#534 POLISTIL – SUPER BANG CARS (Around 1986)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

This was quite a discovery for me. I found this car for sale in a big lot, and at first I couldn´t recognise it. The car is casted quite roughly, so at first I thought it might be some chinese toy, but I checked the base and it is actually a Polistil model belonging to a rare and short line called "Super Bang". I was right about its Chinese origin, nevertheless (keep reading!)

The line is of course based on Hot Wheels! Crack Ups which were launched shortly before this one. There were a few models with the crack effect either at the front, the back or the door. However, Polistil could argue, that before the Crack Ups, the italian company made some tracks called "Bang". Those tracks were called "Super Driver Bang", and were a slot car system very similar to Tycos TCR, and you could even change lanes. Each track came with two cars. If one of them crashed the other one from behind, the car would "explode".

After that "Bang" line, came the Crack Ups, and then Polistil hit back with the "Super Bang", which is the toy I am showing today. In this case, the car seems to be a Renault 25 in some scale slightly between 1:43 and 1:32. This is the effect of the crash inmy model:

There were a total of three casts, this one with the crash in its bonnet, a police car (that resembles a bit a Chevrolet Impala) with the crash on its back and a third sports car model that resembles maybe a Datsun 280ZX, which the crash on the right door. Each of these were made in two different colours/decorations, and had some stickers on them.

The cars are unfortunately not very valuable toys. They were made in China, and they do not represent any known car, what in my opinion makes it lose a lot of value. The stickers are also not very qualitative ones, and the windshields are in all models dark. In this case that piece of plastic is at the same time the rear lights of the car, or in the case of the police car, it integrates two sirens.

Anyhow, it is a very curious model that I wanted to show it in the “month of the bootleg”, hope you liked it.

UPDATE 1 (Feb/2019): Added second car.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: UNIDENTIFIED CARS "SUPER BANG"
• Scale: 1:43 (approx.)
• Year: Around 1976
• Company: Polistil (Italy)
• Size: approx. 10 cm 

#533 UNKNOWN TOYMAKER - "THE LITTLES"/ "LOS DIMINUTOS" PVC FIGURES (Around 1985)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

I bought these figures a while ago in some flea market. I do not remember exactly when was it. When I decided to inspect them to find out a bit more about them, I noticed that they were not marked, and that they were not Comics Spain, because they are painted in different colours and, paying even more attention, the figures are not so well finished. The plastic has some imperfections, and the paintwork is not so accurate.

So they are definitely a Comics Spain bootleg, or maybe a bootleg from other toy manufacturer, although I am not aware that these PVC figures were made anywhere else by any other brand.

I remember the TV series, which I found quite nice. I didn´t know that, but it was a very short series, with only 29 episodes in 3 seasons. The chapters always ended with some advice to do some crafts. This V series was based on the books by american autor John Peterson.

To my knowledge, the series was never very popular (except maybe in Spain, France and very few other countries) and there are no (or very few) toys made of them. In Spain there was even a chewing gum that included one tatoo-sticker each. Other merchandise were a sticker album or a deck of cards made by Heraclio Fournier.

From this bootleg series I am missing Tom Little, I hope I can find it sometime.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: THE LITTLES: LUCY LITTLE, GRANDPA LITTLE and DINKY LITTLE
• Alternate Names: LOS DIMINUTOS (Spain)
• Year: Around 1985
• Company: Unknown (Probably Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 4 cm (1.5’’)

#532 MC TOY – MOTORIZED ROBOT – DUMP TRUCK and JEEP (Around 1988)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

We have talked several times about MC Toys in this blog. I even wrote a short history of the company in two entries (#390 and #391), although this history focused almost exclusively in die-cast cars. This time I wan to introduced another type of toy by the May Cheong Group: transformable robots.

The information for this article has been retrieved from our friend-blog hisparobot.

MC Toys´ transformers are called Motorized Robots, there were several robots made, most of them very similar to each other. All robots are transformable in vehicles with a pull-back motor ("dyno-drive"). Other features of these robots are that they include plastic and metallic parts, soft plastic tyres and simple transformations. The pull-back motor is a removable piece that can be inserted in either way depending if the toy is in robot mode or in vehicle mode. The motor works in both modes!

Each robot is around 9-10 cm tall, and was sold in individual blisters. There seems to be also gift sets including more than one robot. There were also a series of bigger transformable robots, called the Mega Motobots (around 13 cm tall).

Among the Mega Motobots there are trucks and off-road vehicles. As their smaller brothers, these were also made of plastic and metal, and they were all very similar to each other. New and distinctive features are chromed parts, like the front grill or the exhaust pipes, that could be detached and placed as "antennas".

• Trucks: crane, fire brigade, load trailer and tanker
• Off-Road vehicles: explorer, military, snowplow 

The off-road vehicles (or some of these) had sound and lights and were for this purpose battery operated.

