#747 MIRA - PEGASO TRANSPORTE INTERNACIONAL (Ref. 69) (1976)

The most renowned series by Mira is probably the Pegaso truck series made in the late 70s and continued during the early 80s. This included one truck in long (first) and (then) short version, and with every possible trailers: cargoes, cranes, tankers, fire brigade with ladder, big wine casks, military...

For me, the great success, is that they decided to make them in 1:64 scale, and thus, compatible with most toy cars that are very common among children. Think that most toy trucks were made with the same size as cars, to be sold for the same price, so, even as a kid, I looked at trucks and thought they were too small compared with the rest of the collection. With the Pegasos by Mira you wouldn’t have such a problem, they had the same scale.

I think it was around 1976 that the first models were released, there were long (4 axles) or articulated trucks with long trailers. Some (like this one) also included an additional trailer to be towed by the first trailer. As said before, all truck were the same pegaso model and the colour varied from one model to the next. A Bus was also released within this series, but only a few references were made of it.

Most accurately, there were 36 references. 4 of them were buses, 8 were "double" (with additional trailer), 5 of them were chromed (including one "double" and one bus), and the rest were all long trucks (either 4 axles or 2 axles plus 2-axled trailer).

The next year 1978, and using as a base the articulated version of the Pegaso, several new loads were created and attached to the base truck, creating 26 "short versions" with, again, many different decorations. These were sold without trailers and they were surely much cheaper. There were other large model issues, including a modern not-articulated tanker, a cement mixer and others.

Several references were sold during many years, until the mid 80s, and are available with different types of wheels, among other minor details. Over the years, some trucks were designed with a peg on the roof to attach a plastic spoiler, and the decals were replaced by stickers. The cast, however, remained untouched.

They are very sough-for in Spain and they can be quite costly to buy, apart from difficult to find. There are people who collect only these Pegaso trucks, and they have amazing collections.

In this case I am presenting one of the largest models that could be bought at the time, a "mudanzas" (move away?) truck. I have other 2, that I will present some other time.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: PEGASO TRANSPORTE INTERNACIONAL (Ref. 69)
• Scale: 1:64
• Year: 1977
• Company: Mira (Spain)
• Size: approx. 11 cm + 8 cm trailer

#746 M.A.S.K. - FIREFLY with JULIO LOPEZ/ STREAMER (1986)

In the second series, M.A.S.K. issued 8 more vehicles, more or less the same number than in the first wave, including new types of vehicles, which were chosen probably for being as different from the ones in the first wave as possible.

An so we got a dune buggy. This type of car was somehow popular in the 80s, with some dirt races and circuits in the U.S. and other countries. I remember watching some races on TV. I haven't seen them for years, wo I guess, they are not celebrated anymore. Buggys are today almost forgotten, probably because of security issues, since they seem to be very dangerous cars.

Despite that, I love the Firefly, a Buggy that transforms into a jet. The buggy itself has every detail: from the side mirrors to the exhaust pipes, the front spoiler, the not-round steering wheel... it looks awesome.

The jet is somehow more strange, but it still looks like some flying thing with huge turbines behind, long wings and several small guns.

Behind the pilot seat, there is a compartment that hosts a bomb. In flight modus, it can be dropped off by pushing one lever on the top of the vehicle. Anything that is designed to be dropped off gets lost easily, so it was a great luck to find one of these. Now I can show this vehicle 100% complete (well, almost, one of the wing guns has a broken tip).

The figure that comes with the vehicle is Julio Lopez, a new character with hispanic roots. Most toylines, after the initial success tried to present characters from ethnic minorities or other nationalities, and M.A.S.K. is a ood example. This is a great chance to enter foreign markets, mostly in Europe or South America.

Taken from a German M.A.S.K. Comic Book

The mask is Streamer, and, as most masks in the series, is not "mortal". This one pretends to release super-tack glue.

