#1033 DARDA - FERRARI F1, BMW-WILLIAMS F1 and TEAM DARDA (Around 2006)

These three cars by Darda are among the most modern in my collection. Darda is still selling and producing very good-looking cars and tracks, but they are not precisely cheap toys. Maybe that is why they are so hard to spot today. Two of these Formula ones represent the models driven by Michael Schumacher (RN5) in the 2006 season and one of the three drivers that ran for BMW-Williams in 2005, which we cannot identify since the toy does not carry any race number. It could be Mark Webber, Nick Heidfield or Antônio Pizzonia. 

The second red formula, with white stripes is more difficult to identify, I am not sure if it represents a real model or not, mostly when it carries number 1, it had to be a world champion driver, and with those colours, I cannot recall any racing team from the 2000s... Also it is decorated with "Team Darda" tampographies, unlike the other two which have logos of real companies and products. This is not definitive, as sometimes cigarretes and alcoholic beverages were not represented on toys at that time. 

I would conclude that this car is slightly more modern and just a way to reuse a cast that they kept.

Both cars are based in the same cast, only the colours and decorations are different. They look great, but, unlike older Dardas, they are completely made of plastic. I have seen other formula one teams represented with this same cast: some more decorations of a red cast (none of them seems to be a real team), a yellow model that seems to represent the Jordan from 2001 or before, and a white and black formula, which, with some imagination, could be a McLaren-Mercedes. As a matter of fact it carries RN9, which in the year 2005 corresponded to Kimmi Räikönnen. Of course, there are several variations of each model, with different tampographies or slight different colours. I'd love to have them all!

Here pictures of one car only, maybe you can see the cast details better this way.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: FERRARI F1, BMW WILLIAMS F1 and TEAM DARDA (1617-040 and 1631-001) (Numbering according to www.dardamania.de) (Team Darda cannot be numbered, as this website is gone private and I cannot check the references anymore)
  
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: Around 2006
• Company: Darda (Germany)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#961 DARDA - VOLKSWAGEN CORRADO (1411-040) and FERRARI GTO (1625-040 and 1625-045) (Around 1987)

Here are two/three recent additions to my Darda collection:

The first model is a red VW Corrado, which is a car that was not represented at scale by many vintage manufacturers, so it is a good addition to any die-cast collection. This version is the red one with white text, reference number 1411-040.

The second model is a Ferrari GTO, from which I got two in a row. They are basically identical, except for the GTO logo on both sides and the colour of the windows.

The first model is reference number 1625-040, has Ferrari and GTO logos on both sides and its windows are green.

The second model, without logos of any kind on the sides and brown windows is reference number 1625-040.

This model has been made dozens of times by all die-cast manufacturers, and, in my opinion, this one doesn't have very accurate proportions. Pity, but still a very cool car. Interestingly, Darda made this car only in red.

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: VOLKSWAGEN CORRADO (1411-040) and FERRARI GTO (1625-040 and 1625-045) (Numbering according to www.dardamania.de)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: Around 1987
• Company: Darda (Germany)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#557 DARDA - GO-KART, DKW MUNGA and VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE (1984 and 1987)

Maybe in an attempt to sell their products to a wider range of children (especially to girls and boys who don´t like cars), Darda decided at some point to introduce funny and special models in their assortment. Some were vehicles, like motorbikes, go-karts, planes, but other were directly animals (cat and mouse) or humans (skateboarder and delta-flyer).

I´d like to get some of these "exotic" models, but since they are not a toy car, they are not easy to find on flea markets or similar. However, these three cars could actually be considered "funny", since they are also rare choices for vehicles: a Go-Kart, a Volkswage Beetle with some hippie flowers decoration and a Military Jeep. Very different vehicles, and not the ones we are used to see as scale models.

These three models presented in this entry are somehow rare vehicles or normal vehicles decorated in a funny way.

Go-Kart in dark Green – 1984 – Nr. 1800-122

DKW Munga in Military Green “Police” – 1984 – Nr. 1500-020

Volkswagen Beetle in light blue – 1987 – Nr.1410-001

The Jeep model has been used as a promotional ítem by many companies, so it is a model with many variations.

UPDATE: Thanks Steve for identifying the DKW Munga (wrongly described as "Jeep")

UPDATE 2: I just found a new Go-Kart, this time in silver grey, I like it better than the dark green. Go-Kart (could be 1800-160, but it has no holes on the back... it is not listed in Dardamania.de...)

UPDATE3 (OCT/2022)

I have new Dardas!

Go-Kart (could be 1800-181, but it has no holes on the back... it is not listed in Dardamania.de...)

