The first model cars could be said to be the patent office models each inventor had to submit. Therefore museums around the world have model vehicles (starting in1769) that date back to the 18^th century that, in some cases, actually preceded the real one! Some of them had working engines, too, mostly steam that far back.

When wide spread mass production of the automobile began, which was mostly in the early 20^th century, the toy manufactures began to make toy cars. Before WWI (1914-18) there were not that many made. Automobiles as toys took a while to catch on. Some of the best came from places like Germany and many were made out of tin. Some had wind-up motors early on. By the 1920’s, a lot of the toy cars and trucks were made of cast iron. I’ve always puzzled at how the kids of the time dealt with how heavy those toys were!  They went out of favor at the end of the 1930’s.  Wood was never that used much except, as now, for preschool toys.

The first diecast metal toy car was a circa 1/64^th scale Tootsietoy 1916 Model “T” Ford. (I have it in my collection!) I’d say that it wasn’t until the 1930’s that something like scale models became available in mass production. Amongst the first were the Meccano LTD series of diecast metal Dinky Toy cars made in England to 1/48^th and 1/64^th scales beginning in 1934. Prior to that most true scale models were expensive large-scale hand made one-offs. The president of a car manufacture might have one of them sitting up on his office mantle piece, for example.  Many of you know of the hand made VW models that had been made as gifts to people important to the development of the Beetle in 1938 and the one made for Colonel Ivan Hirst in 1949. Also, to this day, every new car design begins as a hand made study model, the first study model is usually made of clay so that changes can be easily made.  The first toy VW’s that the German public could buy were made by companies like Germany’s Marklin (a toy train maker, the VW, a diecast, was in a train scale) as early as 1939. Ironically, the general public couldn’t get the real thing until 1946!

In the late 1930’s there began to be some expensive hobby shop only scale model cars manufactured using an early form of plastic. One such company was Hawk. But in the beginning, the most common use of plastic in commercially available scale models, was in the form of being just a few of the parts in an otherwise balsa wood and sheet metal assembly kit. Hudson’s Lil’ Old Timers was one of the series available then. They were all models of “brass-era” cars (pre-1917).

After WWII (1941-’45), war research had hastened the development of plastic, so several companies began to come out with toy cars made of plastic. The first mass produced VW promo was Viking’s plastic 1948 1/40^th scale Beetle with a lift off body (I have one). During the war, the toy makers were not allowed to make anything but war-related products so the kids of the time (including me, at age 4) welcomed the return of real toys. During the war, just about the only new toy cars available were punch out and fold ones provided by sources like on the back of cereal boxes! I have a dim memory of having a set of army trucks from that source. I have a WWII punch out battle ship and submarine that actually can fire a cardboard torpedo into the collapsible battle ship in my collection, now.

Around 1950 an entrepreneur named Lew Glaser created the first ever, all plastic, low priced (69 cents), mass-produced, glue-together, model car assembly kits. They were designed by Gowland and Gowland, and called “Highway Pioneers” as produced by then new Revel.  A deal was made with Woolworth dime stores to sell them so they had instant wide distribution and were a hit. They ranged from early to modern cars. There were a total of 34 cars and I have most of them. Hudson became their first competitor with all plastic models made in the same 1/32^nd scale. Revel made that first series through 1956. By the mid-fifties advances in injection molding and tool-design already made these first models sort of crude in detail. They have been reissued several times since, including in the 1990’s.by a new owner of the original tooling, but the English factory that was making them had a fire, so I do not know what the current fate of those models is!