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Influences on Toy Car Manufacturers

From late 50's onwards TV & Movies started to have an influence on the toy industry with youngsters wanting to have replicas of the vehicles used in their favorite TV programs or films like Batman, Knight Rider, Bullit, Dukes of Hazzard, James Bond, Starsky & Hutch, Smokey & The Bandit, The Love Bug, Back To The Future, Mad Max, The Green Hornet & many more.

Have you ever wondered what vintage toy cars might be available in other countries?

This page is for collectors of old toy cars & automobiles who want to instantly see comprehensive listings of vintage & antique toy cars for sale via Ebay in USA, Canada, Europe & Australia.

Click an image to start your search in the country of your choice......

As an Ebay Partner we may receive a commission if you click the following links & subsequently make a purchase

USA

UK  

Vintage Tin Car with Box

Vintage Toy Jaguar Car

 

   

GERMANY

FRANCE  

Old Porsche 356 Toy with Box

Tin Citroen 2cv

 

   

ITALY

CANADA  

Vintage Fiat 500 Toy with Box

Old Tin Toy Racing Car

 

   

AUSTRALIA

   

Old Toy Holden Car with Box

 

 

   

Vintage Toy Car Manufacturers

The list is endless with many scale model cars being produced all over the world. The premier manufacturers are / were mainly based in USA, Europe & Japan. Below are some examples of some of the most popular for collectors.

For a comprehensive history of toy / model cars look at this Wikipedia entry.

Matchbox

Vintage Mercedes Car Matchbox Toy

 

Founded in the United Kingdom in 1953, Matchbox has become world renowned for creating both realistic die-cast and plastic scaled models of a number of different vehicle types ranging from classic racing cars to army jeeps. Matchbox toy cars are known for their fine detail and are popular with both young children to adult collectors. In spite of introducing other products over the years, they are still known mainly for their precise replicas of cars through the ages.

Dinky Toys

Dinky Toys Mini Cooper

 

Another famous company who first started their die cast miniature vehicles in 1934 from the Meccano factory located in Liverpool, England. The first vehicles were made from lead and included a racing car, tractor, delivery van, truck, sports car & a tank. Initially the vehicles were not particularly accurate representations of their subjects, but did always have rubber tires. Dinky toy vehicles soon caught the attention of young people & the company went from strength to strength over the next three decades, but finally succumbed to intense competition & closed its doors in 1979

Tomica

Tomica Tomy Bajaj / Daihatsu Midget

 

Tomica is the brand name of Takara Tomy Co. of Japan and have been manufacturing a range of die cast toy vehicles since 1970. For the first four years they produced exclusively Japanese vehicles, but then progressed to 'foreign' makes in competition with Matchbox. There was a range of 110 vehicles commonly known as 'Tomy Pocket Cars' constantly available, the less popular models being dropped to make way for new ones. In the early 1980's the company faced a financial crisis & were forced to limit production of this range to eighty models.

Gama

Gama Toy Cadillac

 

A German company who produced traditional tinplate mechanical toys since before WW1. With the advent of WW2 Germany they produced many military vehicles including tanks, one of their most popular was the die-cast Army DKW Schwimmwagen. It wasn't until the 60's that they included plastic injection for making their products, this allowed them to put a lot more detail into the finished product. In the 1970's they brought out a range of die cast vehicles branded as Mini-Mods which are now very collectible.

Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels 2011 Vintage Racing Collection Coming - autoevolution

 

It was the late 1960's when kids first started playing with these 2" cars manufactured by Mattel, now both children & adults are going crazy to buy them. There is an adult living in Washington who has a collection worth over $400,000 & one car, a chromed Ford Thunderbird, is worth $13,000 alone!!

Mike Strauss, who organizes Hot Wheel swap meets said that at one recent meeting, over $2 million worth of toy cars changed hands, including a $168,000 collection sold by a man to help pay for his divorce.

Mattel say that they have produced over 4 billion model cars since 1968.

Corgi

Corgi James Bond Aston Martin DB5

 

Mettoy Playcraft Ltd introduced the Corgi Toys range of vehicles in 1956, they were soon to become the largest manufacturer of die cast vehicles in the world. Great detail & innovations such as clear plastic windows proved to be a great hit & in the first year alone 2.75 million toy vehicles were sold. This robbed Dinky of a great deal of the market, but Corgi Toys fortunes were to temporarily held up due to a massive fire which destroyed their Swansea factory. Revival of the company was greatly helped by the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 & the 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' models.

 

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