#186 MAJORETTE – CAMPER CAR + CARAVAN, FORD CAPRI + St. TROPEZ and SIMCA 1100 + BOAT (Nrs. 313, 368 and 314) (1979 and 1980)

THE 300 SERIES BY MAJORETTE

We already talked shortly about the “pre-history” of Majorette with “Rail Route Jouets” in this entry.

Around 1969-1970, the original Rail-Route series (sometimes “series 100”) was replaced by the “series 200”, which were basically a very similar toy, the same size, more or less the same detail level… Some of these models were not cars, but trailers to be towed by the cars (they were all built in a scale of around 1:64 or 1:65, except trucks).

Almost at the same time, Majorette decided to launch the 300 series, in which you could directly buy, in one single package a truck or car and a trailer that belonged together: Some could also be purchased separately (for example the boat or the caravan), or some trailers were exclusive from a certain set.  The first are as early as 1968-69 (could be even older, Wikipedia is here wrong), so I suspect that there were already some of these in the Rail-Route series… only with other (or no) name.

The name comes simply from the numbering system that Majorette used (and uses) in their cars. 201, 202, 203… and 301, 302, 303…

 CAMPER CAR + CARAVAN (also DODGE CAMPING CAR + STECKERMAN LOVELY 400) (1979)

Majorette 313 Camper Car

  

Dodge Camping Car

  

Steckerman Lovely 400

Image from the catalogue 1979

Image from the catalogue 1980

As you can notice from the two last images,1980 catalogue was more ellaborated, with dioramas showing the cars offered in th all series (not only 200 and 300).

The series 300 were naturally more expensive than the series 200, because they were larger (16 cm or 6,5 inches), and needed more metal to be manufactured. A separate series would also have some “added value”, and children could get a single (series 200) or double (300) pack depending on how good they were, or on the occasion.

The following picture proves that in the year 1969 or 1970 there were already double packs.

Different Majorette displays (taken from 1969/1970 catalogue). Note some trucks and cars with trailers in all of them

An interesting thing to mention, is that toys belonging to this series were sold under many different packages. Even at the very beginning car could be purchased in a cardboard box, a jewel-case or a blisterpack. The type of blister you are watching her came later, and is a plastic blister box, designed to be stackable. These were the most spread packaging from the mid 70s to the mid/late 80s.

FORD CAPRI + ST. TROPEZ (also FORD CAPRI + CARAVAN) 

(1979)

Majorette 368 Ford Capri + St. Tropez

Ford Capri

St. Tropez

Image from the catalogue 1979

Image from the catalogue 1980

In the Simca 1100 model there is a factory error, because the package is labelled with the name of an older model, present in the 1979 catalogue, that was replaced in 1980 for this one. Probably they still had printed frames for the boxes, so they simply used them.

SIMCA 1100 + BOAT 

(1980)

Set 314 Simca 1100 + Boat

Simca 1100 - labelled "Police + Bateau" - Factory Error

Boat

Image from the catalogue 1979 showing the earlier model

Image from the catalogue 1980 showing my model

FACTS AND FIGURES:

• Name: CAMPER CAR + CARAVAN, FORD CAPRI + St. TROPEZ and SIMCA 1100 + BOAT (Nrs. 313, 368 and 314) (1979)
• Scale: 1:64 (approx.)
• Year: 1979 and 1980
• Company: Majorette (France)
• Size: approx. 16 cm (with trailer)

#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