#737 MAJORETTE - BMW TURBO, BERTONE CAMARGUE, SAVIEM GRUE, MORGAN PLUS 8 and EXCALIBUR (217, 221, 228, 261 and 267) (1979, 1980 and 1981)

This is a lot of 5 cars I bought from another collector. They are from 1979 to 1981 and still in their sealed blister packs "neuf sous blister".

Nr. 217 - BMW TURBO (decoration 1979-1981)
I won’t stop in explaining anything about this car, since you have an entry exclusively dedicated to it in this blog. Please visit entry #438.

Nr. 221 - BERTONE CAMARGUE (decoration 1980)
This decoration from 1980 is one of the most curious by majorette. There are many Majorette models with advertising tampographies within the „ordinary“ 200 or 300 series, but most of them are trucks or vans. In this case it is a Citroën GS Camargue in white, with Holiday Inn logos in green. Curious choice.

In the catalogue of 1981 we find the last appearance of this car, but this time in blue and white with „RACING“ tampographies.

But before 1980, this model was issued several times. In the catalogues from 1974 and 1975, it is not photographed, but drawn, in orange colour, an in 1976, it is finally shown in a picture but with the upper half in red and the lower half in yellow. This would continue until 1978 and in 1979 we find a blue model with the Union Jack in the bonnet. Strange, because it is a French car and I don’t know any relation to Great Britain whatsoever.

Nr. 228 – SAVIEM GRUE (decoration 1979-1982)
This truck was first available quite soon, in 1975. It is depicted in that year’s catalogue as a replacement of the „Grue Telescopique“. The first model seems to be red with grey and white crane.
It is seen for the second time in the catalogue from 1979, in the same colours as the one shown in the picture. This would be the main decoration until 1982. Then, it seems that it was discontinued.
Maybe the design was a bit strange for  kids, since we must note that in this model, the scale is bigger than 1:100, maybe 1:150 or 1:200. It was replaced by a n approximately 1:100 truck named „Grue“ (Nr. 283)

The next two belong somehow together. They were sold well for a long time, probably, because they are quite different from the other models, and people like variety. Many fathers bought them for their children, and I must say, I had both as a kid. Both in red. But there were many more versions... at least the following ones.

Nr. 261 - MORGAN PLUS 8 (decoration 1981)
The catalogue from 1979 has the first appearance of this model in dark green with white/beige roof, in 1981 it was changed to red with black roof, and this model would continue in 1981. In  1982 and until 1984, the first model in green with white roof will reappear in the catalogues.
In 1985 it seems darker, maybe it was a black version, but I am not sure of this. In 1986 and 87 we find another red version, but this time with white/beige roof.
In 1988, there si another new decoration in black or a very dark colour (never seen it),
In 1989 it is redecorated in light blue with white roof, and in 1990 it is shown again in dark green with white roof.
In 1991 it disappears, but the number 261 would still remain for a few years reserved. Maybe they were selling the rest of the production during 3-4 years more.

Nr. 267 – EXCALIBUR (decoration 1980)

Unlike the previous model, this one was issued later and discontinued earlier, but it counted many different versions. I could find all these:
-1979 Red with black roof
-1980 2 versions: white or red, both with black roof
-1981 Red with black roof
-1982 White or red, both with black roof
-1983 & 1984 Red with white roof
-1985 Silver with black roof
-1986 Blue with black roof
-Disappears in 1987.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BMW TURBO (217), BERTONE CAMARGUE (221), SAVIEM GRUE (228), MORGAN PLUS 8 (261) and EXCALIBUR (267)
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: Several years: 1979, 1980, 1979, 1981 and 1980
• Company: Majorette (France)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#736 FX SCHMID - DIE ALLERNEUESTEN (50026.2), FERRARI (50045.3), IRRE SCHLITTEN (50057.6) and GRAND PRIX (50169.6) (1985 and 1989)

My favorite decks of cards are those showing cars, I love sport cars, race cars and prototypes although any car would do… new or old, I don’t care. I present today a set of four decks made by FX Schmid, which belong to the same series, but are very different to each other.

All sets came in plastic “soap” boxes and included 8 families. As we will see some other time, some of these sets were also released in the smallest size with only 6 families instead of 8. The cover card of each set has the instructions on the back.