According to hisparobot, apart from MC Toys, Motorized Robots have also been sold as "Motobot" (Maisto, ZEE, Intex Creation), "MotoRobot" (Imperial Die-Cast), "Galaxy Transformer" (Simba Toys) or "Super Transfo Robot" (MC Toys).

UPDATE1 (Dec/2018): This is a Jeep from the same series, in red, and cames with some plastic seats that can be detached easily.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: Dump Truck and Jeep 4x4
• Toy Line: Motorized Robot
• Year: Around 1988
• Company: MC Toy (Hong Kong)
• Size of the figure: Around 10 cm (in robot mode)

#531 MIRA vs MATCHBOX – TURBO FURY, GRUESOME TWOSOME, STRETCHA FETCHA and LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH (Ref. 119, 120, 126, 127) (Around 1981)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

I’ll continue the previous entry with more Mira cars, but this time, they are based in Matchbox models from the Superfast era. These cars are very attractive, and I understand that Mira put its attention on these models.

Some have already appeared in this blog, and those that haven’t yet, will appear some other day.

TURBO FURY (Ref. 119)

GRUESOME TWOSOME (Ref. 120)

The Turbo-Fury does not have the “Rolamatics” feature. One of the weak points of these cars are the suspension. The axles tend to go up and the car does not roll very well after that. Interestingly, those Mira models were some of the last made that could be opened using a screwdriver. Three of these four cars have screws on the chassis, so they can be opened and repared in some way.

These first two models were also copied by Tin Toys (or TinToys), as I showed in entry #336.

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH (Ref. 126)

STRETCHA FETCHA (Ref. 127)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TURBO FURY, GRUESOME TWOSOME, LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH, and STRETCHA FETCHA (Ref. 119, 120, 126, 127)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: Around 1981
• Company: Mira (Spain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#530 MIRA vs CORGI JUNIORS – GRAND PRIX RACER, FORMULA 5000, FORMULA 1 RACER and HOT RODDER (Ref. 114, 115, 116 and 117) (Around 1980)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST!

I have been thinking about dedicating one entire month to toy bootlegs (action figures, plastic figures, die-cast…) This is just an experiment, I this goes well, I’ll think about repeating it, or making thematic months in the future.

I’ll start with some Mira die-cast models from the late 70s or the early 80s that are based on Corgi Junior. If you’re a die-hard die-cast collector, you may already be aware of this, otherwise, it will be funny to compare the pictures. The previous entry was dedicated to 4 Corgi models, and I did it on purpose, so I can show now the same models by Mira (and some more).

First thing is that mira respected the names of the cars, but gave them a nicer chassis. On it there are some casted details.

Unfortunately, Mira models tend to have a lot of chips when they have been used. The paintwork was not so good as in other models. All models shown in this entry are used, but most of them are in a relatively good condition…

GRAND PRIX RACER (Ref. 114)

FORMULA 5000 (Ref. 115)

FORMULA 1 RACER (Ref. 116)

HOT RODDER (Ref. 117)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GRAND PRIX RACER, FORMULA 5000, FORMULA 1 RACER and HOT RODDER (Ref. 114, 115, 116, 117)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: Around 1980
• Company: Mira (Spain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#529 CORGI JUNIORS – GRAND PRIX RACER, FORMULA 1 RACER, FORMULA 5000 and HOT RODDER (1973)

The following cars are made by Corgi in 3 inches size for its line Corgi Juniors. They are formula racers and futuristic prototypes that look like formula racers. I first took the pictures and the noted that all of them were released the same year 1973. The most futuristic ones are maybe an attempt to fight agains Matchbox’s Superfasts, that already had released a few invented cars in a similar style.

Grand Prix Racer in Green (Nr. 1-D1 – 1973-76) and Hot Rodder in yellow (Nr. 28-B1 – 1973-76)

UPDATE: The same model in much better shape including stickers:

END OF UPDATE

Formula 1 Racer in Orange (Nr. 22-C1 – 1973-78) and Formula 5000 in Black (Nr. 27-B1 – 1973-81) From the second model I am showing two standard versions, one with stickers, another one without, plus a variant with black base and black motor at the end of the article.

Formula 5000 (Nr. 27-B? – later issue)

This last car is not described in Dr. Force’s guide and seems to be a later issue, since the motor is made in black plastic instead of golden and it is decorated with a tampographied “9”, instead of stickers. I am sure it is a later issue, but seems to be a rare model. Never saw it somewhere else.

UPDATE 2 (JUNE 2018)

This model is practically identical to the previous one, only the tampography is applied as a "6" instead of a "9". This model does not appear in the guides, and I think it is a more recent variant. Wheels are (or at least look) even newer than in the RN9 model.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GRAND PRIX RACER, FORMULA 1 RACER, FORMULA 5000 and HOT RODDER (Nr. 1-D1, 22-C1, 27-B1 and 28-B1)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: 1973
• Company: Corgi (G. Britain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm