These key cars were bought in Austria around two years ago, as I found it curious that they used the image of Niki Lauda in the box and also on the keyrings that hold the keys to the cars. Because it was made around 1984, it was probably already a Chinese or East-Asian manufacturer that made them. The box doesn´t look so well, the design is not very good.
Unfortunately the box is almost empty and included only three cars with around ten keys, but no brand or any information whatsoever. Later I found that these cars are probably manufactured by MC Toy in Macau at a time were they preferred to hid their name to avoid possible lawsuits. Just a few entries ago I was talking about the Key-Cars from Kidco/Matchbox from 1983, these are maybe from 1984 and probably started the series using just two different casts in different basic colours.
The manufacturer of these toys was confirmed a few months ago by Steven (from motorcade.weebly.com), who also sent me this yellow corvette below, which is marked Macau on the base. This model has some wear, and it is the same that was already in the box, but it is a nice addition.
The key cars by MC Toy made their way to the Maisto era, when they were sold in blister 2-packs with one key (also with the denomination Burnin' Key Cars). Unlike the ones made by Kidco, these are die-cast and do not have any protective plastic bumpers, so I guess most of the played models today are in very bad conditions, or have been disposed already. They came with soft plastic tires for a better grip which also can be lost and, in general, the detail and the quality of the toy is low (poor casting and dark windows), so early units even misspells "Tubro" for "Turbo" in the stickers, but still the models chosen (Chevrolet Corvette C3 from 1978, Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am from 1979) are nice sport cars, very representative of the early 80s.
By the way, the name on the Niki Lauda box is Turbo Feezers and the
German slogan is "Schneller als die Formel 1!", which translates as:
"Faster than Formula 1!" I wonder if the image of Niki Lauda was used
with or without permission (I guess without), but this makes the box item even
more interesting for collectors. The box shows a picture of him wearing the Brabham-Parmalat team cap, team for which Lauda drove between 1978 and 1979.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
- Name: CHEVROLET CORVETTE C3 and PONTIAC FIREBIRD (TURBO FEEZEERS), F1 RACER, INDY RACER
- Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
- Year: Around 1984
- Company: MC Toy (Macau)
- Size: Around 7 cm long
