#1020 GUISVAL - CENTURION MK.III TANK + KNOCK-OFF (1977 and Around 1993)

MONTH OF THE BOOTLEG AT TOYS FROM THE PAST

Today I want to show two small toy tanks.

The first one is made by Guisval and is a Centurion MK.III model, which appeared for the first time in the catalogue from 1977. There were several versions of it made those first years: in green (with british or Spanish roundels on one side), in light brown (with Spanish roundels) on and also in light brown with dark brown stripes (with a green flag and a crescent moon, which, to my knowledge, does not represent any real country).

Later reissues would also use new decals, like a British flag, and the last known issue is a completely white version from the United Nations, which I find quite original and I would like to own.

All of them have turning turret and the cannon moves up and down.

The second toy tank shown in the pictures is a low quality knock-off of the Guisval model made by an unknown company much later. The model is unmarked, except for “No. 462”, and it is almost identical to the Guisval model. The cannon is slightly longer, the plastic base and wheels and different). The metal and paintwork used are of lower quality, the paint scheme shows a green/yellow camouflage pattern and the stickers on the side say "U.S. Army".

Does anybody know about it? In any case, it is a very curious one, although the quality is very low.

 FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CENTURION MK.III and KNOCK-OFF
  
• Scale: Approx. 1:100
• Year: 1977 and Around 1993 (respectively)
  
• Company: Guisval and Unknown Toymaker (Spain and China)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#1007 STAR WARS - DARTH VADER and IMPERIAL GUARD (1977 and 1983)

This character here does not need to be introduced, anybody will recognise it immediatly. It is Darth Vader, as it was released in 1978 (copyrighted in 1977) by Kenner and representing the character of the first movie of the Star Wars saga (Episode IV: A New Hope) premiered in 1977. The reason why the figures were a bit late and all the topic with the mail away coupons is also well known.

  

I will only say that the retractable lightsaber that came as an accessory has its tip broken, which is something extremely common, as the tip is so thin and so fragile that it is rarely unbroken. I had somewhere a repro lightsaber, but I decided to keep the original one. The vynil cloak is also original and it is removable, although this is not recommendable, as the holes for the arms may open and even break, especially after so many years.

Those of you who haven't watched the movie The Return of the Jedi many times, may not recognise the three guys behind Darth Vader. They are imperial guards, and appear in very few scenes of that movie. Their mission is just to scort The Emperor wherever he goes, but in that particular scene, they appear behind the Emperor and Darth Vader. It is one of my favorite figures ever released by Kenner in this toyline, as the mask and the cloak have a very specific design. Also the burgundy red perfectly contrast the white or the different troopers and the black of Darth Vader and the Emperor. In this case, the cloak is not removable, but behind it, there is a quite elaborated sculpt (not painted, though). How the artist imagines what is below the cloaks, or if they just took some parts they happened to have around (from some unreleased project), is something I would really like to know.

In the official films they do not have a great protagonism, so I do not know much about them.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DARTH VADER and IMPERIAL GUARD
• Toy Line: Star Wars (Star Wars and The Return of the Jedi)
• Year: 1977 and 1983
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: 9,5 cm (3 3/4'')

#982 POLFI-TOYS - RENAULT 17 (Around 1977)

Today, I bring some exotic model from Greece. It is the first time, I think, that a greek toy appears in the blog, so I am happy for that.

It is my first Polfi Toy, I think I bought it in the first months on 2020 from another collector in Austria. It is not in its best shape, but I payed only 3 euro for it. Most of the Polfi models I have seen have paint chips, so I guess they do not have the best paint work.

Greece, as Spain or Portugal had a relatively close toy market with their own national brands until the early 80s, and Polfi is maybe the best-known greek brand of toys, maybe not the most important, but probably one of the most successful, having sold many hundred thousands of die-cast models like this one but also in bigger scales, motorbikes and even planes.

Some of these 1:55-1:64 cars seem to be copies of Matchbox models (except for a few Formula ones, which look like Polistils), while some 1:43 models knock-off the cheap series of Polistil, although it is fair to say that they also had their own models.

The Renault 17, as I said, looks very much like the Matchbox model from 1974, but it is not a knock-off. Some details mark clear differences with the British model. The base is completely different, and also the wheels have a nice casting that looks like an off-road tyre.

I am sorry the pictures are not good, and even the colour is kind of different, I think the flash is distorting the colours, that look a bit brighter than they actually are. The model is dark orange, almost red, which, by the way was also the colour that Matchbox chose for the Renault 17. I will try to replace them as soon as possible. 

I would say Polfi is a brand that is worth collecting, so look out for these small die-cast, they are great. I would like to add some historical notes about the brand, but I couldn’t find anything. Maybe somebody from Greece can give us some hints? I would love to hear more about this toy manufacturer. 

