#441 GUISVAL – TRAILER VOLQUETE GRÚA (SERIE INDUSTRIAL) (1970)

This trailer is among my oldest Guisval miniatures. I bought it a while ago in todocoleccion for relatively little money. It is brand new, includes the box, and the quality control sheet, and it’s only defect is that the hook of the little crane is broken, and so it is the hinge of the dump truck, but these defects are not really important. If I ever have the chance, I will try to replace them, but in such a perfect paint condition I think it will be very difficult.

 

 

The big truck is a Scammell truck with three axles and a big trailer (+one axle) that cannot be detached from the truck. That trailer has space for two 3-inches models, which in this case is a Dump Truck and a Crane. The truck is in 1:50 Scale, but some references carry 1:64 cars on it, so there is some discordance about scales.

 

 

 

Exactly the same cast was reused several times and painted in different colours, to extend the available references into a real collection.

In the front and the back of the box (which are identical), we can distinguish a few references, although these changed from year to year, and some new loads were assigned to the Scammell trucks.

 

Just as an example:

• Nº 150 – Camión Porta-Grua (with a 1:50 Scammell Crane-Truck)
• Nº 151 – Transporte de Excavadoras (with 2x Shovel Truck)
• Nº 151 – Transporte Tractor Bull-Dozer
• Nº 152 – Porta Coches “Le Mans” (with 2x Formula 1)
• Nº 152 – Transporte de Coches (with a Mini-Morris and a Seat 850 Coupé)
• Nº 153 – Trailer Volquete – Grúa (the one in this entry)
• Nº 154 – Trailer Bull-Dozer
• Nº 155 – Trailer Tractor Remolque
• Nº 156 – Porta Coches “Le Mans” (with 1 Formula 1 and a Ferrari)
• Nº 157 – Trailer Hormigonera – Excavadora

 

 

As you can see, the box has no windows and copies the Matchbox colours blue and yellow from the end of the 60s. At the time, Guisval used the “Auto Model” brand for many of its products, and some (later) boxes had windows on them, in a way that they were almost identical to boxes like the one shown in this old entry.

 

As a curious note, I include the quality control sheet that is still present in the box. If there was a problema with the toy, you could actually return it for a new one only if you had this ticket.

The Scammell truck casts were also used to créate shorter trucks with references 17x. You can see these as well as many other models from the 150 series (Guisval - Auto Model - Serie Industrial) in the following website: http://miniaturasenmetal.jimdo.com/camiones-y-bólidos/.

The line was later "updated" with new references featuring the same big truck with similar loads, only with fewer details (no exhaust pipe and no horn) and new "superfast" wheels. The boxes were also given a new design as "Super Rápidos - Serie Industrial", and even later (around 1978), the Scammell truck was finally replaced by a newer, more futuristic model, like the one I showed in entry #37, and which was called "Colección Escorpión Remolques" or simply "Colección Remolques".
 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TRAILER VOLQUETE-GRÚA SERIE INDUSTRIAL (Ref. 155)
• Scale: 1:50 (Truck) / Unknown (Crane and small truck)
• Year: 1970
• Company: Guisval (Spain)
• Size: approx. 22 cm

#440 HOOK – PETER PAN (AIR ATTACK) and CAPT. HOOK (MULTI BLADE) (1991)

These are my only two Hook figures. They were made by Mattel in 1991, and I saw them around 1993 or 1994 in toy stores in Spain. I never had any, but I recently spotted two cheap figures and bought them. I enjoy discovering a new line, even when I know I won’t buy any other figures, just to get a feel of how good the toyline was, the quality of the figures, their paintwork, the accessories, the action features and so on.

I of course remember the film Hook by Steven Spielberg, which at the time was a great success. I saw it once or twice, didn’t like movies very much those days… but many other people I know were very keen on it. The figures seem to have arrived a bit late to Spain, since in the 1993 Christmas catalogue from Toys ’r Us the figures are displayed for the first time. They seem to be more expensive than other action figures at that time, since they costed 995 pesetas (6 Euro). A Hasbro WWF figure costed exactly the half of it.