 

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: FIREFLY with JULIO LOPEZ/ STREAMER
• Toy Line: M.A.S.K. (Wave 2)
• Year: 1986
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the vehicle: Around 6'' or 15 cm
• Size of the figures: 2½’’ or 6,5 cm

#745 ANGUPLAS/ MINI CARS - SEAT 1400 (Nr. 2) (1958)

 

I wanted to write an article about this brand, but when looking for information about them, I have found that the guys from 87thscale have already summarized a short history of the company and a complete list of references, with the help of Juan Mauri Cruz, one of the most important collectors of this brand worldwide. He has also written a comprehensive book (over 400 pages) about the company that is being sold in very few places for around 42 Euros.

 

The most interesting part of the history of Anguplas is its relation with Norev. Angupas made ome models for Norev, assembled others and sold Norev's in Spain. It is interesting to find some "mini-cars" made in France and some Norev madein Spain, although not every model had both versions. There were even sets that combined one truck from one maker and a trailer from the other one.
 

 

From the very few models I own by Anguplas, this one has the lowest reference number (nr.2) and is the oldest of them. It is made in greyish blue and, as you can see, has a few details painted in other colours. Red lights, silver base,  silber bumpers and silver front grill. The model has a very good detail level for its small size and has even windows.

 

Apparently, Anguplas made each car in several colours, so many collectors are just looking for all possible variations. This is quite a difficult task to achieve.
 

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEAT 1400 (Nr. 2)
• Scale: Approx. 1:87 (H0)
• Year: 1958
• Company: Anguplas/ Mini-Cars (Spain)
• Size: approx. 4 cm

#744 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - BASKET FEVER PVC FIGURES (1993)

This plastic figures were made in 1992 and are marked (C) D´Ocon 1992. Interestingly, there is no manufacturer marking on the back of the figures and collectors in Spain argue if the manufacturer was Comics Spain or not. The figures are identical to these: same plastic, same paint, similar design, but the company in 1992 has some economic problems as I explained in entry #267. This would make some sense if they did this figures using a second company in order to cash the money and avoid paying other debts. One detail here is that in 1997, together with Comics Spain there were other two companies that were precincted and closed.

Curiously, that same year it would be another D'Ocon production (Delfy) that would cause the end of Comics Spain.

It will probably take a few years more until we find somebody involved in the casting or manufacturing of these figures and we know the rest of the story. No matter what, the figures  are really great and represent characters from the Spanish cartoon series "Basket Fever" or "Locos por el Basket".

This series was produced by the Public Spanish TV (TVE), the ACB League (professional basketball league) and the Spanish Basketball Federation to promote basketball and sports among children. The main character, a grasshopper was also the official mascot of the ACB league.

Charlie and Hooper

The cartoons´ script dealt with two rival gangs who instead of fighting decide to play sports for the control of the block. One of the gangs is formed by respectable, nice and kind dogs, and the other one are crook and troublemaker dogs. The grasshopper arrives and joins the first group, and will have the idea to play basketball with the rival gang.

Linda

The good guys gang is called "dinamics". Although in the original series there were more characters, these are the ones made in PVC:

-Mike (a.k.a. Boss): Gang Leader

-Linda: Gang member

-Hooper: The grasshopper, newest member of the gang

-Sargent: Trainer (I do not have the figure yet!)

The bad guys gang is called "quebrantahuesos". This name literally means "the bonecrushers", but it is also the common name in Spanish for the bearded Vulture, a bird that can be found in many places around Spain.

-Charlie (a.k.a. Kilo): Gang Leader

-Yvonne: Gang member and Charlie´s girlfriend

-Rapper: Gang member

-O'Rejas: Trainer

Boss and Ivonne

Unfortunately, there are other characters that do not got their figure. In the dinamics gang: Freddie (a.k.a. Krueger) and Plasta, and for the Quebrantahuesos team: Paccino and the Destroyer. With these figures we would have 2 five member teams and two trainers, and thus we could have played 5 on 5 basketball games.

