actual toy, and the texts were written for all cars with the same font.



Cars are made of three pieces, chassis, body and windshields. The interior is directly casted in the chassis (no separate piece) and the axles are fixed on the lower part of the chassis (outside), instead of inside.

Note the wheels of these models, because, to my knowledge, they’re exclusive from this series. To increase the “toon” impression, rear wheels are bigger than front wheels in every model.

Unless anybody says the opposite, each model was released in only one colour, and they are pretty rare collectables, since they were made in short releases, and apparently, without much success.

I think I own one more model, as soon as I find it, I will update this entry. I wish I had all 18 models, because the collection is something very rare in the die-cast history, and they’re quite fancy. This “toon-ing” is very popular in the transforming robots world, whose figures are called “super deformed”.


As a curious fact, I'd like to mention that this Polistil series was "copied" for Kinder Surprise by the early 80s. I have taken the following picture from the catalogue book I showed in entry #181, and after that, I include two more pictures of one toy from the famous italian chocolate egg.




FACTS AND FIGURES
  • Name: HONDA COUPÉ Z (MG-25)
  • Scale: 1:64
  • Year: 1974
  • Company: Polistil (Italy)
  • Size: approx. approx. 4-5 cm

4 comments:

  1. Gosh! I'd forgotten this series! I had one or two of these cars! Thanx for remember me that!

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    1. Hi!, Thanks to you for passing by and many thanks also for your comment!

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  2. Hello Gog

    Thanks for the Informations about the Polistil Caricature Funny Car Series and their funny little Kinder Egg Siblings. One thing i'd like to mention is that there were several different Colors available of each Model. Often the same Color Range was used on different models of the same series.

    Tipical Colors include

    For the first Series:
    Dark Blue met., Light Green met., Purple met., Dark Green met, Black, Beige, Apricot, Light Yellow, Sand Yellow, Bright Yellow.

    For the Second Series:
    Light Green met, Dark Green met., Light Blue met, Light Purple met., Dark Orange met., Cherry Red met., Dark Brown met., Gold, Silver

    The same Series were sold in Mexico under the Mc Gregor Brand and these had their own unique Color Range of non Metallic Paints, Such as Red, Green and others. The Mc Gregor Models usually don't have chromed hubs on the Wheels. Baseplates may Read "Made in Italy" but on some Castings these Writings have been blanked out.

    Regards Gaudenz Fischer

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    Replies
    1. Hello! Many thanks for taking the time to leave this message and correcting the information above. I haven't seen many of these, so I was not sure about the paint colours of each model. Now is set. Many thanks again!
      Juan

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