Ok, now to the figures: they’re made in good quality plastic, but have poor articulations (5 points of articulation). Compared to the G.I.Joes from Hasbro they might seem rather poor, although Peter Pan also has joint articulations on his shoulders. Accessories are ok, action features are also ok, general appearence is very good, but it is not an excellent toy.

The figure of Captain Hook has a sword hidden under his arm. The sword can be pulled out very easily. If hidden, you can make him fight with his hook, or attach one of the two accesories to it. The other hand can take a small pistol.

The toy line had several waves of figures although all of them seem to have been released in 1991… some figures are really expensive and hard to find, while others (these two for example) cost almost nothing. The figures seem to have been especially popular in Germany and center Europe.

Durability is also a nice to have factor in toys. Figures are quite sturdy, robust, but the trick-backpack from Peter Pan is not working very well anymore. The backpack is really a zip line. Attach the hook somewhere, and let the figure slip down.

 

Last (and least) the guy who sold me the figures put the accessories inside of this nice tin box with Tom and Jerry. It is a Spanish box which originally had candies inside. The brand of this candies was “hit”, and I haven’t seen them since many years, I am not sure if they still sell them. The tin seems to be from 1989.

Caramelos Hit (Pamplona, España)

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: PETER PAN AIR ATTACK and CAPT. HOOK MULTI-BLADE
• Toy Line: Hook (Wave 1)
• Year: 1991
• Company: Mattel (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 12 cm

#439 AMIGO / MATTEL – UNO (FIRST GERMAN EDITION) (1986)

Uno is probably the most popular and most sold “modern” card/board game. Almost every child knows how to play and has been copied or versioned hundreds of times. Some time ago I found this Uno game at a flea market and I bought it since it is the first German edition. Not because it is valuable, but because it is curious. I already had a modern version, and it was nice to compare the style of the cars from that version 1986 to the current version from Mattel.

 

 

 

The instructions include a nice promo in which you can buy a t-shirt, that today would be completely “in” for its retro style.

  

 

The game was created in 1971 by Merle Robbins, and it is a special version of another traditional game named Mau Mau (which is played with normal poker cards). Robbins and family made a first release of 5,000 games which were sold at his own barbershop in Reading, OH as well as in local stores. Later sold the rights to a businessman from Joliet, IL for 50,000 dollars plus royalties of 10 cents of a dollar for each game sold.

That man created International Games Inc. to market the game and the rest is history. The game has been sold over 220 million times since its creation. Now it is also available as App…

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: UNO
• Year: 1971 (Game) / 1986 (First German Edition)
• Company: Amigo (Germany) / Mattel (U.S.A.)

#438 MAJORETTE – BMW TURBO (Nr. 217) (1976, 1979 and 1983)

This is one of my favorite Majorette models. I got the white one as a present when I was a little child (maybe 5) and I still keep it. Those gull-wing doors are very appealing.

  

I will show the four versions that I currently own. There are a few more different colours, and dozens of versions if we consider the colour of the windshields, the stickers/decoration variations…

The first version of this car appears in the 1976 catalogue for the first time, with reference number 217. It is a red version with black doors. It would remain until the 1978 catalogue.

 

That year it was replaced by the “Liege-Sofia-Liege” version in metallic grey. It appeared in the catalogues from 1979 until 1981.

The next catalogue (1982) shows a new red version (similar to the first one) only with a rally race number sticker on it. I have seen a white version with this same sticker, I am not sure if the catalogue was wrong, or if there were several colours for this rally version.

The last vintage version is a white car with blue doors that appeared in the 1983 catalogue only. It has a decoration with blue and red stripes and the words BMW Turbo.

 

After that, the model was re-issued in the late 1980s (without stickers or decals, but tampographies) and sold again. Some models were available with the Sprinter. Then it was forgotten again for several years, and in the 1990s (I cannot give an exact date, haven’t found any reference in modern catalogues), the model was re-released with a new reference number 258A and several new colours. Some people think this is a “Globe Toys” model (Majorette second brand for the German market) but it is not. It was made in Thailand.

 

UPDATE (NOV/2019): I found another model from the recent years with a very peculiar decoration:

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BMW TURBO (Nr. 217)
• Scale: 1:60
• Year: 1976, 1979 and 1983
• Company: Majorette (France)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm