Author: Modern Toy Japan
Date: 20th century
Material: painted tinplate
Dimensions: H. 9 x L. 14 x W. 7,5 cm
Reference: MCM4362
On display: Carlos Machado Museum
Notes: The first miniature cars made of lead were produced in 1910, in the United States and in France, subsequently followed by the United Kingdom and Germany. In the 1930s, a significant innovation revolutionized the manufacture of miniature cars, when lead was replaced by a zinc alloy. This enabled a considerable quality improvement and rendered sturdier models.
After the II World War, Dinky Toys began its production of miniature cars, followed by other brands, such as the Italian Mercury, the French Solido, the British Corgi Toys and the German Märklin. However, it’s only from the 1950s on that the scale of several miniatures and the production of replicas of great brands are definitely determined, while manufacturers multiply. This industry never stopped growing, with European brands competing for the production of increasingly perfect models. In the 1970s, the making of these miniatures for “collecting” became very attractive and was greatly prompted by the emergence of handmade “metallic kits”, since the industry wasn’t producing them with the required thoroughness.
Dissimilarly, during the first half of the 20th century, Portugal was limited to import European models, while manufacturing jointed wooden toys. True Portuguese toy industry is characterized by the introduction of tinplate coming from the reuse of empty cans of olive oil, sardines and other canned food. The outbreak of II World War hampered the import of toys and fostered their production with other technical means. Resorting to laminators and tinsmiths, real artists in the art of shaping this metal, enabled the manufacture of little cars, trains and airplaines in tinplate and lithographic plate, which were mainly manufactured in the northern region of the country, where the names of António Laborinho Lago, Adriano Coelho de Sousa and José Augusto Júnior are worth mentioning. The production was kept until the 1960s, the decade when plastic was introduced in Portugal. By this time, the national industry tried, through Vitesse and Metosul brands, to launch mini-car models on the market, but was unable to succeed before such a thriving miniatures industry, as was the European at the time. The distance between present-day and former toys and miniatures is definitely increasing – we need only to look at the latest innovations in the production of models by the multinationals Mattel and Hot Wheels [Adelaide Teixeira].