 

DKW Mungo "THW" (Technisches Hilfwerk) in blue (1500-000)

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: GO-KART, DKW MUNGA and VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE (Nrs. 1800-122, 1500-020 and 1410-001) (Numbering according to www.dardamania.de)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1984, 1984 and 1987
• Company: Darda (Germany)
• Size: approx. 3’’ or 7 cm

#358 DARDA - BEACH BUGGY (Ref. 1280-140) (Around 1975)

In the first article published in this blog about Darda, we already talked about a Buggy, which was the first creation of Helmut Darda, and the first model to be sold with the new, revolutionary pullback motor. I am not sure if it was exaclty this model of Buggy the one which was designed first, since there are a few similar models, for example, one came with a folded canopy on the back, other with a soft top, while this one has a roll bar between front and rear seats. 

I own this model twice, although the second unit is actually a copy made in Hong Kong by another unknown die-cast company. The car is marked on the chassis only as "Made in Hong Kong - Pat P" (Patent Pending), plus a logo with two children faces. If you have more information about this Darda bootleg, please let me know.

Comparing both, you´ll discover almost no differences. The most notable are the motor and the plastic interior, that have different colours. The bootleg motor does not work, so it has been proven to be a lower quality product, than the original one, which is still working.

I have also found this nice ad on Youtube, which was aired in 1976 according to the person who uploaded it. You can see the most important features of the toy there.

NOTE: If you're interested in this particular brand, I have updated all previous entries dealing with it. See all my Darda articles here.

UPDATE: Second Buggy unit in green

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: BEACH BUGGY (Nr. 1280-140)
• Scale: Approx 1:64
• Year: Around 1975 / Unknown
• Company: Darda (Germany) / Unknown Toymaker (Hong-Kong)
• Size: Around 6 cms

#185 DARDA – TURBO, TORNADO, FORMULA 1, STRATOS and GT (from SERIES 10: Nr. 1608) (1979 and 1980)

The Dardas labelled as “Series 10” are the ones manufactured before 1984. Prior to that year, all models shared the same chassis, wheels and motor. Only the body of the car (plus seat, pilot or whatever) varied from one model to other. We are talking about many years of production (1977 to 1984) but there were only around 22 models casted. Each of them was normally released in 4 or 5 colours, so kids could choose the car in their favourite colour or even buy it more than once in different versions. The “variations” story is something new invented by (and for) collectors, I guess at the time it was very unimportant if the race number was yellow or white over red or green background.

Talking about variations, according the german site dardamania.de, these models have 80 (Turbo), 42 (Tornado) and 115 (Formula 1) registered variants…

Apart from this, in this website we can find a lot of catalogues, as well as many interesting information, for example the many patents from Helmut Darda, his biography, technical details, even physic lessons with darda racetracks, and a very nice (although short) trivia section telling that Darda cars were part of a NASA experiment, and they were actually taken to space in a mission, or used as part of a CERN experiment for which Carlo Rubbia received a Nobel Prize in 1984.

This time I think it would be ok to talk about Helmut Darda, the inventor of the Darda motor:

Helmut Darda (taken from dardamania.de)

Helmut Darda was born in 1927 in Westfalia, a German region. When we was only 16 he was conscripted to fight in WW2. He was made war prisoner and freed at the end of the war. At that time he was 25 and continued his studies to be a machine fitter, started before the war. In the year 1954 he came to Blumberg, a village next to the Swiss border, halfway between Freiburg and Kostanz, and got a job, but only 4 years later decided to work for himself in machines to process stones and also in casting machines.

For the first type of work, he designed a machine that would be his first invention and first patent. That was in 1964, and the world success of this invention gave him the economic support to keep inventing. His “hit” was the Beach-Buggy, a scale car with motor that could roll for- and backwards. In the Nürnberg Toy Fair they called it “genial and revolutionary”, and “motor of the century”. Helmut Darda, feet on the ground, said that he had only luck.

Despite his great success, he kept working in his workshop, with the rest of the employees. Even in hard times, he did not stopped or shortened the production, but the opposite, employed 50 people more. The workshop was replaced by a new building, two times bigger, and the production was accordingly increased. The new building had a swimming pool for the people working there, and in the upper floor, a nice entertainment room, where the works of Blumberg’s artists usually hanged. At the time, Helmut Darda had collected over 200 patents in Germany and worldwide. His hobbies were hiking in the mountains and ski, but also, and above all, working.

UPDATE: Pictures of new cars:

STRATOS (Nr. 1608-341)

FORMULA 1 (Nr. 1608-150)

GT (Nr. 1608-243)

UPDATE2: Second GT in grey (1608-266)

And Turbo in white with broken spoiler (very fragile!) (1608-576) and black (1608-550)

UPDATE 3 (May/2017) Stratos in white

UPDATE 4(Dec/2018): Formula 1 in red (not sure about the reference number)

UPDATE 5 (Jan/2020):Three more models, all of them already in my collection, but with different colours and decorations. Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they are quite bad.

FORMULA 1in red (Promotional PORSFELD)

FORMULA 1 in blue

GT in green

STRATOS in blue

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: TURBO, TORNADO, FORMULA 1, STRATOS and GT (from SERIES 10)  (Nrs. 1608-540, 1608-421, 1608-100, 1608-341, 1608-150 and 1608-243)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1979, 1980
• Company: Darda (West-Germany)
• Size: approx. 7 cm