Ideal Cars: Seeing Double

by Douglas R. Kelly

January generally is a slow time of year for me on the antiques and vintage front, and that’s just fine as I get back to work and a more normal schedule (and some reading in front of the fire) after the holidays. But this year was different as an old friend was selling his (superb) collection of 1940s to 1960s plastic toys, and, toward the end of the month, I drove out to visit him and to see if we could swap dollars for the stuff that dreams are made of.

As I scanned a glass-fronted display case in one of my friend’s toy rooms, I spotted a red sedan and muttered words to the effect of, “Oh, the Ideal sedan…” My friend said, “Well, it’s Ideal but probably not the one you’re thinking of.” He opened the case and I saw that the car was sitting on a faded lift-off lid box, the end panel of which bore the text, “IDEAL PLASTIC VEHICLE” and the number R64/8. The box rang no bells with me, which of course translates to shallow breathing and a faster heartbeat, and my friend placed the car in my hands and said, “It’s a windup.”

That didn’t compute in my brain as I had never seen this five-inch car in anything other than a “coaster” version (meaning free-rolling, no motor). It’s a pretty common toy, a single-piece plastic casting that’s often found with a small plastic open trailer, which attaches to the rear bumper of the car.

Except this wasn’t that car. Closer examination revealed it to be very similar to the free roller, but with a number of detail differences. These include an upward-pointing arrow in the middle of the front grille on the free-rolling car (versus none on the windup), and three side
windows on the free roller versus two on the windup. And the free roller has hard plastic wheels versus rubber units on the windup.

Copying Their Own Product
Discovering copies—toys or models that are copied from successful products—is part of the fun of toy collecting, and we’ve explored some of those here in the Journal (like the Cruver Buick and the Road King station wagon). But normally it’s a competitor doing the copying (some would say stealing of another company’s design). In this case, Ideal, the New York toy maker, made a close copy of its own toy. Other than possibly damaging or losing the tooling for the original product, the only reason I can think of for this was that Ideal couldn’t make
the clockwork motor fit inside their existing five-inch sedan. So they produced a twin of the sedan that was fractionally larger in some key areas, such as the height of the engine hood and the overall width of the body, which allowed the addition of the motor.

I’m pleased they went this route as the windup car is a beautiful example of late 1940s automotive design. It’s not based on a specific make of car, although the front grille kind of resembles that of a Buick, and the rear fastback shape echoes that of the 1949 Roadmaster Sedanette. The windup car was sold with a house trailer, which occasionally surfaces at shows and online. But this example is the only one I’ve seen by itself and with the original box, and I gladly coughed up my friend’s $65 asking price as I think it’s easily a $100 piece.

Here it is in late May, and I’m still unwrapping the treasures I got that day in January. Doing it a piece at a time has turned out to be hugely enjoyable, so stay tuned for future episodes of “Oh cool, I’d completely forgotten that I bought this!”

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Douglas R. Kelly is the editor of Marine Technology magazine. His byline has appeared in Antiques Roadshow Insider; Back Issue; Diecast Collector; RetroFan; and Buildings magazines.