DIE ALLERNEUESTEN (50026.2)

Die Allerneuesten or “the very newest” present cars that were common in 1986 (the year in which I think this deck was released), and include from small cars (Fiat Uno, Peugeot 205…) to more exclusive cars like the Buick Regal or the BMW M 635 CSI and finishing by the very expensive Porsche 959 and the Rolls Royce Silver Spur 6.7. To my knowledge, the Opel Junior was never produced in series.

“New” is a very broad category, as this deck proves. From this set I like the mixture of promotional and read pictures, and having a view of what was available around 1985.

FERRARI (50045.3)

Ferrari is the carmaker that makes more people dream of their cars worldwide, so making a Ferrari deck seems to be an idea lacking of any risks… I can imagine this set sold very well at the time.

I includes models made between 1959 (Ferrari 500 F2) to 1984, that’s why I date it 1985. The testarossa is not included (probably not designed yet), but there is a nice representation of modern Ferraris (modern in the mid 80s, now “classics”), Formula 1s and race cars. Pictures are not promotional, but made by photographers all over the world, and thus more valuable, because they are the ones you find everywhere else.

 

IRRE SCHLITTEN (50057.6)

Irre Schlitten, is quite difficult to translate, literally means something like “mad carriages”, and is a funny way to call all the prototypes included in this deck. Here there are no cars affordable “for every purse”, since all of them were made in very short numbers or are modifications or special customizations made by artisans also in a very limited number. Most models had a certain fame in the 80s, and appeared in many magazines, most prototype fans would inmediatly recognise at least 80% of all models here. I love from this deck that two cards represent models made in Lichtenstein, and on the top of the card, we see the dark blue and red flag of this small principality in center-Europe. Probably it is the only technical quartett in which we can find this flag.

 

GRAND PRIX (50169.6)

And finally, this set about Formula 1 with models that ran (mostly) in 1988. What can I say about F1 that I haven’t said before? I just love these quartetts. Some families are not F1s, but Carts (American competition), Formula 3000 and Formula III.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DIE ALLERNEUESTEN (50026.2), FERRARI (50045.3), IRRE SCHLITTEN (50057.6) and GRAND PRIX (50169.6)
• Year: 1985 (DIE ALLERNEUESTEN, FERRARI and IRRE SCHLITTEN) and 1989 (GRAND PRIX)
• Company: FX Schmid (West Germany)

#735 TIN‘S TOYS – CHEVROLET and UNKNOWN MODEL (T.214 and T.225) (Around 1977)

These are two cars that many people will think they have no value at all, while other people will think they are absolutely fascinating. They are two models made by Tin’s Toys in the late 70s and, to my knowledge, they are unique casts, not copied from other companies.

  

The cars, of course, don’t look very nice, their casts are not very carefully detailed and the proportions seem to be wrong. The plastic parts are also quite rude, but present fantastic and fictional add-ons to otherwise well known car models. These additions are unique to Tin’s Toys, as it happened with the O.S.I. Bisiluro shown in entry #336.

So the two models are:

T.225 MADE IN HONG KONG in red

This one is in my opinion a MONZA G.T. DRAGSTER (a concept car derived from a Chevrolet Corvair), but for some reason it is not marked on the base. The original car had windshield and roof, but this one (considering that it is complete, and not missing any parts) seems to be a Cabrio.

T.214 CHEVROLET MADE IN HONG KONG in blue

This model I think it is a Chevrolet ASTRO 1, a concept car from 1967, also reproduced (in another scale) by Corgi or Guisval.

UPDATE 1 (May/2017) Added T.227

T.227 RACE CAR (Basedon an unknown design)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CHEVROLET, UNKNOWN MODEL and another UNKNOWN MODEL (T.214, T. 225 and T.227)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: Around 1977
• Company: Tin’s Toys (Hong Kong)
• Size: approx. 6 cm

#734 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE – SNOUT-SPOUT and HORDE TROOPER (1986)

I didn’t have either of these figures as a kid. The Horde Trooper was cool, but I always found it boring, because its appearances in the comic, were to be destroyed by one punch and that was all. I cannot remember any adventure in which the Horde Trooper had any interesting plot behind. Today I appreatiate its design, it is really great, and like many collectors I wouldn’t mind having a few of them. They are currently one of the most expensive figures in the series because people are just buying them over and over again to build armies.

