On this sunny winter Sunday, while a couple of my partners in crime try to figure out what ails one of our Hoopties in my front yard, I’m taking you to the basement on another 1:43 scale detour. If you’ve read any of my previous posts on this topic, you know that I’m not a big collector of 1:43 scale, but I have obtained a few of them because some are just too cool to pass up!
For the most part, I have stuck with the vaunted British brands, Dinky and Corgi, because they are the best. But sometimes it’s good to remember that, despite their familiarity to North American audiences, the British-made models were not the only game in town; at 1:43 there were several other players that I’m slowly getting more interested in, giving me yet another way to spend money!
Today’s post focuses on a disparate mashup of recent purchases in this scale, all of which have an Italian connection in one way or another…
Grifos Galore!
I am a big fan of Iso cars. Have been ever since the excellent Matchbox model of the Iso Grifo, my favorite car in my childhood, gave me the bug. For years I’ve known about the most common 1:43 scale version of the Grifo, that made by Corgi…and for years, I’ve refrained from buying it because I’ve been searching for the one with the ”clover” pattern wheel variant, which I think is a lot better looking than the 8-dot “pepper pot” -style wheels, but in years of searching I’ve only ever found two or three of them for sale and they’ve always been extremely expensive because, let’s face it, they’re rare and collectors want them. Recently I came across this decent example of the common issue for a very low price, so I decided, what the hell…and grabbed it.
What puzzles me about this Corgi model is why they elected to make it so similar in so many ways to the Matchbox 1:64 which was still in production at the time: a nearly identical color, ivory interior which was very common on Matchboxes of the day, and right hand steering as if the car were made for the British market, are all similar to the series #14 Lesney OG. It makes you wonder why they chose a medium metallic blue; why not silver or orange or yellow or something just…different from what Lesney was doing?
What does differ is that the Corgi model is of the rare “7 Litri” Grifo, the 427 big block model, which may have been the fastest road car of its day. The silver stripe spanning the B pillars across the roof tells you that, even though the tail cove is not offset in black. Under the opening hood-which features the raised section to clear the air cleaner-is the Detroit “iron lump” that made the Grifo one of the coolest Italian GT cars in all history.
Overall, this is a good, well-proportioned model with nice detailing and the signature diamond headlights so preferred by the British manufacturers of the day. My only regret is that this car was made only during the “Whizzwheels” era (now there’s a name that hasn’t aged well!), and thus lacks the 2-piece metal hub/rubber tire combo that made the early Corgi models so appealing
But wait, there’s more! It was months ago during a previous Tipping the Scales post that I promised you a little more detail on one of these, and I’m only just now getting around to it! Here you see a pair of Italian-made models of this famous Italian car:
These are early variations of the Politoys rendering of the Grifo. This car was made in a total of five colors throughout its production life, and the two you see here, the dark metallic red and the bright orange red, are the most popular. There was also a silver model, which I feel is the most attractive and, while it is not here at the time of this writing, I have purchased one of those…which I hope is on its way to me!
Unfortunately, due to these models’ European origins they tend to be rather hard to find in the US, so that silver model I just bought is coming from a seller in France. Now, I don’t mind telling you that over the past couple of years I’ve had some bad experiences buying from overseas sellers, so at this point, I’m not counting chickens before they’re hatched; I’m not sure I’ll ever actually see this model. Fortunately, with the site I used and the method of payment I chose, I should be able to get a refund if it never shows up…so time will tell!
There are two much more rare variations of the Politoys model: one in orange and another in bright blue. Both of these are very hard to find. As an interesting postscript, this model carried into the later Polistil era with cheapened one-piece wheels, and can commonly be found as one of the Soviet-made copies, which have the ugly wheels of the later Italian-made cars combined with cheap plastic baseplates. My only interest is in the original Politoys models, again with the attractive, metal hub/rubber tire wheel set up and the metal base: this is a nicely made model which is remarkably heavy; the heft and detail make it an appealing collectible.
The 1st “Lambo”
Staying with Politoys but leaving Iso, we come to my most recent 1:43 purchase, which is really worth bragging about: this superb copy of the Lamborghini 350 GT.
The timing is interesting because my last Modelo En Bofus post about the Lamborghini Miura lamented that most of Lamborghini’s early cars have been neglected by scale modelers. While we still don’t have a 1:64 scale model of the 350 or 400GT, which I feel we should, this excellent model of the 350 was a must own!
Made in an attractive steel blue with pumpkin interior, and featuring all four opening ports including a detailed V-12 engine under the hood, I was thrilled to get this car for the price I paid for it. It’s not in mint condition: the hood doesn’t close properly and there are a couple of minor paint nicks here and there, but for the price I gave for it I can’t complain. It’s a really beautiful model from top to bottom, and seeing this has definitely driven my interest in this brand up a notch!
Other European Players
(the following pics grabbed from the web)
There are several other European brands in the 1:43 scale that I’ve been aware of most of my life, but never collected. I have a handful of French-made Norev “Jet Cars” I bought at Kay Bee Toys during the brief period in the mid-1980s when they were carrying them. I have a few instances here and there of Solido models (also France), but the generally high prices on the vintage originals have kept me from buying more than a just a handful of them. A couple of other brands that I have not a single copy from include Mercury, Mebetoys, and Ediltoys, all of which are Italian, but again, the price is for admission for these can be very high.
Now, since you are reading this, you must be a die-cast collector yourself, so I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know! Just giving my perspective and experience on it.
All of these brands either went out of business or cheapened their products dramatically as the economic stressors of the ‘70s arrived, so IMHO it is only the models from the golden era of the ‘60s and back that are worth having. Since I’m not a serious 1:43 collector, it’s unlikely I’m never going to pay extremely high premiums to own any of these cars; I would rather spend that $ on Thunderjets! Yet, bargains can be found, especially on examples like these here that are somewhat play-worn and in less than perfect condition; when I find those bargains, I’ll probably jump on them if the “petty cash pool” allows. And if I come across any more interesting 1:43 finds, I’ll make sure to share them with you here! After all, my bear family needs toys to play with!
Wow, this was really interesting and I have to confess to not being familiar with these brands. These are some cool cars, and I like those ISOs as well.