#1091 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - THREE F1 CORGI BOOTLEGS (Around 1974)

To continue an old tradition, I use the month of April to show toys that are knock-off or bottlegs of other toys. This time I want to present three big scale formula ones that copy Corgi casts. They are made in Hong-Kong around 1974 and use a four digit code system as a reference number. 

Most accurately, These three are:

No 7501 - SURTEES T.S.9 F.1. (Based on Corgi Nr. 150)

No. 7502 - FERRARI 312 B2  (based on Corgi 152 from 1972)

No. 7503 - LOTUS F.1.  (based on Corgi 154 from 1973)

I first thought these would be Yatming, but the codes does not seem to fit with the numbering system used by that company.

I have seen several for sale on the internet, so they are not extremely rare. Compared to the original Corgis, they are also very good. Only the colour slightly differs. The wheels are clearly cheaper and less detailed compared to the original ones, which is the main flaw I see in these four cars. Also the overall quality of the paintwork and the stickers is worse. These seem to have been heavily played, but I still consider them worth enough for my collection.

If you have some information on the manufacturer of these toys, please let me know by writing a comment to this entry. I have been looking for boxed models for sale, but I couldn´t find any. Over the years I have also posted many toys which are yet to be identified. If you want to have a look at them and try to guess which company made them, click on this link Unknown Manufacturer Toys.

 FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SURTEES T.S.9 F.1., FERRARI 312 B2 and LOTUS F1 (No. 7501, 7502 and 7503)
• Scale: 1:36
• Year: Around 1974
• Company: Unknown Toymaker (Hong Kong)
• Size: Around 10 cm long

#1083 PLAYLAND/WELLY – SEVERAL PULLBACK CARS IN 1:36 SCALE (Around 1993)

These kind of cars at a scale around 1:36 were relatively common in the early 90s. Somehow the 1:43s of the previous decade “grew” and became available in many places, including pound-shops, one dollar stores and their equivalents in each country. Some of the first “big” models I recall were some MC Toy cars with pull-back motor, such as the Porsche 959 or the 911 Cabrio. 

They also had the “standard” 1:64 series, but MC Toy came with this bigger series of sport cars that looked so nice and were so cheap. I guess many other brands followed, since MC Toy was the company that was doing best during these first years of the 90s decade.

PORSCHE 959 / OPEL OMEGA '88 “FEUERWEHR” / CHEVROLET CORVETTE '83 in dark blue

I have collected many over the last years. But today I will present only those which were marketed under the Playland – Mini Flitzer series in Germany. The identification is difficult since all the models are unmarked, and it is required to look for boxed models in order to be sure. Playland seems to be the brand used by the importer, which was AHG Wachsmuth & Krogmann from Hamburg. The logo depicts a cartoonish crocodile with a baseball cap. There were two designs for the box: a classic one in blue, and another more modern in purple, pink and green, very representative of the early 90s.

 

 

 

Several Boxed Items. The "Mini-Flitzer" with the Playland Logo, the other "Super Racer" with or without the Welly logo. All from ebay

 

These two pictures show the different styles of Playland boxes.

I found the firs four cars in on of those boxes on the Internet (mainly in German sites like ebay.de), but not the Ferrari, which I include here anyway, because it is so similar. This may belong to another, similar series.

CHEVROLET CORVETTE '83 in yellow

FERRARI TESTAROSSA

I suspect that the maker behind these cars might be Welly, although I am not 100% sure. Welly had their own lines like Super Racer or Old Timer in the same scale and also with a pullback motor feature. The models look in fact very similar, and so do the boxes, but one can never be sure. I include some picture of Welly Boxes for comparison. The same Chevrolet has been spoted in a Welly box, although that model was a cabrio and not a hardtop.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name: SEVERAL PULLBACK CARS IN 1:36 SCALE
• Scale: 1:36
• Year: Around 1993
• Company: Welly / Playland (China/Germany)
• Size: approx. 12 cm

#1001 CORGI – SURTEES T.S.9 F.1. and TS.9B-F1 (150 and 153) (1972)

It is very interesting that Corgi released two models of fairly similar formula ones with just a few months difference.

The first model is the Surtees T.S.9 F1, although for its shape, it looks more like the previous year’s T.S.7. In the 1971 season, the team did not very well with their main drivers John Surtees and Rolf Strommelen. Derek Bell, Sam Posey, Brian Redman and Gijs van Lennep started one race each, and Mike Heilwood, two.

The second model is the TS.9B, the direct evolution of the previous model. Maybe this came to Corgi as a surprise, and they quickly made a few changes in order to have the actual model of the season available for sale, and not the one from the previous season. Note that the base is very similar… and that some parts are also the same or almost identical.

The car was not very successful in the 1972 season, although the ex-motorcycle pilot Mike Hailwood achieved great results and finished the season in 8^th place. The other drivers of the team that year were Tim Schenken, Andrea de Adamich, and also John Surteets himself, who only ran one GP.

As Formula ones are, in general, small cars, the scale is 1:36, but the size is the same or equivalent to that of the “normal” 1:43 cars in the series. No matter what, they are great models to have in your collection if you like Corgi models, formula ones or cars in general in this scale.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SURTEES T.S.9 F.1. and TS.9B-F1 (150 and 153)
• Scale: 1:36
• Year: 1972
• Company: Corgi (Great Britain)
• Size: Around 10 cm long

#784 SHINSEI MINI POWER – DETOMASO PANTERA (Nr. 408) (Around 1980)

 This car was a little discovery for me, since I never heard of Shinsei before. It is the average size of a 1:43 car, although it real scale is 1:38. Probably the real DeTomaso was a very small car.

When observing it and deciding wether to buy it or not, I saw the Made in Japan text on the base, so I knew it had to be quite old, somewhere by the late 70s to early 80s, when die-cast was still being produced in Japan before moving to other countries in Asia.

Shinsei is another die-cast and toy manufacturer from which there is very few information online. I could just found that they are famous for several die-cast construction machines, a series of space toys and some other die-cast and toys. A weeks after I bought this car, I saw a mint on box truck by Shinsei, but I didn’t buy it.

Shinsei Japan shouldn’t be mistaken with the Indian toy company Shinsei, that is still active (it was founded in 1985) and also produces miniature cars.

The model I am presenting today is quite nice, it seems a bit bulky, but this is probably only because they had to put that pullback motor inside, so the car is higher than it should. Otherwise the cast is nice and has very good details, like the pop-up headlamps that can be activated by a lever under the car, practicable doors, or the nice stickers that it originally had (not the ones in my model), that actually correspond to a race decoration once used in this car (with black trunk).

I have seen this model in red and in yellow, although the red version could have either red or white spoiler.

Cool find! Find another great DeTomaso in entry #282.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: DETOMASO PANTERA (Nr. 408)
• Scale: 1:38
• Year: Around 1980
• Company: Shinsei (Japan)
• Size: approx. 9 cm

#779 TOYPA – VESPA PENCIL SHARPENER (Year of Manufacture Unknown)

I found this Vespa in a flea market, and I don´t know how old it is. It could be as old as 1983 or as new as 2016, since I have discovered that Toypa is still active producing small marketing goods like pencil sharpeners, rubber, magnets, different stationery kits and other school and desktop items.

I have a special interest in pencil sharpeners. From the great variety of Redondo, the cool designs of Play-Me, the die-cast cars by Gisima or the plastic Seat 600 by Puntax, now I found Toypa. This Vespa is one of the coolest pencil sharpeners made by Toypa I could see, although they have pencil sharpeners in many forms and styles. In the past they also made cute figures that were rubbers including a pencil sharpener at the bottom.

I could find on the internet that the company was founded in 1983. And it is based in Mislata (right near the city of Valencia). Still today produces lots of promotional articles for drugs/pharmacy, or other products and companies.

I love discovering old toy companies that are still active today, and, although now focusing in a slightly different market, Toypa S.L. (http://toypa.es/) was quite a discovery. If they ever find this entry in this humble blog, I wish them all the best, and that they continue for many more years.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VESPA (PENCIL SHARPENER)
• Scale: Around 1:36
• Year: Unknown
• Company: Toypa (Spain)
• Size: approx. 6 cm