The action feature is that, when hit in the chest, the chest will open and its head will hang down, like it was dead or “deactivated”. At least in my figure, the feature doesn’t work as well as I was expecting, I wouldn’t dare to say it is a design error, but almost.

The accessory is a red staff, which, again, is quite boring, but has a great design.

Snout-Spout is another great figure that spits water a little bit like Kobra Khan, only Kobra Khan would vaporise the water, and Snout-Spout does it in stream-form. The head design is truly great, and it includes the great leg-system without “rubber bridge”. That is why this figure will stay in good shape for a longer time, it won’t get loose legs.

The figure plays the role of some kind of fireman, and maybe for that reason, it came with an axe.

Both figure’s design is 100% exclusive, no parts are reused from other figures and no parts were ever reused to other figures, after all, the MOTU toyline was a goldmine, and they could really afford making these cool figures without reusing casts.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: SNOUT SPOUT (Ref. 2803) and HORDE TROOPER (Ref. 2549)
• Toy Line: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (Wave 5)
• Year: 1986
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 14 cm

#733 NACORAL S.A. / CHIQUI-CARS – MACO SHARK and PORSCHE 904 (2032 and 2033) (Around 1969)

Finding these two models in such a great condition only happens once in a blue moon. They are really rare models made by Nacoral in Spain. I have talked about this company in several previous articles, so I would recommend you to visit these entries (click here).

Unlike the previous entries, that dealt with cars of 1:43 scale or bigger, this time I also present two cars in 1:64 scale (3 inches). They are two sport cars of the 70s: the Maco Shark (based on a Chevrolet Stingray) and the Porsche 904. Cars in this scale by Nacoral are much rarer than their bigger brothers.

The accuracy of the casts is (in my opinion) worse than the quality of the 1:43 or bigger, these are based on Aurora Cigarbox from the U.S.A, while many of the 1:43 or bigger models are made from casts bought to Polistil or other European manufacturers.

The wheels are very nice, with some silver/chromed painted hubcaps (in the Schuco style) and with nice interiors. The Porsche model still has some stickers, but the Maco Shark probably never carried any.

These models have reference 2032 and 2033, but there were not as many made as that. First I would like to mention that the Chiqui-Car series started as a 1:43 series (see entry #145), including originally plastic models. After some time the models were made die-cast, and the series name changed to Inter-cars. Some models have both plastic and metallic versions, but many others were simply discontinued as new die-cast models were made available.

Why did Nacoral decide then to use the old name “Chiqui-Cars” to the new metallic 1:66 scales series? Proabably because they had the copyright for the name already and that was cheaper than registrating a new name. On top of that “chiqui” has the meaning of something “small”, so, as 1:66 is smaller that 1:43, Chiqui-Cars and Inter-Cars could actually fit very well together. The Chiqui-Cars were also used with some race tracks in the Hot Wheels style, and were advertised as “Pista-matic”, “Pista Rápida Meteoro” or “Pista RR..Rapida” (“Pista RRRápida”). The wheels however are far from the Superfast by Matchbox or the Whizzwheels from Corgi… maybe there were several versions of these Chiqui-Cars wether they were sold with or without track?

So, back to the references, they started in number 2030 and ended in 2035. All references carried an “M” at the end, indicating they were made of metal. So 6 models in total, all copied from foreign makers.

Ref. 2030/M – Chevrolet Camaro
Ref. 2031/M – Ford Mustang
Ref. 2032/M – Mako Shark (in the boxes, Mako is written with “k”)
Ref. 2033/M – Porsche 904
Ref. 2034/M – Pontiac Firebird (cabrio)
Ref. 2035/M - Silhouette

The original Chiqui-Cars series comprised numbers 2000 to 2029 plus two Land Rovers with references 2051 and 2052.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MACO SHARK and PORSCHE 904 (2032 and 2033) (CHIQUI-CARS)
• Scale: 1:66
• Year: Around 1969
• Company: Nacoral (Spain)
• Size: approx. 6 cm