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: RENAULT 17
• Scale: 1:55
• Year: Around 1977
• Company: Polfi Toys (Greece)
• Size: Around 7 cm

#960 CORGI JUNIORS - AIR BUS HELICOPTER (Nr. 35-B) and ARMY RED CROSS HELICOPTER (Nr. 40-B) (1975 and 1977)



Among the Corgi Juniors, this helicopter model is one of the most fragile ones. The blades are made of plastic and can be broken or bent in some models. It also has 4 very small wheels that are part of the base and that can also be broken.

The helicopter represents an helicopter similar to the Boeing CH-47 Chinook. Despite being named "Airbus" or "Air Bus", I am not aware of any double-engine helicopter by the European aircraft manufacturer. Maybe the name is just referring to an aircraft for transporting people by air, and therefore Air-Bus.

Corgi, like all the other die-cast manufacturers, released several versions of each model, and in this case, the Airbus came in a military and a civil version.

The civil model is painted orange and has "Airbus" stickers. The "A" logo is slightly similar to the real Airbus (the company) logo, but it is not related. It was available from 1975 to 1979. There is a colour variant in blue with the same stickers as the orange model, but this one is way rarer than the two showed in this entry, and I do not have it.

The military model was made in dark green and had stickers with the word "Army" and the Red Cross. It was available in 1977.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: AIR BUS HELICOPTER (Nr. 35-B) and ARMY RED CROSS HELICOPTER (Nr. 40-B)
• Scale: Unknown
• Year: 1975 and 1977
• Company: Corgi Juniors (Great Britain)
• Size: approx. 7 cm

#930 GUISVAL – LAND ROVER GRÚA (1976, 1977, 1980)

This model of Land Rover with crane is one of those few models by Guisval that are difficult to find complete and in good conditions. And all because of the small yellow plastic hook. I had these four models in quite a good condition for many years waiting to recover their missing parts, knowing that it was virtually an impossible mission to get them. I have that orange model since I was a kid, since 1985 or so. Maybe that is why it is in a slightly worse condition.

The good and unexpected news is that a Spanish collector cloned this part and is selling repro hooks for this particular models in several colours. To my knowledge, all models came with yellow hooks, but the hooks are also available in red or black. If you want some of these, leave a comment below and I will forward you to the person who sells them.

I bought all four straight away to finally restore my models. I have three models, but one of the models have a variant, can you notice it? The military model comes with blue or green windshield and siren. The one with the blue windows seems to be rarer than the one with the green windows.

This is one of my favorite models by Guisval. It is very similar to the one made by Corgi Juniors, but still have some differences.

There is another Land Rover model which is older than this one. I have some of these as well, but they are difficult to get complete, since they came with accessories/decoration (a missile/rocket, a tiger…).

Checking the catalogues year by year, I observed the following variants:
1976

• Nº19 Grua Municipal (Red with black hook): the catalogue image looks like a prototype, based on the older model. The produced toy seems to have been sold with a yellow hook.

1977-79

• Nº19 Grua Municipal (Red)
• Nº50 Grua Militar (Dark Green with green windows, some have been spotted with black hooks)

1980-1983 and Beyond

• Nº19 Grua Municipal (Orange with black stripe at sides and blue windows)

The model has been for sale until the early 90s. These later model are easy to identify because of its wheels, which are different to the ones that these four models have (See for example this model in entry #502). There are several decorations of these.

UPDATE (Feb/2020): One new model with "Rescate" stickers, from the 90s (note the four spoke wheels)

 FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: LAND ROVER (GRÚA MUNICIPAL and GRÚA MILITAR)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1976 to around 1990
• Company: Guisval (Spain)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#898 HEIMO - MAX AND MORITZ PVC FIGURES (1977)

Max und Moritz is a German illustrated story written by Wilhelm Busch in 1865. The book has 7 chapters, all of them rhymed in couplets.

I knew the book, but it wasn´t until recently that I had it in my hands and I could read it a little bit (it is difficult if you are not fluent in German). The stories and the illustrations have a lot of things in common with later comics and cartoons. Max and Morizt are two naughty boys doing nasty things. The chapters are also called "tricks", and describe one mischief of the two main characters: stealing a roasted chicken from a kitchen, sawing a wooden bridge, putting gunpowder in a smoking pipe... until they meet their fate being shredded in a backery.

As many cartoons, the stories are kind of violent, at least with today's mentality, so I think, the book is not so popular anymore in German speaking countries as it was before.

But what brought Max and Moritz to this blog today is the series of figures made by Heimo in the late 70s. The series comprises 8 figures plus one variant. Just for clarification, Max is the brunette boy, Moritz is the blonde boy. Note in this picture below that the two Max figures have different hair colour: one brown, the other black.

The original 8 figures were

• Max (hands on back)
• Max (with smoking pipe)
• Moritz (hands on back, red shirt)
• Moritz (with gunpowder flask)
• Widow Bolte
• Tailor Böck (sitting)
• Teacher Lämpel
• Meister Backer

And the variant is

• Moritz (hands on back, green shirt instead of red)

The variant is not more difficult to find than the ordinary one. Heimo figures were produced massively, and even today, they can be found on ebay at relatively low prices (considering its age).

