#511 MAJORETTE - VW 1302 "BEETLE" (Nr. 202 and 203) (From 1972 on)

Here are all my Volkswagen Beetle cars made by Majorette. The VW Beetle is probably the most popular car ever in the history of automobile, a car that was produced more than 20 million times from the beginning of the 40s to the 00s.

There is almost no die-cast manufacturer that has not reproduced this model in one version or another, so I think I will repeat this entry several times in the next months. I´ll start with Majorette, since I took these pictures short ago, and I am very happy with that colour scale effect. I have 6 cars in different colours, one of them is much older than the rest, but it is interesting to note that the model was manufactured during many years.

The oldest model/cast dates from 1972 and had practicable trunk, and the oldest types of wheels. It was released with the reference number 202, and in the catalogue was depicted in green.

Wheel comparison: Green model has the oldest type of wheels.

Practicable Trunk with a suitcase carved on it.

Sunroof

Catalogue images:

• 202 – green – 1972 and 1973
• 202 – pink with a flower on trunk – 1974 to 1978
• 202 – new cast without practicable parts, multicolour version – 1979
• 202 – grey with VW logo on doors – 1980
• Not available between 1981 and 1991
• 203 – green – 1992
• 203 – orange with blue wheels – 1993
• 203 – green – 1994
• 203 – dark blue – 1995 and 1996
• 203 – light blue – 1997
• 203 – picture with green, light blue and yellow models with tampographies – 1998 and 1999
• Not available in 2000 on

Despite the catalogue information, there are many other colours in which these cars were painted: black, white, red, red and black… so it is quite difficult (if not impossible) to make a list of all available colours.

I also doubt that the car was discontinued in 2000, since then it has been offered for sale if not in the 200 series, in other sub-series or as a promotional item, or as part of a gift pack.

The VW Bug was also released with a trailer as several 3xx references. For example in the catalogues from 1974 to 1976 we see two blue VW carrying a small boat (Cabin Cruiser) or 2 kayaks.



Three different chassis

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VW 1302 (Nr. 202 and 203)
• Year: From 1972 on
• Company: Majorette (France)
• Size: Around 6 cm.
• Scale: 1:60

#510 MONSTER IN MY POCKET – SEVERAL FIGURES from SERIES 4 (SUPER SCARY) (1991)

 

Series 4 came probably one year later, previously, there was two waves with several figures, numbered between 49 and 96. Series 4 starts with 97 and ends with 120. That makes 24 figures more.

In this case, the new thing is that the figures were available in “glow in the dark” colours: green, yellow, orange and purple.

There seems to be two kinds of plastic used in this figures. Some are softer (like series 1) some harder (rarer).

Another news from this series are that the figures had some painted details. In my opinion, this makes the figure less attractive, because the colours used are very shiny, very “90s”.

There were 2 different 12-packs and 4 6-packs. In Europe the Dibbuk (#103) figure was available in both sets, replacing Hanuman (#99), who might have offend Hinduists.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name:  CHARUN (#93), ASTAROTH (#103), DYBBUK (#103), SLAUGHTERFORD (#107), HOUNGAN (#109), DRUDE (#111), BOOGEYMAN (#112), JERSEY DEVIL (#115), WURDULAC (#116), POLTERGEIST (#117) and IMP (#120)
• Toy Line: Monster in my Pocket (Wave 4)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Matchbox (Great Britain)
• Size of the figures: 4 cm

#509 MONSTER IN MY POCKET – SEVERAL FIGURES from SERIES 1 (1990)

Monster in my pocket (MIMP) are small plastic figures (mostly monochromatic and made in bright colours) released by Matchbox in 1990 onwards. Although I never saw them in shops, there were dozens of them made… almost 200 between 1990 and 1994, plus several premium figures more.  In this entry, I will present the figures I own from the first series.

Series 1 comprised 48 figures (numbered 1 to 48) in 4 different colours: red, yellow, light green and light purple, and all of them are identified with a number and a letter (A or B, although there are also figures with C and F). Figures between 1 and 24 were available in two colours each, while figures 25 to 48 were available in all four colours.

Later on, four more colours were added: neon green, light red,neon yellow and light purple, although I won’t be showing one of these.

The figures were available in 1-packs, 4-packs, 12-packs and 24-packs, so you could actually get all figures with just 2 big packs (one with even numbers, the other with the uneven numbers).

The figures represent monsters and strange creatures from classic stories and legends from all over the world. The casts are really amazing for figures of such size. The line probably led to other similar PVC toylines like the Trash Bag Bunch. I don’t know if these figures would still sell today, but back then, it was cool to have a collection of monsters and being able to make them fight against each other.

Unfortunately, the toys are unpainted. How cool would they be if painted! It is a similar case to the SuperMonstruos made by Yolanda. There were monocromatic and hand-painted versions, being the hand-painted much cooler.

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name:  WEREWOLF (#3), TYRANNOSAURUS-REX (#6), CYCLOPS (#8),  TRITON (#10), COATLICUE (#16), BABA YAGA (#18), KALI (#19), CATOBLEPAS (#20), HANIVER (#22), RED CAP (#25), ZOMBIE (#29), GHOST (#31), VAMPIRE (#33), THE PHANTOM (#38), MUMMY (#41), THE BEAST (#43), SPRING-HEALED JACK (#45), SKELETON (#47) and HUNCHBACK (#48)
• Toy Line: Monster in my Pocket (Wave 1)
• Year: 1990
• Company: Matchbox (Great Britain)
• Size of the figures: 4 cm

#508 PIATNIK - DICHTER-QUARTETT and MÄRCHEN-QUARTETT (Nr. 284 and 285) (1955)

I collected two more Piatnik sets from the 50s, those that came in a carboard box, like for example these ones or these ones. I have decided to put these two together, since their themes are related. The first set is a collection of poets from Europe (and their works), while the second one is based on the tales by the Grimm brothers, so both are literature based.

These are especially nostalgic decks, since today such quartetts would be unthinkable for boys and girls. I think most children today wouldn't be able to mention one work from each of these poets, taken that they know who these people are. Even the tales from the Grimm Brothers are now somehow challeged and out of fashion, because they include violent or politically-incorrect situations or characters. What I want to say, is that this toys belong to another "era", which is not very likely to return.

The poet's quartet includes 9 families, each devoted to one poet. The first card of each family is a portrait, while the other three are scenes of three of their plays. This schema is similar to the one used in the Famous Operas Quartett (Opern-Quartett, Nr. 286).   

Goethe and Molière

Shakespeare and Goldoni

Tolstoi and Ibsen

Grillparzer and Schiller

Calderón de la B

The Märchen-Quartett has again 9 families, each one is a famous tale divided in 4 parts, one on each card.

 This set still includes the instructions, that were printed in a separate piece of paper.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, some are blurry and sometimes you can see the flash reflected on the card.

UPDATE: Alternative Cover for Dichter-Quartett with Shakespeare's bust.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: DICHTER QUARTETT and MÄRCHEN QUARTETT (Nr. 284 and 285)
• Alternative Names: „POETS QUARTET“ and "TALES QUARTETT"
• Year: 1955
• Company: Piatnik Wien (Austria)