Wednesday, July 31, 2013

#309 PLAYART –MERCURY POLICE, VW PORSCHE 914 and RANGE ROVER (7132 and 7138 and 7182) (Around 1982)

This article is a short update to a previous one dealing with the hongkongese die-cast manufacturer Playart. The most comprehensive list of Playart cars can be found in the following two websites:



Personally I preffer the first one, which has pictures for almost every model. Both lists are missing the same models, so I guess the makers of the lists know each other.

Unfortunately no one has been able to provide a comprehensive list of models by year of release. That must be quite a challenge, so I will date these cars by the early 80s, that’s when I bought the VW Porsche 914. My guess is that they probably made around 1982.


I remember I didn’t like the Porsche 914 because of the terrible noise its wheels do when rolling, similar to somebody scratching a blackboard. It was unpleasant, so the car remained most of the times in the display case. That’s why it is today in such a nice condition. Like new. My father painted its head and rear lights red, this was not an original feature of the car.

The other two cars were found not so long ago in flea markets in Austria. They have seen better days, but they’re still in good “collector” condition.

The curious thing about the Mercury Police Wagon is that we already saw it in entry #227, only that release was much more recent. As said in that article, the Mercury seems to be inspired in Matchbox model Mercury Police Car, nr. 55D from 1971.

To my knowledge, VW Porsche 914 is a Playart’s own cast, similar to Siku’s, but clearly a different cast, as well as the Range Rover, it might be simlar to other Range Rovers, but I think the cast is unique.

Going back to the wheel types, note that these from the Porsche 914 are narrower than the other two. The hubcap is also a slightly different model. The other two cars have the “classic” (=most common) hubcap type for Playart models, while Porsche’s look a bit like Tomica’s classic hubcap.




FACTS AND FIGURES:
  • Name: MERCURY POLICE, VW PORSCHE 914 and RANGE ROVER (7132 and 7138 and 7182)
  • Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
  • Year: Around 1980
  • Company: Playart (Hong Kong)
  • Size: 7 cm

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