Also note that Max and Moritz were available in two different casts, the first represents them doing nothing, with their hands in the back and smiling, as they were lovely little boys. The other two versions are taken from chapter/trick 4 (Streich 4), were they fill the pipe of teacher Lämpel with gunpowder. Max has the pipe and Moritz the flask with the gunpowder. In some catalogues this figure is referred as "with inkwell" ("mit Tintenfass"), but this must be an error, since there is no inkwell in the whole book.

Illustration taken from de.wikisource.org

Figures are marked POLYMEDIA, most probably because they came out as a merchandise for a TV series made between 1977 and 1978. The producer was Polyphon Film- und Fernseh GmbH in Hamburg, ans was directed by Hermann Leitner and John Halas. The years would match and also the style of the figures and the colours.

As menstioned before, a nice complete set of figures, not difficult to find, nor expensive. The figures are somewhat bigger than the usual Heimo from these years, and are about 6 cm high, which makes them more attractive than other figures like those made of Wickie, Heidi or Disney.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: MAX AND MORITZ
• Year: 1977
• Company: Heimo (Germany)
• Size of the figures: 6 cm

#893 MAJORETTE - SEVERAL BOXED MODELS (1972 to 1977)

There is not much that I can say about these models. They are very old Majorettes and all of them still in their original packages. Some of them are not mint, because the packages can be opened and closed anytime, so I guess, some of them have been removed from the box (before I did that to take the pictures) and maybe even slightly played with. However, they are in excellent shape, they are quite old (first 70s) and some are even rare. Note that some have fragile parts or easily lost pieces.

I bought them around two years ago in a flea market. First I bought only a few, then I regretted very much not having bought more. Surprisingly I had a second chance to buy the rest a few months later.

The hard plastic boxes are interesting. They seem to be cubic (well, rectangular prisms), but they are trapezoidal, being the upper surface smaller than the base. They consist of two parts plus maybe some inlay and maybe some paper or illustration inside. The two main parts are solidly attached to each other by means of two slids/flaps. I have fear when opening them, that one of the flaps break, but so far this did not happen. The inlay is made of a very thin plastic, and usually places the car with the front slightly higher than the rear part of the car.

Since the box is transparent, some models include a Majorette illustration below the car that probably tries to make the box more attractive, maybe thinking about those cars that are not sold in a nice display, but countertop.

All boxes also included a red sticker with the name of the car and the reference number.

Note that there are boxes come not only in short and long versions (for cars with trailers) but also in tall and short variants for normal cars or especially flat cars (like the Shadow F1).

And finally, the pictures, each of them with number, name, year of issue and a short comment about the model. We start with the series 200:

204 Pompier (Dodge Pompier) – color: red
First released in 1974. Note the very fragile chromed ladder, still in the box and in perfect shape.

206 Ambulance (Citroën DS Ambulance) – color: white
First Released in 1973. Rare version with thin wheels.

207 Jaguar E (Jaguar Type E) – color: blue
First Released in 1972.

211 Tracto Pelle – color: orange
First Released in 1974. The steering wheel is extremely fragile, 99% of the times is lost.

222 Multi Benne (Scania Multi Benne) – color: orange/ green
First Released in 1976. Nice model, a more modern version of this miniature was commented in entry #385. Note the price tag of 14,80 Austrian Schilling, something around 1,10 Euro.

223 Saviem Chantier / Fertighaus Transporter – color: blue
First Released in 1976. Previously was available with a brown hut/home in 1975. The load is very hard to find.

242 Service (Dodge) – color: orange
First Released in 1976, same model as Dodge Chasse Neige, but without the front loader. That model was available in 1974 and 1975. Excellent with its decals.

243 Shadow F1 (Shadow DN5) – color: black
First Released in 1977. Also commented in entry #587.

258 Dune Buggy – colour: light green
First Released in 1972. Commented in detail in #788.

Now the three boxes from the series 300:

320 Fardier (Scania –No Nr– + Fardier) – color: blue
First Released in 1976. Excellent vesion with real wood sticks. Unfortunately, not one of the oldest versions, but still remarkable.

343 Dinghy (Dodge Safari –No Nr– + Pneumatique) – color: orange/multicolour
First Released in 1974. Excellent multicoloured miniature with plastic zodiac boat in trailer. Trailer comes with a very old type of wheel.

354 Triqueballe (Tracteur Ford –253– + Triqueballe) – color: red
First Released in 1971. This is a curious model with a real wood stick hold by the trailer. This model appears in many catalogues from 1972 to 1979, but is discontinued in 1980 and replaced by a more moder model of tractor (Tractor 208), which, with very few changes, is still being sold, or at least it was until very very recently.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: SEVERAL BOXED MODELS
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1977
• Company: Majorette (France)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm