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Americans in Japan

The golden age

of the Japanese

tinplate toy car

By Douglas R. Kelly

vacation or a business trip, for me, just Title image: Bandai’s mid-1950s Ford station
isn’t complete without at least one wagon was around 12 inches in length and fitted
Avisit to a flea market, antiques mall, with a friction motor. This near-mint example with
or junk shop. A little time spent researching original box sold for $305 in a 2020 Vectis auction.
an area before traveling can pay off with a Photo courtesy Vectis Auctions Ltd.
great score in a far-away place. Before the This
Internet, of course, it was a whole lot harder small (3.75-inch) World War II, of course, put a stop to toy
to do this; generally speaking, “the hunt” pre-war tin windup was based on the production in Japan, not unlike here in the U.S.
was much more of a hit-and-miss affair. “Gnom” series number 807 sedan that German When Japanese manufacturers began making
A 1986 family vacation to Long Beach manufacturer Lehmann produced in the mid-1930s. toys again starting around 1947, they did so due
Island, on the Jersey Shore, fell into the in large part to the work of the U.S. military,
“hit” column. The house we rented in Haven Beach turned out to be a which helped rebuild factories and infrastructure in Japan. The early
stone’s throw from two antique shops, one of which had a decent group post-war toys were often stamped with the words “Made in Occupied
of vintage toys for sale. The shop had once been a Cape-style home, so Japan,” and the tinplate cars generally were somewhat crudely
the merchandise was crowded into every room, nook, and cranny of the designed and manufactured (although some of them had a real charm).
place. Looking over a group of toy cars on the top shelf of a bookcase As Japanese manufacturers gradually improved the quality of their
in a back room, I spotted what I thought was a recent die-cast model of
a Plymouth Valiant. I realized as I picked it up and turned it over that Early to mid-1950s
it was too light to be a die-cast, and the friction motor clinched it. A goodness: Marusan’s
tinplate Plymouth, made by Bandai in Japan in the 1960s, and in “HIT” car, based
decent condition. No box, but I didn’t care as I coughed up $8 for the on a 1952 Ford.
thing and took it back to our rental house for a gentle cleaning.
I’d read a bit about tin toy cars but this was the first I had been able
to buy. Bandai’s Valiant wasn’t the most accurate toy car, nor was it in
any way rare (you can easily find a number of examples for sale online).
But the combination of the tinplate shape, that friction motor and
those rubber tires was magical, and I was hooked.

Toy Versus Model Photo courtesy Vectis Auctions Ltd.

products, Marusan introduced a 12-inch tinplate Cadillac in 1952 that
changed the game. The friction-powered car boasted something like
150 individual parts, which helped make it an authentic replica of the
full-size Cadillac. For the first time since the 1930s, a Japanese tin toy
car could lay claim to being an accurate model, and Marusan sold as
many as it could turn out.
About 30 years ago, I interviewed a couple of prominent collectors
of Japanese tin cars, one of whom was Ron Smith. Based in Solon,
Ohio, Smith was a knowledgeable authority on these toys, and he
Pre-World War II tinplate Chrysler Airflow with wind-up motor.
shared with me his memories of Marusan’s game-changer. “I remember
being at a show in Ohio in the early 1970s, and a fellow by the name
Japanese toy makers, like their American and European competitors, of Jack Lord had just [bought out] a little store up in Chicago. He
made toy cars before World War II. The majority of Japanese-made toy brought in these large, grotesque Marusan Cadillacs and was selling
cars of the 1930s were crude, fairly basic models, but there were some them for $15 apiece at this show. He had a dozen of them and I think
exceptions. One was the blue wind-up car shown here, possibly made he sold four of them at the show. Then when I caught up with him at
by CK, based on the 1935 Chrysler Airflow. The hood is a little too tall the Dearborn show the following week, I realized I made a mistake by
and the hood ornament a little too large, but the maker captured the not buying more. They now were up to $25, so like a dummy, I bought
aerodynamic lines of the Airflow quite well for the time. [only] one more.” Oh, to have been in Dearborn 50 years ago: near-mint

22 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles