#1077 SCHUCO – AUTOMATIC-RACER OPEL GT (1048) (Around 1969)

This toy car is another treasure made by Schuco in Germany, probably at the end of the 60s or the beginning of the 70s, as it represents the Opel GT from 1968. This car was rather popular in Germany at the time, but was not represented very often at scale as a toy (Norev, Solido, Dinky, I.M.U.,...). 

This representation in 1:43 scale, made of tin and some plastic compound, is not just accurate in its dimensions, but also a technical-wonder, as Schuco toys frequenly are. Unfortunately, I do not have the key (I found it as you see it in the pictures in a second hand shop, and payed for it around 2 euros), so I haven't tested it yet.

Hidden in the front bumper there is a wheel that can be used to steer the model. The doors open, which is something very unusual for the Automatic-Racers or Micro Racers series by Schuco. The interior is not fully detailed, but it is still nice for its age. Also lots of chromed parts, rubber tyres, detailed license plates, hubcaps... 

All in all, a jewel in any collection. I have seen the model has been reissued several times since the 70s, but, if I am not mistaken, this one is the very original one. It even has some playwear in the base, which is always a good sign, and indicates that it is not a reissue. I'll look for a key, most of them are standard, but it would be nice if it said “Schuco” or had another marking casted or engraved on it.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name:  OPEL GT (1048)
• Scale: 1:45
• Year: Around 1969
• Company: Schuco (West Germany)
• Size: approx. 11 cm

#1072 LLEDO - LAND SPEED LEGENDS (1993)

It is not so long ago I wrote my first entry about Lledo in this blog. There I mentioned this set of six cars that I didn´have yet, but I recently received it from a friend and I´d like to comment it now.

The cars represented are:

• Thrust 2 / Richard Noble (1983)

• Spirit of America / Craig Breedlove (1965)

• Railton Mobil Special / John Cobb (1947)

• Blue Bird / Sir Malcolm Campbell (1931) 

The set was first available as a cereal premium from Kelloggs in the UK in 1993. They came in white cardboard boxes inside a bigger box and included a nice brochure or small poster with a history of the cars that had broken the land speed record over the years, depicted in a timeline. The gift is a great one, maybe one of the best gifts I recall from a cereal promotion. At the time you needed 9 points plus 80 pence (that is less than one euro) to receive ALL FOUR cars. Nine points were most likely four big boxes of Corn Flakes plus a smaller one, or nine small boxes. Not so much if you have them for breakfast everyday. There was also the option to get only one model (with less points), but in this case the leaflet was not sent along with the chosen car in the white case.

As Lledo is known for reusing the casts they have, the same models were available for everybody in retail. In this case, the boxes was much more elaborated and nicer, with windows and with a short summary on the history of the four models in the back of the box. There is a second type of box for the Thrust 2 which was exclusive for this model at the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry.

The cars are easily found online and cheap to buy (the poster is not so cheap, usually more expensive than the complete set of cars), I guess there are not so many Lledo collectors out there and they are not very well known, but they are beautiful, done with great care, nice paintwork and tampographies... a nice addition to every collection. The only negative point that we can find are the undetailed plastic bases and the white boxes, but taken out for display in shelves these two aspects are not important.

FACTS AND FIGURES: 

• Name: LAND SPEED LEGENDS
• Scale: Approx. 1:43
• Year: 1993
• Company: Lledo (United Kingdom)
• Size: approx. 10 cm

#1070 GAMA - GAMA-MINI VW1302 (Ref. 898) (around 1978)

Gama cars are great, as you could see in previous entries. They are also difficult to find, as they were not intended as toys, but as adult collector pieces. That is maybe why they are so rare to spot. 

I cannot recall anymore where did I buy this one, but it probably was in december 2018. It is not in its best shape, but I liked that the previous owner decorated it with "5" and "3" stickers to make it resemble Herbie, the famous movie-star. If it was mint, it would be a great collectable, as it represents one of the most iconic cars of all time. 

The model is made in 1:43 scale and has opening doors. Despite the paint chips, it still has all four lights, which seem to be fragile. Other nice feature are the realistic hubcaps and the suspension of its wheels, which makes the car very comfortable to move around.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VW1302 (Ref. 898)
• Scale: 1:43
• Year: Around 1978
• Company: Gama (Germany)
• Size: Around 9 cm

#1038 PILEN – MASERATI GHIBLI (MOD. 507) (1973)

This model is the original one from 1973 and it looks great, as most models from this manufacturer and that approximate year do. As a matter of fact, the Pilen models from the 70s are comparable in quality to other European brands of the time. This is acknowledged by most collectors, and is reflected on the prices that are paid for models in mint condition.

This model was found in Austria, which also shows that Pilen was also successful beyond the Spanish borders at a time, when other better known players were stronger as they have ever been.

The car is a Maserati Ghibli and it is done out of the Politoys’ cast, as Pilen at some point bought them from the Italian die-cast manufacturer.

This version is painted in burgundy red and as the same detail level as the first Politoys model, although some parts are different (the wheels for example are casted without real radii/radiuses). Looks great with its opening doors!

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: MASERATI GHIBLI (MOD. 507)  
• Scale: 1:43
• Year: 1973
• Company: Pilen (Spain)
• Size: approx. 9 cm

#1029 SOLIDO – LOLA T 280 (Nr. 15) (1973)

I have had chances to buy many Solido models over the years, but most of the times, I refused. Models by Solido are mostly in 1:43 scale, which was not very interesting for me until quite late in my collector´s life. Recently I found this excellent model of a Lola Sport Prototype with Swiss Cheese decorations (funny!) and in perfect shape. I couldn´t let this go. It is beautifully made and it comes with practicable motor cover.

As usual in this brand, the car is only decorated on the side that can be seen through the box window. A sheet of stickers is available in the box, that the buyer has to apply himself or herself. In this case, the owner didn't do that.

The real car was used in the year 1972 to run Le Mans. This decoration corresponds to two different teams. RN7 belonged to the Team Ecurie Bonnet Switzerland and the drivers were Hughes de Fierlant (from Belgium), Jorge de Bagration (from Spain) and Mário de Araújo Cabral (from Portugal). The team abandoned after only 26 laps. RN8 did a bit better, completing a total of 213 laps after abandoning. The drivers in this case were Joakim Bonnier (from Sweden), Gérard Larrouse (from France) and Gijs van Lennep (from the Netherlands). This last driver made the fastest lap in the race that year.

Seen at: www.conradantiquario.info/content/katalog/solido-export-1973.html

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name:  LOLA T 280 (Nr. 15)
• Scale: 1:43
• Year: 1973
• Company: Solido (France)
• Size: approx. 9 cm

#1016 LLEDO – FOUR 3M PROMOTIONAL MODELS (Around 1994)

I missed Lledo for the first 1015 entries on this blog for a reason. Although I have seen many of these models over the years, I never bought them, as I was not very interested. I had some Models of Yesteryear, but I sold these many years ago, and kept only the three or four of them, which I liked most.
 
The company was co-founded in 1982 by Jack Odell, who was also the co-founder of Matchbox many years before (the brand name is his surname spelled backwards). The other founding member was Burt Russell. The 80s was a golden age of these classic cars miniatures, and I guess Lledo just wanted to ride this wave and make some business with classic miniatures. However it was bad times for the die-cast industry, and Matchbox had been purchased by Universal, that moved the production factories to Macau, as it was very expensive to produce toys in the United Kingdom.
 
Lledo actually bought some tooling from the old Matchbox plants that were being dismantled and started producing in their own facilities in Enfield. This would last a few years, until 1999, when the company went bankruptcy, but the brand passed to Corgi Classics, that exploited the brand until 2005, all these later cars are “made in China”.
 
How to compete against east-Asian produced toys? Well, they specialize in classic vintage cars and commercial vehicles, as I said before, which was rather uncommon at the time. On top of that, they offered many chances to customize their references for big brands, as they could place their logo in any of the available models (vans, trucks, some cars…) and make nice promotional items. Placing your logo in a car from the 1920s gives your company a certain aura of quality, tradition and market leadership, so it was a good idea. Obviously, Asians would finally imitate and overtake Lledo with much cheaper products, but these 15 years were good ones, with high production volumes.
 
The first and best known series is called Days Gone (which sounds a bit like Yesteryear) and came out in 1983. The first models were all horse-drawn and stagecoaches, but soon appeared the Ford Model T van. These are marked on the base “Days Gone”.
 
The “promotional” series that I already introduced was the most profitable. During the first six years of production, Lledo had around thirty casts/models, but, out of them, there were hundreds of variations catalogued. The Ford T was the most common, and was produced in over 170 different decorations. The Double Decker bus also had a big success. Each of these “promotional” model was made, with some exceptions, in very limited runs of 500 to 1000 units. Promotional models are marked on the base “Lledo Promotional Model”.
 
Maybe the most interesting models ever made by Lledo are the four land speed record cars, a series made for Kellogg´s. All four were based on new casts and never reused, and they do not fit with all the other references available in their catalogue.
 
Finally, the Vanguards series included more modern cars, from the 50s and the 60s, British and Europeans. The line was excellent in detail and quality.
 
Some models were sold to second parties and relabeled accordingly, for example, under the Hartoys or Edocar brands.
 
The models presented in this entry are 4 promotional models made for 3M. They are all different, and comes in their independent blank boxes. There were dozens of models made for 3M, some of them were sold in ordinary boxes with windows, so I suppose these were not intended for retailers.

Packard Town Van (1933)

 Chevrolet Panel Van (1939)

Packard Van (1936)

Model T Ford Van (1920)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: Ford Model T, Packard Van, Packard Town Van, Chevrolet Panel Van
• Scale: 1:43 (approx.)
• Year: Around 1994
• Company: Lledo (United Kingdom)
• Size: approx 9 cm

#1014 VEREM – PEUGEOT 504 COUPÉ V6 (Nr. 1055) (1980)

I had never heard of Verem until I found this car in a flea market several years ago, together with other models in the same scale (Schuco, Gama, Solido and others). I bought it, because if the brand was unknown to me, it had to be a rare model, and I always enjoy adding one more brand to my collection. I also like the car represented very much.

There is very few information on the web about them. On hobbydb, I could read that it was founded under another name as a division of Solido. As a matter of fact, the company was based in Rouves, just a few kilometers aways from the Solido factory. The name Verem was first used in 1984, four years after Majorette purchased Solido. The name comes from Majorette founder EMile VERon.

Other sources are not sure if Verem was a subsidiary or an independent licensee, although the geographical closeness to Solido and the ownership of Majorette, seems to point out in the subsidiary direction.

What we know for sure is that Verem offered re-editions of Solido references from the 70s and 80s, including military vehicles, and also resin models in 1994.

The toy car is a Peugeot 504 Coupé V6 based on a Solido cast, and done with high quality. It has lots of practicable parts and also the paintwork is great. I like very much the model! The car was also great back in the 70s and the 80s, but very rare to spot, as it was the top of the 504 series, and a very expensive car at the time.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: PEUGEOT 504 COUPÉ V6 (Nr. 1055)
• Scale: 1:43 (approx.)
• Year: 1980
• Company: Verem (France)
• Size: approx 9 cm