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CATALOGO
POLITOYS-M (The "cinquecento" series) Made in Italy - 1:43 scale |
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Updated
2020/05/24
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Like many of my peers, when I was a child I started collecting plastic models produced by Politoys, approximately 1:41 scale. I remember the first four, I received them as gift on Christmas Day in the the early sixties (the exact year escapes me, but I think it was in 1962): a pale gray FIAT 1800 with a black roof, a Lancia Flaminia sedan, this one also bicolor, a Giulietta SS and a 2300 Fiat Coupe Ghia, both red with open doors. The ones that open cost about 400 lire each, in this way the fleet grew significantly, together with my passion for cars. A few years later, in 1965, on Mickey Mouse comic books you started to see the advertisement of the M series, namely metal, 1:43 scale, that is to say a bit smaller than the others. They cost twice price, 800 lire, but they were completely different: totally open, with folding seats and with a reproduction of the engine, fitted with suspensions and almost all painted with metal colors. And they did not lose the wheels when taking curves! In fact, losing the wheels was the biggest flaw of the plastic series: the rubber tires were assembled on a plastic rim, and they simply got pierced by the iron pin that easily slided and came out. What a nuisance! Everytime it was necessary to thicken the pin with bits of paper or tape. The M-series, however, had a thru-axle, riveted on the external rim: you could not take proper curves as with the much more expensive Dinky Toys ones or theTekno ones, but they were fine. The first was the IM3. We travelled well on the light-blue IM3 that my uncle bought to replace an A40: it was a low, sporty, fast and very comfortable car. I rarely see one of these on the roads and every time it happens I stop for a long time to look it. Buying a model was like owning a real one. Then the others came: the "Pagodina", the Flavia Zagato coupe, the "600", the Giulia TZ (which almost immediately lost the right rear-view mirror), the Fulvietta, and so on. The comparison
with the plastic series did not stand anymore, and so a dull day in
the summer of 1971, one of those days that it is better to stay in bed,
I put my plastic models, most of them with their original boxes, inside
an old cardboard suitcase, along with the original complete series of
Gordon comics, and I gave it all to my cousin, the one that was travelling
on the real IM3.
I had just graduated from high school and I was going to enroll in the faculty of engineering and these models "made for children" were not suitable for a university student. Only one model escaped the cleaning out: the white 1500 FIAT-SIATA coupe, which I still have: it survived because it was dissassembled and without the four front rhinestone headlights. I had torn them out to paste two of them, as front foglights, inside the grille of the beautiful Ferrari 275 GTB (Art. 540), which is the last new model that I purchased. Competition from
other brands became agressive: Corgi Toys, for example, tried to characterize
each model with something new, with some more gadgets or a few more
openings, as the agent 007's DB5. Solido was able to make the Mustang
with working interior lights and open doors! I purchased it on the Internet
on iBazar, before it merged with eBay.
The Politoys-M were already fully open and they cost less. What else would they lack? Then it was the turn of the interior characterised by a 'velvet' effect, such as the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III (Art. 518), the Maserati Quattroporte with four open doors (Art. 541), the Ferrari 250 Le Mans with seven openings (Art.525): 2 doors, 2 hoods, 2 fuel caps and one of the two wingspans on the roof. These were increasingly complex models with increasingly high costs of production. Disassembling
a Politoys-M has always been easy: the base is fixed with one or two
screws. Reassembling them, however, requires a certain expertise.
Not for the first models, which are composed of fewer than a dozen
pieces, but some later models require uncommon skills.
It is difficult, for example, to perfectly assemple a 250 LM with seven openings: manifolds and exhaust pipes slide away quite easily, as well as the spring of the rear suspension and the headlights. Once you reassembled it you always have the feeling of having a model that seems older ("played with" as they say on eBay), which no longer works as well as before. Therefore, it is easier to find Corgi Toys and Dinky Toys in good conditions thanks to the riveted bases, which do not allow much disassembly. Another model that discourages those fond of disassembling is the Alfa Romeo Giulia Gran Sport Quattroruote Zagato (art. 532 of 1967, in the photo below). This is the only 1:43 scale Politoys-M model with working steering wheel: the wheels are directly attached to the steering wheel. The complexity of the reassembly is apparent just by looking at the base and at the suspension with trailing arms and coil springs.
The assembly
feasibility, however, also offers some advantages: it is easier to change
them to your personal taste, and more importantly, it is possible to
obtain a good model from two imperfect ones.
Corgi Toys, Dinky Toys, Spot On have also a spare parts service, also accessible via the Internet; Politoys-M has not. The replacement parts are taken from incomplete models, which should always be kept. As evidence of the possibility of an easy elaboration I also included an image of my creation yet to be completed. I started it around 1970, but I left it incomplete. I recently rediscovered it in my parents’ basement and I felt a moral duty to recover it and finish it. It is a convertible version of the Maserati 3500 GT first version (Section 501).
Who wants
to buy today a Politoys M-series should keep an eye on the series: of
some models there is also a second series, with identical number, recognizable
by the wheels, the boxes and colors. In the spoked wheels of the first
series the spokes are only notched with the central lock nut, while
the second series have real spokes (a few, but the light gets through
them), much uglier. The picture below shows the two types of wheels.
Speaking of boxes, in order
to try to help collectors recognizing the right boxes to match the
models I have setup a new web page dedicated solely to the boxes of
Politoys-M.
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