Rapper and O'Rejas

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: HOOPER, BOSS, LINDA, CHARLIE, YVONNE, RAPPER and O'REJAS.
• Year: 1992
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer, maybe Comics Spain (Spain)
• Size of the figures: Around 7 cm (between  2’’ and 3’’)

#743 NEUE NÜRNBERGER SPIELKARTEN – GEHEIMNISSE DES MEERES (Around 1978)

During my childhood I recall watching many documentary features on TV about Jacques Cousteau, the great French researcher of oceans and sea life. They were aired almost constantly, so I guess in the 70s these were even more popular. Underwater videos of creatures are fascinating, so I can imagine many people enjoying the shows on TV and also playing these cards afterwards.

As you can see on the cover, this set is devoted to the Indic Ocean and the Red Sea. Maybe there are other decks devoted to other oceans. The guy on the left is Jacques Cousteau.

The set was first edited in 1975 with the reference number 628, but later reissued with reference 266310, maybe 3 to 4 years later. The reissue has 8 families, one less than the original release.

 

The card was manufactured in Germany by Heinrich Schwarz and Neue Nürnberger Spielkarten, a company that has never appeared before in our blog. It was founded in 1948 in Nuremberg and bought by FX Schmid in 1989. It became a subsidiary with the new name Nürnberger Spielkarten GmbH.

Heinrich Schwarz was only the director for a few years; at the end of the 50s, Gisela Herfurth took over the direction of the company until 1989.

Later, FX Schmid was absorved by competitor Ravensburger and the company got a second life as an autonomous card manufacturer since 1995. I don’t know if the new company has anything in common with the old one, but the logo is almost identical and now is called NSV (Nürnberger Spielkarten Verlag). Thez managed to create some really good card games in the lasft few years, like Quixx (2012) and The Game (2015), and reissued other older games that I consider quite good, like Sticheln (1993), Land Unten (1997, previously known as Zum Kuckuck -1988-).

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GEHEIMNISSE DES MEERES (Nr. 266310)
• Year: Around 1978
• Company: Neue Nürnberger Spielkarten (West Germany)

#742 MATCHBOX – LAMBORGHINI MIURA and MERCURY POLICE (Nr. 33 and 55) (1969)

MATCHBOX AUTO-STEER

This feature was adapted for some Matchbox models in the regular wheels era. These models are quite rare, since they were probably a bit more expensive to produce, and they were produced only during one year. It was in 1969, that Matchbox decided to release a few models with this new feature. The models, as seen in a German catalogue were:

• Nr.3 Mercedes Benz “Binz” Ambulance
• Nr.6 Ford Pick Up
• Nr.15 Volkswagen 1500
• Nr.18 Field car
• Nr.25 Ford Cortina GT
• Nr.33 Lamborghini Miura
• Nr.50 Ford Kennel Truck
• Nr.55 Mercury Police
• Nr.62 Mercury Cougar

The catalogue from 1970 does not show these models with the Auto-steer symbol, so I assume the feature was cancelled very soon, in less than one year. That means there was probably just one batch of each moel made, and probably not in especially high numbers.

The Auto-Steer feature allows you driving and steering the car by pushing (down) on either sides of it, just like if it was a skateboard. The card turns left or right if pushed and straight if not pushed down.

I present two nice models from the early 70s. One is already known, since I presented it a long time ago in a previous entry (see #69). By the way, that model is the ultra-rare “tow-slot” version! The Miura was reproduced by Matchbox during many consecutive years and was one of the models that was made with regular and superfast wheels (was in production during the transition from one type of wheels to the other).

The second one is the Mercury in its Police version with blue siren and two figures inside.

Both are in very good condition with almost no paint loss. I love these two models I wish I could find more auto-steer models.

As a curiosity, I also presented cars with the same feature in entry #204, only those were much more modern and made by Majorette of France.

UPDATE (JAN/2017): Two more models. Mercury (Nr.55) and Mercury Cougar (Nr.62).

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LAMBORGHINI MIURA and MERCURY POLICE (Nr. 33 and 55)
• Scale: Approx. 1:64
• Year: 1969
• Company: Matchbox (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm